this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Ok so you were 14 when the USSR fell and 8 when Gorbachev came to power. You were a child. At that age you simply don't have the depth or breath of experience for it to be meaningful. Same as 14 or 8 year olds now don't have the experience to really have wider political input. If you haven't worked, had to get a house, engaged with the state using your "experience" to derive conclusions about it is nonsense. Not to say younger people can't have opinions but they simply can't defer to experience as generally they lack it but this can be substituted with study, statistics etc.
Edit:
Also again you were 8 when Gorbachev came to power and everything was going to shit you have 0 experience of the pre Gorbachev era. Appealing to personal experience to draw conclusions about that is even more nonsense.
Lol I'm Canadian I'm talking about my friends with the real world experience growing up in the bloc.
And to throw is back how old are you? What is your experience? Pray tell what makes you an expert?
Mid-30's
Personal experience with the USSR? None. But I never claimed to have any. Otherwise experience: I'm Chinese originally rural but through scholarships I was put in the position to be able to earn a PhD and 2 masters and now live in a city. But this really has nothing to do with what we were talking about. I never claimed to have personal experience of the USSR.
I wouldn't call myself an expert but I've read many studies and books about the USSR as well as my second masters being in Marxist Theory so I would call myself relatively informed.
All of this is however a dodge that has nothing to do with the point at hand which is that appealing to experience when in reality you have effectively 0 makes no sense. If you've never worked or engaged with any facets of the state appealing to experience to draw general conclusions about it is plainly ridiculous.