RIP Mikhail Gorbachev

[2muchcoffeeman]

He was the first leader of the Main Enemy who made me think things could be different. Sadly, it didn’t last.

 

[dixiehack]

Not my first choice of former world leader and Pizza Hut spokesperson whose obit I wanted to read today.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

TASS 1stLD in russian: https://tass.ru/politika/15601799?u...m_medium=social&utm_campaign=smm_social_share

 

[Regan MacNeil]

HE WAS STILL ALIVE?!

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

HE WAS STILL ALIVE?!

He was 91.

 

[BTExpress]

He was the first leader of the Main Enemy who made me think things could be different. Sadly, it didn’t last.

Sad for the U.S. Not for the Russians who consider him a traitor for starting the demolition process that Yeltsin completed.

He's the Jimmy Carter of the USSR. A genuinely "good guy" who was too weak to prevent his country from spinning into disrepair. Of course, that's why we loved him.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

According to you, Russians would rather have the old USSR. If that's true, they're ****ing insane, and the opinions of insane people don't really matter.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Sad for the U.S. Not for the Russians who consider him a traitor for starting the demolition process that Yeltsin completed.

He's the Jimmy Carter of the USSR. A genuinely "good guy" who was too weak to prevent his country from spinning into disrepair.

You channeled Vladimir Putin perfectly there.

The Soviet Union collapsed. It was spinning into disrepair for a long time before it actually happened. Gorbachev simply embraced political and social change, in attempt to deal with the ****show that was going to drag Russia along willingly or not. If he hadn't been the man for the time, the Soviet Union would have collapsed anyhow under its own weight, and it actually might have been much worse for Russia than it was.

The fact that anyone in that country (other than Putin) scorned him, and I know there were people, is evidence that many people in Russia are as stupid as many people here are. They embrace nationalistic narratives, create villains, act superstitiously and blind themselves to reality.

 

[User 150927]

No idea he was still alive. RIP

 

[User 11148]

The Soviet Union collapsed. It was spinning into disrepair for a long time before it actually happened.

"How did you go bankrupt?"
"Two ways ... gradually and then suddenly."

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Was a window involved in his death?

Gotta ask.

 

[BTExpress]

The fact that anyone in that country (other than Putin) scorned him, and I know there were people, is evidence that many people in Russia are as stupid as many people here are. They embrace nationalistic narratives, create villains, act superstitiously and blind themselves to reality.

Yeah, you know better than the people who lived through it. Uh, huh.

In a 2021 poll Gorbachev was voted the most hated figure from the Soviet era. Yuri Gagarin was voted the most beloved. Makes sense, I guess, but Zhukov probably deserved that honor.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Bat**** insane.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Yeah, you know better than the people who lived through it. Uh, huh.

In a 2021 poll Gorbachev was voted the most hated figure from the Soviet era. Yuri Gagarin was voted the most beloved. Makes sense, I guess, but Zhukov probably deserved that honor.

Gorbachev was more hated than Stalin.

Yeah, that's not evidence of what I said about Russian people being as stupid as many people here are.

Honestly, if that poll was done by some state-run entity controlled by Putin (as I imagine), I can just imagine how the question was asked: "Do you agree that the traitor Gorbachev, who destroyed the Soviet juggernaut and single-handedly ruined our bountiful prosperity and happiness, was the worst man the Soviet Union ever knew?"

 

[FileNotFound]

I think @BTExpress expresses an important perspective, for what it’s worth. And I agree that perspective is … flawed, to say the least. I think there’s room here for both positions.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

I'm willing to allow that Ragu is correct and the Russian people are just incredibly stupid.

 

[BTExpress]

Gorbachev was more hated than Stalin.

One saved the state. The other wrecked the state. You can debate the methods and intentions of the participants all you want (I've done it till I'm blue in the face), but it will always -- always -- come down to that.

 

[dixiehack]

Told y’all we were going to need the cartoon dog meme guys here soon.

 

[The Big Ragu]

You are absolutely right. If Gorbachev had slaughtered 6 million people in a reign of terror, and managed to prop up an economically bankrupt totalitarian state, he'd be worthy of adulation.

 

[User 149557]

I think @BTExpress expresses an important perspective, for what it’s worth. And I agree that perspective is … flawed, to say the least. I think there’s room here for both positions.

Ah, yes, the Joseph Stalin was just misunderstood position.