Post AtLcJg1FWATtuK7KUa by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
(DIR) More posts by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
(DIR) Post #AtI6uYp5SKSwIQ5n6G by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-20T18:46:56.939459Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
"soviet apartment blocks are depressing" you know what's even more depressing that soviet apartment blocks? homelessness
(DIR) Post #AtI7CiYM1C89gavKLY by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T18:53:50.300423Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lizzy It's always been kinda mind-boggling to me that people will unironically criticize former Soviet state apartment blocks as being "ugly" or "depressing", etc. while otherwise ignoring abject poverty and homelessness rampant among suburbanized, Western countries. Like, god forbid these dystopian Communist countries built ugly, depressing, demoralizing......affordable or free housing for everyone! ......?
(DIR) Post #AtI7bSIRb4scVTHHWK by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T18:58:20.661880Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@adiz @lizzy in the ussr almost everyone had to live in the commie blocks, while in america that kind of low-quality housing is far less common... here you can also improve your living situation if you make more money, which wasn't as easy under communism.
(DIR) Post #AtI7lMF8xR4Gd2SJcW by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T19:00:06.057145Z
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@genmaicha> in america that kind of low-quality housing is far less commonHousing in general is far less common than in the USSR.> you can also improve your living situation if you make more money, which wasn't as easy under communismIt's not exactly easy under capitalism, either.@lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtI7thTtsZ42oWKtto by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T19:01:37.471573Z
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@adiz @lizzy I bet most places you've lived in are better than commie blocks... and aren't you studying for an exam to get a better job?
(DIR) Post #AtI83tLEdbekUf8u8W by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-20T19:02:34.753202Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz famously the ussr did not have scientists or academia, that's also how they went to space
(DIR) Post #AtI83uHN9SA1OyLKkq by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T19:03:27.681366Z
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@lizzy @adiz I never said they didn't
(DIR) Post #AtI87ZUgNAge5zJfW4 by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T19:04:07.372804Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha I have lived in commie blocks before and actually they were quite comfortable and cozy. Some of my best memories of living were with my friend in a commie block in the depths of Manchuria---it was great, actually!I'm studying for multiple exams to get a job promotion and improve my future employment/career options, yes. @lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtI8AKsLBEDTcshTdI by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T19:04:37.861508Z
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@adiz @lizzy furthermore, there are a lot of stories where people fled communist countries like east germany because they wanted a better life in the west
(DIR) Post #AtI8GVpPN4RVKhH2jg by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T19:05:45.824831Z
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@adiz @lizzy oh yeah, and I remember from reading Master and Margarita that there was a housing shortage in Moscow during the Stalinist period
(DIR) Post #AtI8L5B9sazi86cuQa by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T19:06:32.982889Z
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@genmaicha Sure, but that's irrelevant to the topic of housing and facilitation of basic needs as a baseline provided by former Soviet or Soviet-style systems vs. the contemporaneously dominant systems in the West. @lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtI8Qqc6whg2h4yyVE by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T19:07:35.824052Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha I believe you are correct. And, the response was widespread housing construction projects. @lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtI8SmqnuKjRbOmP44 by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-20T19:07:58.885650Z
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@adiz @lizzy it's not irrelevant. maybe the ussr provided the "baseline", but clearly that wasn't enough if people wanted to leave... and east germany had to build a wall to prevent people from escaping to the west.
(DIR) Post #AtIHTTJUvmygsybPkW by mischievoustomato@tsundere.love
2025-04-20T20:48:53.518087Z
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@adiz @lizzy tbf, you can make it not look... depressing, no? it's not mutually exclusive
(DIR) Post #AtIHjLEuiXzETi1eDY by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-20T20:51:46.346770Z
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@mischievoustomato A lot of these apartment blocks today are 60+ years old and have been under-maintained since the collapse of the Soviet Union, so what we see today isn't necessarily emblematic of what they were like before, both in terms of the quality and condition of the buildings but also the overall design of the blocks themselves. The 1960s--1980s weren't exactly a peak era in terms of architecture or design. "Stalinkas" built in the 1940s and 1950s were extremely well built and inherited a classic styling that looks great still today. @lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtIfHEWYUQL4RTPIZM by piegames@flausch.social
2025-04-20T20:05:45Z
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@lizzy honestly, of all possible answers to that this feels like the weirdest take. Especially given that depressing buildings have nothing to do with money, but with architects having shitty opinions on how humans should live
(DIR) Post #AtIfHFGdj5CakOy6Ou by piegames@flausch.social
2025-04-20T20:13:39Z
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@lizzy also ngl it feels kinda adjacent to the dehumanizing attitude of giving poor people what the rich people don't deem acceptable as a living standard. "It's better than nothing" gets toxic real quick
(DIR) Post #AtIfHGFc4NyVnVUnRI by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-20T20:24:04.310641Z
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@piegames that's frankly such a stupid take I don't even know what to say anymore*of course* having a house is better than not having a house, that's not "toxic", and what the fuck are you supposed to do when people move into cities en masse other than quickly build affordable housing space for themhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khrushchevka#The_origins
(DIR) Post #AtIfHH03Hj7c7XDsp6 by piegames@flausch.social
2025-04-20T20:46:23Z
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@lizzy way too often, affordable housing is ugly not because of resource constraints but because of the belief that people who need it deserve to live in shitholes.
(DIR) Post #AtIfHHkqTkYISf7FlA by eris@p.enes.lv
2025-04-21T01:15:29Z
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[source needed]Kruschovkas are the way they are because they were built in somewhat of a rush out of simple to fabricate concrete panels. Thus you get little colouring or even structural faults, but not because it was done on purpose to keep the poor down, it's because the poor needed houses right away. In my opinion, the depressiveness comes from the deterioration that has happened since and lack of colours that aren't shades of concrete gray. And they're definitely an improvement over the cramped communal housing that ppl had to put up before the commieblocks were built.CC: @lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
(DIR) Post #AtIfHHmGOTgcX3mNyC by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-21T00:53:58.215403Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@piegames "actually building houses is bad because I've made up some pseudo psychological reason in my head that the people responsible for improving material conditions actually are doing it out of malice" is the most esoterical, anti-materialist nonsense I've heard in long time. the most sensical way to read you take is unironically advocating for gentrification, but besides that it's literally just de facto "improving things is bad, actually"when housing is treated as a human right rather than luxury, it's actually much easier to push for better housing just like UBI allows you to negotiate better wages, *because having a reasonable alternative grants bargaining power*there are several reasons why (westerners think) commie blocks are depressing, and none of them were a "they were actually doing it ugly on purpose because they hate people" conspiracy first of all, the verticality of the buildings, this conflicts with the unsustainable model of american suburbs where everyone owns their own separate building and the entire infrastructure is both completely dependent on cars and wasteful enough to inherently create a large underclass that cannot afford the lifestyle of the white middle class. a sustainable and affordable city has to make use of vertical space.secondly, due to industrialization there was mass migration to cities, a lot of stuff needed to be built quickly which is why they came up with an industrialized and efficient way to build houses quickly, this makes them look very monotonous at times because there's little variation, but it's simply a pragmatic solution to the problem they were facing. but again, unsustainable individualism is at the core of western ideology, they prefer a world where some people don't have homes over a world where your home looks the same as your neighbors.third, a lot of the buildings are completely run down and improperly maintained these days, after the collapse of the USSR liberalism pretty much destroyed the country, a lot of workers sold off their shares in companies to soon-to-be oligarchs to make some quick cash and public funding for infrastructure disappeared. the reason those buildings look depressing is that they reflect this depressing reality. in many countries like poland a lot of the blocks are still properly maintained, get painted in a different color etc. and actually look quite passable that way.
(DIR) Post #AtLcHzArKSmMjio1OS by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T11:26:17.075127Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lena @adiz @lizzy >as if a house has been anywhere near attainable in the west for the past 50 years if you're not from a wealthy familyhouses have gotten more expensive but it isn't nearly as bad as you describe
(DIR) Post #AtLcJg1FWATtuK7KUa by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T11:26:37.177208Z
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@lena @adiz @lizzy at least in the US, I can't vouch for elsewhere
(DIR) Post #AtLcR8kx4XYF3r3Ls0 by sun@shitposter.world
2025-04-22T11:27:56.952882Z
4 likes, 1 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena @lizzy I bought a house in 2004 on less than 50kusd
(DIR) Post #AtLcXRzgSaf2Slx8cK by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T11:29:06.511805Z
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@sun @adiz @lena @lizzy I know someone who bought a house recently for $80k
(DIR) Post #AtLcZRnEB6NMQ34wPw by sun@shitposter.world
2025-04-22T11:29:27.449111Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena @lizzy oh I meant 50k salary
(DIR) Post #AtLcf9s5isbgZe4p96 by sun@shitposter.world
2025-04-22T11:30:29.039718Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena @lizzy the industry was heavily promoting home ownership, anyone could buy a house in 2004 even if they couldn't afford it. they would try to sell you too expensive one but if you ignored their bullshit you could buy an affordable one.
(DIR) Post #AtLcfFTqrumZyCmYCG by gray@clubcyberia.co
2025-04-22T11:30:29.397144Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @sun @lena @lizzy live out in the sticks and it’s still pretty affordable
(DIR) Post #AtLkIHsMb0ZeN7oF9M by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T12:55:58.637992Z
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@lena @adiz @lizzy >if you want to live somewhere reachable without funding oil barons, with actual civilization nearby, you'll find that buying a house is actually near impossible for any young person.you're talking about some of the wealthiest and most densely populated parts of the country, of course it's going to be more expensive.if you want free housing, you can move to a communist country.
(DIR) Post #AtMa71ycYyn9UcgqPI by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T22:36:33.947916Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lena @adiz @lizzy >i would, if the US hadn't bombed and sprayed napalm over every single one of them.Cuba is still inhabitable and we never bombed it. North Korea is also still inhabitable. I'd include Vietnam in this list as well, if not for the fact that they aren't real communists.But if you don't want to move to a communist country, your only options are complaining online, or starting a revolution.
(DIR) Post #AtMeXvDoBaaoB5s7k0 by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-22T23:26:16.359235Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha Living in China but would 100% do Vietnam too. @lena @lizzy
(DIR) Post #AtMfCQKLxIouEXFJ3Y by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:33:38.150836Z
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@adiz @lena @lizzy those places aren't really communist, not sure they have free housing either
(DIR) Post #AtMfXeYiEoFaSA5M92 by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:35:17.081670Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena china regularly pushes down housing prices, which the western media then describes as a "crisis" because the "housing market is crashing" or whatever, they literally cannot comprehend that housing being cheaper is actually a good thing
(DIR) Post #AtMfXfVCjL2RNZS4Jc by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:37:26.155258Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena ok, well I'm glad they don't do that here, because government intervention in the economy has negative reprecussions that are felt elsewhere, whether that be devaluing the currency or making something else more expensive.
(DIR) Post #AtMfkXHIcS4bdX5EQq by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:39:47.150705Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena if the west is so ludicrously evil and china is the best thing since sliced breadlines, how about you get your white ass over to guangzhou
(DIR) Post #AtMfx3DvfiSmBnTUum by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:40:35.311602Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena textbook neoliberal propaganda that completely contradicts any sort of evidenceand even then it's a pretty stupid argument. housing, together with food, needs to be the number 1 priority, even if it raises prices for anything else because that's literally what people need to livealso, western governments constantly intervene in the economy, just not usually to help the people.
(DIR) Post #AtMfx3lbeVOxsFEOPI by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:42:01.699432Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@lizzy @adiz @lena >also, western governments constantly intervene in the economy, just not usually to help the people.whether to help people or companies, government intervention is usually bad
(DIR) Post #AtMfyFLc54Zy53dgAK by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:42:16.655653Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena anyway, see previous post about guangzhou
(DIR) Post #AtMgGlhGXu1LcebBIW by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:42:58.190458Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena sorry, im not abandoning my family and local community to move to a country across the planet where I don't even speak the language, even if I had the resources to do so. what a comically stupid argument
(DIR) Post #AtMgPvhaiRmDG97SfA by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:47:16.501182Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena guess you'll just have to put up with capitalism then
(DIR) Post #AtMgaOIBH04ipHDpey by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:48:19.886904Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena I'm saying "society could be better and more affordable for most people, other countries demonstrate how" and your reaction is to tell me to move to a different countryi'm not primarily motivated by personal gain, I'm motivated by making society better for everyone. this goal is not furthered at all if I move to a country that already has the things I'm pushing for, quite the opposite
(DIR) Post #AtMgbLAQNTvZQJ2yGG by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:49:20.669931Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena whatever, I just hate leftism
(DIR) Post #AtMggF3WWj2Tuw9ki8 by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:49:01.480894Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena I'm not putting up with it, I'm actively working on destroying it :P
(DIR) Post #AtMggFvlH4QMd9X4Fc by genmaicha@stereophonic.space
2025-04-22T23:50:11.677211Z
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@lizzy @adiz @lena cool, let me know when you succeed
(DIR) Post #AtMh3lfBSXTvhwzPpg by 7331@mastodon.de
2025-04-20T18:55:16Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lizzy with how insane the housing crisis in germany is, i think it's weird that the number of people who think similarly is so lowplease someone build commie blocks all they want as long as they're safe and energy efficient and, most importantly, don't cost their inhabitants everything they have
(DIR) Post #AtMh6Pqt0eHwvjj4qG by quoidian@mastodon.online
2025-04-20T19:23:48Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lizzy The videos I've seen, the blocks with four apartment buildings with gardens, walkways, shops, clinics, library, etc in the centre seems neighbourly. Public transit on the surrounding roads to get to the train station, airport, museums.
(DIR) Post #AtMhFrGeRrUkZ3HPii by flesh@kitsunes.gay
2025-04-20T21:00:20.627Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@lizzy@social.vlhl.dev Granted, an autistic communist isn't gonna be unbiased, but like, they're cool, actually.Like, efficient, actually alright looking when well maintained, generally better at fostering community than american cult towns, providing a good location to a large amount of people.The soviets may not have exactly done the best with them, but it's a good concept that needs to be built (heh) upon, not rejected.
(DIR) Post #AtMhWEhL6OwDrkZYjg by lizzy@social.vlhl.dev
2025-04-22T23:49:41.554217Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha @adiz @lena yea that's pretty obvious, no rational arguments, just hate :P
(DIR) Post #AtMjPj8piQxKALSMrY by adiz@mtl.jinxian.casa
2025-04-23T00:20:49.688274Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@genmaicha> anti-communists professing "not real communism"How far we have come……> free housingThat's a complicated situation because yes and no. @lena @lizzy