Post B9RZQ3kolKav1JGDOi by _gigabyte_@www.minds.com
(DIR) More posts by _gigabyte_@www.minds.com
(DIR) Post #B9RYM8qrlg0biXepuK by Hoss@shitpost.cloud
1 likes, 1 repeats
>be East Germany, 1989>have spent forty years constructing one of the most neurotically overengineered police states in human history>Wall>watchtowers>Stasi>informants informing on other informants>filing cabinets containing enough paper to alter Earth's axial tilt>entire government philosophy is basically "nothing happens unless seventeen bureaucrats stamp Form 38-B">economy is dying>citizens discover Hungary has developed a mysterious glitch in the Iron Curtain>people start escaping>Leipzig demonstrations getting bigger every Monday>Honecker gets fired>Egon Krenz takes over and announces everything is under control>Party decides maybe the people will calm down if travel restrictions are loosened>supposed to be a gradual, orderly loosening>Germans need time to update bureaucratic machinery>send Günter Schabowski to give press conference on November 9>Schabowski was barely involved in drafting the regulations>gets handed a note without the full implementation briefing>East German government chooses the guy reading the patch notes for the first time live to announce border policy>journalist asks when the new travel rules take effect>Schabowski rummages through papers>entire Warsaw Pact watching>millions of Germans watching>border troops watching>CIA probably watching>"As far as I know...">already not a promising opening concerning THE BORDER OF THE IRON CURTAIN>squints>"This takes effect... immediately, without delay.">record scratch>journalists:>"wait what">East Germans:>"WAIT WHAT">border guards:>"WAIT WHAT">Politburo:>"HE SAID WHAT">Western television immediately reports East Germany has opened its borders>thousands of East Berliners put on jackets and head toward checkpoints>because when state television accidentally tells you thirty years of imprisonment have been cancelled, you don't wait until morning for clarification>Bornholmer Straße fills up>guards have received precisely zero corresponding orders>phone superiors>superiors phone their superiors>superiors consult the ancient East German bureaucratic emergency protocol known as "Please God Let Somebody Else Make This Decision">crowd gets larger>guards cannot exactly shoot thousands of civilians because some idiot gave contradictory instructions on live television>everyone also knows Moscow isn't sending tanks this time>checkpoint commander Harald Jäger realizes he has been placed inside the funniest command-and-control failure of the Cold War>"Comrade, what are our orders?">"Maintain control.">"How?">"According to regulations.">"Which regulations?">"The new regulations.">"What do they say?">"We don't know.">"When do they start?">"Apparently immediately.">"Can I open the gate?">"Absolutely not.">"What do I do with the ten thousand people outside?">*dial tone*>Jäger eventually says fuck it>opens crossing>people pour into West Berlin>other checkpoints notice Bornholmer has opened>realize the command economy of border control has entered the "every man for himself" phase>start opening too>Berlin Wall>physical symbol of the Cold War>guarded for decades by an authoritarian state with a gigantic security apparatus>rendered functionally obsolete because one middle-aged party spokesman answered a follow-up question incorrectly>East Germans climb onto Wall>West Germans show up with beer>people start smashing concrete with hammers>border guards stand around experiencing the worst shift change in German history>SED leadership discovers its most important geopolitical asset is now a street festival>government tries to regain control>unfortunately the fundamental premise of your government was that you controlled whether citizens could leave>citizens have just discovered you control approximately jack shit>Stasi begins existential crisis>spent decades cataloguing who listened to Western radio>now Westerners are literally handing champagne over the Wall>entire legitimacy of regime evaporates>people realize security apparatus will no longer enforce the old rules>once everyone realizes everyone else realizes this, Communist authority becomes an elaborate office dress code>Krenz lasts another few weeks>Politburo resignations>SED frantically rebrands itself>Stasi offices stormed>government holds actual elections>East Germans vote overwhelmingly for parties favoring rapid reunification>October 1990>German Democratic Republic officially ceases to exist>imagine being an East German apparatchik>spend entire career maintaining Marxist-Leninist state>survive uprisings>survive Prague Spring>survive Brezhnev>survive NATO>survive Reagan>have nuclear-armed Soviet divisions stationed behind you>country finally gets killed by press conference Q&A>forty years of socialist statecraft>billions spent on surveillance>Wall constructed>people shot trying to cross it>entire ministries devoted to internal security>weakness discovered:>journalist asks bureaucrat "when?"
(DIR) Post #B9RZQ3kolKav1JGDOi by _gigabyte_@www.minds.com
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Beautiful
(DIR) Post #B9Rq7PDKRvZNINHsHY by Hoss@shitpost.cloud
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>tfw you fuck up so massively at work that your employer ceases to meaningfully exist before you can even be punished for it
(DIR) Post #B9Sz3qPkTFr3F7Quo4 by Nesano@nicecrew.digital
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@Hoss de Jure wall when every de Facto enjoyer shows up at the same time.