Have You Ever Wondered What the Other Side of the Cold War Felt Like? \ stacker news ~AskSN

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Have You Ever Wondered What the Other Side of the Cold War Felt Like?

439 sats \ 11 comments \ @kepford 12h AskSN

For those of you that were born during the cold war in the US. Have you ever wondered how the people living under the Soviet Union felt about the nuclear threat? Been watching a documentary on the cold war and it just hit me that they didn't talk to any Russians for example about what it was like for them during this time.

Think about it. The US government is the only government to ever use nuclear weapons on another population. And they did it twice. Now they have all of these weapons pointed at us.

I'm not talking about justification or anything like that. Just wondering if the thought has crossed others minds. It really hadn't for me. I have learned more about how terrible it must have been to live under communism but I hadn't really ever thought about the nuclear threat from the other side and the fact that the US had done it. It had to hit different for them.

I remember doing drills and hearing a lot about the threat. Probably not as much as the folks older than me but its there. We now know that some of what our government told us were lies. We also know what the Soviets told their people was also peppered with lies.

Have you ever wondered about this?

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158 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 9h

When I visited Vietnam and toured the museums, including the War Remnants Museum and talked with appropriate aged men. I discovered their government produced propaganda and outs did, too. That the truth was somewhere in the middle.

102 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 11h

I wasn't alive at the time, but I assume that it would have been chilly.

Maybe if we had another cold war, we could help global warming.

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 12h

Everyone on each side got lied to (post cold war I've lived on both sides of that conflict and got to discuss it with people of many different perspectives.) Same in every war, cold or hot. It's a control mechanism. People that are afraid of an identified threat will support "strong" leaders.

The fun thought exercise is what your current government is FUDding you about now. And maybe having the courage to reach out to the other side and try to learn without prejudice, but with empathy.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 11h

Yep, couldn't agree more

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 10h

Agree. Governments are protection rackets and thrive upon fear. Of course there is some basis for that fear- humans naturally form into groups and fight to access to resources. Religions and ideologies form the umbrellas under which groups unite and then justify their positions.

The 'west' has dominated global resources by having superior organised governments that enabled science and innovation and ultimately greater ability to project power.

The wealth of nations derives to a large extent from the quality of government. The cynicism and negativity toward government that is popular today in the west ignores the reality that the wealth and privilege of the west is built upon our superior ability to project power.

Today China is challenging that dominance and the divided nature of the west makes it more likely China will succeed. China is only responding to the west logically as the west has consistently imposed its dominance upon all others meaning you either become subservient as nearly all other cultures have, or challenge the west as China is. The west may now have to face a reality where it must change strategy or lose the resource hegemony dominance it has enjoyed for centuries.

3 sats \ 4 replies \ @jbschirtzinger 11h

Not really, no. Soviet propaganda was and still is an ongoing thing. Any story that makes it to the surface is more likely to be spin than truth.

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford OP 11h

Yeah, pretty sure all governments have and are still using prop. That's a given to me.

43 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 10h

I've had people from one of those countries behind the curtain of old call me whenever there is a natural disaster checking if I'm safe. Because there the number of evacuees are reported as deaths.

105 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford OP 10h

That's wild. When I used to attend tech conferences back in the day I would enjoy hanging with people from other countries and how they were sceptical of US news. I always found it refreshing.

And every person I know from a formerly Soviet controlled country has a strong skepticism of government.

7 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 9h

Most people I know from anywhere are skeptical, unless they've freshly received promises or have been completely eclipsed with propaganda.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 11h

I never have thought about, though I certainly remember what it was like. I suspect it was worse for them than it was for us. One thing I do remember, though it's not entirely on point for your post, was that my friends and I really didn't take the threat seriously. That contrasts with what people imagine it was like today. Perhaps we were a particularly stupid bunch, or maybe kids still had that cloak of invincibility that wears off through life. I don't think I was traumatized in any way.