I don’t think this is much of an issue for anyone here but… expensive wrist watches. I am a reformed watch guy. My $11 Casio F-91W keeps better time than my FIL’s $6,000 Omega. Quartz and batteries were a real game changer when it comes to watches. I really like having a watch but there is no reason for anyone to spend real money on a watch that doesn’t use quartz.

If you want/need a watch, to me the sweet spot are those Casio G-Shock squares. Totally bullet proof, can last a lifetime, and you can spend as little as $35 or up to about $150 if you want solar and atomic time. But spending any more than that and you’re really just buying jewelry, not something to keep time.

Hitler openly declared his intention to invade the USSR in Mein Kampf

I’ve read a good bit of Mein Kampf, as well as The Nazi Seizure of Power which is a great day-by-day account of the rise of the Nazis in one town. It was truly shocking to me to see absolute, visceral, unhinged hatred Hitler had for communists and the USSR. Just page after page of invective. But if you’re like 95% of Americans your knowledge of WW2 comes entirely from what you were taught in grade school plus the History Channel.

If everyone had believed in the system, the USSR would have pushed through what was a far less serious crisis than that of it’s first 30 years

Carlos Martinez, in his essays on the fall, interestingly ties the lack of faith in the system to de-stalinization. His point is, many/most Soviet citizens didn’t exactly have advanced knowledge of Marxism or Communism (not a criticism). What they did know is that when Stalin was in charge, their material conditions improved on a scale that’s almost hard to comprehend. So many folks associated socialism and the Soviet system with Stalin. So by denouncing Stalin, the Corn Man completely undermined the faith people had in the system.

As late as early 1991 it could probably have been saved

I remember reading somewhere that, as late as 1986 or so, the notion of the USSR collapsing would seem highly unlikely - both from the POV of the Soviets and the Americans. All the problems we know about were there and the Soviet leaders understood a lot of them. So something had to be done.

But Gorby’s reforms in the mid/late 80s, instead of addressing the problems in a constructive way, only cranked up the contradictions to 11, which toppled the system.

Personally, I wonder if China wasn’t maybe in a somewhat similar situation to the USSR when Xi rose to power. Certainly not in as dire of a situation. But Xi is the anti-Gorbachev. He saw the problems going on (like the rising power of the neoliberals and corruption in the system) and has addressed it the right way.

deleted by creator