r/interestingasfuck • u/Dismal-Display-370 • 18h ago

Everyone is too happy around this guy

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 16h ago

I am not young

I lived in Romania under Ceausescu.

I was one of the "happy people" in the crowd.  You had no choice. If you disobeyed you and your family were marginalized, job lost, house taken away. You better be happy.

Dictators love this.

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u/Lordquas187 15h ago

Romania is the first country I traveled to outside of the US and I had zero comprehension of its history until I got there. The whole revolution story fascinated me, particularly with how modern it felt, being that you can watch Youtube videos of battles where dudes in sick 1990s outfits were smoking cigarettes while shooting AKs. How did it feel when you found out he was killed? Was there some sort of electric energy running through the country or was it a feel more like being in shock and realizing that it was time to start trying to piece the country back together?

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 15h ago edited 14h ago

I did not live in Bucharest

In my city, it was quiet ( no shootings )

December 1989 the Berlin wall was already down, Poland started reforms, Hungary was in full change. I was lucky to see Hungarian TV since I lived near the border with Hungary and I speak Hungarian, too. They showed what was happening in Eastern Europe and we were praying for soemthing to happen.

December 16th came and in Timisoara started an uprising. Pastor Tokes was suposed to be evacuated ( or something like that ) and people garthered to protect him Police and army intervened, then more people came out. Nothing was said in the state news about this. We heard on the Hungarian TV and there was a radio station in Germany called "Free Europe" who broadcasted in Romanian, too and they were also talking about this.

On Dec 21, Ceausescu organized a meeting in the palace square to condemn the "fascists" elements who whated to destabilize the country.

I was grade 12. I remember like it was yesterday. I was on my knees in front of the tv because we all hoped that Timisoara was the spark. My parents were behind me and talking about change.

Than in the back pf the crowd some screams were heard. This was live tv. ( it is on the net ) They stopped the live transmission. After like 10 minutes, they resumed the transmission. But there was a BIG change.

All the "we love the communist and socialist Party and Ceausescu" panels were gone. In the crowd there were only few Romanian flags. Thise flags had the Socialist country ( sorry I do mot know the proper name of it in English ) emblem cut out from the yellow area of the flag.

It gave us BIG hopes. My mom was crying behind me.

Then it started, the secret service took Ceausescu from the balcony and then the revolution started.

In like 2 days the dicattors were gone.

....but their close politicians still stayed in the power... But they had no choice but to change the system, not because they wanted to, but because it already happened in the rest of the communist countries, because the Soviets approved it.

When I tell people here in North America that the food stores had norhimg in them... they do not understand it. They thing we had food but garbage. They do not understand that nothing in a food store was empty shelves. Only those understand this who came from similar countries.

Whenever I read about...this and that ( politicians in the Western world ) is fascist or communist ... I just lol.

Just in this thread, oh "Trump will be that"... No...he will not be that... He can not be because the system does not allow it. I do not like Trump, I am in Canada now, and we have issues with his policies and border economy.

To say trump is a dictator is disgenerous to those who eacaped dictatorships or live in such countries.

Or when I see that people in the Western world idolize communism or socialism... Like ...why?...stupidity? Plus anyone who disagrees is a fascist like Ceausescu said about the revolutionaries ( or communist if we look from the other extreme ) ( some confuse social democracy like in Western Europe with socialism...but many just love socialism, the economic system)

Ok..I wrote a lot..sorry All the best.

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u/Both-Subject-3674 12h ago

"No...he will not be that..."

I couldn't disagree more. Dictators come in many flavors, and a silent coup is still a coup. Worse than an overnight coup, is one that is done gradually over 10-15 years so that people are worn down and do not notice it has happened until it is too late. Even today it was announced that Hegseth has removed even more military leadership. Why? Why now? The timing (right before midterm elections that could make Trump a lame duck) is too perfect to be coincidence. They are preparing something. And hand-waving it by saying "it couldn't happen here" is exactly what will allow it to happen here.

You told us that you were in 12th grade when Ceausescu was killed. This means you were probably too young to be paying attention when he tightened his grip on power and turned fully authoritarian, but you can't ignore the parallels.

_____ built a secret police force

_____ instituted/extended mass surveillance

_____ built a cult of personality

_____ destroyed foreign relations

_____ ballooned the national debt

_____ mismanaged the economy and blundered multiple oil deals

_____ controlled the media and fought to destroy the free press

Now -- who am I talking about here? Ceausescu or Trump?

They have done all the same things, but one happened in a small country where people had very little to lose at the end and finally revolted, the other in the richest country on earth, where people still struggle to pay their bills, but haven't hit rock bottom en mass yet, and where difficulty and cost of travel prevents most mass civil protest from reaching a sustained fever pitch like in other countries.

So it is 100% happening. And to deny it or dismiss it is just plain foolish in my view.

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u/Motor_Ad_7103 10h ago

i 100% agree with you!

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 8h ago

Yes, I was not alive when the Communists took over.

A simple answer to your concern: True dictators outlaw all other political parties from day 1. This happened in Ro and in many other dictatorahips. A dictator ( or a totalitarian regime ) does not wait for the next year.

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u/Development-Alive 30m ago

Are you sure? Viktor Orban didn't outlaw competing political parties but rather defanged them. He took away their access to media. He clamped down on universities that could be breeding grounds for opposing ideas. Orban's first term in office was '98-'02. During that period he operated as a Democratically elected leader, thus was voted out in '02. He was then the leader of the opposition party. It wasn't until he regained power in '10 by a narrow margin that his Autocratic efforts started. It was in 2013, 3 years into his new term, that he changed the constitution to give himself more power, under the banner of the anti-immigrant issue. It allowed him to remove media entities with opposing views, reduced judicial independence and ultimately was a roadmap for Authoritarian rule, or democratic backsliding in academic terms.

In fact, Authoritarian rule rarely happens in a single year. Its typically a response to other issue. With Orban, us used the Anti-Immigrant issue as Syrians/Afghanis were escaping war as his pedestal to convince Hungarians that only HE could solve the problems so they had to give him greater power.

This isn't too different than the attempt by Trump to push the US in that direction. There is just more resistance. The economy isn't bad enough for enough voters to put their trust in him to grant him the power he craves.

Still, the point stands that citizens who embrace Autocracy rarely do so overnight. They are frogs in the pot of water that don't recognize the water is getter hotter and hotter and hotter until it's too late.

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 24m ago

Yet, he lost Elections in 2026.

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u/Development-Alive 1m ago

He lost to someone from his own party that he had excised, purportedly used as a scapegoat. Ultimately, Orban's own corruption caught up with him. That doesn't erase all the anti-Democratic changes he put in place, something their new PM promised in route to winning.

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u/External-Carpet4215 6h ago edited 5h ago

Appreciate your experience but your views are at complete odds with every scholar of authoritarianism or totalitarianism I have ever read.

Gonna stick with the people who have spent their lives studying this topic.

PS. You would do well to study what occurred in the Philippines, as a start.

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 6h ago

Sure I respect your opinion. Books are written by diverse people with diverse views. It is up to the people to value which author is a scholar or not. Even dictators wrote books.

You can enlighten me and post some of these books and scholars. I am open minded plus I have more time to read since I am older.

All the best.

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u/External-Carpet4215 5h ago

I would start with the works of Ruth Ben-Ghiat, even just her interviews.

Edit: if you want a specific book, try Strongmen.

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 5h ago

Thank you I will look into this

All the best

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u/Awkward_Region5509 2h ago

I think homie came at you a little hard, but I don’t disagree.
Trump can’t become a dictator the same way others did 20,30,40 years ago because the landscape is different.

I think trump is capable and is trying, but if he just started locking people up day 1, there would’ve been a civil war.

I hate the guy, but he’s playing his cards right now

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 2h ago

Totally agree.

Thank you.

All the best.

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u/mary_jays 19m ago

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder is an excellent read, and highlights the strategies that authoritarians use to consolidate power

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 14m ago

Thank you

I will look into this, too.

I wish you all the best.

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u/_bones__ 2h ago

There are examples to the contrary.

Hitler took several years to increase his power until he did that.

Russia still has other political parties, and Putin is a dictator.

The US is a nation that has many safeguards against a dictatorship, but those safeguards are under attack. You don't do that if you intend to keep them around.

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u/GapPrestigious6414 4h ago

Genuinely asking, because to me it's just absurd to liken what happened in Eastern Europe to where modern Socialism is today, do you actually think wanting more democratic processes, such as worker owned co-ops, decentralized governance, and universal healthcare, are synonymous with authoritarianism? People who lived under the communist regimes so often seem to be anti-left and defend the right when in the west, the roles are completely reversed. What you experienced under communism is what we in the west would call right wing.

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u/Sea-Cap-1540 3h ago

What means left and what means right? Left as ideologically, to have socialist policies and universal healthcare? Then I am left.

Right to allow for private ownership? ... Then I am right... To technically I am centrist.

See... Because the term Socialism is confusing these days, people read it as they wish.

Socialist policies exist in Europe ( and Canada ), the fact that you note "modern Socialism is today" it does not make European countries Socialist. They do have Socialist policies, but they are capitalist economies.

If you mean Socialist economy, like in 1 worker 1 share and so on... Yes, that will be authoritarian state That type of company / micro ( company level ) economy can exist only in an economic system where private enterprise can exist. That is because people think differently and not all people agree to 1 worker 1 share system. I would like to have the freedom to open a coffee shop. Why would the state not let me if it was a free state...or?

A Socialist state, would not allow for private ownership, therefore authoritarian.

Just to make sure we talk abt thr same thing Socialist policies as universal healthcare and co-ops are not Socialism as in Socialist state. Those are Socialist policies in a countries that allow private entreprises.

About: " What you experienced under communism is what we in the west would call right wing."

No, that is incorrect.  Before communism, Romania was fascist under Antonescu. Your point would make those 2 regimes the same... Your point would make an equal sign between hitler amd ceausescu

All the best.

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u/GapPrestigious6414 1h ago

So this is where you're confused.

>A Socialist state, would not allow for private ownership, therefore authoritarian.

You're confusing private ownership with personal ownership. To go to your coffee shop example, you could absolutely own a coffee shop. But the moment you hire other people, a socialist system would say you can't take advantage of other people, and that they should get the value of their labor.

If you owned the coffee shop privately, as exists in a capitalist system, you could take advantage of others and pay them next to nothing. You could say you're going to pay them a fair wage or a living wage or whatever, but that's still unethical because of the way wages work. That is, you take 100% of the profit. Wages are an expense, and Revenue - Expenses = Profit. There is no ethical way to pay a worker in a capitalist system the actual value of their labor because you, the owner, would not receive a Profit. That's one of the major problems that Socialists identify in Capitalism.

I totally get the confusion because yes, a lot of people misuse the term socialism, but that cuts both ways. USSR was as Socialist as the National Socialists, and just as a Republic as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea). But we get the term "privatization" from the Nazi's because they were a decidedly Capitalist party with Capitalist policies.

I'll admit, I know very little about Romanian politics, but a cursory read through what Ceausescu did reveals that he employed Austerity, a Capitalist economic theory. According to Wikipedia, he apparently was an enforcer to Gheorghiu-Dej in prison, where Gheorghiu-Dej was building his cult of personality and making the people there say they didn't understand Communist writers, and could only accept Gheorghiu-Dej's interpretation. That's about as damning as evidence as one should need to be at the very least skeptical that these "Communists" were any closer to Communism than the Nazis.

Lastly, I want to address your point about not everyone agreeing to the system and that therefor it's authoritarian.

"That is because people think differently and not all people agree to 1 worker 1 share system."

Your thinking is very flawed here. Not everyone agrees to democratic governments, does that make the very idea of democracy problematic? No, it gives power even to those people who want to make less decisions in their own lives to not participate. There's some exceptions to this like Australia, but by and large the freedom to vote comes with the freedom to not vote as well.

Anyways, I think I've said my peace, and I'm enjoying a mid-day snack. I hope you have a wonderful day as well.

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u/Important_Capital875 6h ago

It isn’t happening just because you don’t like him. Get out of your feelings.

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u/Important_Capital875 6h ago

You realize ice has been around for decades? And you realize you can put Joe Biden’s name for all those statements and it would be correct?

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u/SourceEast44 7h ago

You are so right. This is not to be ignored

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u/RAYvenko55 10h ago edited 10h ago

- ICE is hardly secret and non-issue for citizens

  • mass surveillance exist since the dawn of internet and cell phones. Check UK and Germany if you wanna be fearmongering.
  • every election winner you don't like = he must have cult following
  • fuck foreign relations if the countries were "friends" only for as long they could exploit US economy or power
  • check the dept growth during Biden, i guess he was dictator too?
  • US economy grows ~2% every year, for decades, trump, biden, obama, whoever.
  • you can write whatever you want about Trump on all US-owned social media, anybody can. Go try to do that in China or DPRK. But he kicked CNN from the White House, right?! I would kicked them from my house too if they came just to ragebait first, write news second.

I live in EU by the way and some countries here are so fucked beyond recovery due to illegal immigration i wish we had Trump or somebody with balls to clean up the mess. Instead our politicians protect and hide all the crimes illegals commit in fear of riots, feeding the power to the real ultra right-wingers for free. It's like 1930s all over, just waiting for the painter to show up.

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u/ApocalyptoSoldier2 10h ago

ICE is a non issue for citizens other than the citizens they kidnap or murder

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u/Mr_Voided 3h ago

Idk if I’m crazy for saying this but a lot of those points can be summed up by the fact that this guy is an idiotic narcissist who just so happened to be the president. Even he knows his time is up soon and a majority of those points have either been done by other governments officials or presidents in the past. When he implemented ice it was because he knew his party was majority racist white people who believed that foreigners were taking their jobs on home soil. Seems like he doesn’t actually care and decides to do whatever he thinks will make him look good and when he realises it doesn’t he either backpedals or silently separates himself from it. He thought messing with the reflective pool was a good idea and look at how that turned out. Mass surveillance is not his idea and can be tracked back to when he was in his con artist days or even before that (ik you said extended this is just for the dummies that believe he was the first). Likely someone in his administration sold him on the idea. When it comes to the cult personality that is a mixed bag of him being a charismatic asshole and his followers feeling like they’ve been ostracised and end up going to one extreme. Again this guy is an idiot, destroying foreign relationships is not a power move, it’s him being unable to think about what is required to boost foreign relations. The us has been in debt forever I’m sure you already know that. The part where he does show signs of being a dictator is the media part. He currently has a ban on cnn and other media news networks preventing them from attending any of his public junk. This didn’t work out either because he didn’t prepare for what came after. He had no microphone or any setup prepared for public appearances. This idiot just does things on a whim and suffers the consequences later or not at all because they don’t affect him. He’s all theatrics no brain.
(My phone is going incredibly slow and has been frustrating me since I started typing. Sorry about the numerous grammatical and punctuation errors I can’t bring myself to retype anything on this piece of junk phone I have.)

Tldr: in my unprofessional and not researched opinion a majority of his “dictator like” showings have come from a lack of knowledge or the idea that people will like him more if he does something.