@genmaicha @adiz famously the ussr did not have scientists or academia, that's also how they went to space

@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.

@bl00d @eris