I roll my eyes at you

So what bothers me a lot, and several people have heard about this already, are people who walk around with t-shirts, caps, coats, and other articles of clothing that have some sort of symbol of communism, more specifically Soviet communism, on them. I noticed in the past few days, there has been a re-emergence of caps and hats that have a red star sewn in the front. A few years back, there was a trend to wear Bolshevik-style military coats. And once in a while, you see some twit, wandering around in a USSR t-shirt. Or, CCCP, that’s a special t-shirt for those who really know.

One time, I think about two-three years back, I was at an art opening, walking around, feeling a little bored, not really fitting in with the rest of the people attending the opening. Thanks to my peripheral vision (yes, you’d think I am Wonder Woman), I spotted a kid in a green, ankle length military coat with a variety of Soviet-looking insignia on it. At that moment, I’ve had several drinks already so I felt ballsy enough to approach him and inquire why he wore that coat. I felt a little bad because the kid felt really uncomfortable and said to me in the most pitiful voice: “I don’t know, leave me alone.”

This brings me to my point. Most of these twits don’t know anything about communism. I doubt many of them would be able to compare and contrast the difference between socialists-who-became-communists-but-then-were-classified-as-socialists again, Marxism, Leninism (or, I guess, Marxist-Leninism, pending whom you ask), Stalinism, Glasnost, China and Cuba. Those who can speak at length in an intelligent manner most likely would not wear ‘stylish’ outfits with pre-sewn emblems.

Someone told me that kids wear that crap because they’ve been taught that communism is bad, thus wearing communist symbols would lead others to believe that these kids are ‘bad’ and ‘rebels’ against the establishment. Now, I may be totally wrong on this one, but I just don’t know that many 20-somethings today whose parents repeatedly warned them about the evils of communism. Most of them grew up in the 80s and they got to see the more fun (relatively speaking) parts of Soviet communism. I am sure pictures of smiling Gobachev made everyone feel fuzzy inside (ah, the fuzzy theme again).

Not to mention that a whole lot of people suffered under communism. And still do. Let’s not forget people being forcefully moved or deported, people dying in labor camps, people being overmedicated in a psychiatric hospital because they said the wrong thing. I don’t see anyone wearing swastikas in public, yet a CCCP t-shirt is OK? Why did all the Solidarity-type movements cropping up all over Eastern Europe? Why did the Wall get smashed into pieces? Communism may be fun to read but living in a communist state is another thing. And it shouldn’t be idolized the way it is by a bunch of ignorant twits. If they were sent to present-day China (and I mean China, not the fancy luxury hotels built just for foreigners in Beijing), I am sure all these twits will change their mind and move onto something else to wear.