If I’m trying to make a point, I try to substantiate it with evidence, not just generalizing about how I imagine the conversation is going to go. I’ve never talked with anyone from the USSR, but have known some from Cuba (as well as researchers who’ve worked there for an interval). There’s some variety in the perspectives, some are more negative, but there’s a clear throughline: even where the state takes a repressive position, these socialist countries are miles ahead of their comparable Western counterparts in all areas of social development. There’s a reason that after the fall of the USSR, there was a marked decrease in women’s rights, acceptance of queer people, and the safety of ethnic or racial minorities in the region. We can talk about the USSR’s shortcomings at serving these groups’ needs, but the myth of the USSR as a monolithic, socially conservative “redfash” state is laughable. It is simply untrue and any conversation with people who resided in the USSR or any socialist state, or just picking up a book by someone who isn’t sponsored by the Victims of Communism organization, should show that these minorities have benefitted from the proactive socialist state’s initiatives for their benefit much more than they’ve been held back by certain missteps (to be clear, there have been missteps).