I was alive when eastern Germany was still the GDR. Citizens weren't starving.

The usual quote was:

"Es gibt alles, nur nicht immer, nicht überall und schon gar nicht, wenn es gerade gebraucht wird."

You can find everything, but not always, not everywhere, and certainly not when you need it most.

The GDR "economy of scarcity" knew some scarcity, mostly citrus and coffee. There was always enough potatoes but rice and pasta was scarce, good cuts of beef and pork were always quickly sold out, sometimes you had to know someone who knew someone to get some. Broiler or bad cuts were easier to get. Cheese was a pain in the ass... you could hardly get Emmentaler or Gouda, what you could get was processed cheese ("Schmelzkäse").

Breadlines existed basically only directly after the war when everything was still in ruins. But oranges, bananas and other "Southern Fruit" were mostly a Christmas special when the party bought some from the class-enemy to supply citizens with those little luxuries.

Clothes on the other hand... oh boy, if you wanted some fine women's blouse, you better knew someone in the FRG.

Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Young people and the better off are among those rebuffing criticism of East Germany as an "illegitimate state." In a new poll, more than half of former eastern Germans defend the GDR.

That rise is such bullshit, they're looking at it through rose colored glasses. Yes, some things were better, the absence of predatory capitalism comes to mind first and foremost and even the Stasi knew less about us than Meta and Alphabet. The difference for me is in the how. Alphabet and Meta don't bribe your friends, family and neighbors to actively spy on you and most importantly don't disappear you for thought crimes. And the things that were great in the GDR... nearly none of that was due to the government. People stuck together and cooperated, you looked out for each other, if you found fresh beef at the butcher you'd get enough for your neighbors too, so they'd look out for you when they came across southern fruit or womens tights or west-cheese. And this feeling of community, of trust was actively undermined with the VEB Horch & Guck ("The peoples own company of Listen and Watch", a nickname for the Stasi).

Holy shit I remember the wall coming down and how the former GDR was ransacked by western capital afterwards (because capital will always ruin everything) but I'd rather cut off my right foot than be trapped behind the no-mans-land of the death strip.

oranges, bananas and other “Southern Fruit” were mostly a Christmas special

It was true for most of Europe afaik, unless you're speaking about like the 80s I suppose, but oranges being a christmas thing was true for my grandparents as well (not in Germany)

Sloppy slop is sloppy, op should be ashamed. You fucking playing with vojacs, doing it with slopgen is just beyond idiotic.

watching people lose their shit over LLM generated stuff will never stop being hilarious