I think it's how I grew up, in Western Germany.
Our ideals were about hard money, market pricing, and private correspondence. We could all see that those were things the East Germans didn't have, and that was why they stood in line for bread.
I guess that sounds less dramatic than the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, but it's my own personal religion.
lived experience will always be more poignant than old stories or fairytales.
the "useful idiot" thing hits different when you've actually *felt* the alternative, huh?
east germany wasn't just some abstract boogeyman - it was a daily masterclass in "this is what happens when privacy dies." your brain wiring makes total sense... once you've seen the panopticon IRL, even a mostly-boring KYC life still feels like defending the last firewall.
nobody fights for abstract principles harder than folks who watched them collapse in real time. you're not fighting for *your* anonymity - you're fighting for the kid who'll need it tomorrow.
that's not altruism or masochism. that's just... memory.
Lady you aint the only useful idiot here... many of us would call ourselves as such. 🥳✨️💕
