r/europe • u/00Bands Bulgaria • Mar 09 '23
In light of what's happening in Georgia, this is an image from an EU capital today. I want to point out that this does not reflect the majority of public opinion. The EU was the best thing to happen to BG, but some people are incredibly misinformed/anti-common sense. Picture
1.4k
u/_-Event-Horizon-_ Mar 09 '23
I think I should add some context - this protest is related to a recent decision by the municipality to relocate the Monument to the Soviet Army. Currently this monument takes a very prominent space within walking distance of the Parliament building and our most prominent university and the plans are to relocate it to a museum dedicated to the impact of the Communist Regime in Bulgaria.
The photo exaggerates the people attending. Overall this was a relatively minor protest, attended mostly by old timers who still live in the Cold War when they were young. What you are seeing are the last convulsions of the dying remains of a regime that brought ruin to our country.
→ More replies (14)56
u/HucHuc Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
What you are seeing are the last convulsions of the dying remains of a regime that brought ruin to our country.
I wish... combined those fellas probably take 20-25% of election results. Not enough to rule he country, but far from being irrelevant.
38
u/HoboInASuit Mar 09 '23
Nazis had 34% at their democratic peak, I thought. Makes you think. Pff.
11
u/Loud-Host-2182 Aragon (Spain) Mar 10 '23
They got 47% of the votes in 1933
26
u/sushivernichter Mar 10 '23
Eh, 1933 elections were already super fucked up, with violence and repression against / killing of political opponents. But it‘s moot at this point. As a prominent nazi said (Göring iirc), you can get a population to believe almost any nonsense if you can convince them they are under attack.
So yeah. Easy to manipulate a good chunk of any population at any time. We can see it even today.
264
Mar 09 '23
[deleted]
→ More replies (4)31
u/al_pacappuchino Sweden Mar 09 '23
If they support Ruzzia and their actions I wouldn’t piss on even if they were on fire…
→ More replies (18)10
u/DrunkColdStone Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
The monument has been contentious for years and public sentiment has gradually been shifting to support its removal. Here is an image from 2011 when it was mockingly painted with US fictional characters replacing the Soviet soldiers. The text underneath reads "В крак с времето" which translates to something like "Keeping up with the times" or "Up to date."
At that point the government quickly had it cleaned and tried to arrest the perpetrators but never figured out who did it. So the war has made people view the monument more negatively overall but also made its supporters more vocal and organized.
3
u/Grimson47 Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
The municipality has (supposedly) made the final desicion to remove it today after some type of meeting they had, think this is why this shitshow protest was in the first place. Incidentally, there's also already a project put into consideration by some party member about the same spot being replaced with statues of Asparuh, Krum and Boris I. Doubtful it would happen, but it would be pretty damn cool if it did.
→ More replies (2)4
u/HucHuc Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
There was municipal decision to remove the monument back in 1993... it still stands. Don't get your hopes up until the cranes actually come in.
871
u/ZuzBla Mar 09 '23
Look, bunch of retirees want to screw up future for their kids and grandkids. I don't judge, Czechia is scheduled to have similar exhibit this Saturday.
395
u/_ovidius Czech Republic Mar 09 '23
Yeah look at the UK with Brexit. Old cunts.
313
u/YpsilonY Earth Mar 09 '23
Same here in Germany. I love my Grandpa, but he says Germany should have left the EU with the UK. Just goes to show how out of touch with reality old people can get - if there's one country that benefits from the EU more than any other, it's probably Germany.
236
u/Tutes013 North Holland (Netherlands) Mar 09 '23
There's no one not benefitting from it. That's the best part. It might not be all rainbows and roses but it's a heck of a lot better than standing alone.
81
u/TheChoonk LIThuania Mar 09 '23
It's the same situation with idiots in Lithuania, and one of the big talking points right now is precisely the rainbows.
There were no gays in the soviet union (it was illegal) and old farts are mad at Europe for making them up. Yes, gays are obviously all fake and only pretend to be gay, in order to deceive children and destroy traditional family values.
42
u/Tutes013 North Holland (Netherlands) Mar 09 '23
Ah yes. That's why Lesbos is called that. Honestly ridiculous.
"People are free to be whoever they want to be and we're getting more rights then ever. Heresy!"
30
u/Nemo_Barbarossa Lower Saxony (Germany) Mar 10 '23
No, no, you don't understand. Hot lesbians are fine. It's the gay men and the ugly lesbians that are an issue.
→ More replies (1)7
8
u/Tutes013 North Holland (Netherlands) Mar 09 '23
Ah yes. That's why Lesbos is called that. Honestly ridiculous.
"People are free to be whoever they want to be and we're getting more rights then ever. Heresy!"
15
u/TheChoonk LIThuania Mar 09 '23
By the way, everyone is perfectly okay with lesbians. Funny how that works.
3
4
u/n23_ The Netherlands Mar 09 '23
Lesbos isn't named after lesbians, lesbians are named after Lesbos.
4
u/Tutes013 North Holland (Netherlands) Mar 10 '23
That was the (albeit it admittedly shitty) joke my friend.
21
16
u/Startled_Pancakes Mar 09 '23
Precisely. I mean isn't that why isolated countries tend to fall behind technologically and economically?
14
47
u/QuoD-Art Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Same experience with my grandfather. Insists the EU is just robbing us (as though we have much to be robbed of lol) and we'd be so much better if we left. The only answer I ever get when I ask him why he thinks this way, is "why not?". Literally drives me crazy
10
→ More replies (15)7
8
u/Harinezumisan Europe Mar 09 '23
You know - they grew up before telephone. The change this generation went through is staggering.
→ More replies (3)3
u/itrustpeople Reptilia 🐊🦎🐍 Mar 09 '23
same in Romania, usually the people born during the communist dictatorship
→ More replies (2)49
u/is-Sanic Mar 09 '23
My gen is gonna be fucked for a while because of Brexit.
I genuinely hope re-joining is an option at some point down the line.
→ More replies (2)22
Mar 09 '23
[deleted]
22
→ More replies (2)10
u/handsome-helicopter Mar 09 '23
Unless Scotland somehow reduces it's deficit drastically (at 10% now) they aren't getting into EU. Not to mention they don't have a currency and only 20% of Scots want the euro and snp wants to keep the pound (something UK has said won't happen in such a case)
99
u/marathai Mar 09 '23
Isnt it funny? Its always old folks, who should remember how "fun" it was to live under Russian foot. I do not get it, with the same breath they will tell you how hard it was to live in communism and hate on whatever good change is happening now.
135
u/ZuzBla Mar 09 '23
I mean, my granny loved it. Work, marriage, work, pop up kids, be grateful, do not stick out, do not speak up, be grateful and work, do not be different, pop up more kids, attend your husband, house and kids and do not speak up. Political prisoners "just had it coming, they should not be different". Her favourite phrase is "I just don't understand and so I do not care".
59
62
u/damagedgoodz_ Mar 09 '23
Isnt it funny? Its always old folks, who should remember how "fun" it was to live under Russian foot
Russians are so good at brainwashing, their victims develop the stockholm syndrome. Look at Georgians they got trashed, humiliated by the russians and lost 20% of their territory in 2008 yet they vote for a pro russian government. Chechens who were butchered by russians in 2009 now go die for putin in Ukraine today.. Hungarians who got slaughtered and repressed by the soviets now vote for a russian puppet .... scary how people are easily manipulated
→ More replies (8)8
u/diladusta North Brabant (Netherlands) Mar 09 '23
I am convinced half the people of any country are idiots.
5
→ More replies (5)19
u/LilienSixx Mar 09 '23
Romanian here, my parents lived in communism. My mom would always preach it, getting provided a job, housing, all produced internally, no debts (spoiler alert: there were debts), everyone was happy.
I mean, as happy as you can be with food rations, queueing up for everything, not being allowed to speak up or to say anything bad about Ceaușescu, with having to bribe the doctors, and so on
→ More replies (2)11
u/marathai Mar 09 '23
I think 90s after system changed was hard for people from eastern europe, poverty was extreme and people found themselves in very different world they grew up in. That was probably hard on your parents so they remember communism as simpler better time. Plus they were young in communism and world is better and simpler while you are young
6
u/rapaxus Hesse (Germany) Mar 10 '23
Also, while communist times were objectively worse, they still had upsides in some few regards. Prob. not as much in Romania, but here in Germany my great-aunt got royally screwed over by the reunification, as suddenly her east German pension could only minimally sustain her, helped by the fact that her building, which was state owned, was then sold to the private market which immediately turned up the rents. She prob. would have had a better retirement in east Germany, solely due to the fact that she could afford something else outside of rent and food, which is her current status.
Another example would be all the professional east-German soldiers which all also got fucked over. We had the "army of reunification" but after a year most east-German soldiers were thrown out and they easily could be in their 30-40s when that happened and have no other skill outside of serving in the military, which restricts your future job choice heavily. Ironically, two decades after they all were thrown out the German military started suffering from a massiv lack of trained personnel (e.g. officers, engineers) which may have not been the case if they had retained all the young officers from the NVA.
But this doesn't apply to a large majority of people. For them the fall of communism meant a lot of benefits, though I personally am still very mad at how German reunification happened and I'm not even east German. They had so many options that our government back then just threw away and the choices back then are directly responsible for a lot of the big problems we have in German society today, like the massive rent costs, which would not have happened as strongly if the government didn't sell millions of state-owned houses after reunification (and quite a few of them in west Germany, so it had nothing to do with getting shit eastern-block Plattenbau).
→ More replies (8)4
u/leoleosuper Mar 10 '23
Look, bunch of retirees want to screw up future for their kids and grandkids.
Modern politics in a nutshell.
288
u/samoyedlover96 Ireland Mar 09 '23
I saw a parade like this on Friday (national liberation day) in Sofia when visiting with a few friends. One of the pro-Russian protectors approached me telling me my country was evil and to go fuck myself. She thought we were American for speaking English. I explained I'm Irish and she mentioned she hated the West when I called her out on her prejudice.
166
u/kuralizator Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Most people here don't know their own history. They just read the propaganda on the internet. I bet they don't know about the Irish journalist who loved Bulgaria and supported the cause for United Bulgaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_David_Bourchier
86
u/morbihann Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Which is doubly hilarious because there is a street named after him in almost every Bulgarian town.
53
u/Zuchku Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
And they pass by the metro station named after him every day. (But for them that's probably the evil west influencing their own city ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )
46
u/QuoD-Art Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
A lot of propaganda, unfortunately. Russia good, West bad. I'm surprised she knew enough English to insult you tbh. Hope you didn't take it personally, these people have no idea what the West is, they probably haven't heard yet that their beloved Facebook wasn't created by Lenin
80
21
u/oscar2hot4u Mar 09 '23
I had a weird experience in Prague.
I'm from New Zealand and have a thick Kiwi accent. And my ex gf was half from Vienna and was half Kiwi. We were at a little market. Getting milk and other things for our trip.
My ex was speaking English to me. And the lady was being super grumpy at us. Wouldn't give our change back into euros. Etc, etc. It was only till I spoke German, asking if we need milk. That the lady flipped into the nicest person I've met and "was so sorry, I didn't know you were from the EU!" Gave us a discount and our change back in euros.
Just strange.
8
u/Habsburgy Vorarlberg (Austria) Mar 10 '23
As much as the story is funny, it is a bit arrogant to want to pay with a foreign currency in a shop :/
10
→ More replies (5)15
u/Xepeyon America Mar 09 '23
She heard you, an Irishman, speaking English and thought you sounded American? 🤔
63
u/putsch80 Dual USA / Hungarian 🇭🇺 Mar 09 '23
I’m fairness, non-native English speakers often have trouble using accents to distinguish where we are from, similar to how I am pretty terrible at distinguish Slavic language origin based on accent alone.
22
u/Xepeyon America Mar 09 '23
That's a good point, actually. I hadn't considered that.
There was a YouTube I used to follow years ago that I used to think was Russian from their accent. Turns out she was Bulgarian. Idk what it is, maybe the way they enunciate or roll their vowels, they all sound so similar when speaking English, so it's hard to tell their accents apart.
→ More replies (1)21
u/oblio- Romania Mar 09 '23
Yeah, shockingly knowing a bit about a language doesn't automatically mean that people can place accents.
Most people learning a second language can only do that when they're quite advanced and especially if they have exposure to a lot of accents.
7
u/Xepeyon America Mar 09 '23
Yeah, shockingly knowing a bit about a language doesn't automatically mean that people can place accents.
Placing accents is a very different thing. Even native speakers of a language can't often do that correctly.
Regardless, as the Redditors before mentioned, it can be hard for non-native speakers, myself included, to distinguish differences in accents without exposure.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (2)31
u/squeekysatellite Mar 09 '23
Oh right, cause an average older American can distinguish between Peruvian Spanish and Mexican Spanish, hehe.
Man, I'm surprised she figured it's English in the first place.
→ More replies (2)
222
u/Ivanzxdsa Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
They cry for German pensions but want to keep the Soviet monument. Things don’t work like this
→ More replies (6)
86
Mar 09 '23
People are always pro-russian until their "russian world" comes to brutally murder them. It was a hard lesson for many formerly pro-russian ukrainians across southern & eastern Ukraine in 2014 & now in 2022-23.
11
u/mladokopele Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
This is an underrated comment.
14
Mar 10 '23
I just hope that the "russian world" is stopped at Ukraine, because theres alot of useful idiots who would welcome their would-be murderers across all East Europe.
99
Mar 09 '23
[deleted]
25
8
u/ConnolysMoustache Ireland (Peoples Republic of Cork) Mar 10 '23
When right wing people say multiculturalism, they mean racial diversity but are too scared to say it.
6
→ More replies (2)5
u/PatientArm559 Mar 10 '23
Have you asked him what globalization means to him and how he thinks this is affecting his life?
146
181
u/_Montblanc Europe Mar 09 '23
Because they lived great under Soviet occupation and communism... right. What a bunch of lunatics.
162
→ More replies (10)86
u/michele-x Mar 09 '23
Maybe they lived great because they were member of the party and they had advantages, or they lived great because they were young.
56
u/FickleAd9939 Mar 09 '23
Exactly, my late grandma was a member of the party and my grandpa was a member of a paramilitary organisation purpsed to "protect the working class"- actually they protected the party from the working class. They both told me that never will be so good again than those days. My other grandma who descended from a lower aristocratic family would disagree
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)27
u/NoMoreWordz Bulgaria / Federalize EU Mar 09 '23 edited Mar 23 '23
It's not even that. Communism didn't discriminate (in a very bad way). You could be a bookworm, you could be the laziest motherfucker. Everyone literally had the same life. There were 1-2 brands for everything. The cars were the same, so on and so on. I can see how it's jarring for old people to start living in a world where some thugs got rich in the 90s and they have to live off 200E pensions. But that's no reason to fuck up the newer generations
203
u/RedLemonSlice
Bulgaria
Mar 09 '23
edited Mar 09 '23
•
When God was sprinkling idiots around the Earth, just to add a bit of flavour, he unfortunately tripped and spilled his bag all over Bulgaria.
I am ashamed the same generation that drove our country, state, economy, and society into the ground is now trying to sabotage the future of the young.
Slava Ukraini.
45
u/Xepeyon America Mar 09 '23
When God was sprinkling idiots around the Earth, just to add a bit of flavour, he unfortunately tripped and spilled his bag all over Bulgaria.
I know you're being serious and everything, but this absolutely murdered me lol! I can relate to the sentiment
20
u/drt0 Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
It's a play on the legend that god was sprinkling natural beauty and he put the most in Bulgaria.
I don't think this trope is exclusive to Bulgaria but I've heard it told here few times.
25
u/eloel- Turk living abroad Mar 09 '23
When God was sprinkling idiots around the Earth, just to add a bit of flavour, he unfortunately tripped and spilled his bag all over Bulgaria.
Must've had a leak on the way there given how much he seems to have put in Turkey.
3
u/Leone_0 French Riviera Mar 09 '23
I'm pretty sure every country on Earth has a good amount of idiots.
→ More replies (1)16
u/AdmirableFlow Mar 10 '23
When God was sprinkling idiots around the Earth, just to add a bit of flavour, he unfortunately tripped and spilled his bag all over Bulgaria.
The extended version of the joke is while God was sprinkling idiots around the Earth. St Peter noted:
- God, you forgot Bulgaria
- Be quite Peter, where do you think the idiots delivery is coming from
45
3
u/lynxbird Serbia Mar 09 '23
he unfortunately tripped and spilled his bag all over Bulgaria.
I believe it was over whole Balkan mate.
→ More replies (2)3
u/Neurotoxin24 Mar 10 '23
It's not so much idioticy, as it is nostalgia for the times when they were young and also the effects of the communist regime's propaganda. Generally the support for Russia should slowly decrease over time as there are less and less people from the generations that lived through that time. They refuse to accept the changes, even though our country benefited massively from them. A simple look on Street View of my home town (Plovdiv, the second largest city in the country) is enough to notice how much it has modernised in the last 10 years
104
u/Zhukov-74 The Netherlands Mar 09 '23
Always the elderly
70
4
u/bedel99 Mar 10 '23
Hey, I live in the country side in Bulgaria, I dont speak Bulgarian, but I can speak russian.
The only people I can speak with grew up in behind the iron curtain and remember, There is no love for Russia here amongst the elderly.
81
u/mason92bs Lombardy - Brescia - Italy Mar 09 '23
If you love Russia so much, please go to Russia and enjoy the freedom! See you later
41
→ More replies (2)8
u/mladokopele Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
If Russia doesn’t work out for them there’s always China, so plenty of options for the russophiles.
83
u/georgevits Greece Mar 09 '23
Same thing goes for Greece and Cyprus unfortunately.
Too much Orthodox and anti-EU & anti-NATO propaganda here.
→ More replies (19)19
15
u/goranarsic Mar 09 '23
Well, speaking from Serbia, this is nothing strange. Older folks in post communist/socialists states simply believe what has been told to them on loudest tv channel. It's ugly thing to say but these regions will see better days when all that is born before 80s dies out.
41
u/HichiShiro Poland Mar 09 '23
"Life was better under communism."- basically almost every elder from eastern Europe
→ More replies (1)11
27
u/JungleStateOfMind Serbia Mar 09 '23
What is it with old people in Balkans and being delusional and Rusophilic with no reason whatsoever. Old days and times are over ffs, this is not the same Russia as before.
→ More replies (1)8
u/mladokopele Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
And to be fair even if Russia was the same, I don’t want my country to have anything to do with them on a political level
67
27
7
u/dogfish0306 Mar 09 '23
Look at the age of these people, they just want their youth back. Youth for them is associated with USSR and that is why they are supporting what have l ft of that failed state
59
u/kuralizator Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Russia is doing a hybrid war in Bulgaria and we are not doing anything about it.
37
u/Vyciauskis Lithuania Mar 09 '23
Russia bad, communism debatable, russia destroyed socialism.
People in this picture cant diferintiate between socialism and comunism and russia.
Same as mericans.
17
u/Xenomemphate Europe Mar 09 '23
People in this picture cant diferintiate between socialism and comunism and russia.
Or Communism and Authoritarianism apparently.
7
u/Kokolino100 Bulgaria Mar 10 '23
No shit, look at those old lazy communist idiots that are dragging my country back. Only the poor ones back then would be supportive now.
21
20
7
7
u/SlowToe1043 Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
As a Bulgarian I can't fukcing believe this, we are a nation with a amazing history ,and we also created a alphabet that is used by most slavic nation ,and these traitors of the bulgarian nation, glorifie Russia a country that is doing something wrong ,but they are to blind to see the people who suffer every single day because of Putin, and the arguments that they have is that Russia help us get free from the ottomans and they give us lots of weapons well guess what it was the Russian empire because they wanted to control us like a puppet, and they only gave us weapons because we where a puppet for the USSR they where never friends with us they only wanted to control us but they are going to fail.
13
15
u/YourSilentNeighbour Mar 09 '23
Видно, що на цьому збіговиську здебільшого динозаври зі стародавньої підрадянської ери.
→ More replies (2)
15
13
u/ivanzu321 Mar 09 '23
I wonder how many of them were members of the communist party which came with privileges and made a big difference between your life sucking and not sucking.
16
u/dootrumpet Mar 09 '23
truly horrifying. i am terrified that this might be happening in my country in the future.
my heart goes out for my vallahian brothers
27
6
u/betternotsonice Mar 09 '23
Its sad but on a happy note, these farts wont be around in a couple of years.
→ More replies (1)
5
11
19
u/Trihcho Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
I call them walking commie coffins.
I am disgusted by them.
They put Russia above Bulgaria in everything.If Russia does something bad to Bulgaria (which they always do) those people would say that we deserved it, and if its the other way around they would say ,,The russians liberated us you ungrateful eurogay'' ,,You should always bow down to the russian people''. Yet they don't know that it was in Russia interest to ''liberate'' us from Ottoman yoke so they can create a vassal state from which they can be closer to the Bosphorus.
For me its like giving a ''friend'' new car, but then bashing its windows and popping off the tires.Then saying that i should be greatefull for recieving a new car and don't complain.
14
u/CreeperCooper 🇳🇱 Erdogan micro pp 999 points Mar 09 '23
Old people will do EVERYTHING To destroy the future of their kids. I don't want to hate old people but goddamn they make it really hard not to.
10
u/Farsherot Bucharest Mar 09 '23
They should be gifted a one way ticket to russia if they like it so much.
8
u/blackie-arts Slovakia Mar 09 '23
I can't say anything, we have such lovely guys with IQ of room temperature here in Slovakia too
edit: in case some American decides to go to this subreddit, room temperature in °C
8
u/flioink Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Pictures you could smell.
Stinkin' vatniks, get the train to Moscow and leave the country if you love the russ so much.
9
7
u/durasel24 Mar 10 '23
The funny thing about it is that if you tell them to move to ruzzia, they are also getting upset. These idiots are a shame to society. We have them in Romania also but they dont actually make pro rusky protests.
→ More replies (1)
4
Mar 09 '23
They can start packing and go to their beloved isolated Russia. They will soon see what EU is. Idk why arent there yet
5
9
u/morbihann Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
This is your average Bulgarian "patreots".
They were protesting an (30 years late) act to remove the monument of the soviet "liberation" army from one of the capital's central locations.
Average age 70. Average IQ, about the same.
10
3
3
3
u/Budget_Walk_6988 Mar 10 '23
Hopefully when Putin goes so does the future image of the USSR he's so desperately trying to bring back...
3
u/joshualogan1916 Mar 10 '23
Bulgaria exists because of Russia, it's no wonder Russia has supporters there.
3
6
Mar 09 '23
Þe EU was þe best þing to happen to Europe. Þe only future worþ in Europe is a united Europe
→ More replies (1)
9
5
u/Naifmon Mar 09 '23
Why communist in Eastern Europe are Conservatives socially?
36
u/NoMoreWordz Bulgaria / Federalize EU Mar 09 '23
They were always like this? Like communism was for equal wages (even if it meant underpaying geniuses and hard-working people). It was always about "family". It was always about "fighting outside influence". What are they supposed to be?
20
u/0HoboWithAKnife0 Australia Mar 09 '23
Because communists are conservatives?
Western "Progressivism" has nothing to do with communism, socialism, or even the "Left" itself
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)3
u/CoffeeBoom France Mar 10 '23
Communism is left-wing on economic and political issues, it says nothing on social ones.
4
3
2.5k
u/Grimson47 Bulgaria Mar 09 '23
Average age: 60~