Without discussing this overly much, this in my view is the actual reality, the banal, ugly, repressive, evil reality of political orders like those in Cuba and North Korea, and what the Chinese have imposed on the objects of their imperialistic aggression, like Tibet. The POINT of Communism is the suppression of joy, happiness, love, kindness, decency, ambition, culture, and human connection. I cannot emphasize this enough. This is why I created the term Cultural Sadeism.
I leave you with an image: listening to Fidel fucking Castro talk for 6 hours about how wonderful he is, how great Communism is, how evil Capitalism is, and doing so in a crowded hot room, knowing that the least hint of impatience, boredom, or God forbid disagreement, would be enough to get you locked into a dog kennel for a month in a hot room. This was and is the reality. You don’t get to go to the bathroom. You don’t get to go to the drinking fountain. You are watched carefully the whole time, and expected to shout enthusiastically even if your mother is sick and can’t get medical care, or if you have not had a good meal in three days.
And this is a trivial matter, compared to most Communist atrocities. I feel, though, that sometimes the reality comes through better in the trivial instances.