I want to share my story of censorship.
I was working at US Embassy in Moscow 1989.
I met a Russian Captain in the Soviet Army, named Sergei, who wanted to practice his English.
We struck up a conversation. He proclaimed he thought the USSR was the only true superpower in the world.
I laughed and asked him why he would think that.
He told me what he had read and seen on TV and learned in school from his youth, that the USA was a paper tiger out to conquer the world.
American citizens lived in poverty, with the threat of acid rain and riots in the streets every day. He had seen our very own TV News reports shown on Soviet TV.
I told him that these ideas were all false and the USSR was only showing negative news to deceive the Soviet public.
The real truth is the USSR was in fact a third world country with nuclear weapons.
He was offended at first, but wanted to know why I thought that.
I explained that the lack of freedoms and the lack of basic goods and services for a comfortable life in the USSR was because the government did not want to take care of their population, just control it. The quality of their life in every Communist country,, was an ever present reminder that this Communism experiment was a total failure.
The Politburo and ruling class, had simply replaced the Czars and replaced it with a restricted life. Disconnecting them from the world to hide their corruption.
The government would not let it citizens travel abroad or read or listen to broadcasts from abroad, for fear of exposing their lies. It was a sign that they were hiding something. The fact that the borders were closed, for both foreigners incoming and Soviet citizens outgoing was in fact a life in a prison.
He called me a liar and said they had everything the people needed and it was the most progressive society on earth.
I asked him a question to find common ground. I asked if he thought India was a third world country. He agreed it was.
I told him I had just returned from a trip to New Delhi. While I was in India I went into a restaurant and was seated.
I was given a menu;
I order what I wanted,ate my food, payed for it and then left.
I asked him where in Moscow can I do that right now.
He responded that the country was going through difficult times.
I then told him while I was in India I went into a shoe store. I tried on a pair of shoes, size 44 cm.
I paid for them and I left with the shoes in my possession.
Where could I do that in Russia?
He asked why I said a "shoe” store?
I told him I needed shoes.
He then told me he had been in line on, Prospect Mira, for more than four hours that very day, trying to purchase American made Converse High top basketball shoes.
When he finally got to the counter he tried on shoes and got his receipt to go pay for the shoes. He then went to the cashiers line and waited another forty five minutes to pay. When he returned to the counter with his paid receipt, the shoe size he needed were all gone.

I then told him these shoe can be purchased at any store at any time in the states in five minutes. Your country is a third world country with nuclear weapons.
We parted ways and agreed to stay in contact.
After the USSR broke apart we met again and he thanked me for opening his mind to the fact that his government had lied to him and his people since his youth.
The now freed State controlled media was exposing the lies and propaganda and explaining how they were deceived .
Every high school had a preparedness for War classes. They were taught to defend themselves against the American threat . Foundation classes on Marxist/ Leninist theory.
He later went to work for our Embassy and loved learning the truth about a nation he was taught to hate.
We all must look at the US State run Media News we are given and the News that is being suppressed.
The liberal news is allowed and the conservative news is Banned or distorted.
We too are being lied to in our schools, in the Media and on Social media.
Speak the truth and be ready to defend your belief even when everyone is trying to bully you into their mindset.
Americans are being fed the same propaganda the Soviets fed the citizens of the USSR to keep power and control the masses. America needs to wake up and see the truth!