re: #559 Sinistershade

Though I’m late to the party, may I suggest that Mr. Gorbachev should get more than a little credit for the Soviet Union ending when it did? Without his liberalization of the media and his refusal to send troops into the Eastern Bloc countries as their opposition movements were gaining steam, I think the Evil Empire might have chugged on for a good number of years more on momentum alone.

That is a good point, but that credit is somewhat muted by what can be called the Chris Rock Factor. In the same way that Rock answers someone who says “I take care of my kids!” with “You’re Supposed To!”, Gorbachev’s actions mostly proved that he was a fundamentally decent person. Credit is somewhat muted when the actions a person took were simply the ones that did not make him a monster. That said, he does deserves some credit for seeing what was happening and accepting it decently.