You can't even compare the EC's aggression (pointless regulations) with Soviet ones (no need to elaborate, but it's gruesome).

NOT when it comes to the level of violence and repression or quality of living. Those two things are world-class.

But in the sense that there's a more or less unelected political establishment that's

a) Recursive: It does things only to show them off to itself.

b) Not exposed to real-world consequences.

c) Has a non-falsifiable pretense to validate whatever they do and caution against undoing whatever it is. For the soviets, it was anti-capitalism. For the EU it's some notion of safety or sustainability.

d) Inadvertently benefits itself and other elites and harms the people they pretend to protect.

My hope is that as a democratic institution, the EU is capable of reform.