The Ratch thing seemed a little on the nose, so I went back and edited it to make it weirder. He was already a serial killer in the first draft, so why not commit and double down?
Splitter!*Splittism would also work, it's similarly pejorative, but it also lacks flourish so I'm discarding it 😂 Autonomism is the preferred term in actual Cosmicist parlance.
From what I understand splittism is the English translation of the Chinese term for ethnic separatismSplitter!
Fairly well, surprisingly enough. With the fall of the PRC at the end of the 20th Century and the shift in the newly-christened Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics to state capitalism* the global communist vanguard shifted to the Fifth International centered in Latin America. The 5I had chapters active in Antarctica that ended up part of the Cosmicist-led Common Ground and though they lost out in the ensuing power struggle relations remained amicable for a handful of reasons:So, since it's May Day and all, that got me curious about several things. For one, how's socialism and communism and all those centre-left to left-wing to far-left political ideologies reacting and adapting to this whole new ideological rival on the world stage?
Most of the ARC holidays are specific to themselves, though the rest of the Cosmintern has embraced a more raucous Christmas season inspired by their Yule and the Memorial Days weeklong holiday is celebrated all over the alliance, since quite aside from its current role as the ARC election days it commemorates the Rising** that led to the outbreak of the Revolution. The mass adoption of the HE Cosmicist Fixed Calendar also means that they celebrate Fugue Day in leap years.Are there any new notable political holidays, both Cosmicist and non-Cosmicist? And, well, are there any notable new holidays in general? And by that, said notable holidays can be either international or country-specific. That's all the questions I have for now. Have a good one!
The North American Union hasn't gotten much focus aside from the WORLD AS IT IS map update and a little bit at the end of the 2060 aftermath post. It's the US+Canada+northern Mexico.Those answers have now made me come up with more questions. That's some new lore I don't recall see in any of the past chapters before. I think. I'll have to go back and reread them again when I have the chance. But enough of that for now. Onwards to the questions! First off is the North American Union. I presume it takes up the US and Canada, right? Hopefully in future chapters we'll be able to have a detailed look into what led up to it. Although, tbh, I'm not really too sold on the date of Unification Day.
Labor Day's a tricky business, since the NAU is opposed to the Fifth International and labor agitation (and Cosmicism) are both part of the Zapatista coalition that the country's respectable class despises. July 2 was a pragmatic choice, since on the one hand it's not on any of the component countries' founding holiday (but close enough to both you can make a long celebration out of it) and there's also some tripe about how "July 2 was when the Declaration of Independence was really signed and Canada was always intended to be a party to it anyway".Both the US and Canada's independence/national days are in July, the fourth and the first for the former and the latter respectively. If you're going to establish a new union and thus new country, wouldn't it make sense to pick a day which is significant to both constituent parts, if you get what I mean? For example, September 1st is Canada's Labour Day, while in America Labor Day is usually celebrated on the first Monday of September. It would be cool to see the declaration of the NAU in the year where the dates for Labour Day and Labor Day align together, right?
They're sort of like OTL 90s NazBols, just less openly Nazi. Basically they combine "socialism in one country" with a strong centralized nationalist state and the idea that that "one country" has just straight up absorbed all of its immediate allies, so there's no ideological disconnect.Okay, that's enough talk about the future of North America though. It's time to move onto the Eurasian Union. More specifically, National Bolshevism. I'm assuming that the National Bolshevists are similar to the ones we know IRL (Well, hopefully we don't personally known any NatBols I hope!) they're also different in their own peculiar ways Well, that or they're just communists/Bolsheviks with a more nationalistic streak in them. I again also hope we'll see in future chapters just how they managed to get into power.
China/Korea/Japan are part of the Belt and Road Directorate and extremely opposed to the Eurasian Union project. The ROC has given up the ghost on their shortlived experiment with democracy, unfortunately, and the BaRD is very much a sinocentric vehicle revolving around a China that's gone all in on this little number:And finally, how's China, Korea, and Japan reacting to a big ole country that just by its name alone seems to be claiming all of Eurasia as their sphere of influence? Not very well I take it? Honestly don't expect them to if I'm being honest. But hey, all the more alliances and pacts and treaties and stuff to torture geopolitical analysts and history students in the future, so let's go consider that a win.
Jiang Qing (unfortunately pronounced similarly to Mao’s infamous wife) is a decently well-known Confucian thinker in the modern PRC, who has some radical ideas for a Chinese government more rooted in tradition. To quote a NYT editorial by Jiang:
In modern China, Humane Authority should be exercised by a tricameral legislature: a House of Exemplary Persons that represents sacred legitimacy; a House of the Nation that represents historical and cultural legitimacy; and a House of the People that represents popular legitimacy.The leader of the House of Exemplary Persons should be a great scholar. Candidates for membership should be nominated by scholars and examined on their knowledge of the Confucian classics and then assessed through trial periods of progressively greater administrative responsibilities — similar to the examination and recommendation systems used to select scholar-officials in the imperial past. The leader of the House of the Nation should be a direct descendant of Confucius; other members would be selected from descendants of great sages and rulers, along with representatives of China’s major religions. Finally, members of the House of the People should be elected either by popular vote or as heads of occupational groups.
This system would have checks and balances. Each house would deliberate in its own way and not interfere in the affairs of the others. To avoid political gridlock arising from conflicts among the three houses, a bill would be required to pass at least two houses to become law. To protect the primacy of sacred legitimacy in Confucian tradition the House of Exemplary Persons would have a final, exclusive veto, but its power would be constrained by that of the other two houses: for example, if they propose a bill restricting religious freedom, the People and the Nation could oppose it, stopping it from becoming law.
Though it seems quite unlikely given the course of contemporary Chinese history, what if a government like this was set up in the twentieth century?
Thanks so much! It's always very reassuring that people find my weird projects interesting 😂Alright, that's all for now, keep up the great work!
From the flag you posted some time ago I thought they were a Duginist thing.National Bolshevist Eurasian Union
It was indeed, those he's more of a doctrinaire NazBol TTL rather than having to come up with his own weird gloss on the concept.From the flag you posted some time ago I thought they were a Duginist thing.
I'm glad! I always like when people enjoy the weird skeins that just seem to pour endlessly out of my brain 😂Just read this TL after seeing it around for ages - what a banger. Incredible attention to texture and mood - this world has a distinct feel of genuine distance to it while still feeling true and compelling. Incredible vibes. Really cool shit.
I always enjoy them 😂NEW QUESTIONS HOT AND READY HERE FOR THE TAKING
While movies aren't quite as long as they were in the eighties on average the trend for adapting more philosophically/emotionally dense material and/or stuff further from the beaten track has kept going strong since Scott's Dune series. Ironically it probably would have burned itself out long ago but there's been a reduction in the rate of studio mergers compared to OTL so you still have smaller more indy studios putting out big movies and Perot's Department of Technology had the knock-on effect of slightly accelerating the development of graphics technology and making it cheaper.What's the entertainment industry (Mainly America's but other countries which you think are interesting enough to cover as well) look like and how has it evolved?
If you mean animation as a genre kind of? It's still mainly for kids by percentage but there's a whole slew of adult animated series/films ranging from dramas to comedies to genre fiction. If you mean as a medium yes, computer animation that looks convincingly hand-drawn is all the rage.Is animation getting more respect than it is currently (Fuck you suits and your corporate greed) ?
Slightly less, given that it shares its only land border with the poorest nation in Asia. Still, it's a pretty popular vacation destination in the region and has a pretty strong economy all things considered. Subs/dubs of Korean programming are very much seen as a niche thing in the 2020s TTL but that's beginning to change.Does South Korea have the same sort of cultural influence in foreign countries like America as it does OTL?
Not twitter as such, no, Macondo does have a social media network they're betaing an AR thing on though and it's functionally the same as some unholy Twitter/Facebook fusion.Is Twitter still a thing or no (Please spare them from such a demonic thing man they don't deserve it) ?