While it’s true all of Western Europe is guilty, there’s a reason why people point to Britain first and foremost. Its empire was pretty much the codifier of what people think of when the word “superpower” is used. There wasn’t such an uncontested concentration of power in a single polity that could be projected globally until the UK came out on top from the Napoleonic Wars then went on to subjugate Asia and Africa by the mid-late 19th Century, essentially becoming master of the world market and trade networks (at least until the onset of WWI). Not even the Spanish and Portuguese Empires held such a monopoly. Even after the start of Britain’s terminal decline into becoming America’s lapdog in the cold war, it still influenced world politics in ways that still affect us today (relevantly, it was originally Israel’s patron power before the US supplanted them sometime in the 70s/80s).

Me looking at virtually any problem stemming from the 19th and 20th Centuries:

This was about settler-colonial states in particular. Not to say I wouldn’t love to see the Bourgeois Russian state go through another 7-11-1917.

Thought this was a bit until I saw the name lmao

Depressingly, a lot of people can rightly point out this narrative in particular as bullshit but will internalize everything else they’ve been fed their whole lives to still come to the conclusion of China bad. So call me skeptical.

Im simultaneously understanding of it (as I’m sure many of us here are in general, since many are Amerikkkans and used to be libs) while also baffled by how much gaslighting there is. People will legit look at you like you’ve grown an extra head if you don’t automatically take for granted that the USSR was a famine-riddled nightmare state and Stalin personally executed a hundred people himself daily for sport.

• Lives without any sun

• Pale skin

• Imperious, high-and-mighty demeanor

• Ancestors sacked churches and wore the pelts of wolves as trophies

• Prefers solitary, quiet life

• feasts on the blood of the Global South

(Also, fun fact, Denmark is considered one of the happiest countries in the world while its old colony, Greenland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. What a coincidence.)

I remember getting into an interesting conversation with a friend about True Blood in how any vampire/human who genuinely wants to make the world suitable for coexistence would recognize capitalism and class society as major obstacles to it. Especially when you factor in just how much having immortal consumers/producers who can accumulate a literal treasure hoard of wealth over their unlife would fuck with the current system.

Now if only True Blood actually put that level of thought into the world-building…

It makes more sense when one considers that vampires are ontologically parasitic and aristocratic regardless of what they may have believed when they were alive, because of both their material interests being that they are super special treat lads whose treats are the literal lifeblood of others and the fact that they’re literally animated by a sort of demon that’s both demanding that they feed and kill and also subtly trying to twist them around to the point that they believe that’s what they want to do anyways.

While that’s true, I think that’s part of the beauty of trying to play a high humanity character committed to helping both Kindred and Kine alike on any level. There’s an inherent futility in it, especially as both kindred society as a whole and the beast within will gnaw at your scruples as you try to survive, and it will only get worse by the century if not decade or even year. On a broader social level, if you thought human society was mercilessly resistant against attempts to revolutionize it, the Elder Vampires will go above and beyond to crush any rowdy upstarts. And at the end of the day, you’ll be a parasite at best, no matter how much you try to offset that.

But that doesn’t matter. You are still fundamentally the same person as before the day you began your unlife, just trapped in your own reanimated corpse. You won’t give into such excuses and will fight to the bitter end, even if its a fight you will most likely lose.

Or so my Bolshevik Brujah (a Latvian Red Rifleman who got turned in the civil war) tries to tell himself as he trudges through the bleak days, both for the kindred rabble and the human workers of the world.

To be fair, the reason why the Communists were able to kick the Nationalists’ ass to Taiwan and establish the PRC in the first place was because of the United Front.

Looking forward to when Paradox gives us a wholesome Ukraine DLC where you can revolt as fucking based Bandera and there’s a “purge Poles and Jews” mechanic!

Eh. So long as it just sticks to being a formulaic Beth game but in SPESS, I don’t really see the issue. Might even be fun. :shrug-outta-hecks:

Derscheisser. Meme sub equivalent of ShitWehraboosSay, the sub which is what it says on the tin. Mostly full of shitlibs, and shitlibs radicalized into comrades (ahem), who will cry foul at “tankies” (people who say good things about the USSR beyond killing Nazis) but will unironically stan Churchill and Arthur Harris without any self awareness whatsoever.

The one redeeming quality about those two subs is trashing the constant wehraboo shit you see on Reddit, but you eventually run into takes like this.

Trying to decipher how this is supposed to be arousing or titillating in any way whatsoever (not that that’s what you’re supposed to aim for in a horror game). Comically-large breasts I can kinda understand but this…

Literally the case for the actual Communards, whose restraint against the “legitimate” French government was repaid with the Bloody Week.

Same energy as “THE CCP DID THIS”

Can never imagine there’s a state backed by actual normal people. Must be a series of individual actors detached from outside contexts.

But also, Putin’s crimes reflect on all Russians despite being a singular dictator

The comment section in general is really a testament to how the accusation of “Whataboutism” is simply liberal projection. Even if China were this 1984 Torture Circus like propaganda paints it as, trying to deflect to it or Russia/Iran/etc at every criticism of Burgerland should logically disqualify you from using the term.

You see, social democracy came about because smarter heads in the the working class just kindly asked and voted the bougies to give them a bigger slice of the pie. It had nothing to do with those radical tankies, or the gigantic bear in the room in Moscow scaring the shit out of the said bougies. Bernie Sanders was able to coast his way into office and get shit done without being ratfucked whatsoever!

In seriousness, it’s just darkly hilarious to me that we’ve come full circle on a century’s worth of concessions being rolled back, and the supposed “socialists” in the West are somehow more up their own asses than the old Social Democratic parties, who at least understood some class analysis.

“Those mean evil dictator revolutionaries didn’t allow the Loyalists to vote on rejoining the Empire” is my response to Libs who gripe about the DotP being (rightfully) enforced in Socialist states. Yeah, that’s how revolutions work.

When you do a Cowboy Bebop and put neoliberalism in space but forget about the critique part.

Just Mass Effect/Star Wars/Western Sci-Fi in general things