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Published: 2016-02-14 19:07:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 26580; Favourites: 133; Downloads: 262
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Here's my Valentine's Day special, ironically a scenario that will probably get me a lot of hate.---
Welcome to the future, where everyone is lovely and kind and gets along with everyone else. Or else. At least, that's how it is in the United Earth Government. And if you don't like it, well, you're obviously some sort of evil oppressor who should move to the counter-UEG states or, better yet, kill yourself.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the West believed it had reached the end of history. Then, in 1993, a series of events began which culminated in the end of the first United States of America. The Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas was besieged by federal authorities, and they (as Branch Davidians today insist, miraculously) escaped from the flames that engulfed their compound. This attack, followed by the bombings of federal buildings in Oklahoma City and Atlanta, led to a major crackdown on the "Militia Movement." The paranoia only became worse after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2002, pulling the United States into a series of wars against Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. The Second Depression in 2011 led to the fall of the Chinese Communist Party and the further destruction of economic security in the world. Crackdowns and riots became commonplace across the country. With extremists on both sides gaining the limelight, the United States practically collapsed as none of the four presidential candidates[1] won the 2016 election, and the Congress handed victory to the two establishment candidates (the Republican gained the presidency, and the Democrat the vice presidency). Neither candidate was popular with the people, and as the situation degraded, civil unrest became even worse. By 2017, the country was in full-blown civil war.
In the meanwhile, the Russian Federation - already a weakened husk of its former Soviet self - attempted to take advantage of this weakness by reclaiming Belarus and Ukraine by force. In what is now known as the Eurasian War, they were defeated by what remained of NATO in Europe, but only after a long conflict which led to the rise of the European Federation. The Second American Civil War ended with the country divided between a conservative South and two liberal states: Cascadia and the North American Republic. The Middle East was left in shambles, with the Islamic State dominating former Syria, Iraq and Turkey, before the European Federation invaded and cleared the place up.
The European Federation was the big winner. By 2030, the Chinese and Americans were still repairing, while the Russians were under their boot. The EF knew what had caused the problems of the past few decades: nationalism, capitalism and hate. Of course, the Soviet model was not to be followed - communism had failed in the USSR and China, after all - so a new path should be taken. A path of peace, tolerance, social justice, and equality. Gradually, although with growing rapidity, society would be remolded so that everyone in Europe - and then, the entire world - was a nice, docile, progressive. Around the world, nations followed the EF model. Not only did the world's last functioning economy condition its aid on adopting its principles, the EF also became used to flexing its military muscles. "Humanitarian" regime changes became the norm throughout the 21st century, and became the catalyst for the formation of the other global federations. One notable exception to the model is the NAR and Cascadia; both states were enamored by the "progress" the EF was making, and thus adopted their policies with zeal.
The UEG is a contradiction. It's not really united, it doesn't encompass the whole Earth, and its structure is so ill-defined that it may not even be a government. The UEG is a product of the political integration that began as early as the 1950s, with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community. The UEG federation of federations, with the ultimate goal of erasing all social, cultural, and economic divisions. Civilian weapon ownership is restricted; gun control was taken for granted, of course, but why stop there? Baseball bats and arrows can kill, too, and who uses those for sport outside of the American South? And isn't it totally reasonable to also have background checks on steak knife owners?
A progressive tax was instituted, with the top ten percent paying 90% and the lowest tax bracket at 40%; can't have those rich fat cats not distributing their "fair share" now, can we? That a lot of this money was squandered by corrupt EF politicians was no matter. Also ignore the fact that the poorer members of the UEG do not have cradle to grave benefits, so their workers can toil from cradle to grave so that the EF's people can live large.
Democracy, of course, is important and a guaranteed human right…but anyone who opposes the ruling Progressive/Labour/Social Democratic Party or any parties in their coalition was obviously a bigot of some description, so those parties can be safely banned. Anti-government speech is also deemed "problematic," and the EF is gradually instituting a new, sanitized version of English for everyone to speak. This "new speech" is extremely simplistic, so that everyone could learn it, and so that it is difficult to express certain ideas without using "problematic" language. Even religion is not exempt, and is attacked as being a tool of oppression; recently, Islam has joined Christianity in this group.
To ensure that all peoples are equally represented in government and business, quotas were passed to ensure that at least half of every corporate Board of Directors and every legislature on Earth was composed of women, with the appropriate percentages of ethnic minorities as well. And just because of the historical oppression visited upon them, ethnic minorities and non-heterosexuals get preferential quotas and treatment everywhere. Of course, ignore all of the rich, old, white men who claim to be black transgender lesbians to take advantage of these laws; you don't know how they identify! And ignore the fact that it's still rich white people in charge of the UEG; they know what's best for everyone else, and they have your best interest at heart.
Drug use and vapid entertainment is commonplace. Rather than addressing personal problems, why not take some antidepressants and keep up with the newest social media trends. Better than paying attention to what's actually going on. Anybody who speaks out about this state of affairs is clearly a bigot, and bigotry is anti-social and illegal, so they are thrown in jail. Or, more likely, they are socially ostracized and forced to live in the streets as a beggar because nobody could hire such a person. Who could oppose this utopian vision?
The counter-UEG states do. These "regressives" are despised by the UEG, and are frequently the subject of demonization. In the UEG, everyone is supposed to be happy…until counter-UEG powers are brought up, and then the hatred is allowed to flow. The UEG frequently launches invasions of counter-UEG insurgents around the world, but given that the counter-UEG states are armed with nuclear weapons and orbital railguns, they are off-limits. The counter-UEG states are an electic mix of not-so-nice states. China, the unofficial leader of the bloc, is an outright dictatorship, one that has become strongly Christian. The fall of the Communist Party and the chaos that followed opened the door for Christianity in China, although the form it takes is very syncretic. The Second American Federation, the conservative remnant of the first United States, is still a democracy, albeit it is as democratic as the EF. There is a constant scare for "globalists," and anybody who criticizes the government is quickly blacklisted. The Levantine Federation - a union of Israel and Palestine - has become a surprisingly successful Jewish-Muslim mix, one that despises the radical secularism of the UEG. The others are bog-standard dictatorships.
In Oceania, the Republic of Oceania forms a third bloc. The product of the Indonesian Revolution, Oceania is a horrific, highly militarized Orwellian state. During its early years, Oceania destroyed all vestiges of Indonesian, Malaysian, Australian and Kiwi culture, replacing it with its strange neo-Maoism. Other rogue states include the Empire of Zaire, which models itself off the Roman Empire, and the fundamentalist Christian Republic of West Africa, which is currently waging a "crusade" against "infidels" in its borders.
[1] The GOP and Dems were divided, and the two anti-establishment candidates ran as independents.
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Comments: 227
RvBOMally In reply to ??? [2016-02-18 17:31:43 +0000 UTC]
The victim narrative goes a long way, but only in certain societal circumstances. Your friend is right. This is actually why I think that over-antagonism cannot go too far. Eventually, the self-professed victims will realize that they are wearing down the patience of the majority and they may get an extreme backlash.
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PersephoneEosopoulou In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-19 16:18:01 +0000 UTC]
Funny you should mention that above.
I was pondering the end result of the exact same thing for my Solar Strife setting and I concluded that the Telepaths of the United States Department of Telepathic Regulation and Control would push their Muggle/Mundane oppressors to far during the Third Solar Strife leading to Washington to order the Warden Supervisors who police and control them to just exterminate them.
Lets just say a royal clusterfuck results.
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
Laputa-Scorefinger In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-18 20:48:29 +0000 UTC]
I think we're kind of seeing the rather scary reaction to that in large parts of the West, with white nationalism and open hostility to sexual minorities becoming popular in every arena from parliamentary politics to "alternate media", and the forces of social justice increasingly realizing that these people don't stop being dicks when you call them mean words. And with the speed the cultural climate changes these days, I think it's pretty much a coin toss if the "European Federation" will end up an über-PC dystopia or a white supremacist one. Maybe the second scenario is coming up in one of your future maps?
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Laputa-Scorefinger [2016-02-18 21:19:00 +0000 UTC]
I'm doing the Internet far right for the next one.
And yeah, polarization is a problem that feeds itself.
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PersephoneEosopoulou In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-19 16:00:31 +0000 UTC]
Polarization leads to Ecochambers yeah?
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grisador [2016-02-16 15:07:43 +0000 UTC]
This is a very good alternate history ! Nicer than OTL at least...
What's Oceania's policy ? Capitalism or socialism ?
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grisador In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-23 19:12:29 +0000 UTC]
Understood. The hell communism strikes again; from a very unexpected place !
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Whiteshore1 In reply to ??? [2016-02-16 10:55:10 +0000 UTC]
1. What place has the highest standard of living?
2. How bad is the Empire of Zaire? Is it leader basically a mixture of Mobutu and Bokassa?
3. Has Oceania been trying to create a pseudo-caste system made of three tiers and is their leader called Big Brother?
4. Is it me or is the intro to this in some ways similar to Under the Jackboot (in the sense of the opposing ideology to the ideology being wanked here being more powerful initially being the reason the crazy ideology here got so powerful out of fear of said ideology)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Whiteshore1 [2016-02-16 15:45:32 +0000 UTC]
1. The EF.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. It's not just you.
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Shoguneagle In reply to ??? [2016-02-16 07:14:28 +0000 UTC]
This isn't too far off from "An Eye for an Eye," my own little science fiction dystopia involving modern social justice. Except that a very specific set of criminals (libertarians, "heat of passion" murderers, counter-political pundits, women who operate counter to feminist doctrine (strippers, pornstars) are effectively exiled from Earth and sent to the extrasolar colonies to serve as a colonial foreign legion to defend new settlements from "exos."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Shoguneagle [2016-02-16 07:19:26 +0000 UTC]
That sounds a bit like Some Strings Attached. I explicitly left out the interplanetary aspect here because Some Strings Attached already did it.
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RvBOMally In reply to Meerkat92 [2016-02-17 02:30:09 +0000 UTC]
I was already going too far when I nabbed 40% income tax.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Shoguneagle In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-16 07:25:51 +0000 UTC]
Ah, gotcha. Interesting map, though I would never want to live in a world like it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Shoguneagle [2016-02-16 07:27:59 +0000 UTC]
Well, it is a dystopia. If you wanted to live there, I'd have failed in my mission.
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jas09 [2016-02-16 02:47:29 +0000 UTC]
"Even religion is not exempt, and is attacked as being a tool of oppression; recently, Islam has joined Christianity in this group."
B-but that's racism!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to jas09 [2016-02-16 02:51:56 +0000 UTC]
Islam was safe for a long time, until radical Islam turned more of its efforts against the UEG in reaction to the UEG's policies in the Islamic World. This set off a new wave of terror, and a change in the doctrines of the UEG to declare Islam "problematic."
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MetalSlimeHunt In reply to ??? [2016-02-16 02:05:35 +0000 UTC]
Iwasmentionedimbackimback!
Been locked out of my account for a while, but I had to get it back after this. I've been a longtime fan of Some Strings Attached, so another SJW World is excellent.
I feel like there might be a better role for "Valentine World", but damned if I can think of it right now.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to MetalSlimeHunt [2016-02-16 02:26:23 +0000 UTC]
There were some ideas tossed around, but none of them clicked for me. If you get one, send it to me in a PM.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Scrapknight-507 [2016-02-16 00:59:56 +0000 UTC]
Honestly, compared to some of the alternatives, this place isn't *that* bad. Even the enemy states (bar Oceania) aren't as baby-munchingly evil as you might expect them to be, given things like your Fascist and Communist Worlds and such. Beats the hell out of Pick Your Poison's "evil social democracy," that's for sure. Anyway, good stuff, and thought-provoking as always. Huge fan by the way, AAPA is fascinating. Thanks and keep doing what you're doing.
P.S. An "internet far right" dystopia sounds like an awesome idea, especially as a counterpoint to the Fascist World. It'd be interesting to see the differences.
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
KuboCaskett In reply to Scrapknight-507 [2016-02-20 03:44:18 +0000 UTC]
My guess is that at least this world has one side that's tolerable at the very least and somehow reminds me of a certain gamer controversy for some reason.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
RvBOMally In reply to Scrapknight-507 [2016-02-16 01:21:15 +0000 UTC]
I intentionally stepped back from the boot-in-the-face oppression because I wanted to stay in the spirit of Valentine's Day and keep it a bit warmer and fuzzier. I could have had them marching straight white men into gulags, but that's overdone.
I'll keep the Internet far right dystopia as distinct from Under the Jackboot as possible.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Meerkat92 In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 02:36:33 +0000 UTC]
"Warmer and Fuzzier" seems to just mean more Huxley and Bradbury than Orwell. Still nobody's cup of tea by any stretch.
I'm curious to see what you come up with for your Internet far-right dystopia--Andrew Aurenheimer becomes America's Eternal Fuhrer? Putin and Nigel Farage dividing up Europe? Roving death squads with skull balaclavas and Make America Great Again hats? The Statue of Liberty replaced with that weird 4-chan frog thing?
You could go anywhere with it, because the Internet far-right doesn't even seem to know what it is.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Meerkat92 [2016-02-17 02:50:37 +0000 UTC]
I was thinking several broad political blocs that represent aspects of the Internet far right: the neo-Nazis, the neo-reactionaries, the traditionalists, the libertarians, and the manosphere. The PoD is limited atomic war sometime in the future (the eponymous "Happening"), followed by violent race riots throughout Europe and North America (the "Day of the Rope"). Lots of weird cult stuff going on; Pepe/Kek (the 4chan frog) has his own cult of "frogposters" who go around beating "normies;" the "Sacrament of the Red Pill" is made up of MGTOW monks who travel the land, telling every man who would listen that women are parasites, the "Ironpills," who are volkish neo-Nazi-types who think Hitler and the other neo-Nazi movements are too "degenerate" and seek to find enlightenment through lifting and reading Julius Evola (and trying to usurp power from the other neo-Nazis), and then of course your neo-pagans, Christian fundamentalists, Islamic fundamentalists, radical atheists, Putinists and Hitlerians. Russia's missile defenses were more successful than expected, and while Moscow and St. Petersburg were lost, the Russian Empire still hobbles along. Europe is torn apart by the Russians, the neo-Nazis, more moderate factions like PEGIDA and the Identitarians (these days indistinguishable from the neo-Nazis), the British Defence Organization (Faragist UK, which has occupied parts of the continent), and what remains of the Islamic migrants who have become ISIS-esque. North America is shattered, with the white nationalists carving out their desired Northwestern Republic, the libertarians seizing the Northeast and the Mountain states, and of course Emperor Trump securing the lion's share of the former United States. Still unclear on the fates of the rest of the world. And somewhere along the line, Jeb Bush chokes on guacamole.
👍: 0 ⏩: 4
PersephoneEosopoulou In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-19 16:08:35 +0000 UTC]
If your looking for something to do with New Zealand you could have either National Front take over for a Maori Supremacist group.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Whiteshore1 In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 08:49:06 +0000 UTC]
Will any country be ruled by non-far right regimes?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Whiteshore1 In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-21 06:44:11 +0000 UTC]
Maybe some sort of "South American Union" could be to this far-right wank as to what Germany is to Marketplace?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Meerkat92 In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 03:08:52 +0000 UTC]
I wouldn't really call PEGIDA far-right, just nativist.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Meerkat92 [2016-02-17 03:12:34 +0000 UTC]
I'd call them right-wing, and further to the right than the European "right" (which isn't hard at all), but they're discussed in positive terms by the Internet far-right, so they're in. Of course, the PEGIDA in this scenario gets radicalized so they end up being indistinguishable from neo-Nazis, even if they started out as opposed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Meerkat92 In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 03:06:35 +0000 UTC]
My hands are rubbing in anticipation.
media.giphy.com/media/rBKsJdWr…
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RoyalPsycho In reply to ??? [2016-02-16 00:49:27 +0000 UTC]
So this is the world that was depicted in the # equality and modern educayshun videos.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to RoyalPsycho [2016-02-16 01:22:41 +0000 UTC]
I'm unaware of those videos.
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RoyalPsycho In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-16 15:18:29 +0000 UTC]
I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. Check them out on youtube if you like.
They're supposed to be satirical of the modern social justice movement by mocking them through exaggeration. In my opinion their jokes are sort of hit and miss but the videos largely come off more as social commentary than straight humour anyway.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to RoyalPsycho [2016-02-17 03:04:16 +0000 UTC]
I checked them out. They're okay.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
KnightofLiberty In reply to ??? [2016-02-15 21:55:59 +0000 UTC]
So the UEG enforces some sort of political correctness to silence its opposition?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to KnightofLiberty [2016-02-15 22:09:31 +0000 UTC]
Yes. Anything anti-regime is considered "politically incorrect."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
KnightofLiberty In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-15 22:43:43 +0000 UTC]
Sounds similar to what's currently happening in the United States and across the world. Very well done secnario, a quite frightening alternate future (in my opinion). Especially demonization of America part.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
KnightofLiberty In reply to KnightofLiberty [2016-02-15 23:32:25 +0000 UTC]
Dictatorial regimes come in many forms.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to KnightofLiberty [2016-02-18 01:10:28 +0000 UTC]
Yep, and I'm trying to find all of them.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Void-Wolf In reply to ??? [2016-02-15 20:18:58 +0000 UTC]
...Wow
Just... just wow.
I'm speechless.
Let me get back to you on this.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Void-Wolf [2016-02-15 20:32:53 +0000 UTC]
lol, I'd love to see what you think.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Void-Wolf In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 02:30:23 +0000 UTC]
After a bit of time (and watching the Gravity Falls series finale and being mangled by feels), I can think more.
Brave New World sort of dystopias are often the more interesting ones than the total jackboot ones since there's only so much grimdark you cn go before it's just exhausting and not fun or enjoyable to read or write. With these sorts, morality questions are raised while also looking at the resorts. Hedonism and the like while trying to create a utopia.
Mexico must be interesting considering its conservative nature and its crude sense of humor. I imagine it must have taken a lot to be able to try and influence people ere, though considering how bad things got, I reckon adaptaion occurred when the new boss made things alot better.
The companion map to this will be itneresting considering its gonna be based off of the internet right. I predict large amounts of racism, misogyny and the like. It will be interestng.
A buddy of mine once said that the manly men jerks and nerd jerks are just different versions: misogynistic and so on, just with different interests.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Void-Wolf [2016-02-17 02:40:00 +0000 UTC]
Mexico is still corrupt and poor, the only difference is now it's the liberals running the show.
Yeah, lots of vitriol in the far right one, which is par for the course for these ideologies. I don't like to paint movements as entirely evil or good, so I wouldn't say they're all misogynists (although there are those who definitely are).
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Void-Wolf In reply to RvBOMally [2016-02-17 14:28:37 +0000 UTC]
I love my ancestral lands, but man, we got a load of problems XD
I'm looking forward to the other maps you will make.
Now I'm curious how an Easter one would work...
Maybe Easter Island doesn't kaput and it becomes some sort of powerful thalassocracy?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
RvBOMally In reply to Void-Wolf [2016-02-17 16:40:32 +0000 UTC]
I'm thinking something to do with early Christianity.
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