The Sloppiest Alternate Histories Out There...

Deleted member 87099

naraht said:
I'm *really* annoyed at that thread. 7 pages of responses and *nobody* complained about "Road Island" being one of the states that had Gay Marriage. :rolleyes:

Also, I went to http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election/ on 2016 "Swing the Elections". If you set it so that recent historical Hispanic turnout (currently at 48%) is set to 0% (It is 72%D/28%R), the following states flip from Democrat to Republican: Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida. To get California to flip, keep the 48% turnout, and set the Hispanics to 79% R!

In fact to flip California *just* by suppressing Minority Turnout, you have to reduce the Black, Hispanic and Asian/Other turnout each to 4%!
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Wow.

Also, the author seemed to have a very basic knowledge of the US Government and how laws are passed.

"THE SUPREME COURT CAN'T MAKE LAWS!" :p
 

naraht

theev said:
Wow.

Also, the author seemed to have a very basic knowledge of the US Government and how laws are passed.

"THE SUPREME COURT CAN'T MAKE LAWS!" :p
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Directly related to the idea for that thread. Does anyone know where I can find information on both support for Same Sex Marriage and Presidential election voting patterns for the following...

Let's say that ASB make Same Sex Marriage the *only* issue in a voter's mind when they step into the voting booth. If they think that Two men or Two women should be able to get married in their state, then they vote D, if they don't, they vote R. Any idea how the vote comes out? I know that in swing states, the support for SSM is above 50%, *but* voters would tend to come from those who are older which would swing things back toward the Republican.
 

Major Major

Nick Griffalco said:
When Dick wrote Man in the High Castle wasn't a lot of the World War II info we take for granted still classified, and didn't that shape how the novel turned out?
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RamscoopRaider said:
More Phillip K. Dick was inspired partially by a history book that while popular, even at the time was considered innaccurate by historians

That said there still were quite a few classified things in 1962, and more importantly a lot of the scholarship that proves the nazis could not have done it was not written yet
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You've piqued my interest. What book was that? Was it Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?


Around 1960, as I recall (dimly), Look magazine published an "America loses WWII" issue which had the U.S. being divided up between Germany and Japan, along the line of the Rockies, which was not much different to what Dick had. And I think the lead essay was written by Shirer.
 

RamscoopRaider

Donor
Major Major said:
You've piqued my interest. What book was that? Was it Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?


Around 1960, as I recall (dimly), Look magazine published an "America loses WWII" issue which had the U.S. being divided up between Germany and Japan, along the line of the Rockies, which was not much different to what Dick had. And I think the lead essay was written by Shirer.
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Yes that was it. It was heavily criticized at the time it was written

Still I think that prior to the early 1990's it was a lot more understandable to think that the axis could have won that badly, it took time to collect all the relevant data into a concise form that was easily understandable and showed how badly the axis was outmatched
 

Colin

Can I put a bid in for 'Proxima' and 'Ultima' by Stephen Baxter. He is essentially a sic-fi author and in my opinion a very good one who does for example try very hard for believable scenario's of space exploration.

In these two books (spoilers contained) he puts forward a multiverse view of the universe and explores in some detail two alternative scenarios of 23rd and 24th century humanity in both the solar system and also the Alpha Centauri system. He initially has a scenario of a bi-polar world dominated by both the Chinese and the UN (essentially the West) reaching out into space. Then through a hinge event the protagonists are jumped into a universe where earth and space are dominated by the Romans and the Chinese and then later on into one dominated by latter day Inca's.

My problem is that his Romans and Incas have not developed. The 22nd century Romans ( a bit like Romanitas) still have slavery and legions who carry swords as well as blasters, and similarly with the incas who still have their very centrally organised society and aspects such as child sacrifice. In some ways, e.g. she colonising the planet of Proxima Centauri, Baxter is very good at imagining how the environment would affect societal development and then we get all this nonsense with virtually unchanged Romans and Inca's. Disappointed.
 

Lost Freeway

Banned
While Angels Wept is a pretty good exercise in imaging how an escalated Cuban Missile Crisis would turn out, but there is one aspect that bothers me.

When describing the damage caused by the nuclear war, the narrator says that 132 of the Soviet Union's 134 major cities were destroyed, leaving Tashkent and Tola. But later, there are no less than eight Soviet successor states.

Forgive my bluntness, but that is bullshit. If the Soviet Union really loses all but two of its major cities, there wouldn't be successor states of any kind.
 
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