Reds! Official Fanfiction Thread (Part Two)

What would MMORPGs (like World of Warcraft, FFXIV, etc.) look like in this universe? If I’m reading the TL right, the golden age of MMORPGs (roughly late 1990s - early 2010s) should be right in the middle of detente part 2. In this universe, they may be one of the first places where people from both blocs personally interact with each other as opposed to just hearing about each other in the news or propaganda. The relatively apolitical nature of the games would help here (most MMORPGs are set in medieval fantasy worlds, where “current politics”, so to speak, would be less relevant).
 
From someone who doesn't own any guns, I greatly prefer Comiterm gun culture toward OTL American gun culture.

American gun culture very corporate centered and fetishized murder weapons.

While Comiterm gun culture TTL more about community based militias and massive defense/force multipliers, much like OTL Switzerland.
 
From someone who doesn't own any guns, I greatly prefer Comiterm gun culture toward OTL American gun culture.

American gun culture very corporate centered and fetishized murder weapons.

While Comiterm gun culture TTL more about community based militias and massive defense/force multipliers, much like OTL Switzerland.

TTL Gun culture just seems more around collective struggle and shared responsibility rather than the individual "get off my land" mindset of many Americans OTL.
 
Given Africa is largely under FBU Control, I suspect Sankara wouldn't be allowed to get into power, or stay there long.
ehhh but Congo socialist Angola too and Liberia. The success those states and probably Azania rising will force FBU not to be asshole neocolonialists, most of Africa will probably look more like OTL Southeast asia than being ridden by brushfire wars all of the time. After all, its been said, the so called "developing world" hasn't really existed since 1970s ttl.

If they are overly dickish neocolonialists, a bunch of revolutions would happen in the continent and it would be lost given how socialisms actually a viable alternative for Africa atl.
 
Is the general idea of transhumanism the idea that technology could help man surpass his/her limits?
More like surpassing one's issues that come with having a caveman brain with medieval empathy and controlling godlike weaponry.

I wouldn't mind an upgrade that would change one's ability to process more social interactions: Dunbar's Number.
AKA: The reason why voluntarist Anarchist Communes always start to fail when having more than 100-150 individuals in them. It is a biological/nature problem. Not with nurture. Our brains were made to deal with camps of tribes of around 50+ individuals. Not city-states. Or, god forbid, some sort of World Government. We outspeed evolution and nature in the last 10000 years with technology and political organization...and our bodies didn't keep up with the changes.
One can sidestep the issue with externalizations of the solution via technology (open source community-driven AI-assisted social network sites...probably Reds! UASR's version of Facebook) or via directly tailoring the government system to enhance the social capability and increase the free time to seek social interaction of its members (UASR in Reds!).

But in the end, you will still be running into the biological mental limits of baseline Homo Sapiens.

People argue constantly about immortality fixes or sexual augmentation, but simple things like increasing the ability to keep track of one's relationships will have consequences like even more decreasing the likelihood of large democratic states or organizations descending into one-man/small council tyranny and neo-feudalism.
 
Last edited:
More like surpassing one's issues that come with having a caveman brain with medieval empathy and controlling godlike weaponry.

I wouldn't mind an upgrade that would change one's ability to process more social interactions: Dunbar's Number.
AKA: The reason why voluntarist Anarchist Communes always start to fail when having more than 100-150 individuals in them. It is a biological/nature problem. Not with nurture. Our brains were made to deal with camps of tribes of around 50+ individuals. Not city-states. Or, god forbid, some sort of World Government. We outspeed evolution and nature in the last 10000 years with technology and political organization...and our bodies didn't keep up woth the changes.
One can sidestep the issue with externalizations of the solution via technology (open source community-driven AI-assisted social network sites...probably Reds! UASR's version of Facebook) or via directly tailoring the government system to enhance the social capability and increase the free time to seek social interaction of its members (UASR in Reds!).

But in the end, you will still be running into the biological mental limits of baseline Homo Sapiens.

People argue constantly about immortality fixes or sexual augmentation, but simple things like increasing the ability to keep track of one's relationships will have consequences like even more decreasing the likelihood of large democratic states or organizations descending into one-man/small council tyranny and neo-feudalism.
If I could upgrade myself, I would do this:

Protect my brain from rot.

Change my metabolism to make it easier for me to lose fat.

Stop aging.

Stop hair loss.
 
More like surpassing one's issues that come with having a caveman brain with medieval empathy and controlling godlike weaponry.

I wouldn't mind an upgrade that would change one's ability to process more social interactions: Dunbar's Number.
AKA: The reason why voluntarist Anarchist Communes always start to fail when having more than 100-150 individuals in them. It is a biological/nature problem. Not with nurture. Our brains were made to deal with camps of tribes of around 50+ individuals. Not city-states. Or, god forbid, some sort of World Government. We outspeed evolution and nature in the last 10000 years with technology and political organization...and our bodies didn't keep up with the changes.
One can sidestep the issue with externalizations of the solution via technology (open source community-driven AI-assisted social network sites...probably Reds! UASR's version of Facebook) or via directly tailoring the government system to enhance the social capability and increase the free time to seek social interaction of its members (UASR in Reds!).

But in the end, you will still be running into the biological mental limits of baseline Homo Sapiens.

People argue constantly about immortality fixes or sexual augmentation, but simple things like increasing the ability to keep track of one's relationships will have consequences like even more decreasing the likelihood of large democratic states or organizations descending into one-man/small council tyranny and neo-feudalism.
Dunbar's number is a faulty concept that only applies to friend groups and shouldn't be applied to societies.
 
Dunbar's number is a faulty concept that only applies to friend groups and shouldn't be applied to societies.

This. Stop letting the right infect you with its pseudoscience. Using true data to draw false conclusions is something they love to do. See IQ.
 
The Travelers (by traveller76)
The Travelers
The Travelers was an American music group formed by the Zavala brothers (Andres, Miguel and Leandro) in 1968 in El Paso, Texas. Between 1970-1995 the group would produce six studio albums, ten best selling singles worldwide and three North American Music Awards. The brothers fluency in Spanish and English, good looks and musical talent would lead them to become one of the most popular music groups in both the Comintern and Alliance systems.

Background and Career
The brothers were born in El Paso, Texas where both parents had immigrated there during the Mexican Revolution, Both parents, Calixto Valeria Zavala and Dorotea Ezequiel Zavala, were part of a mariachi band where they met before marriage. From an early age the brothers were exposed to a variety of musical forms from Country and Western to Tejano and Tex-Mex along with Jazz as they travelled and later performed with their parents. After completing their time in the military the brothers formed a small group with Andres as a drummer, Miguel as a guitarist and Leandro as a singer. By 1970 the group had added Carina Kramer as a pianist and York Desjardins as a bassist. The group would launch their first studio album Dance the Night Away in 1970 using their earnings from playing local clubs and jobs. The album would be a success along the Mexican-American border and by 1971 would be re-released for export to Latin American members of the Comintern. The group would sing in both Spanish and English mixing a variety of musical styles and types of songs from popular dance music to ballads regarding love and loss. With the success of the first album, the group would release the second album, Going Home, in 1974. It would be a different style of album telling the story of a grandfather and grandson travelling to the grandfathers hometown in central Mexico for the funeral of a family friend. The songs would tell the story of the grandfathers life from growing up poor, to becoming a refugee and starting a new life in a new land and all the feelings of being in two worlds culturally. While not as popular as the first album, Going Home would see the group becoming more mature and show the songwriting talent of Miguel.

By this time copies of Dance the Night Away and Going Home would begin to appear in places like Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and Spain. The UASR would also broadcast songs on the radio service in the Caribbean as part of its outreach program. While not overtly political the group would write songs regarding the waste and loss of war. Despite some protests the group would not be censored by the UASR. In 1977 the group released Run Like Hell, a second story type album which would feature a veteran from the Horn of Africa war talking to a group of young men about to leave for military service about the horrors of war and the comradeship of being in the military. Many military veterans would later cite the album as "Telling the real story about military life". It would also be praised by mental health professionals as a way to talk to veterans about their experiences. The group would take a hiatus of five years due to medical issues with their father Calixto along with starting their own families. Miguel would continue writing songs for the group along with other acts that he discovered. In 1982 York Desjardins would die of a heart attack at the age of 60, leading to the reuniting of the group and the release of Only The Good Die Young, a collection of music including some songs featuring York that were not included in the first three albums. With Canada joining the Comintern along with South Africa becoming neutral the group would launch its first international tour, playing concerts in North, Central and South America along with South Africa from 1984-1987 . It was while in South Africa that Leandro would meet his future wife, Rachida Bonolo Tawfeek. An album of various songs from the International Tour would be released in 1988 simply titled, Going International. By this time the younger generations would drift away from the style of music that The Travelers were used to, however they would continue to gain fans internationally as copies of the albums would appear across the world. The band would also age and begin to pursue different avenues with Miguel continuing to sponsor new acts, Leandro and Rachida becoming a supporter of women's health groups in sub-Saharan Africa and Andres studying a Doctorate in Theology. The last album would simply be called Calixto and would be released in 1995 after the death of their father at 80. They officially announced they would no longer be releasing any more albums and thanked their fans for their support.

Copies of the album continue to be made both physically and online. Copies of the first editions of the albums along with memorabilia have commanded large sums in auction houses in Europe and Asia, which has been discouraged by the group.

Aftermath
Miguel (Guitar, Vocals) continues to write music and sponsor a variety of musical acts and lives in El Paso, Texas with his partner.
Leandro (Vocals) and Rachida live in South Africa and have used money from the album sales to support non-governmental organizations across Africa. They continue to release music based on African and Middle Eastern influences.
Andres (Drums, Vocals) earned a Doctorate in Theology and joined the Trinitarian Church.
Carina Kramer (Piano) lives in New Orleans and has a music school.

Albums:
Dance the Night Away (1970)
Going Home (1974)
Run Like Hell (1977)
Only The Good Die Young (1982)
Going International (1988)
Calixto (1995)
 
Barry Goldwater (By Miss Teri/Mr.E)
Barry Goldwater, Alcatraz prisoner turned best selling author and political commentator, dies at age 91
The Daily Mail, July 7th, 2001

Barry Goldwater, a one-time supporter of American democracy who served several years in the notorious Alcatraz prison, where he wrote famed, eloquent defenses of capitalism, before his release and a long career in Cuba and the Franco-British Union as a memoirist and political advisor, died of a stroke in his home in Havana, according to a statement released by his family on Wednesday.

Goldwater, who used his family’s store to help support MacArthurist forces, was sentenced to the infamous Alcatraz Citadel in San Francisco in 1934 as its first prisoner, where he would remain for the next 25 years. However, while incarcerated, he would write a series of essays detailing his firm belief in American constitutionalism and the restoration of capitalism, which were smuggled out, and would go on to become bestsellers in the United Kingdom and Canada.

He was eventually given parole in 1958, and was given a ticket to Nassau, whereupon he fled to Cuba. Hailed as a war hero and conservative icon, he was received warmly by the exile government as a survivor of the Special Prison Administration and would write the acclaimed *Last Days of the Republic* in 1961, exploring his own views of the collapse of the old United States, and gives a brutal, honest view of both the subversive socialist movement and the poor response of the nation’s leaders, who had an obligation to protect their own constitution.

He would follow it up with “The Alcatraz Diaries” in 1965 and “The Prison Archipelago” in 1970, memoirs of his time in the Citadel, showing a culture of corruption, violence, and repression within the Special Prison Administration, which would earn him a Booker–McConnell Prize. A frequent commentator on EBC for both Cuban and American politics, he was eventually given his own program Breakpoint on the burgeoning Hughes-Welch network, where he would discuss issues of the day, giving a unique perspective to the issues he explored. He would host until his retirement in 1987.

Barry Morris Goldwater was born on January 2nd, 1909 in Phoenix, Arizona. The son of a Jewish grocer who ran a successful department store called Goldwater’s, Goldwater himself would go to work for his father’s company in 1930, and was prepared to make it even more of a success.

Sadly, this dream would go unfulfilled with the outbreak of war. Goldwater instead used the department store to raise money for White forces and to supply them with clothes and food. He was eventually captured and put on trial. Given the severity of his crimes, he was formally given a life sentence to be served in the Alcatraz Citadel on the titular island in the San Francisco Bay.

He was forced by the prison administrators to do hard, back-breaking labor as punishment for his crimes, live in strict, regimented conditions or face severe consequences, and was forced to contend with sadistic prisoners like Bugsy Siegel and “Birdman” Robert Stroud and indifferent prison guards.

In this climate, he would reaffirm his own belief in the American constitution through a series of essays written on spare note paper. He would have these papers smuggled through a network of corrupt officials and Sons of Liberty members into Canada, where they were collected and published as the Conscience of a Freedom Fighter, which would inspire free market idealists in the Anglosphere.

He would eventually become a senior prison leader of sorts, advocating on behalf of the prisoners and lead sports activities. Eventually, by 1958, he would be given parole as part of a larger gradual release of political prisoners from the 30’s, with a choice to be repatriated to Cuba through the Bahamas.

Given a reserve position as an officer in the United States Army Air Force, Goldwater’s books would become bestseller throughout the capitalist sphere for their brutal, unflinching portrayal of life within the prisons of communist America. He was eventually given regular appearances as a commentator on Cuban and Franco-British television. A memorable experience saw him and journalist David Frost sparing over the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Indochina. Another saw him attack ESCI General Secretary Georges Marchais as a “DeLeon-Debs puppet” on Friday Night, Saturday Morning

His strong conviction and values impressed Robert Welch, the host of several RKO-TV news programs, who profiled and interviewed him on several of these programs. Eventually, with the establishment of the Hughes Welch Broadcasting Corporation, he was given his own show Breakpoint in 1978.

Goldwater would engage viewers with interesting perspectives on issues like the Rhodesian war and the 1985 Strike. He would host a documentary in 1988 about the assassination of Cuban President Jay Rockefeller by Neo-Integralists. He would retire as host that same year.

Throughout his life, he held a strong, firm belief in the value of capitalism and a strong hope that the “Republic” will be restored. In 1997, he told the EBC that when US Constitution is restored in the mainland, he would return to Phoenix and retire.

Goldwater is survived by his wife Jennie, and his 4 children, including current Franco-British Ambassador to Spain Jane Goldwater Burger.

Barry Goldwater, author and commentator, dies at age 91.
New York Times, July 6th, 2001

Barry Goldwater, a one-time Arizona businessman convicted of providing weapons to White militias and later rose to fame as a stubbornly capitalist writer and broadcaster in Cuba and the FBU, died in his Havana mansion at age 91, the family announced on Thursday.

Through his department store in Phoenix, Arizona, he had both provided Mexican arms to White militias and gave them a secret location to plan out attacks on Red held areas, including the massacre of civilians. He was the very last of the White war criminals convicted in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, and took pride in his role. “Do I have regrets about what I did for my country? Absolutely not,” he told the Entente Broadcasting Corporation in 1994.

Goldwater would spend 20 years as a prisoner in the Alcatraz Citadel, where he would compose his collection of capitalist apologia Conscience of a Freedom Fighter, before being released on parole in 1958, in exchange for expatriation to Cuba.

There, he would go on to write works like The Last Days of the Republic and The Alcatraz Diaries, advocating a Taftian vision of America that was destroyed by socialism and held him and others bondage. He would go on to become a political commentator and advisor to a number of politicians. He was even approached by both the National and American Parties in Cuba to run for both Congressman and President after Kennedy announced the first republican elections in Americuba (which he declined due to him privately disagreeing with many of their positions), and would host the reactionary political show Breakpoint for 14 years on the reactionary Hughes Welch Broadcasting Corporation.

While a staunch anti-communist throughout his life, he also grew increasingly disenchanted with socially regressive policies in Cuba and the Franco-British Union. In fact, after he heavily criticized the policy of not allowing gays in the Cuban military and called for them to adopt the open policy taken by the Entente Army in 1983, he was almost fired by HWBC. He later campaigned for the repeal of abortion bans.

“The Candy Shop”

Barry Morris Goldwater was born in Phoenix, in what was at the time the Arizona Territory on January 2nd, 1909. His father, Baron Goldwater, was a Polish-English Jewish immigrant who founded a chain of clothing stores called Goldwater’s. His mother, Josephine (nee Williams) was an Episcopalian nurse, and he was raised in that faith.

After attending a military academy and the University of Arizona for a year, he dropped out to help his father’s business. He admitted in later years that he was not all that interested in running the shops, and considered leaving to instead go into politics. He had given significant amounts of money to the Hoover campaign in Arizona in 1932.

When the Civil War broke out, Goldwater, a “red-blooded capitalist and staunch defender of the Constitution”, immediately took up the cause of the Whites, using his family’s chain as a smokescreen.

After hearing that the White supporters in the Arizona National Guard had been short on weapons, he discreetly crossed the border, and bought weapons, snuck them back to Phoenix, and gave them to White soldiers under the names of clothing items. Gradually, he would add supplies and food for white soldiers, all under the table, hidden among the various items in Goldwater’s.

“We called it ‘The Candy Shop’”,one White soldier later recalled, “because he would just give them to us like candy. Put a gun in our hands personally, in fact. He was not a commander nor even a soldier, but he would inspect us, and ensure we were battle ready.”

Goldwater also kept the backdoor to his business open for commanders to meet and discuss battle plans. In trial, sworn testimony revealed that several massacres, including that of Mexican civilians in Mesa and Asian Indian strikers in Yuma, were planned in Goldwater’s in Phoenix, and Goldwater had personally attended meetings and discussed weapons logistics. He had bought all the weapons used in the massacre from his contacts in Baja California.
However, the Reds would eventually go on to capture Arizona, and Phoenix. Goldwater took up arms himself to try to slow the advance, but was captured and with the war’s conclusion put on trial for war crimes.

Despite testimony and evidence of clothing inventory being code for weapons sales, Goldwater could not be directly tied to atrocities or military crimes, so he was instead sentenced to life as the first prisoner in the newly refurbished Alcatraz Citadel in San Francisco.

“Freedom Fighter”

The Citadel was a one time military prison which was handed over to the Secretariat of Public Safety to serve political prisons. Unlike the average prisons that were mostly meant to be rehabilitation centers with relative freedoms, Alcatraz and other prisons in the Special Prison Administration were still built on the idea of isolation and punishment. “Class enemies” were given uniforms and were closely guarded, while doing labor as punishment.

In The Alcatraz Years, Goldwater depicted a hellish totalitarian nightmare, where he had to ward off vicious prisoners and apathetic guards in a valiant attempt to survive and smuggle his vision of American restoration into a new generation.

However, many of his contemporaries have alleged that Goldwater exaggerated many of his experiences and that he had depicted Alcatraz in a different light than how other prisoners and guards had written on it.
“Based on my own interviews with former Alcatraz denizens for my own book on Alcatraz[ Citadel], Comrade Goldwater was not entirely truthful about his experiences,” prison abolition activist (and former Leavenworth political prisoner) John C. Stennis wrote, “especially in regards to how his book was written and published”

Goldwater had written a harrowing tale of him writing out his diaries on smuggled paper, and risking his life to get his papers (themselves written in the dead of night on smuggled paper) smuggled onto the boats headed to mainland.

“I would keep the papers in my uniform, and wait for the guard to go, before unlocking my cell, and reaching the docks,” he wrote in The Alcatraz Diaries. “I would place the papers underneath the deck, and watch the boat go out.”

“He bought those papers at the prison store,” George Columbus, who was Goldwater’s prison mate in the 50’s, said in regards to this. “He would use the money granted to him by labor, and buy paper and pens, and just write it all down over some days after work.”

It was true that it was smuggled out. “He’d say it was a letter to a friend back in Arizona, and he’d go page-by-page, just writing and sending it out. At least that’s what he told me 20 years later.”

Those pages were indeed to a former employee now living in Tuscon, who would send the pages to another associate in Toronto. Goldwater intended the papers to be stand-alone essays published in the exile press, but the associate found the essays compelling enough to compile and send to Doubleday of Britain. Doubleday would choose the title based on a statement from his trial testimony. “It was my own conscience, my own initiative as a freedom fighter, that drove me.”

Conscience of a Freedom Fighter largely codified Goldwater’s philosophy of free-market capitalism, American constitutionalism, and staunch anti-communism. Goldwater held that the UASR was an illegal regime that had overthrown the rightful Constitutional order that MacArthur was attempting to uphold. Goldwater held that communism (“a godless ideology”) had destroyed the “150+ years of governmental continuity” that had sustained the old United States.
Goldwater also praised MacArthur as the last “defender of constitution” and a “true patriot.” He also argued that while the toxic ideology of Hitlerism was an equal evil, he held that a “benign authoritarianism” exemplified by MacArthur, Plinio Salgado, and Benito Mussolini could’ve upheld American republicanism. Goldwater cited the Federalist Papers in support of this argument. (Goldwater would repudiate these essays, admitting that his knowledge of fascism was “unsophisticated” at the time.)

The initial reception to the book upon release in 1939 was divided along multiple political lines. The conservative press in the United Kingdom and Cuba lauded the book as a true “excoriation of the seemingly benign face of American communism”, as the Daily Mirror put it. Germany banned the book as “Jewish propaganda.” The American press lambasted it as “pure MacArthur propaganda by a convicted war criminal”, as put by the Daily Worker. As the war heated up in Europe and the alliance with America became important, Conscience of a Freedom Fighter was suppressed for the duration of the war.

Ironically, Goldwater suffered little punishment at the time for the publication. Attorney General Crystal Eastman feared backlash if Goldwater was directly punished for his book, and he was left alone. However, the return of J. Edgar Hoover to the Secretariat of Public Safety would ensure that Goldwater would lose paper privileges.

Alcatraz

Goldwater recounted life in Alcatraz in his later memoirs The Alcatraz Diaries and somewhat in The Prison Archipelago (an exploration of the Special Prison Administration in general). He describe the nightmare of constant vigilance in the face of violent prisoners and the seeming apathy of the guards to the horrors inside.

Many former prisoners and guards have a differing view of many of the events depicted.

Goldwater described a staunch prison regimen that was to be followed to the letter, or abuse would follow.

“While there was a work regimen in the SPA prisons, they were still relatively free to some degree,” Stennis stated. “Outside of work, one could do a variety of activities, had many services, and was even occasionally furloughed to work outside, especially during the war.”

While Goldwater’s famed beatdown of Robert Shroud (recounted in The Alcatraz Diaries) has been corroborated with records, his interactions with Bugsy Siegel were more limited, largely consisting of being part of the same Jewish club. Mostly, Goldwater would hang around the former White clique (though was kept at arms length due to his Jewish heritage) or the True Democrat prisoners.

While Goldwater claimed he was given very little freedom, “he was the head of the rugby team, he hosted a radio show, he even held annual debates with the prison commissar,” says Joey D., another prisoner held at the same time as Goldwater. “He did well for himself in there.”

[....]

Havana

Steadily, many of the political prisoners from the 1930’s were released in the late 40’s and 50’s as part of a larger amnesty program. Many were given a chance to flee to either Canada or Cuba.
Goldwater had to wait until 1958 before finally receiving parole. He received a plane ticket for Nassau in the Bahamas and a boat ticket for Cuba.

He was given a hero's welcome in Havana. Conscience of a Freedom Fighter remained a bestseller in Cuba and even became part of the school curriculum. He would have dinner with Douglas MacArthur (where he was granted a commission as a reserve officer in the Army Air Force) and would address Congress, calling for the “continued battle for Constitutional restoration.”

He also met Jennie Whatley, the daughter of a NSF congressman. Despite a 20 year difference, they married in 1959, and would have four children together.

Using his royalties, he bought a mansion, fashioned it with a wall of kachina dolls (a hobby he adopted since visiting a Hopi reservation in 1916) and a private airfield, and would get to work on his next opus: an exploration of the final days of the old United States and why it fell to Revolution.

Last Days of the Republic, released in 1961, laid the blame for the American Revolution both on “socialist traitors” and the inability of the government to contain them. It received relatively less positive press in the capitalist sphere, with some taking issue with Goldwater’s analysis and his inability to see multiple factors including the depression and the rise of trusts. Meanwhile, William F. Buckley condemned the book as “nothing less than a declaration of war.”

[....]

Archipelago
After MacArthur’s death in 1963, Goldwater attempted to parley his literary success into a political career, running for the Cuban 5th District in the 1964 election. However, the rise of Robert Kennedy and other reformists made Goldwater’s close ties to MacArthur unfashionable, and he lost by a slight margin.

Undeterred, he returned to writing, this time taking out journals from his last decade and a half at Alcatraz after learning of its approaching shutdown, as well as research and correspondence he had with other prisoners. He had hoped to use the memoir to tie in the history of the SPA prison system. However, Freedom Press convinced him to split them into a memoir and a history with biographical elements.

[...]

The Alcatraz Diaries and The Prison Archipelago made Goldwater a new star for the Franco-British literati and conservative movement. In the words of Kingsley Amis, with Archipelago, he had “become a Great American author, in the vein of [James Feinmore] Cooper, Thoreau, and Twain.”

The Prison Archipelago would go on to win Booker-McConnell Prize in 1970 for best original work in English. Despite this, the American press, including Stennis and even fellow ex-political prisoner Strom Turmond criticized both for exaggerating and misrepresenting the SPA and its actual function.

Nevertheless, his novels would make Goldwater a visible figure in the conservative movement, soon representing it on various EBC talk shows. He would form relationships with key conservative figures, including Ayn Rand, Edward Heath, Francois Mitterand, Enoch Powell, and biggest of all, Robert Welch.

Welch, a Goldwater fan since the 30’s, showcased him on his various programs throughout the 60’s and 70’s, eventually bringing him on during his partnership with Howard Hughes.

His regular appearances made him a figure of derision due to his extreme anti-communism. He and David Frost sparred throughout the 60’s and 70’s over Goldwater’s insistence of using nuclear weapons in Indochina and the Congo. Graham Chapman would satirize Goldwater on Monty Python’s Flying Circus as an extremist who would make bizarre statements in his hatred of communism. He was also parodied as “Jerry Silverberg”, a blowhard American exile, in British defector John Cromwell’s novel The British Way.

After a stint advising the administration of Cuban president Luis Posada Carilles, Goldwater would accept an offer by Welch to head up his own show on HWBC. Called Breakpoint, it would involve Goldwater making “informed” commentary on the issues of the day, as well as interviews with key figures.

[...]

As the 80’s conflicts reached their crescendo, Goldwater slowly saw himself becoming more estranged from the conservative movement he had championed.

Already, by the 70’s, he had become critical of social regressives, feeling that individual liberty was a key part of the movement. He supported the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967 and the legalization of abortion that same year in Britain. He became very critical of Enoch Powell’s hardline anti-immigration stance and the Liberty Party’s adoption of the same.

Despite his political ambitions, he declined an offer from the right wing Cuban National and American Parties to run to succeed Robert Kennedy in 1971. In a letter to his friend General Sir John Hackett, Goldwater said that he would not be affiliated with “social regressives and bigots, who spout liberty while cutting it down.”

He became heavily critical of his former protege Carilles during the latter’s last term, claiming that his suspected relationship with neo-Integralists was tantamount to “state sponspored terrorism.” This strained his image with many conservatives in Cuba.

Not helping was a 1986 episode, where he talked directly about the military case of Alfredo Domingo, a Cuban soldier and Uranian caught having a relationship. He heavily criticized the handling of the case (the soldier was off-base and decommissioned at the time), and indeed, expanded it to berate the ban of homosexuals from the Cuban military. Pointing out how the Entente military allowed open enrollment of Uranians since it’s formation, Goldwater continued: "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar", and that “You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight.” Later that year, he also said that, while the repeal of abortion bans under Kennedy was a good start, they were under siege by “National Party cadres with strong affiliations with televangelists and Christian organizations.” Both statements almost resulted in his firing, and his show was reassigned to a lower viewership slot.

After Cuban President Jay Rockefeller was killed by a Brazilian neo-Integralist, Goldwater produced a documentary exploring the factors. He reiterated his opposition to the Carilles’ administration’s funding of neo-Integralist terror groups and blamed it for his assassination. Goldwater, knowing these were controversial statements, announced his retirement that same year.

Last Days

Goldwater would live to see his books become key parts of the anti-communist movement, taught in universities and schools across the capitalist sphere. Goldwater himself would have mixed feeling over this. The books had been in schools thanks to the Liberty affiliated Von Mises Institute and the International Freedom Organization (founded by food tycoons Margaret Thatcher and Richard Finlay to teach “true democratic values” in schools), both organizations that Goldwater had criticized.

However, he never wavered in his faith that he would see the restoration of the United States on the mainland. In a 2000 interview, he denied allegations that he was involved in war crimes during the Revolution, claiming it was “Bolshevik propaganda”, meant to ensure his quick departure to jail.

Cacti in the Sunlight, a 1964 nonfiction book that inspired the 1972 film Red Sun Over Arizona, featured evidence and testimony from former White soldier that confirmed that Goldwater had sold weapons to White soldiers and was involved in the planning of several massacres.

In the same interview, Goldwater expressed his desire to return and die in his home state of Arizona when the “Stars and Stripes were waving over America once again”. He died in his Cuban mansion. The Star and Stripes have yet to be raised over Arizona.
 
Barry Goldwater, Alcatraz prisoner turned best selling author and political commentator, dies at age 91
The Daily Mail, July 7th, 2001


In the same interview, Goldwater expressed his desire to return and die in his home state of Arizona when the “Stars and Stripes were waving over America once again”. He died in his Cuban mansion. The Star and Stripes have yet to be raised over Arizona.

This was the best burn you can give while still trying to be as objective as possible.
 
I'm curious, there are kinda Wehraboos in TTL alt history verse like Ritterstahl and even SS boos like Myhonorisloyalty, is there any "greenboos" for Salgado's Brazil?
 
To be honest, I'm surprised by the staid, academical tone of the Times Goldwater obituary. I'd rather expect the UASR press to be more outspokenly partisan, perhaps even on the nose so. They don't have to paint him a cartoon villain and dance on his grave, of course, but I suppose it would be still in character for TTL's Times to call Barry 'unreformed anti-Communist crusader' right in the headline and spin his story as a cautionary tale about the human bankruptcy which awaits anyone who goes against the inevitable course of history.
 
Last edited:
I'm curious, there are kinda Wehraboos in TTL alt history verse like Ritterstahl and even SS boos like Myhonorisloyalty, is there any "greenboos" for Salgado's Brazil?

I can imagine in any society there are always "whatever-boos". Especially since neo-Integralists have a great geographic advantage: a resource-rich jungle which still hasn't been fully explored to this day.

But like with OTL Neo-Nazis, they probably aren't more than just a band of self-glorifying hoodlums.

To be honest, I'm surprised by the staid, academical tone of the Times Goldwater obituary. I'd rather expect the UASR press to be more outspokenly partisan, perhaps even on the nose so. They don't have to paint him a cartoon villain and dance on his grave, of course, but I suppose it would be still in character for TTL's Times to call Barry 'unreformed anti-Communist crusader' right in the headline and spin his story as a cautionary tale about the human bankruptcy which awaits anyone who goes against the inevitable course of history.

The kind of rhetoric you're referring to would only work if the UASR was a stagnant, corrupt, backward, and impoverished society.

North Korea, OTL Red China, and other such nations only indulge in such over-top rhetoric because their leaders are often insecure lairs.

Red Americans don't require censorship and a boot on their neck to rally around the Red flag. Most Red Americans are genuinely supportive of their country and ideals. So there isn't any need to condemn Goldwater. Simply saying he fled to Cuba is enough for Red Americans to despise him.

If Red America was more totalitarian, the reporter would be more like this:

1590344073008.png



"Barry Goldwater, arch-traitor and capitalist puppet of the imperialist British, received his punishment for his betrayal of the workers and peasants of the American People."
 
To be honest, I'm surprised by the staid, academical tone of the Times Goldwater obituary. I'd rather expect the UASR press to be more outspokenly partisan, perhaps even on the nose so. They don't have to paint him a cartoon villain and dance on his grave, of course, but I suppose it would be still in character for TTL's Times to call Barry 'unreformed anti-Communist crusader' right in the headline and spin his story as a cautionary tale about the human bankruptcy which awaits anyone who goes against the inevitable course of history.
It's intentional. I figured while the Daily Worker is the big partisan paper, the old stalwarts like the New York Times and Washington Post, while shifting leftwards, still adhere to some form of objectivity.
Having all newspapers be partisan propaganda defeats the purpose of having an independent press.
 
@Bookmark1995, being partisan doesn't mean barking slogans and churning out frenzied propaganda pieces.

Of course, a shorter news announcement would have been neutral in tone, but we're talking about a long read, so I'd rather expect the author to express their opinion in a rather unsubdued way (compared to OTL's mainstream 'quality' press, where an author has to make extra efforts not to offend the sponsors, the readership base, and the sides of the story, if there's more than one side to it). It's not really about the media taking their readers for schoolchildren who need everything to be explained, complete with designated heroes and villains. It's about the freedom of journalistic expression. In this case, it's an expression of the mainstream consensus. But if the Dem-Reps have ITTL their own media outlet, they may write an obituary cum opinion piece and paint Goldwater as a tragical figure and his story as a failure of the young Republic to help someone who has fallen rise again.
 
Last edited:
It's intentional. I figured while the Daily Worker is the big partisan paper, the old stalwarts like the New York Times and Washington Post, while shifting leftwards, still adhere to some form of objectivity.
Having all newspapers be partisan propaganda defeats the purpose of having an independent press.

Of course, what counts as a "mainstream" view varies wildly depending on where you live.

Rural midwestern areas might tack to the center, but more industrial-working class areas (including places that were labor battlegrounds like Chicago) might be more antagonistic.

I can imagine Miami, with its Cuban refugee population, would be even most condemnatory toward Goldwater, for helping the government that is oppressing the Cuban people.

@Bookmark1995, being partisan doesn't mean barking slogans and churning out frenzied propaganda pieces.

Of course, a shorter news announcement would have been neutral in tone, but we're talking about a long read, so I'd rather expect the author to express their opinion in a rather unsubdued way (compared to OTL's mainstream 'quality' press, where an author has to made extra efforts not to offend the sponsors, the readership base, and the sides of the story, if there's more than one side to it). It's not really about the media taking their readers for schoolchildren who need everything to be explained, complete with designated heroes and villains. It's about the freedom of journalistic expression. In this case, it's an expression of the mainstream consensus. But if the Dem-Reps have ITTL their own media outlet, they may write an obituary cum opinion piece and paint Goldwater as a tragical figure and his story as a failure of the young Republic to help someone who has fallen rise again.

I see your point. But an American newspaper ITTL calling Goldwater "a capitalist puppet" would be the equivalent of an OTL American newspaper calling Bin Laden "an evil monstrous communist freedom hater."

It isn't really necessary. Most Americans OTL don't need to be told to hate Bin Laden. Most Americans ITTL don't need to be told to hate Goldwater.
 
Of course, a shorter news announcement would have been neutral in tone, but we're talking about a long read, so I'd rather expect the author to express their opinion in a rather unsubdued way (compared to OTL's mainstream 'quality' press, where an author has to made extra efforts not to offend the sponsors, the readership base, and the sides of the story, if there's more than one side to it)
I based it primarily off the NYT obits for both Goldwater and Solzhenitsyn.

I also didn't want to just do a full "left" /"right" perspective thing, and do more "partisan"/"nuanced" instead.
 
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) (By Miss Teri/Mr.E)
Back to the Future (1985)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale


In 1985, Marty McFly is an average American teenager living in the Hill Valley commune in California. However, after his failure to get his band to play the annual school dance, he admits to his girlfriend Jennifer that he fears that he might go down the same path as the rest of the family.

Marty’s father George is a small functionary at the local computer planning facility, having failed to avoid military service during the Horn War due to low grades and lacking the confidence to go to college afterwards. McFly, while embittered, still lacks the confidence to stand up to old bully, Biff Tannen, now a major nomenklatura in the facility, who takes constant credit for reports that McFly ghostwrites in exchange for minor benefits. George resents that Tannen got his position due solely to nepotism and trickery. His mother Meg, meanwhile, works as complaint operator for the local government, and has succumbed to alcoholism. His brother and sister mostly coast through life, with Marty the only one with real ambition. At dinner, Meg recounts how she first met George when she ran over him with her car, and nursed him back to health.

Marty excuses himself to meet his friend, Doctor Emmett “Doc” Braun, a former government scientist who now lives off his patents and is regarded as an eccentric by the locals. Marty goes to Doc’s lab, only for a note to tell him to meet him at a former nuclear test site nearby by 1:16 AM the next morning, October 26th.

Marty heads over to the testing site (now long abandoned) to see Doc testing a time machine made from a 1983 Studebaker Phoenix. The two watch a successful test of the time machine with Doc’s chimpanzee Lomonosov. Doc explains the secret is a “flux capacitor”, which increases the energy of the car when it reaches a velocity of 140 km/h[1], allowing it to go back in time. Doc offhandedly mentions that he had stolen the plutonium fueling the capacitor from a group of Afrikaans terrorists who wanted him to make a bomb with it.

Doc comments that he first got the idea for the flux capacitor after observing the last nuclear blast at the facility as an overseer for the Atomic Energy Commission. Thus, for his first human experiments, he intends to travel back to the date of the explosion, November 5th, 1955.

The Afrikaans terrorists suddenly appear, having caught on to Doc’s lie, and proceed to shoot Doc. Marty flees in the Studebaker (in the process, changing the date to October 26th, 1955), as the terrorist chase him, and manages to reach the velocity needed to travel back in time.

Marty arrives in 1955 Hill Valley, full of atomic age agitprop and early Second Cultural Revolution changes. Marty has some trouble when he tries to exchange “credit” for a soda. He eventually meets a young George McFly, nervous that he’ll be drafted into the war after his militia training. The young Biff Tannen still bullies George, getting away with it through his father’s position. Marty saves George from a car accident, and is knocked out himself.

He awakens to find a younger version of Meg tending to him. She and her Russian immigrant family welcome Marty to sit with them, and Meg becomes infatuated with him.

Marty tracks down Doc (still working for the Atomic Energy Commission) and convinces him of his story. With no plutonium, Doc and Marty realize that the only way to reach the amount of sufficient power is through an atomic explosion- like the one scheduled for November 5th. Doc tells Marty that he needs to find a way to siphon the energy from the explosion to create the necessary acceleration

Doc also makes another realization: Marty has inadvertently caused his mother to fall in love with him instead of George, which will likely mean Marty will cease to exist.

While Doc works to modify the flux capacitor and ensuring the Phoenix can be on the test site, Marty tries hard to ensure his parents still fall in love. However, George’s inability to stand up for himself (which is causing his low grades) and Meg’s continued love for Marty makes the task difficult. Not helping is Biff Tannen’s antagonism, which Marty tries to thwart. Marty also attempts to tell Doc of his impending death, but Doc refuses to listen, fearing its effects on the future.

Doc manages to modify the flux capacitor to absorb the shock of the explosion. However the launch turns out to be on the same night as the “Under the Sea” Dance, where Marty hopes to bring his parents together.

Doc tries to delay the launch, claiming various problems with the bomb, while Marty makes a final play. He appears before George as “Darth Maul from the Planet Solaris”, and convinces him to go to the dance, and devises a plan. Marty would make inappropriate advances towards Meg, which George will save her from.

Just as Marty is about to initiate his plan, Biff barges in, and actually tries to assault Meg. George, unaware, comes to her rescue, but gathers the strength to punch Biff, which reveals his indiscretion (controversial in the midst of “Limelight”[2]) to the public, ruining any chances of advancement.

His existence secured, Marty races to the test sight, where the general has finally ordered the launch despite Doc’s warning. Marty manages to make it on time, and gives Doc a letter explaining what happens in 1985 before positioning the Studebaker.

Marty manages to outrun the explosion, which gives him the energy to go back to October 26th, 1985. However, he arrives seemingly too late to watch Doc get killed by the Afrikaans. However, as he grieves, Doc is revealed to have survived, having read Marty’s letter and came to the test with a bulletproof vest.

Doc drives Marty home (where it’s revealed that Doc’s inventions have made the world slightly more advanced), and uses the Phoenix to go into the future. Marty finds the McFly house to be significantly larger and nicer, and sees his father, the head of production at the planning center (due to his college education), and his wife, a local councilwoman, much happier. He also learns that, after the scandal at the dance, Biff ended up losing all future prospects, and ends up a minor functionary, working under George.

Just as Marty and Jennifer are about to enjoy time at a communal center, Doc reappears with the Phoenix from the year 2015, revealing that Marty’s son is in danger, and requests the two join him in traveling to the future….




[1] 88 mph converted to the Metric system
[2] The scandal surrounding Charlie Chaplin and various allegations of sexual improprieties, starting in 1955.
 
Last edited:
Top