Recent content by Rufus

I believe fascist states that are secular and modernist, like Germany and Italy, could definitely survive to the present day. However, I think reactionary regimes like those of Portugal or Spain (or Austria under Dollfuss) would have a harder time in the long run. Fascism was a direct response...

Great premise. Today most people just assume that, if it wasn’t for Britain’s policy of ’Appeasement’, things would’ve automatically turned out better. So I look forward to world where Chamberlain is seen as a failure even without appeasement.

I don’t see religion leading to a huge divide between the various German states. IOTL, the only places in Europe post 1848 where the divide between different Christian denominations led to conflict were places where religion overlapped with ethnic identity, places like Ireland or the Balkans...

Personally, I sometimes wonder whether the phenomenon of advanced societies failing to reproduce might actually be a universal constant, kind of like a form of social entropy. There’s John B. Calhoun’s famous ‘mouse utopia’ experiment that he did in the 60s, where he created enclosed spaces...

If people have to ask themselves why they should have children, and start doing economic calculations, it’s already over. It means your civilization has reached a point where it can’t even justify its own existence. For pretty much all of human history, having children was simply something that...

How about tiny horse breeds like the Falabella, which are the size of dogs?

Yeah, I was actually thinking about the Italian city states with their unique election processes and quirky government systems when I made the post quoted in the OP. I always thought it was a shame that, despite the historic importance of the Italian city states as birthplace of the Renaissance...

I’d say the American Civil War was the earliest example of multi-year, quasi-industrial warfare with huge casualties. So I think the 1850s or 60s would be the earliest period where something similar to WW1 could take place.

I wonder if it would have been more likely for slavery to be ended peacefully on the back of some kind of ultra-racist, nativist movement, instead of ending it for humanitarian reasons. If, for example, the ‘Know-Nothing’ party had managed to become the third major political party alongside the...

A TL where the bourgeoisie as we know it never rose to prominence, because it’s the aristocracy that starts building factories and owning businesses. I don’t know how this might come about, and what could convince the aristocracy to go beyond just living off their land, but it would certainly...

That‘s a good point. And considering that most of the country‘s racial minorities were living in cities too, the US wouldn‘t just be more rural after the war, but whiter as well (relatively speaking, since in absolute numbers most of the victims of the war and it’s aftermath would be white). The...

It‘s a bit weird that a post-apocalyptic US sees the rise of the same political figures as OTL. I mean, Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich? Where are the rogue militia leaders that decided to enter politics? The ambitious governors with delusions of grandeur? The generals who decide to run for...

Once the truth comes out, the Democratic party will probably split. The Dixiecrats might join the GOP as others have suggested, while the rest might split into (anti-communist) liberals on one hand, and old school progressives/New Dealers on the other. The latter will probably be very...

I think it also depends on what kind of ‚neutrality‘ we‘re talking about. There are three options here: -actual, true neutrality -a pro-allied ‚neutrality‘ -german-friendly ‚neutrality‘ I think an argument could be made that the latter might actually be worse for the allies overall than...

Those colors are weird. What is ‘bague’ supposed to be? And what does yellow represent, since it’s not mentioned in the legend? I also see no ‘gun grey’ (?) anywhere. I’m very confused lol.