An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government

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How is Cornwall affected by all of this?

Cornish nationalism isn't quite the same force that Scottish or even Welsh nationalism is, so they're still English. If anything, I imagine the degraded standard of living in the former UK has probably turned people off of Cornish nationalism.
 
Not sure how unique it is but an Idea I had is a nation that is officially a Parliamentary Republic and it is one in basically every way. Expect there is a hereditary royalty with mostly ceremonial and religious role, probably even less than the current powers of the Emperor of Japan. But with large amount of soft power/influence. So the nation kind of functions as a constitutional diarchy between the president and the monarch.

Chaná would probably speak to one committed republican who wants to completely abolish the monarchy as the anti-status quo voice and some government employee/someone employed by the monarch/a member of the royal family as the first person he speaks to.
 
The British Commonwealth of Ulster
I really don't want to knock your creativity, but the way William Blackwood speaks feels really off and all the discussions of Britishness doesn't quite gel with a lot of Unionist attitudes and culture. I'll admit my views of Unionists are likely a little coloured by being from the Republic and my dads side being Catholics from Belfast, but the protestant and unionist communities in the North have their own unique culture, only occasionally adopting what they need from the Brits when need be to bang the drums to rally support. Then again, Blackwood is likely just trying to be a diplomat and put a shiny happy face and recognisable spin on the whole thing to make it more digestible
 
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I really don't want to knock your creativity, but the way William Blackwood speaks feels really off and all the discussions of Britishness doesn't quite gel with a lot of Unionist attitudes and culture. I'll admit my views of Unionists are likely a little coloured by being from the Republic and my dads side being Catholics from Belfast, but the protestant and unionist communities in the North have their own unique culture and only occasionally adopting what they need from the Brits when need be to bang the drums to rally support. Then again, Blackwood is likely just trying to be a diplomat and put a shiny face and recognisable spin on the whole thing to make it more digestible

The latter bit. The Unionists are trying to create a recognizable image to the world. Also, I imagine the extra big love of Britain is coming out because many view the recreation of the UK as the only long-term way they don't wind up getting absorbed by Ireland.

EDIT: Part of it is also an increase in Unionism based on "shit, we didn't realize how good we had it till it was gone."
 
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This one was a long time coming, delayed by a hard drive crash two years agao and yet after successful recovery and some rewriting since last month, it has come at last!


Soldatist People’s Commonwealth

Given what I have heard about this place, I’ve expected it to be somewhat shabby but luckily the destination in question, Bonn, is not like that; but is undeniably deceptive in terms of being “democratic” so there is a point to those countless anti-SPC propaganda I have looked up prior to my visit. Nevertheless the country of interest is worth exploring in spite of it being similar to many communist and far-left dictatorships based in Germany in other timelines, this one in particular is a military-based one, in that it relies on the military being the leading “revolutionary class” instead of workers or peasants. And this is exemplified in the propaganda posters and other imagery that fill the streets and alleyways with images of soldiers and the “proletariat” working hand in hand along with people in military uniform hanging around in the stores, beer halls, and cafes, sometimes those that aren’t necessarily from the Volks Army, usually to show solidarity with the regime as I learned before the visit. As for its geopolitics, it’s currently at odds with the Western European State (or commonly called the Euro State) and the Intermarium Alliance, who despite their ideological and governmental differences with each other, both hate the SPC with passion and had a brief armed conflict with it at some point, one with the ES over the Saarland, and the other with the IA over Czechia; all in spite of the blocs having nuclear weapons but luckily they haven’t been used nor did the brief skirmishes escalate. That and it seems more open for others to visit but then again I was told of how this one interviewer ended up mysteriously dead near a hotel after his meeting with the higher ups of the Volksstag, likely due to his anti-SPC stance that tipped them off. Still, I wouldn’t let that deter me, with my fabricated past of fleeing Paraguay as an alibi to get the people sympathetic to the SPC to trust me, especially with some who lived in the country in question.

One of the two people of this world I intend to meet happens to be a citizen here, Carl Garrett, who is a professor for the University of Bonn, and is currently having a lunch break in his office at the time, with his latest lesson being about the importance of farm labor. However, I have been informed by some people that professors in the SPC are generally paid off by the party in that they are used to reinforce their ideological rhetoric in spite of their claims to be “open-minded”, but still it is worth hearing his view on how the ideology works here. I came in to his office near the classroom and greeted him, and he seemed to be okay with my presence here with me lying about myself fleeing from Latin America and that I claim to learn about the ideology in question. Garrett was quite an experienced person, about in his 40’s and having nearly grayed out hair with a light beard, but had the face of a war veteran despite having no scars and looking a decade younger. He told me about how he came to be in the SPC and later as a professor after I noted his last name which indicated he was from outside the country, he started with him being born in the USA and moved here when it was called Germany in the 1970’s when he was in his pre-teens with his parents who were fleeing the country due to the political instability there. Then he got into politics in his late teen years because of his dissatisfaction with the democratization of Germany and its capitalistic policies at the time and that he participated in the Soldier’s Revolution on the side of the revolutionaries and got accepted into the regime’s education system as a choice between that or become part of the Volk’s Army. Nowadays he teaches the virtues of Soldatism and its connections to Marxist-Leninism to students both in the country and outside, namely those who seek to learn it. He claims that Soldatism is on the rise ever since the revolution and that it would become a phenomenon in the 21st century to “unite” the world.

“It’s quite amazing that we became the center of revolution that Marx intended,” he said. I then asked about how the SPC came to being.

“It wasn’t always like this; it was once divided up by the Yankees and the Soviets after the Second World War. Then things changed: the USA gets caught up in the Korean affair then escalated said war by nuking China, making what would have been an easy victory for the capitalist powers into a long and brutal affair. You can thank Barkley for that, as he took over after Truman got assassinated during the early phase of the East Asian War at the hands of Puerto Rican nationalists. Then in March 1952, for the sake of avoiding another Korea in Central Europe, the president agreed to a deal with Stalin to unify Germany and leave it as a neutral state, basically giving up West Germany by withdrawing their troops. Of course the British and the French didn’t like it despite reluctantly agreeing to follow in America’s example, due to their concentration on Egypt and Vietnam respectively, and afterwards, the bourgeois powers of Europe and America began to split with each other. Though America made up for it by eventually defeating the North Koreans and bringing the Communist Chinese to the negotiating table by 1957, it lost its influence on the European continent; “Gave up Germany for Korea” as people in the West said back then. And since then, the French began to devolve into capitalist-fascism and the latter united with the Low Countries and Italy into the Western European State by the beginning of the 1960’s with Britain more or less a willing accomplice and the rest is history”.

“Of course in regards to Germany, it wasn’t exactly reunited as Stalin promised but rather made the idiotic move to keep it divided of sorts into pieces via a confederation similar to the one in the 19th century based in Berlin under the GDR flag, only in that it was in two pieces; though in hindsight it was a somewhat understandable move to discourage the return of Nazism. Then he died in ’54 and his successor, Malenkov, had recognized the need to reunify the country if it were to be a stable neighbor and partner in the world scene, so henceforth said reunification came in 1955. Just about 5 years later, the European State spawned into existence as a reaction to the Germans embracing socialism and began to reach its tendrils into Iberia, Greece, and Africa throughout the decade. Even Germany was not safe from their grasp as Neo-Nazi hooligans were being backed by Euro spies to threaten the newly united nation and its “military” at the time was a pathetic militia that doesn’t know squat about taking on tanks, so henceforth the Warsaw Pact set out to create an army that would guarantee the safety of the German people by stamping out fascist subversion anywhere in the country. Thus the German People’s Army was born, an army for the people rather than one that would fall prey to fascism like the Wehrmacht did, and answers to no one but itself and to the will of the people. And of course it succeeded in its job in crushing the fascist insurgency, quite like a sheriff taking down a rowdy posse. Since then, under the banner of SED, there was a period of peace and prosperity for the German people.”

I can tell in that last part he really did like Westerns with that metaphor, especially with a Single-Action Army pistol in the back in a display case, which wasn’t loaded and was a prop as he later told me. Not to mention having a good collection of Wild West material in his office, especially those from media based on it. He said to me it’s part of the benefits of showing loyalty to the ruling party, especially when he first joined in his youth. That and he added he’s not the only one with peculiar interests that are members of the Soldatist Party existing, but I think Carl’s enough for me for now.

“Meanwhile the capitalist bloc began to tear itself apart with the Euro-American split still continuing and the USA and UK backing down from imperialism after the debacle in Iran in the 1970’s. You can safely say it was a boon for the non-capitalists, yet it wasn’t to last very long. In the 80’s, the German economy began to decline and the people were misled to believe that somehow the SED government was responsible even though there was evidence that the fascists manipulated them by giving them false info; though granted some of the leadership was incompetent along with the Soviet government that unwisely abandoned us and the Warsaw Alliance for the sake of settling matters in Iran and Uyghurstan. All while the United States fell apart in 1985 after a series of racial strife and regional separatism which you’d think would have kept the Eastern bloc alive, yet even that’s not meant to be so, though at least the Euro State declined a little before thanks to its imperialist antics taking toll on its economy. The Soviet Union fell in 1989 thanks to a combination of poor leadership and separatism and that was it for the people who followed the ways of Marxist-Leninism who were now becoming prey to fascism and capitalism, even in the USA when it began to follow the path of socialism.”

“The socialist system in Germany was sabotaged by the foolish Social Democrat party who basically opened the floodgates to the fascist subversion that we sought to prevent, especially with the disbanding of the DVA under the pretense of removing governmental “suppression”. The 1990’s was a terrible time, with the capitalist system failing us and the Neo-Nazi Republican Front gaining seats in the Bundestag and even winning the election in 1994. It was high noon at the Okay Corral, with the RF threatening to resurrect Nazi rule and fly the swastika once again, then, all of the sudden, a miracle happened. In August 1995, the people rose up against the Neo-Nazi regime and the DVA came back from the shadows to save them, led by a man called the Marshall. It wasn’t just made up of Germans but also many other nationalities around the world, some from Africa and Asia, it was a truly multicultural organization; there were even Jews and Arabs fighting side by side. It helped that in its heyday, the DVA would volunteer in various proxy wars against Western imperialism. And as you know, I was a participant in the revolution at first starting with the anti-fascist protests, of which I have participated in. Then after the crackdown happened, I made the commitment to the people’s cause and that part is history. Anyway, after our forces crushed the last of the reactionaries in October, I met the men behind the revolution in a ceremony celebrating the victory, especially the Marshall himself, and from him personally I was awarded with this medal for my contribution to the July Revolution.”

He showed off the Order of Kahle medal, which had Hans Kahle’s likeness on a gold round plate with wreaths around it, very similar to the Soviet Order of Lenin both here and other universes, only this medal has the People’s Sword instead of the Hammer & Sickle. Being reminded of what the symbol stood for, I asked him about what Soldatism is and how it’s implemented.

“Here’s where Soldatism comes in; see most variants of Marxist-Leninism rely on the either the urban workers or the rural peasants to be the proletariat, but this one relies on the soldiers to lead the revolution. After all, it is in the name; the reason is that the workers and peasants are too vulnerable and susceptible to being manipulated, while the soldier obviously fights. Granted they too can be manipulated by capitalist-fascists, as the Western-propped governments in Latin America and Asia showed us, but here the situation is different as they are trained not to fall prey to the ways of fascism; we took the lessons learned about the Wehrmacht’s complicity in Nazi crimes very seriously, far more than any other nation can. All thanks to the anti-Nazi veterans in helping us out with it, as well as drawing on the experiences the Soviets had in supporting the 1917 from disaffected Russian Army veterans. And of course, the role of the soldier is to establish, via revolution, a socialist and democratic government that will incentivize collective work and ownership of production. Class enemies, be they of the bourgeois of the or nationalists, are to be purged and expelled from the revolution since they contribute to the class struggle; and we put emphasis on the nationalists and nationalism being an enemy because of their role in fermenting imperialism and fascist exploitation. As for the soldier, the class struggle in itself is a war, an ongoing war, and to wage a war you need soldiers, soldiers who know and understand the class struggle, and like all wars, bloodshed is necessary.”

I asked him to elaborate on the specifics of Soldatism.

”It’s not enough to have the military be just the armed forces of a proletariat state but rather be the government to rule it, manage the economy, and maintain the peace of society. Again, the military is strong enough to only lead a revolution and preserve it, yet I must add it only does so as a sign of solidarity with the people. Sure one can start a revolution and govern a worker’s paradise but how often does one do so while being part of the armed forces that ensured such an event for the people? Not very often, not even the likes of that deviant Josef Stalin had the courtesy of showing comradeship with the people he supposedly cared for nor that of Mao Zedong who sold out the people in nuclear fire and became a coward when the forces of Chiang came into the mainland during the later stages of the East Asian War. The leadership of Germany is not like them, both they and the people wear the same kinds of uniforms to express the role of the military in leading the revolution, not that of the workers nor the peasants. If those two groups wish to contribute to the cause, they must enlist in the military which is compulsory. Being a party member is almost cosmetic when it comes to the difference between being in the military and being in the party in that you merely have a badge of the party on your uniform in regards to the latter.”

I mentioned to him about the similarities with Trotskyism and Carl happily replied in response.

“Of course, those are deliberate; Trotsky himself had the right idea in spreading the revolution instead of being isolated in the name of ‘Socialism in one country’, especially not as there are similarities between the geopolitics of the 1990’s with that of the late 1910’s and 1920’s in regards to threats to the proletariat state. We are not like the slouch Stalin and his cronies were wasting their efforts with their ‘socialism in one country’ nonsense whereas doing so made them vulnerable to warmongers, no we export the revolution to wherever is possible in the way Trotsky wanted, even to the most remote region in the planet, so that the imperialists would spend their resources away from us and on them, yet they will lose in the long run, especially as America’s economic troubles in the 1970’s and 1980’s showed that capitalism isn’t sustainable in the long run.”

“Speaking of which, our economy is managed by the military as well as other aspects of German society. What is important is that much of our economy and society is geared to spreading the revolution, with both the workers and peasants contributing. As I’ve mentioned before, being a member of the party is almost no different from being in the military and that being so in regards to being enlisted is a necessity to contribute to the cause. However, one can opt out of military service as long as they can serve in non-combat roles, even though military training is a requirement. As for non-combat roles, many of them involve working in the farms and factories to ensure the connection between the people, same in the streets and in the military facilities, the uniforms the members in question wear say it all. And speaking of connection, I must point out that we do allow foreigners inside to help carry out the revolution around the world, as it is enshrined in our constitution about ‘soldiers of the world’ and that I mentioned how said foreigners played a role in the Revolution of 1995. Anyone from everywhere is welcome, even from enemy nations like the Euro State and Poland, as long as they swear allegiance to our country; all provided they go through a process of ensuring that their commitment is genuine and not otherwise. And I must stress that it’s conceptually no different than the idea of America allowing foreigners in for their democracy, at least on paper and before the authoritarian turn at the hands of Richard Nixon.”

Not risking in getting myself “disappeared”, I mentioned to him about the various rumors about the atrocities the Soldatist government has and is committed. Predictably, he seemed to be unamused and in disbelief and responded with his “refutation”.

“Don’t ever pay attention to what the so-called ‘witnesses’ say, if anything they’re obviously paid off by the capitalist mouthpieces to discourage people from around the world in contributing to the Soldatist cause; same thing with those that spoke ill of the USSR when it came to the unfortunate famine of the 1930’s, Stalin’s misguided policies notwithstanding. The Nazis used it as ‘justification’ for their atrocities against the Soviet peoples in their colonization schemes and the Euro State would do the same, even if they go into great lengths in distancing themselves from them by pointing out their ‘socialist’ antics and supporting Jewish peoples in spite of evidence of their hidden anti-Semitism. Same thing with those elements in the former American nations, Poland, England, Argentina, and elsewhere, always saying the same rhetoric to justify their anti-socialist policies and or behavior; it’s the oldest trick in the fascist book I tell you. Especially when they used it in their propaganda machines during our brief conflicts with them over the liberation of Saarland in 1997 and Czechia in 2005 from their grips. And they’re still spouting the same nonsense to this day, this time regarding the Venetians; in fact I won’t be surprised if they use it as a casus belli in a future conflict with us but luckily we have nuclear weapons ever since the testing of our very first nuclear bomb in the Baltic sea in 2006 to keep them at bay. A fistful of nukes I’d like to think of it when it comes to our policy on them.”

“But make no mistake, they can still surround us and have us collapse just like the fascist elements did to the USSR, even without a superpower like the USA. Yet the revolution has only begun and the 1995 one was just the beginning. That recent war with Poland was a mere speed bump in that we couldn’t spread to Eastern Europe thanks to Warsaw manipulating the governments of those countries and neither could we free Western Europe thanks to the Euro State regaining their influence, but still we were able to have Prague on our side. Austria, on the other hand, before that conflict and after the Saarland one joined us by the will of the military after hearing of European aggression in 1998, though it’s funny enough they did the same thing almost six decades ago with the Nazis but we are not the latter so that’s that. Not to mention that we are able to bring Slovenia and Venice into our orbit in the second half of the 2000’s and we’re getting the voice of revolution heard in places like Kurdistan, Africa, Iran, North America, and South Asia; sure the oppressive governments can silence them but all they’ll do is make more martyrs out of them the more they do it, they’ll bury themselves that way.”

He stood by his revolver pistol, putting his hand on the display case, with a solemn look on his face.

“In the days of the wild west, the Native Americans would often fight back against the Yankee imperialists stealing their land and wiping them out in the process, yet they would lose in the end. And indeed, the lower class people are suffering the same fate in the developing world at the hands of the bourgeois with the corporations being the new tools of imperialism, however they have help and our revolution is that help. We are the Good, the Imperialists Bad, and the struggle against them Ugly. Lots of people died in the process, some of them ones I knew personally since the revolution, and will continue to do so but that’s a fact of life in our never ending struggle to bring the world hope and eventually unity, which is what is needed in the wild west of politics. It’s clear that there hasn’t been a true world power since the Soviet Union went kaput in 1989, yet even then it was too weak to carry out its duty to world revolution. In its place were many independent nations and a broken Russia that struggled between its supposed freedom and order. Yet fortunes have changed with the resurrection of the USSR since the Communist party won the election in 2000 and became allies with us since the fight with Poland, even though it still retains the questionable notion of emphasizing the urban workers to be the proletariat. Not to mention it has to deal with the likes of Turkey and China, who are run by fascist governments.”

I asked about the SPC having more allies outside of Central Europe and the Second USSR. He seemed to be pretty upset about what he has to say.

“The Soldatist Commonwealth doesn’t have many allies despite our efforts to gain more influence around the world, we’re still on an uphill battle though that’s going to change in the future and has been so. Lately the Second United States has begun trade with us and sought to improve diplomatic relations despite protests by Brussels and Warsaw, though in recent times they have to deal with the nationalist regime in Mexico led by that fascist Ernesto De La Cruz. That madman wants to retake the old pre-1848 territories at the expense of the American peoples, stoking hatred between the Mexicans and the Americans in a manner similar to what Hitler did, especially in Aztlan. But sooner or later, even his own people he purports to represent will turn on him, especially his troops who are basically partaking in a secret invasion of Texas as we speak. In addition, the Englishmen under the current nationalist regime threaten to recolonize Scotland and Ireland under the pretext of defeating Welsh and Cornish separatism, all with backing by the Euro State.”

That last part about Scotland reminded me about what I need to do next, so I proceeded to end the conversation and I shook hands with Carl, thanked him for his time with me, and headed outside the university to the airport and got on the plane there, flying to my next destination.

My next contact for another view of the SPC happens to live in the Scandinavian Union, yet is not a native of that country nor from Germany. This person in particular was once part of the Volk’s Army as a foreign volunteer during the revolutionary conflicts of the 2000’s and then defected to the Scandinavian Union due to an incident that made him doubt the Soldatist cause, a Scotsman named Seamus McCallum. His location was in a small, remote town in the Norwegian part of Scandinavia, of which is alleged to house refugees from Germany. I came across his house which was pretty fancy in spite of it being more akin to an apartment block. There, Seamus came to greet me and as well as introduce me to his dog, which is a pug, a well behaved one yet playful. He prepared some tea and snacks for me just before we sat in the living room and there I brought up his time in Germany. He told me that the information must be tightly guarded lest people associated with the Soldatists find out and kill him.

“Even here, I get mightily suspicious if anyone’s ever follow’d me home; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made enemies ever since I became one of those defector types, mate. I’ve heard horror stories of those much more unlucky than me, especially when it comes to the people in America, but hopefully you wouldn’ be caught up in whatever happens to me.”

That part I am not worried about given that I have no intentions of staying in this timeline for long; if anything I was more interested in the incident that made him disillusioned in Soldatism.

So henceforth I asked about him with persuasion and he said grimly, “Thon incident? Well, laddie, it’s quite a long story but if you insist, I’ll be happy to tell ye, so I hope yer sittin’ comfterably.”

He then cleared his throat and began his story, “After Scotland gained its independence in 1979, many of us, me-self included, looked to the Germans for help and to spite the Englishmen, so it’s not much of a shocker when there’s talk of fellow Scotsmen being chummy with the Jerries since then, even long after both the USSR and USA collapsed ‘n’ resurrected themselves. I myself was wan of them, even though I was too young to join the revolution of ’95 yet I was inspired by the Soldatists given that I was in a poor family and I had trouble gettin’ into university in the 2000’s. So then, I traveled to Germany in 2005, at the age of 19, in search of getting a good life for me and my family and to impress em, especially me father who often thought less of me for lackin’ spirit. I then joined the Volk’s Armee shortly afterwards, made some friends in my unit, especially this one mate frae Korea, who equally had a shite life like I had before enlistin’. Though he had it worse in that he had an abusive dad that beat him, mine wasn’t, but I recall he called me a lil’ bugger when I was goofin’ off but I’m gettin’ off topic here. After trainin’, I got transferred to the Venetian Soldatist Republic in 2007 and was stationed there as part of a peacekeeping unit to stamp out the counter-revolutionary insurgents, or at least thon’s what our officers told us.”

”Every so often we engaged in search and destroy missions against the insurgents, in the same manner the Soviets did in Uyghurstan in the 1970’s. Up until the incident, we always managed to defeat them yet I lost a few friends in the process. In our latest operation in February 2008 we were sent to the outskirts of Trento as part of a military operation to look for alleged insurgents, the Italian Liberation Army, thon were planning to take over the city in question and prevent them frae doing so. We found the group near a local village n’ we fought a short battle, it was quite big for both of us, and in the end we defeated the insurgents and sent off the captured survivors off to our HQ. Normally, this would be the end of a story, generic search n destroy, ain’t it? But of course, these are the Soldatists we’re talkin’ aboot, so there’s more to the story. Now after the battle, we had to go to the village in question and investigate the whole place for more insurgents. And there is where I witness’d somethin’ thon shook me world upside down.”

“While we gathered up the villagers, all o’ them, and most of them were put in the trucks and they drove off, with none of us knowin’ what happen’d afterwards, at least for a while. Then we gathered the remaining group who by then are just village leaders and people who taught Italian. However, they were put in the nearby forest were they literally dug holes only to be shot in the back. Then the buildings they lived in were burned down, and I was wonderin’ why do this when we didn’t before? Mind ye, I and others didnae do the shooting, we just watched the whole thing go just stationed there, just to keep the people in from escapin’. The officers told us they deserved it because they went against the Venetian government, but deep down, many of us knew that they didnae deserve it nor were such characters that fit the ‘fascist’ mold. For me, the fact that the dead were teaching Italian and were in the area when the country was taken over by separatists in league with the Soldatists tipped me off about how they treated people who just happened to have involvement with Italian in a positive manner. That’s when I realized the Soldatist Jerries were no better than the English oppressors, in fact perhaps worse; at least they had trials and only executed those guilty in their prisons.”

I asked Seamus how he managed to defect from the volunteer unit.

”Aye, I’m glad you asked me that. It’s realleh simple: I just flew away. How? Well, it was just a matter of luck on me part. For starters, I simply snuck off frae the barracks to the helipad while no one was looking, I didn’t even leave a letter for ob’vious reasons. It was at nighttime mind yeh, and that said helipad wasn’t guarded well, which made me lucky to come n’ steal a helicopter that just happen’d to be there. Everyone got alerted when I got the copter runnin’ and tried to shoot it down but I managed to get away in the dead o’ night, down south towards Ferrara, Padania. I honestly thought I would have been shot down by fighters n’or missiles by then but I managed to reach a nearby base, with me signalin’ my attempt to defect and after a while, the Padanians let me in, albiet inspectin’ me after landin’. They took me into the base for further questionin’ and I’ve told everything they need to know and they agreed to let me go provided I have protection until I leave the country. They told me there were a few other cases yet many others weren’t so lucky, so that’d give you an idea of how the defection goes. I got offered by the agency to move to a safe country of my choosin’ and I just happen’d to pick Scandinavia due to my past desire to visit there for vacation and here I am. Even though the circumstances of my defection were kept a secret, it eventually began to be an open one with said defection being a reoccurring subject when the whole thing about Venice is brought up. I later found out from unofficial sources on the web that the villagers my unit rounded up were put in the Soldatist’s own kind of gulags only for most of them to die/be killed in them ‘n’ the rest to be ‘reeducated’ to renounce their ‘nationalist’ ways; made me feel ashamed to be part of such a scummy group in the first place.”

I told him that I met Professor Garrett prior to visiting Seamus and he made a harsh response with a grimacing look.

“Well, jee, ain’t ye surprised that laddie’s a tool of the Soldatist regime? He may be wearin’ an outfit of a university professor but he’s no different frae the party blokes that run the country, even if his background’s different. That talk of “foreign solidarity” is pure haver when certain ethnic groups get screwed over if their nationalism is at odds with the regime’s ain kind, whether it’d be from Germany or Denmark or Venice. And on top of that, the Soldatists are no different than the oppressive SED or even the NSDAP, only that they wear the red banners and disassociate itself from the “Stalinist” ways just for brownie points. Their takeover of Austria after the Saarland conflict says it all; along with taking on Poland then taking over Denmark and formerly Northern Italy, doesn’t that ring a bell? They’re doing the same kind of imperialism the Nazis and Soviets have done in the past along with what the Euro State and other powers are doing. Noo, none o’ this means I’m gaunne support the Euro State over the SPC, they’re still crypto-fascists as far as I’m concerned. After all me gran’father fought the Nazis in WWII, so I don’t need to be with people who are close to such nor be with those who claim to fight against. Bottom line: always careful of who you back in this time of an undead cold war.”

I thanked him for the chat and left his house, with my concerns about a new cold war starting that can once again threaten nuclear destruction across the world on my mind once again. “Haste ye back!” he said in a mildly happy mood at his front door.


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I'm putting this here since I don't know where else to, lol:

If anyone would be willing to make a fairly simple map (just Nicaragua and Costa Rica) I would be very grateful. I unfortunately suck at using the software.
 
Soldatist People’s Commonwealth

Unfortunately Eastern block getting the entire Germany would have probably been a trigger for a WW3 which would go nuclear in short order!
That's why the idea of an independent neutral Germany was discarded IRL.
Will there be a map?
 
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Unfortunately Eastern block getting the entire Germany would have probably been a trigger for a WW3 which would go nuclear in short order!
That's why the idea of an independent neutral Germany was discarded IRL.
Will there be a map?
Sure, RVBOmally does the cover and like before, I'll be happy to help. And as for the takeover of West Germany, keep in mind it was done in a "peaceful" manner and that the Western bloc's arms were twisted by an incompetent USA under the belief of avoiding a Korea in Europe; it might not be the most plausible way to have Germany united under the GDR flag sure but it's one way I can think of having a scenario like that happen barring a Berlin Blockade POD where the Allies screw up the airlifting campaign.
 
Ideas I've had that I mean to write up and see if they're up to snuff one of these days:
--A country run by its health care ministry, dedicated to ensuring the health of the populace first and foremost. I'm thinking this is some kind of weird hybrid regime where theoretically there's a democratic government that can appoint the head of the health care ministry but that head can then do basically anything in the name of protecting public health.
--A full-on IWW style One Big Union democracy, where every adult is automatically enrolled in a labor union and voting is organized by profession rather than location. (thinking I'd use Kaiserreich's Union of Britain for this)
--a YA dystopia state where people are theoretically given jobs based on their scores on a silly test or personality test or something, which is in practice something of a songbun system like North Korea has.
--A Strasserist/nazbol state with a crazy caste system that practices extensive wellfare for the higher castes in a sort of staggered, hierarchical manner. (tbh it'd probably be a decaying wreck and even the higher castes would live shitty lives, but still)
--A state with two separate governments simultaneously; the idea is basically that during an independence struggle, this country was divided between radical nationalist republicans and those who wanted a staggered severing of ties with the old regime, and even now that they're fully independent they can't agree on who's in charge, so people basically voluntarily associate with one state or the other based in large part on family history and there's a byzantine mess of laws so that criminal justice is at all possible.
Adding to this:
--An anarcho-socialist state where there's so much democracy people are almost sick and tired of it. 'Goddamn it, do we have to have so many elections? I barely have time to work!' 'We had a referendum on county dog-catcher vs. county animal-catcher just last week, I don't even care, I just want to go on vacation!'

Trying to do a writeup on the "two governments" Ireland idea right now. :)
 
Meanwhile, I'm getting a couple of ideas of a pretty successful communist state, not sabotaged by outside interference and actually following the damn spirit of it
 
Suddenly reminded of my 'guy-turned-transhuman-nanobot-swarm isekai ending up forming a nation to rise from its magic post-apocalypse' idea where it'll develop into a mixed government inspired by Polybius' theory but the Monarchy is designed to set and focus on fulfilling the long term 50 year plans, the Council of Ministers are made up of experts in their fields so the Minister of Agriculture has to be an experienced farmer for example, and the House of Representatives are democratically elected all with a Constitution setting up the basic rights and liberties of the nation.
 
Republic of Ireland/Irish Republic.

I arrive in Dublin just in time for the orange-white-green flags to be taken down and the green Proclamation flags to be run up the flagpoles--a symbolic transfer of power from the Republic of Ireland to the Irish Republic. I had the foresight to negotiate with both states prior to arriving, and the only hurdle I run into is when the outgoing secretary of the outgoing Republic of Ireland Taoiseach has me wait some forty-seven minutes for the arrival of the incoming secretary of the incoming Irish Republic Taoiseach. Apparently there has been some congestion in the city due to the handover of power, and the incoming Taoiseach has been delayed.

The outgoing Taoiseach, a former actor by the name of Colm Meaney, offers to share a drink with me at the local pub; having nothing better to do, I accept.

"It's all Connolly's fault, really," Meaney opines as he sips his pint. "Him and Collins and de Valera. But mostly Connolly, if he'd had the patience to wait a few more years we wouldn't be stuck with this feckin' mess."

I ask whether the transfer of power is likely to last as I sip my own Guiness. Meaney snorts. "Are you out of your mind? Twenty people transferred citizenship this month, and that caused the switch. Both parties are at about 50% of citizens, and nobody has the bollox to have anything like real policy, let along fixing the system, for fear of another swap. I'll be back in that office in a month when Dodd fecks it up, or pisses off some pensioner, or whatever other stupid little thing." He shakes his head with a sigh. "Sometimes, I think the Communists might have the right idea."

The Communist Party of Ireland, a left-wing populist and formerly Marxist-Leninist organization, is the only political party that operates in both the Republic of Ireland and Irish Republic, running candidates for office in both states. Its stated goal--at least since it abandoned 'vanguard theory' in the 1970s--has been the fusion of the two Irelands into a multiparty democracy, and the Communists have long since absorbed the vast majority of anti-dual-state Irish Catholics. It and its electoral policy are legal in both Irelands, though since each candidate for each state's office cannot run for office in the other state, it has yet to come close to taking over either state.

Ireland's origins as an independent nation and twin states dates back to 1916's Easter Rising. With the United Kingdom distracted by the war in Europe, and the Austro-Hungarian army pushing into Italy and eastern Ukraine while the Germans pushed to within 25 miles of Paris, radical Irish Republicans, inflamed by the failure of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1914 and subsequent suppressions of striking anti-war workers in Cork in 1915, revolted against British rule. Unable to respond properly with France seriously considering a negotiated peace, the British failed to put down the rebellion, and the broader Irish nationalist movement soon moved to the side of the nascent Irish Republic. By the time France surrendered in 1919, the Republicans controlled about half of the island. and German support enabled them to push British forces almost entirely out of the North.

At this point, Michael Collins, leader of a large faction of Republicans, attempted to form his own Republic of Ireland to negotiate a truce with the United Kingdom, who he feared would invade Ireland with forces who had been fighting in Europe while the Royal Navy controlled the seas. Rival rebel leaders Eamon de Valera and James Connolly disagreed, pushing for taking all of united Ireland immediately.

The feared invasion never came, as strikes and socialist uprisings in Germany and Britain's industrial heartlands crippled both powers and forced them to the bargaining table, but the damage was done. Ireland had two rival governments, led by men who now hated each other.

A failed rebellion by Ulster Unionists prevented an outright civil war, but it still took over a year of negotiations before the two states managed to come to an agreement; every adult Irish person would be counted (initially all men, but soon expanded to women as both factions tried to pad their support), and would choose a state to belong to. Citizens of the Republic of Ireland would vote in that state's elections, and citizens of the Irish Republic would vote in that one's; each state would determine its own governmental structure; and citizens of one state would be subject to that state's laws. At the end of every month, the citizens would be tallied (changing citizenship taking between a day and a week, on average), and whichever state had more citizens would take precedence--representing the nation in foreign affairs and diplomatic meetings, initially.

This system lasted until the 1930s, when persistent legal issues involving petty criminals switching citizenship to evade punishment for crimes that only one state recognized led to the first and only major reform that the Irish government has had since. Now, if the number of citizens changes one state's dominance, every government position is switched out, and the dominant party determines the laws that affect all of Ireland, with citizens of one Ireland considered citizens of the other for the purpose of criminal and civil law. This system survived the Second Great War (1940-1946), and continues to this day.

Each Ireland is nominally a democracy, but both are dominant-party states, with Communist opposition unable to meaningfully affect policy in most cases. The Irish Republic is run by the Fianna Fail party, founded by de Valera and Connolly, initially a nationalist big-tent party, then a conservative organization after de Valera took control of the party during the 1930s restructuring period, and later becoming a vaguely center-left organization after the collapse of de Valera's faction in the Magdalene scandal of 1952; the Republic of Ireland is run by Collins's Fine Gael party, conventionally a centrist big-tent party. Effectively, Ireland is a two-party democracy, albeit perhaps more complex than most.

I ask Meaney about the remaining Unionist population in Ulster. He shrugs helplessly. "They'll tell you they're not represented, but they won't choose a state, so what can you do? Yeah, there are people who won't give 'em a job, but again, what can you do? Dodd's in now because I suggested we might need some anti-discrimination ordnances for reconciliation. Next month he'll probably say the same and I'll be back in. The only thing either government can do is pave roads, for feck's sake. We all know something's got to be done before the IngNats come back, but nobody has the bollox to do it."

The new Taoiseach's secretary enters and informs me that Taoiseach Dodd has arrived, and I bid Mr. Meaney farewell. Dodd, a grey-haired man with a grandfatherly smile and a scruffy short beard and moustache combination that climbs up his jaw to merge with his sideburns, greets me with a firm handshake. "Mr. Chana! A pleasure, real pleasure. Welcome to the freest country on Earth!"

I ask whether he's saying that merely because he's in power this month. He laughs uproariously. "Only in part! Next month I'll probably annoy some loon down in Cork and Meaney'll be back in power, and Ireland will be a dictatorship no better than the IngNats and we might as well have never gotten our freedom. But that's just for politics, I do actually believe that our system is the freest there is."

I ask why. He gestures around at his office, newly redecorated, the pictures still slightly askew. "What other country lets you choose what form of it you belong to? Do the Americans let their Reds set up their own America? Do the Russians let their anarchists and Faith and Freedom Party supporters set up their own Russias? Is there a Pirate Germany for the German Pirate Party? No, only we let our people choose what Ireland they want to be part of! Sure, we have our hiccups, but both Irelands hold free elections on a regular basis--every four years for our glorious freedom-loving Irish Republic, of course, every five for those authoritarian statist compromisers in the Republic of Ireland--and if any Republic of Ireland citizens want to join the original Irish Republic, they can do it with a quick trip to the registry office. The reverse could be true as well, of course, but as head of my party I am obligated to assure you that I cannot imagine anyone ever wanting to do so."

I take Mr. Dodd's words with a grain of salt, but this Ireland is, while peculiar and clearly a flawed democracy, at least one of the more pleasant states I've encountered...
Irish flag for AH.jpg
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General world summary:
--POD is in 1914, with the failure of the Third Home Rule Bill, inflaming Anglo-Irish tensions.
--Secondary POD is that before WW1 begins, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf slips and hits his head, dying as a result; the Austro-Hungarian military therefore performs slightly better in WW1 due to somebody with basic common sense being in charge, so the CP are in a slightly better position by 1916, with Russia on its last legs, so Romania stays neutral with the more precarious situation.
--Britain is thus less able to respond to a much more powerful Easter Rising, with France in slightly worse shape. The Easter Rising government manages to attract a majority of support from the Irish republican movement with more successes, and so it controls most of the island by the time France surrenders in 1919.
--Germany supports Ireland, which is winning and closing in on Ulster despite Britain redeploying troops, and Collins's faction in the republican movement calls for peacing out with Britain before the Brits can crush the revolution, declaring a separate Republic of Ireland and trying to start negotiations with London; Connolly and de Valera call for no appeasement.
--Socialist revolts force Germany and Britain to the bargaining table just before the Brits can launch a proper response with the soldiers freshly returned from the continent. Ireland is free, but there's almost immediately a Unionist revolt in Ulster, which gets put down, but neither Republic nor their paras can decide who's in charge.
--They hammer out a deal before civil war can break out--every month, the number of citizens of each state is counted, and whoever has more is in charge. Citizens of one state get rights and services like citizens of the other but are counted for their own state.
--This incredibly stupid system lasts because nobody has the balls to change it. The Communist Party wants to end it in favor of a more standard democracy (they used to want a 'proletarian dictatorship' but mellowed out in the '80s), Ulster Unionists don't register as citizens of either state. Both states are effectively one-party regimes, so it's de facto a two-party democracy with extra steps.

World stuff:
--Whites win Russian civil war with German support. Their regime is a dystopian nightmare run by authoritarian kleptocratic antisemites. It falls in the 1930s to anarchist, nationalist, and communist revolts in various areas the Germans didn't carve off, precipitating *WW2.
--India revolts shortly after the war and the brutal slog results in the Indians winning after the British pull out to prevent another communist revolt at home. Oswald Mosely wins the next set of elections on a rabid revanchist platform and starts turning Britain into a dystopian CommieNazi "IngNat" regime.
--*WW2 is a war between fascist France and CommieNazi Britain on one side, somewhat authoritarian Germany on the other. (Austria-Hungary is collapsing and the Ottomans are busy fighting minority rebels and trying to conduct genocides without people noticing) Germany gets the Bomb first and nukes Britain after beating France, Mosley is killed in the blast; revolts against the remains of Mosley's regime pop up and the Americans step in to mediate between the exhausted powers. Britain is broken up into a federation of states which quickly tell the Germans to get lost and run to America, which by now has the Bomb, for protection, and nobody wants to risk nukes flying every which way. France is neutralized forcibly, the remains of colonial empires implode and Germany retreats from its colonies to rebuild. Germany makes multiple concessions to pro-democracy movements to buy their loyalty, eventually reaching a state like the modern UK. The Germans have tried to rebuild an influence network but that's basically limited to the Very Sorry France, eastern Europe, and the former Austria-Hungarian countries.
--The Ottomans collapse after they fail to put down the rebels and the US embargoes them, causing economic collapse. Modern Turkey is revanchist and the rest of the Middle East is mostly peaceful because the Arabs, Kurds, and various minorities all hate the Turks more than each other.
--The left-KMT wins the factional struggle in the 1920s so China is a rickety vaguely left-wing republic. Used to be somewhat authoritarian but the opposition started to win elections in the late '70s and they have since mellowed out. Japan fought America and was crushed like a grape.
--Canada is an American sockpuppet. Australia and New Zealand tried confederation, that fell apart as the Aussies tried a brief flirtation with authoritarianism, then America basically browbeat them into being less racist because America had just ended segregation and was feeling really, really guilty about that whole racism thing.
--Modern Russia is a very decentralized federation that's lost most of the Caucasus but has a pretty decent economy.
--India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) is a dominant-party state and super nationalist, but ironically state propaganda policy is that India is superior to Britain because of its combination of ethnic and religious groups living together in harmony (whereas Britain is portrayed as a "totalitarian English regime genociding other peoples"). This doesn't always work out in practice, but they try. The guys in charge get by basically on propaganda and trying not to rock too many boats.
--Latin America has a lot of left-wing regimes of various sorts. The USA was on better terms with China than with the USSR, and though the big American megacorps tried to get the government to do their bidding down there early on, a huge scandal involving a cataclysmically failed coup against the President in the 1930s led to meddling in Latin America being not-kosher for the better part of a century. Most of these countries have since forgiven the USA for dicking around and are neutral or friendly to America.
--Africa is less of a mess than OTL--decolonization was an extremely rapid shock, but the Americans were flexing their muscles and considerably more anti-colonialist than OTL. Most of Africa is friends with the Americans, and there are more of them than OTL (America negotiated some separations of artificial colonial nations, which helped ease a lot of tensions); the African Union is more like an early-days EU than a diplomatic forum TTL. South Africa got basically forced by America to stop being racists about the time the Australians do. Some still grumble that the Americans are hypocritical dickheads.
Credit to @Ephraim Ben Raphael for the Ireland map since I have been horribly busy with graduate school.
 
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Thai Central Revolutionary Committee
The streets of City Number One are wide and free of traffic. This was in part because the city was modeled after “Red Paris,” but mostly because few cars drove down the streets of this planned city. Built deep in the rainforest, City Number One is only accessible by aircraft, as roads to Thailand’s older cities were in a poor state. There was little incentive to complete them: while cars were rare in City Number One, they were all but nonexistent beyond. Such was the price of national autarky and a national automobile industry that was made up of one factory which produced vehicles solely for the military and the Committee elite.

The buildings all around me resembled a theme park’s version of Thailand: concrete and steel replicas of traditional Thai architecture. Large murals with smiling children – each representing one of Thailand’s ethnic minorities – crowding around the First Comrade, who here represented the Siamese race. The caption of the mural made the message all too clear: “The leadership of the Siamese race will bring prosperity to all of Asia.”

My car, a local copycat of a British luxury design, sped through the empty roads. I fidgeted slightly in my seat and adjusted the red badge clipped to my suit. On it, characters that identified me and marked me as a “clean visitor.” I made sure the badge was clipped on tight, and that it did not slip out of its sleeve. It was a pass that gave me “honorary Siamese” status, and marked me as protected by the government. Although open to all Siamese people, Thailand does not permit entry for almost any foreigners. I was given access because the government wished to make its case to the wider Nutshell.

Making the case is Comrade Sukhon Chairat, the former ambassador to the Canadian Republic. Chairat was one of the few Committee officials to have ever visited the outside world, and I suspected that she was assigned to speak to me so other officials would be insulated from speaking to an outsider.

I asked Ms. Chairat about the criticisms that the Thai model of nationalist socialism is not a true form socialism. I pointed out that many self-proclaimed Marxists, including in her own worldline, do not count the Thai system as a socialist one. After exchanging pleasantries, I noticed that her English was perfect; had I not known better, I could have mistaken her for a newscaster for the BBC.

“All politics is ethnic,” Ms. Chairat explained to me over a cup of green tea. “There is no contradiction between our socialism and Marxism. The Siamese people struggled against Western imperialism, just as the workers of the world struggle against capital. Both are the same struggle: the oppressed fighting the oppressors.”

Thailand, or Siam, was a casualty of the European colonial “great game.” The formerly independent Thai kingdom was partitioned between the British and French colonial empires in the mid-19th century. Thai soldiers would fight on opposite sides of the World War of the early 20th century, when Britain and France entered on opposite sides of the conflict. The World War weakened European colonial rule around the world, and increased the number of trained, armed colonial men. Thus, while the British were triumphant over the French in the World War and took control of all of Siam, their days were numbered.

I asked Ms. Chairat to elaborate on her theory of revolution.

“It is not my theory, it is the First Comrade’s elucidation on Marx. He asked: why shouldn’t the revolution be ethnocentric? Politics encompasses every aspect of the human condition. Ethnicity, culture, race, blood. These are all aspects of humanity. The mistake of the purist Marxists is to deny, reject, and try to destroy what make us human.”

The First Comrade, known prior to the Siamese Revolution by his birth name, Arthit Lamsam, was one of many members of the Siamese Communist Party, an illegal organization in British Siam. Although he did not found the organization, Lamsam became its leader by the time of the chaotic Red Wave, a string of communist revolutions which began in post-war France. Although most of these revolutions failed, the Siamese Communist Party succeeded under Lamsam’s leadership. The Siamese Communist Party formed the Thai Central Revolutionary Committee, which replaced the Thai colonial government in all aspects.

Key to Lamsam’s success is the tying of a communist revolution with an anti-colonial struggle: while there were few communists in Siam, many wanted the British out. Lamsam created his own variant of communism, termed Siamese Communism by the outside world. Lamsam proposed that, just as a certain level of economic development is necessary for a society to transition to a socialist model, each “race” or ethnic group in the world had to reach a certain level of “conscious development” before they could pursue a socialist revolution. Lamsam believed that the Thai people reached this level, and could pull the rest of Asia up as the “vanguard race.”

I asked Ms. Chairat to elaborate on the concept of the “vanguard race.” To me, it rang of ethnic supremacy. She shook her head.

“Many times, the imperialists accuse us of supremacy, because they smear us and our progress. The Siamese people are not inherently superior to any other. The Committee’s case is that the Siamese have, by the good fortune of counting the First Comrade among us, become Asia’s vanguard race. It is our task to move the workers of the Asian continent to revolution by education and agitation.”

Feeling daring, I confronted Ms. Chairat on the question of the Committee’s “Siamese first” policies. I cited reports from international organizations and the governments of neighboring countries, and the Committee’s own policies. The reallocation of land from ethnic minorities to Thai farmers. The destruction of minority cultures through the imposition of the Thai language. Ms. Chairat immediately had an answer prepared.

“What the imperialists slanderously call destruction of culture is a proper education. We require nothing of others that we do not require of ourselves. We removed of old modes of thinking created to oppress us, and we are educating ethnic minorities to do the same. We have shared our material and intellectual riches with others, you cannot tell me that is a form of oppression. We have achieved universal literacy in the countryside. We are making great progress in bringing clean, running water and electricity to every village. It is our responsibility, as vanguard race, to lift up others, as an older sibling does with his or her younger siblings. That revolution began with us Siamese people, and it will continue under our guiding hand.”

Knowing that I would not be permitted to visit these areas, I made a trip to Paris. There, I spoke with Marcel Duchamp, former ambassador of the French Popular Republic to the Thai Central Revolutionary Committee. Mr. Duchamp became an avowed opponent of the country he lived in for five years. I asked him why.

“I could no longer stomach what I was seeing around me. The complete bastardization of Marxism, in the name of Marxism. What Arthit Lamsam built was a Siamese empire. Siamese Communism is a failure, even by its own stated principles and goals, and it surprises me that they continue the pretense.”

I asked Mr. Duchamp to elaborate on this point.

"The notion of the Siamese people being a ‘vanguard race’ has become an excuse for ethnic Siamese, and the Revolutionary Committee in particular, to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”

But why would that be the case?

“Because the Siamese see themselves as responsible for everyone else’s prosperity, they must have access and control over resources first. Even excluding outright corruption, which is rampant, this means favoritism disguised as charity. Siamese children must have the best education, because they will educate everyone else. Siamese people must have the best food, and more of it, because the work of uplifting the rest of the country requires more nutrition. On and on, they have concocted rationales for why they must have the best.”

What about the benefits the Thai government is giving to the people? Electricity and water? Mr. Duchamp laughed.

“I will give the Revolutionary Committee credit for this: their infrastructure outside of City Number One is almost uniformly bad. This still benefits ethnic Siamese, because they have been placed in control of everything from collective farms to villages. This poor infrastructure is the natural result of their autarkic policies. When I was working there, I had trouble getting them to agree to any trade with France, a fellow socialist republic.”

I asked Mr. Duchamp why that was the case. Why would the Revolutionary Committee cause harm to itself?

“The Committee cannot accept that any society would be more advanced than itself, nor does it want to be dependent on outsiders for anything. They think that we are not true communists, and that the Siamese will lead not just an Asian revolution, but the world revolution. I could put up with this nonsense for so long before I had to leave, for my own sanity.”

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