OOC: Actually, would Venezuela be under an ineffective capitalist government ITTL?
OOC: I like that idea, it's pretty entertaining. Also, here's a thought. Anarcho-Capitalism. As we know, without the centralizing "influence" of Stalinism, the New Left and later what I'll call the Internet Moonbat Radical Left went kind of nuts, developing all kinds of crazy sectarian ideologies that are all pretty much incompetent and generally hate one another.
We know that:
- Marxism-Leninism/Stalinism
- Trotskyism (Not that big, but it is a thing)
- Various forms of Social Democracy
- Probably, like, syndicalism, but it isn't really that big
- and Left Communism
exist in this timeline, and are pretty hateful towards one another, but what if the truly insane sectarian purist side was the far right, with the twist being that Buckley and others managed to largely cut white nationalism and race politics from "mainstream" capitalist conservatism.
That would lead to two highly fractured rightist internet categories known for sectarian bickering and complete incompetence, all under the delusion that their glorious victory is right around the corner.
"Sort Of Kind Of Acceptable" Radical Capitalist Beliefs:
- Anarcho-Capitalism - Huge, produced due to the radicalization of proto-libertarians, Austrian schoolers, mutualist anarchists, and others. Perpetually convinced that the glorious TRUE CAPITALIST REVOLUTION is going to come any day now so they can murder all of these commies, defining "commie" as being anyone who went along with the "fall of capitalism" thing. Jerks it to Pinochet and the CIA, oddly authoritarian for "Anarcho" capitalists, claims that they just appreciate history. Glorify the USA.
- Anti-Communist Libertarians - A loose conglomeration of minarchists and relatively normal people who believe in a small government, incentives for society's producers and job creators, the right of capitalism to be kept from being infringed, they've realized that they're sidelined due to the communist victory - and they aren't happy about it. They tend to see ancaps as being kind of nuts and bloodthirsty, but they also have a tendency to want to "bring freedom back" - by any means necessary. Ancaps and them tend to form "Liberated Citizen's Militias" and the like, and are considered in this form a low-level terrorist threat.
- Objectivists - Less bloodthirsty than the other kinds of libertarians, they are still largely arrogant, worshippers of Ayn Rand, they see her story of coming from the oppressive USSR to the gloriously free USA to write as being almost a creation myth. They're a hive of sociopaths and arrogant Reddit libertarians who are driven by rage. Too good for memes.
- Pan-European Nationalism
- Some forms of Japanese ultra-nationalism
These are often people who have been screwed over in one way or another by the fall of capitalism, and sometimes they flee to countries with lower regulation if possible. Anti-Communist Libertarians tend to also be quite anti-socialist, for obvious reasons, and the red scare pervades the triad's shared mythology. As for right-wingers who aren't extremists, they've kind of had to come to terms with it being over in one way or another.
"Really Not Acceptable" Non-Socialist Beliefs:
- Neo-Nazism
- Christian Militias (These are actually surprisingly prevalent in some parts of the former United States, and they often coordinate through the internet.)
- Italian-style Fascism
- Integralism
- Strasserism (This actually had a boost in popularity due to the mix of anti-Semitism, the rise of socialism, and the appeal of fascism. It's worryingly big and Strasserist ideas have infected a lot of the racial right and a bit of the tankiesphere.)
- Neo-Confederates/the equivalent of neoreactionaries (More emphasis on capitalist/feudalist beliefs and racial "theories" in this sphere)
- Anti-Left Insurrectionary Anarchists (This one is reasonably big, and tends to get along well with ancaps, anti-communist libertarians, and, to a lesser extent, Objectivists, they tend to have a confusing mix of left and right philosophy and a very violent and destructive outlook)
- Apocalypse Cults
- Anti-Socialist Groups (Often a mix of some of the worst kinds of people, they're known for getting together to fume about the victors of the Cold War online - and a few of them have actually taken real lives. Mixed and diverse political opinions)
- White Capitalist League (The WCL essentially associates communism with the Jews and "Asian" Russian stock, and believes that the Cold War is merely the prelude to a glorious race war. Their beliefs are somewhat Millennialist in nature, and while they are a small niche, the ideas of Judeo-Bolshevism and the coming race war are getting more and more common as the old American way of life continues to slowly die out and the original American state is long-dead. Some of them have definitely killed people before.)
- Other, crazier forms of Japanese ultranationalism.
- And probably some others, but these are the ones that come to mind immediately.
I found online a whole thing called
"Political Ideology Catgirls" which focused on the various ideologies of the post-Soviet Left OTL complete with character profiles, so I'm tempted to make some for the ideologies here. IDK.