Reds fanfic

Bulldoggus

Banned
@The_Red_Star_Rising But it is enlightening to see a coolness expert such as yourself explain why pedantically going on about how dangerous a dinosaur is far cooler than making a joke about a TRex’s tiny hands. I see now that everything we mere mortals think an obnoxious, pedantic loser would do are actually cool to 12th dimensional brain geniouses such as yourself. I am in awe at your coolness, sir. I am blown away.
 
Ah, yes, entirely unlike your constant affectation of being soft and emotional. That isn’t tryhard at all. I see.
I never really make a point of my demeanor. It's just something passed down to me from my faith's lessons on the importance of being gentle to better appreciate the gods. I gave up swearing at the recommendation of the temple leader to feel more at peace with my deities.

@The_Red_Star_Rising But it is enlightening to see a coolness expert such as yourself explain why pedantically going on about how dangerous a dinosaur is far cooler than making a joke about a TRex’s tiny hands. I see now that everything we mere mortals think an obnoxious, pedantic loser would do are actually cool to 12th dimensional brain geniouses such as yourself. I am in awe at your coolness, sir. I am blown away.
I make no pretension at being cool or particularly awesome at anything. I'm merely pointing out that constantly thinking and vocalizing those thoughts that things other people like are the stuff of comedy to you comes off as rather contrarian tough guy behavior.
 
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@The_Red_Star_Rising But it is enlightening to see a coolness expert such as yourself explain why pedantically going on about how dangerous a dinosaur is far cooler than making a joke about a TRex’s tiny hands. I see now that everything we mere mortals think an obnoxious, pedantic loser would do are actually cool to 12th dimensional brain geniouses such as yourself. I am in awe at your coolness, sir. I am blown away.
Is that really necessary?

Hell, to everyone in the discussion, let's try not to throw around personal remarks.
 
Yammering on about how you find things typically thought of as icons of horror or symbols of majesty to be funny is fairly classic ITG behaviour and also just kind of contrarian in general. I don't really mean anything malicious in poking fun at it though.
Frankly, I don't think ITGs would be smart enough to talk about not being afraid of stupid horror monsters without mentioning how many guns or martial skills they have. All I did was talk about how i thought the appearance of the monsters looked stupid (something passed onto my me from my dad, who was equally as dispassionate) and honestly, creatures that I know aren't real just don't scare me. I'm sorry that I'm not a teenager anymore like you are.

As for being contrarian, I'm really not. In fact, I'd probably say I'm less contrarian than most people that frequent the thread.

I don't really understand how you xame to the conclusion that I was trying to be a Tough Guy?

I don't think a tough guy would pick a Chef as a job since most people don't find being a Chef fairly tough. Sure, there's Ramsay, but hes a meme more than anything else.

I also don't think a tough guy would tell you that he was suffering from PTSD considering that's commonly regarded as a major sign of weakness.

Would a tough guy admit that he enjoys romance movies more than most?

Would he willingly admit to you that he suffers from alcoholism?

How about admitting that he had a unholy mixture of OCD and ADHD that made everybody in his school think he was a fucking moron?

Would a tough guy tell you thst he was a awkward and overweight teenager who was frequently picked on?

How about the fact that he was in and out of psychological therapy every day his junior year?

Would a tough guy openly tell you that he was at such a degree of self loathing that at 16 years of age, he decided to overdose on painkillers, nearly resulting in his death? How about the fact that on his 18th birthday, he very nearly put a round from his father's .38 police special into his cranium?

I get why you think I'm a windbag. I'm fairly different from you. You're a geeky, more emotional, softer kid. Youre into nerdier stuff than me. I'm the opposite. I hunt. I like playing sports. I weightlift. I like to do things that seem overtly machismo. Is there anything wrong with this? No, there's not. Do I see why you'd rhink I'm a plastic moron? Yes, I do. I'm goofy, dry, and prone to find more fantastical things less intriguing than that more grounded in reality.

But I don't see why I have to be "confronted" over this in the most insulting way possible, especially since it was just over a joke about a T-Rex and its arms (why in the absolute fuck you'd think I was trying to be tough over T-Rexes is ridiculous to the highest degree) that you blew way out of proportion.

I think this whole attitude you have against me stems from that "Brocialism" argument we had on the discord a week ago, which I apologized for, and explicitly told you that I waa drunk (you know, alcoholism) and not fully coherent. You've done this to @WotanArgead in the past, and if you think I don't see what you're doing, you're incorrect. If you aren't doing what I think youre doing, I'd suggest being a bit less blunt in your speech.

But thanks for being a vapid shit talker towards an avid reader who has always tried to be at the very least civil, who also managed to insult said person's character. I didn't think you'd be able to pull that off.

download (6).jpg
 
Frankly, I don't think ITGs would be smart enough to talk about not being afraid of stupid horror monsters without mentioning how many guns or martial skills they have. All I did was talk about how i thought the appearance of the monsters looked stupid (something passed onto my me from my dad, who was equally as dispassionate) and honestly, creatures that I know aren't real just don't scare me. I'm sorry that I'm not a teenager anymore like you are.
While I do appreciate your honesty and openness a great deal, it's the latter attitude that grates me due to my bad experiences with Atheists putting me down for my beliefs in things that aren't of the material world. The way you spoke made me on edge since I've gotten a lot of unfriendly and snide remarks for believing in the supernatural and not just in one god but many as well as my generally intensely religious approach to life. It's something I have to put up with a lot from my dad a lot in particular that's left the two of us deeply and I fear perhaps permanently estranged since we can't talk about our world views or my appreciation for the fantastical without him basically calling me a silly child at best or an ignorant dreamer at worst for it and it all just makes me quite upset to the point that I've almost come to be glad that he's never at home anymore in my weaker moments. I'm not very good at telling people why and when they're making me uncomfortable, and I do apologize sincerely for any hurt feelings I may have caused, that was unrighteous of me in the eyes of the divines and I should make penance for that.
 
Okay, that really got out of hand. I should've probably intervened earlier, and I apologize for not doing so.

Let's try to make the discussion less personal in nature. It doesn't seem to end well, in any event.
 
I don't know what you guys were arguing about, but let us remind ourselves that this thread is for creativity, NOT for trolling.

Anyways, here is my newest idea yet:

Excerpt from Hendricks, Michael, "Cinema and Politics: The Evolution of Film in Comintern" (Los Angeles University Press, 2009)

Comintern Cinema In the Early Cold War

The breakdown of the post-war order from a tentative peace into superpower rivalry by the early 1950s left many Comintern residents with a sense of bitterness and disillusionment. That the Western Democracies rejected social progress in favor of outdated capitalist intrigue angered many.

No where was this bitterness more apparent than the movie industry of the Red world, where many an actor and director aired their newfound hatred of the Entente with angry films bashing the Franco-British.

This was often done through dredging up of old historic wars between the various nations, with films that heavily demonized Franco-British. In the words of Pauline Kael, these works ,"got an A in directing, but an F in history."

In America, films about the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 were produced, many of them exaggerating the war crimes committed by British soldiers, while downplaying the crimes of the Revolutionary and American army. Even the Founding Fathers, bourgeois elitists, were depicted as protectors of the working man.

One of the most notable of these works was Edward Dmytryk's [1] 1954 epic The Sack of Washington, a dramatization of the burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812, and the efforts by James Madison to save what he could. The film was praised for its choreography and special effects, but historians turned their noses up at the portrayal of the British forces as simple minded Visigoths as they plundered the capital of the young nation (glossing over the American army's own attacks on Canadian towns).

Soviet directors (often guided by strong state control of arts) were also crafting cinematic invective. Mikhail Kalatozov's 1957 The Push from the West, was especially denigrating toward the French, with Napoleon's army portrayed not to similar to the Fascist Horde of the recent past, with their rape and plunder of the Russian countryside.

Other films often bashed the supposed decadence of French and British elites, with royals from either country portrayed as gluttonous tyrants. Many of the works of Charles Dickens, ironically, were adapted to exaggerated the excesses of British capitalism.

Art is often a reflection of mood of an era. And within films of the 1950s was an antipathy toward the capitalist world.

[1] Dmytryk OTL was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. ITTL, I imagine he has a lot of room to bash capitalism.
 
...this thread almost got destroyed over an off-topic argument about old horror movies?

I knew there was a reason why I rarely check in.
 
Excerpt from "Christmas Around the World", a survey of Christmas traditions across the world, published 2009 (Travelogue Press, London)

The Union of American Socialist Republics

As part of the secularization of society during the so-called "First Cultural Revolution" between 1933 and 1948, the holiday of Christmas was rolled with Hanukkah and New Years into a new "Yule" Holiday season. Christmas was an important part of the new season, and the old American traditions of Christmas (often drawn from various immigrant traditions as well as mythologizing by figures like Washington Irving) were mostly retained. However, they was given a more secular, social bent, and over the decades, taken more influence from the many cultures inhabiting the UASR.

The traditions are the same: most homes have Christmas trees (in America, known as Yule Trees, as to not tie them specifically to Christmas) with presents under the tree. In some communities, there is a large Yule tree in the town center, in the modern day accompanied by other religious celebrations (Hanukkah, Saturnalia, etc.), and general Yule ephemera (Stars, plastic snowmen). Ornaments are often either familial items or old souvenirs from across the world (rockets are a common theme). Trinidadians and other Christians tend to put a star up, representing the birth of Jesus. Secular families tend to ignore this, and put more general, secular Christmas lights around. Gift-giving is the same, though it is a both a larger and more low-key affair, with the community at large exchanging gifts, often from a registry (trade magazines and order catalogues (the only legal places for ads) often release special Yule editions), but gifts are also less of a big deal, the entire purpose of the holiday is more the coming together of the community to celebrate the year and the connections every person has.

Christmas/Yule specials on television are a regular tradition in the UASR. The Greatest Gift, a film starring Jimmy Stewart, is a perennial favorite through reruns of television, and is regularly seen as America's answer to A Christmas Carol. Carol itself is given an anti-Capitalist bent, with Scrooge realizing that the capitalist system had caused the conditions that Bob and Tiny Tim had to endure, and decides to use his resources to fight for their rights. Other seminal Christmas specials is A Charlie Brown Yuletide Special and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Santa Claus is also given a revamp. Taking more inspiration from his Russian counterpart Ded Moroz[1] in terms of design as well as his pagan forebearers, Santa now actually helps build the toys with the Elves, and generally takes note of their affairs. He takes the reindeer-drawn flying sled around the world, and delivers presents, before returning to have a large party with the elves. An interesting tradition comes from the American Air Defense System or AADS, the aerospace defense department of the Secretariat of Aeronautics and Aerospace, headquartered in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs. [2] AADS tracks Santa's position in the world, and widely reports it on television, on the internet, and to inquiring children. This has been done since 1955 as a means of public relations.

[1] Grandfather Frost in English
[2] Roughly equivalent to NORAD
---------------------------
 
The Tabloid Paradox: A Chink In the Puritanical Facade of the British

The Hilquit Banner-The Student Newspaper of Metropolis College [1]- Opinion Section

By Rachel Timmer

June 10, 1994

Living in Metropolis, I have had access to wide range of media from all over the world. Mexican Newspapers, Rossiyan newspapers, and Argentinian newspapers. Even in this bastion of world socialism, where capitalism was already killed after the Bienno Rosso, I've found media from the Franco-Brits. The usual soft socialism and hard reactionary tale, as well the ol'British Fleet Street Tabloid.

I happen to discover that while having lunch with an acquaintance from England, who I'll label Ben. He wasn't some young aristocrat disillusioned with the capitalist system, as the stereotype would have you believe, but a finance student from a middle class background who had arrived on a scholarship, who had left-leaning opinions.

At the lunch table, he placed the tabloid to his side as he enjoyed his salad. The bold font and large picture of a man in a red bra [2] caught my eye. I thought he was reading something kinky, and asked him what he was reading.

He showed me the tabloid, called The Daily Mail. The story was about a British Lord who had been caught in a police sting in a coke-fueled orgy. He showed it too be with an expression with disgust.

"This man apparently served tea laced with coke," Ben said, reading off the article with a scoff. "He mixes the British and American lifestyle very well, I'd say."

I was disgusted, not by the act itself, but the hypocrisy of it all. This man, a product of aristocracy, had likely bashed the Reds once, yet he had no problem enjoying an American life-in the words of my British pseudo-comrade-a life that as the typical Metropolis girl, I have enjoyed without shame or remorse.

I have no doubts that Ben would be appalled by such behavior (I can only imagine how he has adapted to living in a dorm room) but his own recriminations were combined with a weird curiosity.

"If it is so disgusting, why do you read it," I asked him. He put down his paper and stare at me in confusion. "Why are you obsessed with some vulgarian?" I repeated.

"It is like a house fire," Ben said, somewhat defensively. "Horrific but hard to turn away from." I decided not to press the issue, and we mostly engaged in idle chatter.

But I don't think his curiosity was out of some morbid fascination with a blatant hypocrite. After some digging, I found a grocery store run by British exiles that sell the Fleet Street tabloids. While the men working there were, unlike Ben, socialist exiles during the early 1980s, they still whooped like apes when I walked in.

The tabloids, in the tradition of capitalist dogma peddler William Randolph Hearst, sensationalized major news. A a small kitchen fire becomes a sign of sabotage, a small protest is considered to be a sign that the Reds are marching to burn down Westminster Abbey. And of course, whole articles devoted to sexual scandal.

Not just that, but pages devoted to the swimwear worn by celebrities in their private lives.

How does a society that praises society and chastity nevertheless obsessed with carnal events of the rich and famous?

The answer, is a voyeurism that belies a societal denial of natural urges. The old world, represented by the FBU, still holds on to the old view of sex that originated with St. Augustine, and his ascetic worldview that came to dominate Christian Europe by the end of the Middle Ages.

A poor British man with a stale marriage will read about this sleazy aristocrat with a hunger for that lifestyle. A closeted housewife will read about the adulterous British lord out of desire to fulfill some fantasy.

The venal cameraman seeking a few hundreds Pounds looking for the next celebrity is not only motivated by cash, but his own inhibited desire.

The tabloid is the approved porn in the capitalist world. The means by which a person can explore his or her fantasies in public, but still hide underneath a veneer of chastity.

In America, we have spent six decades slowly tearing down the boundaries of the old world. In 1934, our grandparents were the generation that learned that having fun with your wife in a respectful wife is not a crime, and that showing off some skin at the beach was not a vulgarity.

In 1964, our parents discovered that screwing around with a next door neighbor is not spousal betrayal, and that a same sex relationship can matter.

In 1994, a woman can go jogging in the nude in the summertime, as long she wears some sunscreen, and cocaine parties are, well tolerated, as long as you have an official nearby who can control the amount you use.

In big cities like Metropolis, the idea of voyeurism is mostly died out. Casual nudity is unavoidable. Not just in beaches and flats, but on the street, men and woman walk around the buff with little reaction, except by tourists from rural areas when the divide still remains, and tourists from abroad.

The concept of the "erotic novel" or "erotic magazine" is vanishing, as many mainstream books and magazines carry a bit of eroticism. Movies and TV shows today resemble the independent porn produced in the 1960s.

The sexual worker isn't some sign of societal decay, but can enjoy a spot on committees alongside white collar and blue collar workers.

Politicians enjoying sex isn't seen as scandalous, or even newsworthy, unless of course there was rape and gender discrimination involved.

The Bens of the world may try and act "pure", but their love of scandal belies a hunger that we in Metropolis have quenched. My hope is one day, the Bens of the world will stop their timidity,burn their tabloids, and embrace who they are inside. They will become liberated.

[1] OTL City College

[2] This was inspired by Lord Sewel, an OTL British Lord caught using cocaine and hookers.
 
Excerpt from "Christmas Around the World", a survey of Christmas traditions across the world, published 2009 (Travelogue Press, London)

The Union of American Socialist Republics


The traditions are the same: most homes have Christmas trees (in America, known as Yule Trees, as to not tie them specifically to Christmas) with presents under the tree. In some communities, there is a large Yule tree in the town center, in the modern day accompanied by other religious celebrations (Hanukkah, Saturnalia, etc.), and general Yule ephemera (Stars, plastic snowmen). Ornaments are often either familial items or old souvenirs from across the world (rockets are a common theme). Trinidadians and other Christians tend to put a star up, representing the birth of Jesus. Secular families tend to ignore this, and put more general, secular Christmas lights around. Gift-giving is the same, though it is a both a larger and more low-key affair, with the community at large exchanging gifts, often from a registry (trade magazines and order catalogues (the only legal places for ads) often release special Yule editions), but gifts are also less of a big deal, the entire purpose of the holiday is more the coming together of the community to celebrate the year and the connections every person has.

How does a Roman holiday undergo a revival in the UASR? Is there a revival of Roman paganism too?

Christmas/Yule specials on television are a regular tradition in the UASR. The Greatest Gift, a film starring Jimmy Stewart, is a perennial favorite through reruns of television, and is regularly seen as America's answer to A Christmas Carol. Carol itself is given an anti-Capitalist bent, with Scrooge realizing that the capitalist system had caused the conditions that Bob and Tiny Tim had to endure, and decides to use his resources to fight for their rights. Other seminal Christmas specials is A Charlie Brown Yuletide Special and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I imagined that The Christmas Carol would be given a more left-wing bent than OTL.
 
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