“War does not determine who is right. Only who is left.”- Bertrand Russell
The game implemented my hypothesis, neat.
Not directly, but it is something you can do with a combination. One of your decisions you can make as king is to take out a loan with the Jews, where they will give you 300 gold, but you are expected to pay back 350 gold, and you suffer severe penalties with the Catholic church, your vassals, and can cause economic issues for you.
Another decision you can do (at any given time) is to expel the Jews, which will give you a certain amount of gold right off the bat, triple the income to your kingdoms coffers (the implication being that money no longer going to the Jews is now going to your realm), and gets rid of any debt you have with them. But it causes your king to take a hit to their prestige, gives them the Arbitrary trait (causes problems with your vassals due to being viewed as unjust and unreasonable), causes diplomatic issues with nearby nations, causes a drop in economic growth in your region (about 10% less), and causes occasional events that your region can lose technology until you reverse the decision. (minimum of 20 years before you can reverse).
But hey, if you are absolutely drowning in debt and the Church is on your back, you may have to take....drastic measures. And while Paradox AI is not perfect, its a least smart enough to consider that deal. Personally, when I am playing, I try to make sure I have enough gold reserves that being 300 gold down is no big deal.
[Tropico hijinks]
I too am a massive fan of Tropico, and I share your distain for the god damn hippies of my island. Usually, end up building the same sort of thing as you, though I do usually include a social security system so that the unemployed, retired, and students arent totally destitute.
...of course, I make up for it by saying that you have to pay for your damn lunch and your damn healthcare, but hey. At least the island is so built up that I have more jobs than people. So whats your excuse Hippie?
I firmly believe that anyone who unironically believes in monarchy should be required to play several rounds of Crusader Kings. While I wasnt exactly a monarchist before I played that game, it ruined any belief that monarchy is a good idea.
Because I cant tell you how many times I got the fabled Philosopher-King, the man who has all of the required intelligence, charisma, and expertise to be a good monarch. I have all of these plans to give my realm a new Golden Age of a better life for my peasants, a superior army to defend the realm, new great works to show off the engineering might of my scholars, and perhaps if I have the time go conquer one of my old rivals.
.......Then my conniving brother goes and tries to fight a war with someone I planned to be an ally with because he is trying to steal some power from anyone, so now I have to go help him or else lose part of my realm, and while I am at it cross that nation off from the "potential ally" list. Then I come back to find out that one of my vassals was in debt to the Jews so he committed a pogrom and forced them out, and God Damn it! I needed them for my economic plans, you idiot! So I do what I can to invite them back in, but now I have the Pope breathing down my neck for helping them, but he says he will look the other way if I go on Crusade. So I go to do it and get some heat off of me, and I am doing reasonably well due to my skilled commanders (at least I chose them well), then I get word that my god damn bastard of a brother is trying to steal my throne! So I have to go back and kill him for good this time because I am tired of his shit. Then now I have a peasant revolt from them demanding a tax lien, and no! I cant give it to you even though I want to, because if I did it right now my vassals would think I am a weak ass bitch.
But somehow, I finally manage to put out all of the fires. It took most of my life though. I can finally start on putting in to place all of the things I wanted. Even give the peasants that tax lien under a situation more favorable to me. And as I am reaching the end of my life, I can die content that even though I didnt get everything I wanted, I at least set it down the right path, and all my son has to do is not screw it up.
........then it turns out my son is a god damn midwit who screws it all up by not being enough of a gigabrain to understand the things I was doing or wanted to do because he was too busy playing court politics while I was actually doing things, and now it all dies on the vine or gets done much later, and now we are back to square one. FML.
There's nothing paradoxical about it. Unions have destroyed the industries they were part of, because of the protection rackets they build.
Absolutely, especially in this day and age where workers have plenty of rights but now Unions want to have them be treated like kings because it justifies their existence (not really caring it ruins their industry, and thus their job, in the process).
I was more getting at that in the past, there was at least an argument to be made for Unions in the face of brutal, uncaring corporations. Or at least, that is what the average normie would argue and believe. Having done discussions with you before, I am sure you would say something to the effect of "You empower workers by making it so the corporation is not all powerful, and they only got all powerful because of government largesse." (probably not wrong, just saying there was at least an argument in 1850).
[Wales killing the supposed to be unkillable]
Jeez, and this is what people blame Thatcher for? As I would always say with my friends back in the day, "It takes skill to fail that hard."
What any area fully run by Democratic Socialism needs is not a half-way compromised approach of introducing Reganomics or Thatcherism. They need radical Economic Liberalization.
The problem I see here is that they are going to kick, scream, bite, and do anything they can to try and get you voted back out the first chance they get, especially if you try to touch their precious gibs.
Although, I can see some very long term hope in that as areas around them continue to grow and see their quality of life improve, you may hit a critical mass of people saying "Well, why cant it work here?" and start demanding the same policies. Going back to what I know, Omaha, NE has been doing VERY well by big city standards because their mayor (the first Republican elected in about 15 years, and the first to get elected multiple times to the job) has been cutting property taxes while also balancing the budget by making sure new businesses come in and making it a good, clean city that people want to live in.
Of course, like I have told you before, she also did this by letting the police off the leash and letting them utterly crush BLM the first time they tried to stage a riot, so she also saved the city from major damage, which just feeds a feedback loop that will draw in more people and business.
Also, slightly off topic, I just looked at her election this year. I knew she was reelected, but I hadnt known that she utterly smote her Dem challenger to the ground, winning 64%-34%. Considering Omaha usually votes Blue for federal level stuff, I wonder if this is just more evidence of a coming shift in 2022 and 2024.
Your point also applies to workers already in the US and legal as well. We have seen a trend in the last few years of some companies starting to move manufacturing back to the United States. You have seen many automotive factories opening in places like Tennessee and Kentucky, you have seen large electronics and microchip factories being built in Arizona, there is a small but growing shipbuilding industry starting up in Alabama and Florida, and Texas was asked what industry it wished to expand and they said "Yes." But you may notice, none of that is California, or the Upper Midwest ("Rust Belt"), or New York.
And why go South? Well, because instead of having to give their workers lavish benefits packages and significant hourly wages, they can go to the South/Southwest, give significant but not obscene benefits, pay wages that while lower than other areas are plenty enough for local standards (a $15/hour wage in Texas will get you MUCH further than a $25/hour wage in Michigan or California), and there is also more room to expand when the time comes. Then there is the bonus that workers in the South are not only not interested in unionizing, they are actively hostile to unions, which paradoxically can be better for the workers in this modern age.
But of course, the people being left behind because their own ideologue became so toxic to business that they decided they would never come back, only become even more hostile to business. Which just causes the problem to keep spiraling out of control, and eventually something to is going to have to break. I am just not sure what will break.
If I remember right, Kubrick originally wanted the whole scene scripted (because again, we are talking about the physical embodiment of "Demands perfection") with a different actor, and Ermey was brought on to ensure authenticity in the script. He pointed out that it is literally impossible to script a Drill Instructor because they are supposed to find weakness in a recruit and attack it so they can eventually be molded into a better soldier, and that requires improv. Kubrick balked at this ('natch), but changed his mind after Ermey submitted a video of himself chewing out a bunch of Marines, as they threw rotten fruit at him, and he didnt repeat himself in a 10 minute rant. Kubrick made Ermey the Drill Instructor, gave him free reign, and the rest is history.
Again, if I am remembering the story right.
RIP R. Lee Ermey. One of my favorite actors.
You know you are a badass when you get carte blanche to improv from "Mr. Perfectionist" himself, Stanley Kubrick.
You can do all of that without the secession, and it will still work fine. And we already have states telling the Feds "You have no power here!" and starting to put things right.
Either way, I can agree with the general attitude of this thread. To quote a man far more wise than myself, "This too shall pass." When you look at history, the US has this unnatural ability to come back from hits that have destroyed other nations, and then come out the other side stronger than ever. We are in the suck right now. But all the signs show that people are not accepting this direction and are demanding a change back to the way things were, and doing it in ways that cant be stopped, only delayed.
We are living in a rhyme of the 1970's right now, with a weak and vacillating president, domestic extremism, major domestic unrest, and a shaky economy. It sucks, but we have get through Carter before we can get Reagan. And when it happens, I guarantee this nation will take off like a rocket back to its true heights. And I will love to see it.
It would have been relatively easy to stab or shoot Hitler, but it would not have prevented Goebbels or Goering from taking power immediately afterward without a proper coup.
Hell, this very problem is part of why the Valkyrie bomb plot failed. They had numerous instances to kill Hitler, but all of them would have left Himmler in power and still alive, so they kept calling it off. So they were left with their only shot at all 3 of the people they needed dead being a case where their carefully chosen bomb was not powerful enough to kill everyone, so people survived. Even if it left Hitler paranoid and even more of a junkie than he had been BEFORE the bombing (since now he was addicted to pain meds on top of everything else).
So it sounds like they are just stuck in it for the long haul as they find their way back to liberalism and I should just thank my luckily stars that I both live in America and in an American state that values freedom and liberty.
So it sounds like the only real way out for them is to go full Bismarck and undercut the Communist by giving a sanctioned, reasonable alternative, or just dissolve the UK and return to being Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England.
Is it REALLY just Medieval-era bad blood with them doing anything and everything just to "own the English"?
Then I suppose the question is, what do you do about it, since Scotland seems deadset on going down this road, and the only one I have heard is Carl Benjamin (half-jokingly) saying to give them their independence then rebuild Hadrian's Wall and give the Scots what for when they come screaming south.
More importantly, its kind of missing the point. There is not a single person who takes the Just Cause story seriously. EVERYONE plays it because of the fun and wacky ways it gives you to blow shit up. If you are focusing on the story, you are doing it wrong.
Meanwhile, the Queen is considering using what little power she has to tear the BBC asunder and the political party that pushes this attitude (as well as the Woke Ideology in general) just keeps getting decimated in every election and is the weakest its been in almost 90 years, with literally the only areas voting for them being a handful of urban centers and Scotland(*). And if what I saw on the Lotus Eaters podcast is anything to go by, their response is "Clearly we were not Left Wing enough."
I have given up on trying to figure out what is up with the UK at the moment. Maybe is just because I am an American that I cant understand it.
(*): For reasons that continue to vex me. No, really, Scotland....why did you suddenly decide you wanted to become unironic National Socialist. That isnt even a meme term, they actually are doing it, and I dont understand why, other than they hate England that much.
...and hoping for another round of checks.
That's funny to me considering what the first round checks did to them.
The angle is one last desperate push to try and ruin DeSantis before he tries to run for president. Because if (when) he wins, he will use their asses as bongos as he destroys them and their ideology.
Considering another journo argued that Biden needs to build the wall because otherwise “the next Trump will”, I would say the media and parts of the Left are starting to acknowledge they get clobbered when they actually implement their ideas.
Agreed. I am all in favor of applying the Dexter Doctrine to her, and like many of these types, I am all in on going straight Biblical for redemption (they must seek forgive thrice, and he denied thrice. Only then will there be forgiveness).
I think my favorite ones I have been seeing are stores and restaurants with with signs always saying something to the effect of "The rules say you can be maskless if you are vaccinated. In unrelated news, asking for your status is a HIPPA violation, and no employee will inquire."
I second this attitude. If you actually look at the stats on China without their massaging of the numbers, they are very much in Soviet "We tortured the numbers so they say what we want" territory.
Their infrastructure has been unfavorably compared to "Tofu Dreg" (not even Tofu, the leftovers from MAKING Tofu) by their own officials, which likely means its worse than it actually is. A lot of that money is also being taken to fund their own personal accounts much like the Soviets before them.
Their space program has the same problem as the Soviets where they use all of their effort to yeet a rocket into low orbit with little to no control, which results in rockets and satellites with extremely limited lifespans, while the US has satellites still orbiting from the 1960's and SpaceX has gotten so good at reusable rockets that its frankly become boring.
Their so-called "blue water navy" is almost entirely made up of destroyers made out of material that is resulting in their first-gen warships already becoming rust buckets (while the US Navy has destroyers decades old that are still cutting edge), and a significant amount of their ocean going ships are up-armored fishing boats with a handful of machine guns to bully fishermen. And then there is their lack of a true submarine force (I remember a State Media article where they were bragging about how their new subs had a sonar profile similar to the US Los-Angeles class. The LA's have been obsolete for almost 30 years, and the Virginia makes the LA look like a freight train) or aircraft carriers (2 obsolete Jump-Carriers with reliability issues a carrier fleet does not make). And this is before we even get into the fact that they have no naval tradition to dictate sound command of these resources, and that the Chinese Navy is officially a branch of the Chinese Army, and will therefore act in Army interest (which has worked extremely well for every other nation that has done similar things in the past /s)
Then a less talked about secret is that China being the "Worlds Factory" is coming to an end. They are just entering (and its only going to get worse) a population crunch because of the side effect of the One Child Policy, and even after it ended Chinese people still arent having kids, to the point that the average Chinese person is older than the average American. Needless to say, this has lead to rising labor cost, which has started to see US companies moving to India, Vietnam, Mexico. Anywhere but China. Helped along by the fact that many companies are getting sick and tired of China stealing their shit and then trying to sell it back to them. Hell, there is a not insignificant amount of manufacturing coming back to the US (its just going to places other than the Rust Belt, specifically to a lot of the South and Southwest).
And finally, a lot of the world is finally starting to say "Screw China" and mean it. Australia just kicked out China and has been eating a boycott from them, but the Australians just say "Bring it on." India is putting its foot down and looking into challenging them. Japan is actually upgrading their military by unprecedented amounts also on the grounds of "Screw China", and has been looking into doing more business with the US to move away from them. And a lot of nations have basically just ignored or stopped paying into Belt and Road, which is causing a cash problem in China.
The future is a lot less rosy for them than people want to say, and I really do believe they are in deep trouble for the foreseeable future.
Might want to reread it and look at the date. This was back last year when it was all kicking off, and they were using COVID as a cudgel to beat Trump with.
I think their undoing here is that they were so autistically focused on getting rid of Trump that they forgot to do anything to secure power at a more local and state level. Because the US was founded by a bunch of gigabrains that were so distrustful of government that they came up with backups to their alternates for their contingency plans. So now you have a bunch of states (almost the majority even) telling the Fed "Kiss my ass" and actively declaring war on Left Wing ideals, and finding any way they can to make life hell for them at a local level. Which, due to the nature of our government, WILL work its way up to the Federal level. The GOPe outing themselves for the base to see as a bunch of snakes (going so far as to put their votes on the record as if to say "Primary these guys") will also not help them, as like you have pointed out in the past, the GOP was supposed to be fake opposition, but it is now being taken over by very real opposition and there isnt a whole hell of a lot they can do to stop it.
They have also managed to piss the grassroots of the GOP off to such an extent that they are actually extremely enthusiastic about campaigning and getting out the vote, to the point that some of the most well funded people in Congress right now are the ones the Establishment hates (Greene and Gaetz, specifically). It would seem the attempt at a show of force in the aftermath of 1/6 has only made those targeted more hostile instead of less, and like you said, this is far outside the establishments modus operandi when dealing with the Right, so they dont know what to do.
I have said for a long time now that the reason they are freaking out SOO MUCH is because this was their momento mori. They have spent years, decades even, much like Xerxes in 300. They think themselves immortal gods who rule of these quaint, strange beings known as "humans", so long as they agree to bow before them of course, as they are a kind god after all. Then some retards went a punched them in the face and made them bleed a little bit. And since a god cant bleed, that would mean they are mortal, and that they can lose their power and all.
And now they are desperately lashing at anything and everything, and especially at the people who broke their delusion. And by doing so, they are only whittling away their power even more as more people start to say "maybe the retard had a point."
You're not entirely wrong. They are comedy metal band in the same vein as Alestorm and Gloryhammer. Their schtick is that they usually start with a funny idea and then make a song out of it. My personal top 3 from them being Valhalleluja(which is what happens when you mix Christian Gospel singing, metal music, Norse mythology, and the IKEA catalogue), Uranus(which is an entire song about the old "mispronouncing the planet 'Ur-Anus'" joke), and Ironmonger (The Copier of the Seven Keys)(which is the most badass song ever made about a guy who works in a tool store).
No one listens to game journos and Scott is self-published so there is no dev who can cancel him. Scott is basically in Notch-level "Untouchable", except Scott is still making games. And that most of his fans are sticking by him means there is very little they can actually do to stop him.
EDIT: That said, I absolutely agree with you that this forum is getting extremely toxic lately and its mostly down to the StormFag types showing up for God knows what reason.