• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        Yea lmao, Caesar tried to take Hegelian dialectics rather than Marxist, and further misunderstood Hegel himself. Though, I don’t blame the writer, Hegelian dialectics is notoriously difficult to parse for those that haven’t studied it deliberately, and at an in-game level it adds to Edward Sallow being full of shit.

        • BanMeFromPosting [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          Though, I don’t blame the writer.

          I’m convinced they did it in purpose to highlight what a dumbass Caesar is. He verbatim says dialectics makes it inevitable that the NCR is destroyed by him, which is just so incredibly stupid. If you read enough of Hegel to write Caesar talking about Hegel as he does, then you’ve read enough to know that would be about the dumbest you could say.

            • BanMeFromPosting [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              1 day ago

              Look the only critique I can leverage at new Vegas is that there isn’t a communist or anarchist ending where the courier unites the disparate communities and makes something that lasts until after the courier dies. I want to be the Stalin of the wasteland.

              Edit: After getting the Lee Kuan Yew speeches on my Instagram reels I also realise Houses “give me 20 years” speech is taken from there. The people behind the game were very politically aware.
              Also apparently fallout 1, 2 and new Vegas are based on a tabletop game the designers played? Arcade Gannon was Josh Sawyer’s character

                • BanMeFromPosting [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                  Having seen a documentary about the production the designers wanted the game to be about “letting go of Old World Blues”. All the factions cling to the past, to systems that led them to where they are today. I take it they were a bit better than regular US radlibs, which is why there isn’t any left-bashing, but they probably see communism as part of that old world blues too. It would also go against their goal if there was an obvious “good” ending.

                  That said it would have done wonders for the political awakening of a bunch of people if there was one. Or, at least, if it was made clear the courier was likewise constrained by their environment, so the reason a post-post-apocalyptic spartacist movement isn’t possible is because the courier and like individuals can’t think like that. The red scare has long tendrils.
                  Or at least a yes-man ending that wasn’t going all “great man” theory about the courier, where everything revolves around them and their presence.

                  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                    Yep, the writers are progressives, but not commies. If they had written an explicitly communist path, it likely would have been a “good in theory, bad in practice” type commonly seen in western writing.

        • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
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          To be fair, from what I’ve seen Hegel doesn’t seem very good at making his writing understandable. A lot of it sounds like esoteric nonsense out of context.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        Yep. The US Empire is collapsing because the global south is developing, and pivoting more towards south-south trade and mutual development over naked imperialism. The string of recent hard aggression is trying to install compradors to keep this scheme going for a bit longer, but the industrial base of the empire is hollowed out.

        • Manmoth@lemmy.ml
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          If you don’t live in the US, Russia, China, India or Israel then you live in a vassal state. The global south isn’t developing independently. It’s being segmented between the US and China via soft or hard power (e.g. belt and road initiative). There is no revolution of the disenfranchised. It’s just major powers doing what major powers do as we enter a new geopolitical paradigm.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            The global south is developing partially with the assistance of the PRC, yes, but there’s also general south-south trade and alliances, like the Alliance of Sahel States. The PRC isn’t imperialist, it isn’t plundering the global south. BRI has been enourmous for win-win economic development, compared to western enforced austerity and plundering.

            Vassals of the empire include western Europe, Israel, Austrailia, etc, imperialist powers that don’t outweigh the US Empire but still benefit from imperialism. The global south aren’t vassals, they are imperialized (but breaking free). The new geopolitical paradigm will be marked by a rise in the global south, having escaped underdevelopment, and the decline in single hegemonic powers like the US.

            • Manmoth@lemmy.ml
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              China’s investments aren’t for anything other than the growth of its hegemonic power through the strategic control of satellite states. The carrot is easier than the stick and has better optics. However China can and will stomp out any geopolitical threat within its area of influence even if it is diametrically opposed to whatever the citizens of said state want. It is a superpowerful police state with global ambitions. The global south isn’t breaking free. It’s selling itself to China.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                The Belt and Road Initiative is certainly benefiting China, but it’s a win-win situation. China isn’t planting millitary bases anywhere, and isn’t forcing the global south to sell out their autonomy. It is not a police state, nor does it have global ambitions of hegemony.

                • Manmoth@lemmy.ml
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                  It is not a police state, nor does it have global ambitions of hegemony.

                  Lol okay. What world do you live in?

                  • orc_princess@lemmy.ml
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                    2 days ago

                    What world do YOU live in? Who has been putting dictatorships EVERYWHERE in the global south, who has bombed Yugoslavia, southwest Asia and North Africa, Vietnam? Who has kidnapped the president of Venezuela? Who has been carrying out genocides against indigenous people and terrorizing black and other POC, and now even white liberals?

                    Edit: typo, I’m drunk lol

                  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                    2 days ago

                    This one. China has police internally, but is not acting like world police like the US Empire. The PRC also has no grand ambitions of hegemony, but further development for the whole world, which benefits them.

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          Right, the world moved on and the empire’s failure to adapt is causing it to crumble around the 250 year mark. It’s a rule of thumb, not a curse or a deadline.