Would you not say that the State effectively replaced British culture with a perpetual state of emergency and war fervor? With the two minutes of hate, “prisoner of war marches”, war speeches, gamified recruitment and scrap drives, and other emotional outlets, the Airstripe’s culture is essentially an endless Total War, reminiscent of either a late war Germany or Bushido principle. The national identity is war, where nothing matters other than beating the enemy, even if that victory is a purposefully futile task.
We also do know that the nation has vestiges of a civilian culture since Winston mentions the proles consuming football news, sports magazines, mindless pornographic hedonism, and television programs, it’s just that Winston doesn’t partake since he feels alienated from that hollow culture since rewriting the past is his job.
Honestly, I understand what you’re getting at, though I don’t think that culture is inherently necessary to fascist states. The modus operandi of most fascists is an aestheticization of politics that permeates every aspect of Oceania.
Who needs culture when you have porn and your two minutes of hate? That is your culture.
Strange, I always considered the absence of human life as a representation of fascism consuming and annihilating every aspect of humanity until all that remains is a stale, dull husk. Plus, if the state is attempting to rewrite history, then destroying culture and tradition seems like a wonderful way to accomplish that goal. Especially if you replace those foundations with those provided by the state, since we hear that the Proles enjoy some forms of 'entertainment' and escapism that are entirely meaningless and state controlled.
Wouldn't a world like that innately be horrifically alienating, especially since Winston isn't even a regular citizen, but a party bureaucrat that is alienated from both the State leadership and the general populace? He's essentially John K in The Trial, Winston's entire life is illogical and devoid of humanity.
Nazi Germany had only six years to form their idealized utopian society, which is barely anything when you're working in a pre-digital world. There was barely any time to do any re-writing or elimination of centuries old traditions, religious beliefs, and community in comparison to the Airstrip which has had nearly thirty years of isolation at minimum. I wonder if Nazi Germany would devolve to a similar level once they were one hundred years into their thousand year Reich. Once the external colonies were all but barren and the state built on worshiping Hitler as a god began to consume itself.
I agree with the book feeling clunky, but isn't the poor worldbuilding and constrained world intentional? The reader only knows as much as Winston does, who himself is only privy to State propaganda. That's why you have theories that the entire rest of the world is fine, Oceania doesn't actually exist, and England is a completely isolated fascist state that intermittently bombs itself to maintain the pretense that there's an ongoing World War.
I always thought the world was purposefully tiny to demonstrate the alienation and isolation that one endures when under the full weight of a totemic surveillance state.
The general plot does suck though and I found the book a slog to get through. Though I did find theorizing about the world a little fun.
Look up the Forbes list of the 100 most wealthy people/families. Your answer is about 95% of those people, plus miscellaneous politicians, celebrities, and religious figures.
Hopefully, but that's the dry cargo ship Alan Shepard which isn't armed with offensive weapons systems beyond four pintle mounted 50cals for repelling boarding and disposable Nulka decoy launchers.
Don’t forget that the algorithm will most likely target users who have a higher chance of knowing who those figures are. This isn’t the type of video to get blasted on the large majority of user’s pages and will instead get pushed to people TikTok considers as interested in politics or history.
AI Stalin and Beria dancing sounds a bit cursed honestly. You could cut to black and then fade into a portrait of Stalin with the Soviet anthem playing. That might be a bit funnier since you’d build tension with the reveal.
Do you know how often drugs, weapons, and contraband slip through package customs?
You cannot legally acquire a signal jammer anywhere, there are no "civilian" channels, but nothing is stopping you from paying through criminal channels, and having a shady business ship one to you.
Oftentimes illegal electronics equipment are shipped disassembled and disguised with other legitimate parts. Smuggling is a massively lucrative endeavor, and something tells me that a cartel wouldn't have any issue securing a shipment from an producer in China or Africa.
If you give a troop of orangutans rifles they could inflict causalities. Just because the goofball brigade are idiots with guns doesn't make them harmless. I'm laughing at them being larping losers who can't even hold a rifle correctly.
25 military personnel were also killed fighting the entirety of the CJNG, who are not all kitted out in tacticool gear and are fighting a guerrilla war. These are CJNG """"special"""" forces units used for photo-ops.
I don't see why hitting helicopters is a special feat either. Helicopters are usually low flying and well within the range of even small caliber hunting rifles. If you spray enough bullets into the air, one is bound to connect.
Literally anywhere online. You can buy a whole lot of stupid, illegal stuff online. Since selling jammers is illegal in the US, a lot of companies manufacture and ship from places like the Philippines, with the only big hurdle being getting the package past customs. Are sites like this honeypots? Maybe? Are some of them scams? Absolutely.
My favorite part is that this goofball brigade didn't even bother removing the sticker with the 511 logo off of their goggles. Literally a small tacticool company that you can buy those googles from online, and those nerds put this stuff on right out of the box for a cool photo-op lmao
A Mexican army squad would turn these guys into red mist without taking any casualties lol
Granted, a lot of that looks like silly tacticool gear you can get at any airsoft shop or hell, Aliexpress. There are a few pictures with writeups of the pictured CJNG cartel's gear, and a lot of their kits are hilariously poorly put together with random gear strapped to strange places to look cool.
Like for example, this video takes place at night, and all the morons are wearing shaded ski googles that you can see basically zero out of.
The cell phone jammer is also commercially available, and entirely useless since they can't access the jammers by themselves since moving jammers require constant tuning.
His pistol holster is in a horrible position that makes accessing the sidearm essentially impossible and extremely disadvantageous. That also betrays that either this guy never plans on using his pistol, or more likely, has zero police or military training.
Also despite their rifles, none of them are wearing magazine pouches??? What is going on with the gear strapped to the lead guy's thigh too? Nice radio placement, good luck ever laying down or grabbing the radio quickly, and that knife is going to poke him in the thigh or balls is he tries to crouch.
The CIA is 100% arming cartels, but these are larping morons trying to look intimidating and cool with random commercial tacticool junk.
Keep a little notebook and writing utensil on hand, then simply write down the thoughts that cross your mind whenever you encounter anything in your life. No note is a bad note, and your analysis will markedly improve with even a little practice.
The mayors office also hold direct control over the budget of city offices, including the NYPD. Mamdani's avoided touching their budget to not anger one of the largest politcal entities in the city, but if push comes to shove, the make-it-or-break-it moment for Mamdani will be threatening to, or outright redirecting the NYPD budget into his policies.
If Trump dies the presidency would fall to Vance who would do anything except promise to address the United State's policies. Instead, I could see him doubling down and proclaiming an acceleration or escalation of the fascist international and internal stances implemented by Trump.
Honestly, there are some weird accellerationists out there who think that thermonuclear war is somehow good.
Plus your name is "Ashes to Ashes" lmaooo
You're all good though