Red Flood America definitely seems to be going well, better than it falling to reaction or accelerationism. I am curious as to whether this will continue and that some idiotic reactionary doesn't make the rather stupid decision to kill Cox, inevitably replacing him with a much more radical variation.
Regardless, fantastic job with the update and I look forward to more! The revamping of the timeline seems to have gone quite well, though I will miss the clusterfuck in some sense, even if this is obviously much easier to understand and write.
Avant Gard artists trying to or successfully gassing an art museum is seriously fucked, damn. That's just in the footnotes along with the KKK trying to release hippos into black neighbourhoods. At least with hippos you can shoot them.
The Cool Incident was a terrorist attack in 1932 by Avant Garde artists of Futurist political extraction promising to "show America the horrors of the great war," which turned out to be multiple tonnes of phosgene gas released from their exhibit, killing nearly everyone in attendance. The motivations were genuinely for the art of it. Mellon got a rally behind the flag effect for his re-election campaign and promise to found a department of defence to stop such terrorist attacks as happened on September 1932 but then left it to the market to staff and partner with his department because he really does just believe in laissez-faire economics.
The presence of black cabinet members and the death of the Dixiecrats seems to be hinting that Cox could/would try to pull off a Leonard Wood and see to an earlier break-up of Jim Crow (along with addressing after effects with social programs). I'd imagine that the demonstration of the Black Belt as a potential red glide point in the Kaiserworld civil war would shut up many dissenters, save for the most unhinged terrorist groups like the Black Legion.
The presence of black cabinet members and the death of the Dixiecrats seems to be hinting that Cox could/would try to pull off a Leonard Wood and see to an earlier break-up of Jim Crow (along with addressing after effects with social programs). I'd imagine that the demonstration of the Black Belt as a potential red glide point in the Kaiserworld civil war would shut up many dissenters, save for the most unhinged terrorist groups like the Black Legion.
As I understand it, Jim Crow as we understand it isn't really the same factor it is in OTL, on the other hand you have truly bespoke Red Floodisms like the Garveyite-KKK alliance.
Very glad that new life has been brought back to this timeline.
Also it's good to see a more left leaning government in power, I really want to see the interactions between this USA their Socialist and Syndicalist counterparts.
As I understand it, Jim Crow as we understand it isn't really the same factor it is in OTL, on the other hand you have truly bespoke Red Floodisms like the Garveyite-KKK alliance.
Excerpt from Anistreamer "Misteria Historia" script for "What is a German's Fatherland?" video on PeerTube, 2023
*Misteria Historia is a "Cozy" Virtual Streamer and Video creator character from Bearworld Germany active mostly on PeerTube that primarily focuses on presenting history in a "comfy, conversational way" as well as playing or reviewing history themed content, notable for being very tolerant and accepting of historical fantasy or zeerust retrofuturism and not "stressing about the nuts and bolts of militaria." Typically uses a model of an anime style bishonen "Fukurumimi" (Owl boy) in a professor's outfit with glasses. Uploaded videos usually contain animatics as well as drawings made by him or others of the "Eulenscheune" (Owl Barn) clique that helps make the videos. He is also known for being a polyglot, able to speak in addition to German, being able to at least get by in day-to-day life on a visiting basis in an impressive thirty-two languages. Though he only considers himself to have fully mastered German, English, Russian, Esperanto, Mandarin, and Japanese.
Misteria Historia is an affiliate of the "Der Vogelschwarme" group which consists of bird-themed virtual streamers who can speak at the very least, English and German, generally from the Free Socialist Council Republic of Germany (Bearworld), the Communal Socialist Republic of Germany (Eagleworld), and the German Socialist Council Republic (Ravenworld)
Narration: Whenever we talk about the Tetrad War and Germany, it's usually these two Germanies that get attention
CUT TO: Excerpt of Hitler's speech
CUT TO: Kaiser Wilhelm commissioning a new battleship
CUT TO: My avatar, looking a bit grossed out, slowly rising Red Banner behind me
Narration: Now I think that's a bit of a shame because I personally think that the Germanies not dominated by Fascist and Reactionary pieces of shit played more interesting roles in the war and of course, are still around in the peace.
CUT TO: Animation of the FSRCD and the EUSG being drawn in with the numbers 1919 and 1848 above them. Draw in Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknect with the FSRCD and Heinrich von Gagern and Eduard von Simson.
Narration: Obviously, the EUSG "broke off" from the others much earlier, with Saxony being in a better position in the Holy Roman Empire and then the Confederation of the Rhine. Once they had secured control over the Ruhr and the money that could come from the coal mining there, they had something better than Prussia's armies or Austria's prestige.
CUT TO: Giant stacks of cash falling from the sky.
Me: Appear from behind the stacks.
Narration, with a smirk: Money!
CANNONS FALL ON TOP OF MONEY
Narration, with realisation: Oh and cannons, like a lot of cannons, you can make a ton of those with industry.
ZOOM IN ON ME WIDENING MY EYES AND LOOKING VERY SERIOUSLY
Narration, with emphasis: A lot of cannons.
SHOW: French, Saxon, and Dutch Flags in the shadow of the Union Jack.
Narration: The other important thing was offering an alliance with France and the Netherlands against Britain, since everyone's got a bone to pick with them. A deal to split up Belgium and Switzerland.
SHOW: Belgium, Switzerland
CUT TO: 3D MODEL CLIP OF ME DRAWING THE PLANNED PARTITION
Narration: While partitioning Switzerland is unthinkable in Eagleworld and Ravenworld; here, Switzerland was just one more relic of the old world to toss away. The Confederal Constitution hadn't even been announced and the Austrian Empire was starting to break apart and needed to be bailed out.
Narration: As for Belgium, well it only existed for a generation or so, and the British had their own problems at home. Potato blight, bread too expensive, Indians getting uppity, the usual. It was a good opportunity to unite Germany and do a bit of partitioning.
CUT TO: Protests in Britain during 1848
CUT TO: EHFURT
Narration: Here we have the formation of a United States of Germany with von Gagern and Simson as the main architect of a project meant to create a Germany with Free Speech, Free Trade, Free Assembly, Free Religion, Free Press, and Freedom of Movement. Lot of freedoms really. But between Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Saxony-Hannover, and Baden-Wurttemberg, the reasons for the formation of which I'm still looking into you had quite a lot of kings and archdukes who all wanted their own say.
Narration: The biggest pushers for this effort were Baden-Wurttemberg and Saxony-Hannover, which were the most liberal and radical parts of Germany, as well as the Rhineland, which scared quite a lot of people with its working-class radicalism and gave the nobility what they saw as an opportunity to ensure a constitutional monarchy with the aristocracy as mediators between capital and labour.
CUT TO: Me lowering my glasses and making a deadpan expression
Narration, with Sarcasm: Once again we have reinvented corporatism.
CUT TO: German Confederation on Fire
Narration: It was quite the mess both on the battlefield and in the halls of the Frankfurt parliament, but with the situation in the east being unstoppable, it was decided that they had to make concessions somewhere. While they could ensure that the Austroslavs and Hungarians would at least retain ties with the Empire as part of a "European League", it wasn't looking like they'd be able to stop the formation of Sovereign nations.
CUT TO: Animatic of delegates arguing over where the capital should be
NARRATION: Of course, the issue of where the Capital ought to be came with the issue of nobody wanting to privilege any of the states of the new Empire. They could rotate who got to be Emperor of the Germans, but moving the capital around would be a pain.
CUT TO: Zooming in on central Germany.
Narration: So they decided, "well the Americans just picked a city out of a hat to be their capital and we're making a United States," and then went and paved over Niederdola in Thuringia to make Deutschestadt once the Revolutionaries made their point pretty clear.
Narration: As Austria fell apart, Bohemia, Austria, and Slovenia would be brought in, but Illyria and Transleithania would be allowed to split off but as part of the new European League signed with the French and the Dutch, and as the Russian Emperor moved into Galicia they were ordered to not contest the move since nobody wanted to poke the bear.
SHOW: Russian troops marching into Krakow.
CUT TO: Map of Europe with new borders, Russia annexing Austrian Poland, the Kingdom of Illyria being formed, the Kingdom of Hungary being declared, Helvetica being split up between France and Germany while the Italian part gets taken by Sardinia-Piedmont.
CUT TO: My 3D model drawing invasion lines on a map, fun! Explosions and gunshots can be heard.
Narration, With a sigh: Belgium would be invaded by the Dutch, the French, and the Germans, and with the British focused elsewhere for the time and a freak storm making it hard to set sail, Belgium would go down as a short-lived experiment.
Narration: Now this lead to a few things, one is the Great Game going from Russo-British to Russia and Britain against France and Germany. Another was that the British felt the need to support the Italians, recognising and accepting the formation of the Italian Empire shortly a fter. Then there was the end of the Danish and Swedish absolute monarchies, and talk of a new union, maybe even a Scandinavian Empire since everyone else was doing it now.
SHOW: Napoleon's coronation
Narration: And well, Napoleon was progressive and he made himself an Emperor; so that was a more progressive title than "King" if you wanted a non-republic.
CUT TO: Me Frowning
Narration: You know, if you have mommy or daddy issues and need a surrogate in a silly hat to fill a hole in your heart.
CUT TO: The new Germany with a crown falling on top of it.
Narration: Oh and Napoleon the Third would do the exact same thing as his Uncle when his term limit came up.
A haunting spectre. My spouse's original timeline project exploring many less-used possibilities like a modern (Louis) napoleonic France, a crown from the gutter germany not lead by Prussia, Shogunate Japan, much earlier socialism in China, non-Bolshevik socialism in Russia, Republicanish but Cringe Britain, and a less successful US descending to an all American Fascism as it finds itself unable to hit the sort of pressure release valves that helped the OTL US avoid most political radicalism from Social Democracy to Fascism to Communism.
A haunting spectre. My spouse's original timeline project exploring many less-used possibilities like a modern (Louis) Napoleonic France, a crown from the gutter germany not lead by Prussia, Shogunate Japan, much earlier socialism in China, non-Bolshevik socialism in Russia, Republicanish but Cringe Britain, and a less successful US descending to an all American Fascism as it finds itself unable to hit the sort of pressure release valves that helped the OTL US avoid most political radicalism from Social Democracy to Fascism to Communism.
Oh! Neat. Bit odd that it'd slide into Fascism after Cox (at least, I assume it's Cox, I hope I'm not getting it confused with Norris as to who is Bearworld America and who is Serpentworld America) whose policies seem like they'd do pretty well in preventing that, but then I'm guessing that Cox got elected is a butterfly result for the TL as a result of the Worldmerge providing an example?
Oh! Neat. Bit odd that it'd slide into Fascism after Cox (at least, I assume it's Cox, I hope I'm not getting it confused with Norris as to who is Bearworld America and who is Serpentworld America) whose policies seem like they'd do pretty well in preventing that, but then I'm guessing that Cox got elected is a butterfly result for the TL as a result of the Worldmerge providing an example?
Bearworld is Red Flood, so it's progressive with Cox taking over from Norris who was only an interim president after Mellon's impeachment, whereas Serpentworld has fascist America.
Oh! Neat. Bit odd that it'd slide into Fascism after Cox (at least, I assume it's Cox, I hope I'm not getting it confused with Norris as to who is Bearworld America and who is Serpentworld America) whose policies seem like they'd do pretty well in preventing that, but then I'm guessing that Cox got elected is a butterfly result for the TL as a result of the Worldmerge providing an example?
Yeah, it's a new one that wasn't there before. It's somewhat amusing to imagine it existed all along, but stayed very very still so nobody noticed it until much later.
I had this joke in mind where I'd gaslight the readers by having a revolving door of non Reds, Red Flood, KR TLs, editing them in and out every week and then acting like they were always there or they were never present.
I decided this was way too much work and didn't commit further.
Southern Victory/TL-191 was one of the TLs, I remember. A bit disappointed it's now gone and Ravenworld Americans won't get the chance to crush the CSA and help revive Spartacus' dream (for wish-fulfilment's sake, ofc). But I suppose Serpentworld's fascist America will do as a subsitute; simply replace Jake Featherston with Charles Lindbergh.
Perhaps we can just say that if Jim Crow wasn't already dead or significantly hindered in the first place, it certainly will be after Cox takes office. He has the political capital to make sure of that after a much harsher depression, a stronger Progressive movement tethered to Socialists/Communists, and, of course, the shared fear of Reds gliding in and bashing skulls through a faultline created by a very angry black population (as just happened in KR's American Civil War).
Also worth noting that Red Flood's lore had a significantly larger chunk of African-Americans move to Liberia for economic opportunity since both North and South are hit hard. So it would help to grease the compliance of the Southern Democratic establishment further, since (in their eyes) a smaller black population is easier to control through less overt means.
Since this thread is alive again I can finally post this meme
