- Location
- Rex, NC, USA
The Strassers were basically hardcore right-wingers that borrowed bits of hardcore leftism that they found appealing, just like all other "third position" movements.
What's the most Cringeworthy Alternate History you've ever read?
- Thread starter Silent Runner
- Start date
- Post-1900
- Location
- East Coast
Otto and Gregor were both of the great German far right tradition of explaining why their desire to punch Jews and communists had a firm intellectual basis.
chez-mix
Trying and Failing yet again.
Like a 30's redpill.
Kiridifferent
Take your time to remember me.
- Location
- Empty Sekai
- Pronouns
- They/She
Well why not, honestly?I consider myself in the radical left column, and I enjoyed Our Struggle, it's an appealing TL that tries to explain the divergences in detail. If recent updates are any indication, it seems like the KPD takeover has some reasoning.
Hakazin
Serpent Admirer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Good, old, alt-right induced paranoia, to be honest. I suppose I saw 'Hitler is a communist' as a concept and jumped to the conclusion of it being some sort of 'but you see, the Nazis were actually left-wing' screed made for the purposes of slandering the left-wing and muddying the overall political discourse.
Which, you know, sounds completely absurd on the face of it, but given that it's been proven repeatedly that doing that sort of thing is part and parcel of the modern alt-right's tactics, I've found a little paranoia in that regard tends to be justified.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Understandable, given that how we have alt-righters accusing other alt-righters of being *gasp* socialists.
- Location
- 2038
That's not whats going on in this case. I've met the author, he's not that way inclined.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hitler was never a socialist, if a TL wants to have him become a communist that's one thing but to frame it as Hitler simply focusing on other parts of his beliefs is incorrect to the point of dishonesty.
The national socialists were socialist the same way North Korea is democratic.
- Location
- Rex, NC, USA
They're pretty socialist by American standards.
- Location
- The Midlands.
So were the Communists under Stalin. In fact, if you subtract the eugenics and pseudoscientific racism from Nazi ideology then most of what's left over is the sort of authoritarian collectivism that your average Bolshevik would find pretty familiar. Plus there's OTL historical precedent for Nazi-Communist cooperation, even if it was only a temporary alliance of convenience.
You would however have to be a really damn good writer to make the end result convincing and avoid coming off as a Wehraboo.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No.They're pretty socialist by American standards.
The common definition of socialist is wrong and I see no reason to pay it any mind.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Our Struggle Adolf is NOT a National Socialist. At most we'll be dealing things from a national liberation and/or socialist patriotism perspective.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fair enough, I was more arguing with the posters specifically then addressing the TL (which I knew next to nothing about).
- Location
- Rex, NC, USA
Since when is the American definition of socialism "common"?
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Since it was first used to denigrate Bismark for his welfare system I would say the idea that the government doing something= socialism is not one that is uniquely American, and since I am an American that would be a common definition to me.Since when is the American definition of socialism "common"?
- Location
- Croatia
Oh, I just remembered one great example of Alt History insanity that might interest the connaiseurs in this thread!
A year or two ago, before I was banned from AH.com, I tried GMing an unusual game format. I made a poll for the users to let them pick if they want it to be with Libya in the 60s or Yugoslavia in the 40s and they picked the latter.
The game would start off with Tito's assassination just before the historical 1948 Soviet-Yugoslav split. The players would submit their own characters, each leading one of the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia's republics or provinces. They would negotiate, vield influence and try to stear the country in their own prefered course. World events would occur and they'd have to respond.
I asked those who might be interested to write up a background for their character, what their ethnic and religious identity might be, their views on building socialism, foreign policy aims in regards to the USSR, Italy, the Greek Civil War etc. Asked them to pick a fitting picture too.
Only 1 character got submitted. It was plainly obvious that the author didn't do the least bit of historical research.
English name, half African (Liberian IIRC) half Italian, Orthodox Christian, Kofi Annan's look was used as a reference.
His story goes something like this, though I might be misremembering some details:
Born to an African immigrant father and a local Italian mother in coastal Croatia in the early 20th century. He became a respected and successful business owner during the interbellum period. In 30s he became the Mayor of Zagreb as an independent (when the mayors were chosen by city councils, not directly elected).
When WW2 came, he was called up to fight and drive a tank. In 1940 his tank was hit (nevermind the fact that Yugoslavia entered the war in 1941) and he spent the rest of the war recovering from his injuries. When the war ended he was suddenly ok and placed in charge of Croatia's Communist Party (despite never having been a member, not participating in the Partisan Movement and actually being a class enemy).
His views included telling off the USSR because it was an Asian country who had no place in Yugoslav affairs and forming an alliance with Italy, ignoring the fact that Yugoslavia and Italy were engaged in a huge dispute over the city of Trieste at the time.
When I asked why was the character Orthodox (he didn't mention which Orthodox Church he belonged to) if he's half Italian, seing how Italians are overwhelmingly Catholic, he replied that Yugoslavia is Orthodox land, so what else could the character be!
If anyone could search AH.com's Shared Worlds and maybe paste me the relevant parts of the thread, I'd be grateful. My username there was Orwelans II.
A year or two ago, before I was banned from AH.com, I tried GMing an unusual game format. I made a poll for the users to let them pick if they want it to be with Libya in the 60s or Yugoslavia in the 40s and they picked the latter.
The game would start off with Tito's assassination just before the historical 1948 Soviet-Yugoslav split. The players would submit their own characters, each leading one of the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia's republics or provinces. They would negotiate, vield influence and try to stear the country in their own prefered course. World events would occur and they'd have to respond.
I asked those who might be interested to write up a background for their character, what their ethnic and religious identity might be, their views on building socialism, foreign policy aims in regards to the USSR, Italy, the Greek Civil War etc. Asked them to pick a fitting picture too.
Only 1 character got submitted. It was plainly obvious that the author didn't do the least bit of historical research.
English name, half African (Liberian IIRC) half Italian, Orthodox Christian, Kofi Annan's look was used as a reference.
His story goes something like this, though I might be misremembering some details:
Born to an African immigrant father and a local Italian mother in coastal Croatia in the early 20th century. He became a respected and successful business owner during the interbellum period. In 30s he became the Mayor of Zagreb as an independent (when the mayors were chosen by city councils, not directly elected).
When WW2 came, he was called up to fight and drive a tank. In 1940 his tank was hit (nevermind the fact that Yugoslavia entered the war in 1941) and he spent the rest of the war recovering from his injuries. When the war ended he was suddenly ok and placed in charge of Croatia's Communist Party (despite never having been a member, not participating in the Partisan Movement and actually being a class enemy).
His views included telling off the USSR because it was an Asian country who had no place in Yugoslav affairs and forming an alliance with Italy, ignoring the fact that Yugoslavia and Italy were engaged in a huge dispute over the city of Trieste at the time.
When I asked why was the character Orthodox (he didn't mention which Orthodox Church he belonged to) if he's half Italian, seing how Italians are overwhelmingly Catholic, he replied that Yugoslavia is Orthodox land, so what else could the character be!
If anyone could search AH.com's Shared Worlds and maybe paste me the relevant parts of the thread, I'd be grateful. My username there was Orwelans II.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Having very carefully avoided posting and only registered to read things I couldn't otherwise and only visiting via direct links to threads, I have not been banned.
Yet.
- Location
- US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not banned, I'm just not real interested in going back at this point.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Same.
I keep my account to read stories that are restricted to users but otherwise I don't use it.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
I'm still around because I avoid Chat like the plague.
There is nothing to be gained from "discussing" politics there and the place has long served as little more than a honey trap for Ian to ban people he doesn't like.
CJRoach
Lagrangian Particle Tracking... Now around NZ
- Location
- In Transit Paris-Adelaide-Hobart-Raglan
And back on cringe-worthy AH...World War III in May 1946 by Hairog.
Soviet super-genius appears out of nowhere and solves all technological problems the soviets could ever encounter.
Pigeon guided SAMs!
Insisting that despite it being six months in to a new war there's no lend-lease 2.0, thus the British are bankrupt. Meanwhile ignoring that the whole Soviet diversion of men, fuel and equipment to fighting would have turned OTL's food shortages into massive famines.
Conveniently hand-waving away British spare airframes and production capabilities so the Soviets can win the 2nd Battle of Britain without the slightest effort.
Stupidly high-speed Soviet mini-submarines.
Killing off the almost the entire A-Bomb design and production team.
Soviet super-genius appears out of nowhere and solves all technological problems the soviets could ever encounter.
Pigeon guided SAMs!
Insisting that despite it being six months in to a new war there's no lend-lease 2.0, thus the British are bankrupt. Meanwhile ignoring that the whole Soviet diversion of men, fuel and equipment to fighting would have turned OTL's food shortages into massive famines.
Conveniently hand-waving away British spare airframes and production capabilities so the Soviets can win the 2nd Battle of Britain without the slightest effort.
Stupidly high-speed Soviet mini-submarines.
Killing off the almost the entire A-Bomb design and production team.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've managed to avoid that, mainly because I just stick to the ASB, and Fandom parts of the forum. Alongside some timelines I like.