Well, a good example of an authoritarian president would be Andrew Jackson who, during the proclamation of martial law during the war with the United Kingdom, censored newspapers and arrested many political opponents of his government. It is a historical reference for a game where you are the authoritarian president.
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I think you’re thinking of the wrong president?
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Correct president, but… that was many years after the war with the UK. He was a general during the war, before he became President.
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… Right, I forgot about his involvement in the war of 1812
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Will there be different endings of how well MC lead that UN can be reformed and strengthen to stop global conflicts and potentially world war 3 from happening. United Nation can be great tool to implement polices to stop wars (to Unite the world against the aggressive nation be it economical ,political or military coalition)
It can also be use in important issues like climate change, endangered species and spread of democracy such as North Korea can be a crucial for world peace and prosperity in the long term. Or it’s fail and the world can even plunge into even a nuclear attacks, ( Terrorists get there hands on nuclear weapons is a very Real possibility )
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I think that is a good idea. I think it’s a good idea, especially regarding the spread of democracy.
And how the mc achieve that? Through 5 years of diplomatic effort? Or maybe strong arming everyone to comply with the US ideals? That’s just pure fantasy imo.
Also reforming the united nations to become a world police and focus on issues like climate change and animals? Nobody would agree with this, especially on the world police part.
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Especially since US foreign policy outside of NATO is very weak. I don’t know how it is in other regions, but I get the impression that Latin America at the Los Angeles summit made it clear that it is time to change the paradigm of the United States’ relations with the rest of America south of its border.
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United Nations was created after world war 2 to stop future wars from happening after its predicer league of nations who fail to stop world war 2 after the great war. Reform are a necessity if world is to remain at peace and avoid the blood bath that were world wars and trade is a very essence of global cooperation as its far more beneficial to use diplomacy then tanks war only become a prospect after every day people live stop improve and normal things become luxury. In this case UN can be great tool and no single country is capable of stopping climate change as it a very huge effort and complicated eg there are two countries country A decide to focus on the issue where as country B decide to focus on military forces it’s resources in that particular area alone goes without saying either country A abonden it’s goal in favor of national defense or suffer.
No one is saying one party can change or solve the problem of the world even in 8 years but someone have to try at the very least to bring it to the table and climate change can be solve (person opinion) throw nuclear power, and more importantly fission reaction (the happen in the sun) and some research have achieved a working reaction throw small it will be fully ready in 8-15 years
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Lofty ideals you have there, but who’s gonna finance this reform? Who’s gonna support this reform? Who’s gonna implement it? Who’s gonna reinforce it?
There’s a reason the UN still stay more or less the same since it’s inception. You can’t possibly make 100+ countries to have the same national interest under normal circumstances. Sure you can start something like propose using nuclear instead of coal for power generation, sounds lovely indeed until you realize that most of the developing nations lack the know how to make and run one, and those that their economy relies on coal exports? The workers that works in that industry? Yeah they aren’t gonna be happy, who’s gonna take responsibility for them? The US? Because you’re the one that pushed this reform? Heh, and how are you gonna explain it to your tax payers I wonder.
And climate change? Do you really think a nation that can be plunged into civil unrest or worse a civil war, or still recovering from one, or those that have huge economic problem gonna care about this issue? Yeah addressing climate change is important but does any countries outside those that have the money and political will would do something serious about it? No, their focus would be human development, military, and economy and not environmentalism.
And also The UN is created to preserve the post war new order, not to prevent another conflicts. Because if that’s the case then they already failed in their first year (Dutch-Indonesia conflict 1945-1949) and then Korean War (1950-1953) and more to follow.
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I think I mentioned this a long, long time ago, but now that the game is more expanded I’d like to reemphasize it again with the benefit of more material to discuss.
The choices in this game have this odd aversion to any kind of popular movement politics. Mostly on the left, but to some extent on the right as well.
Take some of the choices at the beginning for your support base/background:
These are from a play through where I tried to create the farthest left President possible, specifically a Democratic working class candidate from California. I tried this with a few other types of candidates and got similar results (with the exception of VP, where a right-wing candidate gave me options which didn’t talk about actual policy at all, only individual characteristics? It was bizarre).
- As a background, your first job can be any kind of cushy rich-kid internship, but can’t be, say, an activist or popular intellectual (a la Noam Chomsky)
- For Vice Presidents - this is the only selection out of these four I’m really happy with, and it’s more of a “I could keep on playing with these options” happy than a “this actually represents what I would want to do as President” happy. The second option actually has pro-welfare policies, which is nice.
- For the seating, well… I can’t help but read this as choosing between “family values,” “oligarch shill,” “media shill,” and “corporate shill,” which aren’t exactly great options. Why not young people, or the working class, or prominent activists?
- Finally, in terms of (what I assume is) the Secretary of the Treasury, this is where I gave up on the game in its present state entirely. Frankly, “fiscal centrist,” “fiscal conservative,” and “cartoonishly evil corporate datamonger” are all just various flavors of Upper-Class Right.
So in sum, this game as it’s organized right now, doesn’t take into account the politics of much of the country, and doesn’t take into account political leaders who aren’t drawn from the upper echelons of the power elite, rather than say, actual popular movements. I admire this game’s intent and the work that’s gone into it so far (the writing in particular, is unusually good), but frankly, if I wanted to play as a status quo neoliberal I would log back onto iCivics.
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This is false.
The IMF and World Bank have both realigned themselves from Keynesian axes to neoliberal ones. The original pacifist goals of the UN have largely been replaced by developmental ones, with the latter’s budget having overtaken the former by the 1970s. The goal of maintaining world peace in the UN which you’ve been discussing is no longer particularly relevant.
I don’t think anyone realistically thought that the UN would settle all conflict everywhere. The primary mission was the elimination of Great Power wars, not the suppression of colonial revolutions.
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You can be civil rights activists as the civil rights attorney, and the marine officer is not a cushy rich-kid internship. And also Noam Chomsky ? Really? Why do you want something a la Bosnian genocide denialists ?
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I agree with your third points, inviting the workers (not union bosses), or some activists is an interesting idea.
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As for the Treasury, let me guess, you want someone that strongly in favour of increasing welfare spending and paying it by taxing the rich to the ground ?
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Human rights lawyer is still not a particularly populist job. And if you prefer, let’s say David Graeber, Michael Parenti, or Slavoj Zizek.
I actually personally favor a degrowth model combined with extensive subsidies for local mutual aid groups, plus restoring Glass-Steagall and collapsing the US debt-tribute system. In the short term, abolishing student debt, nationalizing the universities, and abolishing intellectual property on chemical formulas (but not machinery) would be cool. I don’t like Keynesianism, but it would keep me playing.
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I do agree, but TBH nearly every single US politician is some flavor of Upper-Class Right.
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In UN you don’t have to win over all the countries only the most influential ones like G20, or top 20 military nations.
Yes people will lose there jobs just like artisans or merchant of the medival ages after industrial revolution but because of it there is middle class which have not existed and control moderan nation states throw votes and many technology and availability of general stuff which we take for granted. Eg. If we assume nickola Tesla was successful in creating a machine which can transfer power from one point to another in 1000 km in any direction to any device (let’s not go into the technology issues) any workers who make electricity infrastructure or in that field feel there jobs at risk and destroy his invitation it is good or bad?
United Nations succeeded in its job last 50 -80 of human existence are some of the most peaceful in all of history like it or not. And Korea war could have easily become a world war as both US and USSR have nuclear weapons but all the parties bend over backwards to make sure it doesn’t become a world war 3
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Congratulations on achieving your goals with patreon.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply, I’ll try and go through to hit all your major points and critiques.
Would you mind elaborating a bit here? What ‘options’ are you referring to regarding only characteristics? Is this about the bill, executive orders, or something else?
I will say that many Field Strategists/Organizers on the state level aren’t what I’d consider “rich-kid internships.” I myself was a field organizer for quite some time and those entry-level canvassing jobs definitely aren’t cushy haha. In any event, I’d be happy to add some sort of non-profit or academia route in some future updates.
This option is really just meant to showcase the sort of relationships you’ll be balancing throughout the game. As it is the demo and the prologue, this choice was my way of showing the player some of the interests they’d be juggling. Because there isn’t, at least yet, a sort of populist or related stat aside from general approval rating, I don’t know what adding an option to pick some activists or working-class Americans would add aside from just storytelling, which don’t get me wrong, is still a huge part of any ChoiceScript game.
I’m sorry to hear this is where you gave up on the game! The fiscally centrist option is the more progressive one economically. Later in the game, in a Cabinet Scene that isn’t in this version of the demo, this option will advocate for things like increased welfare spending to help the economy. Her being listed as a centrist is actually a typo on my end, there were originally only two options (her and Davids, the cartoonishly evil corporate datamonger as you put it!).
In any event, I do really appreciate your detailed and thoughtful remarks. As the updated demo won’t be made public for some time, I wouldn’t reccomend you trying it through again just yet. I will say, though, keep hope in my demo! There will be options for you to fight for more progressive policies like universal healthcare so I hope that when the time comes, you enjoy the final product!
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I mean, it makes sense though. A fiscally progressive person would never want to be Secretary of the Treasury, at least not in the US, where they would have to dismantle the entire system and build it from the ground up, and wouldn’t even be able to do so legally. You wouldn’t get anyone more progressive than centrist.
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