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Least favorite alt-history story?

Was talking with Gonzo on another forum, and I cannot believe how utterly idiotic NDCR is.

I mean for some of the elections (Georgia 1996) he literally simply changed the Republican running against Zell Miller, and put in a map that completely disregards how his TL is portraying the black vote as swinging. Like in a TL where black voters tend to vote Republican (handwave the bad attempts at plausibility for a moment) he has majority black counties breaking for Unreformed Zell fucking Miller.
 
Was talking with Gonzo on another forum, and I cannot believe how utterly idiotic NDCR is.

I mean for some of the elections (Georgia 1996) he literally simply changed the Republican running against Zell Miller, and put in a map that completely disregards how his TL is portraying the black vote as swinging. Like in a TL where black voters tend to vote Republican (handwave the bad attempts at plausibility for a moment) he has majority black counties breaking for Unreformed Zell fucking Miller.
I think I’m the one who they asked to make that wikibox...:oops:

I confess that I know next to nothing about Georgia’s demography, and I was literally on my lunch break when I got the request (alongside two others), so I basically just filled in random counties because I didn’t have the time to actually research my contribution to a timeline that literally no one else had done actual research for.
 
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Was talking with Gonzo on another forum, and I cannot believe how utterly idiotic NDCR is.

I mean for some of the elections (Georgia 1996) he literally simply changed the Republican running against Zell Miller, and put in a map that completely disregards how his TL is portraying the black vote as swinging. Like in a TL where black voters tend to vote Republican (handwave the bad attempts at plausibility for a moment) he has majority black counties breaking for Unreformed Zell fucking Miller.


I think I’m the one who they asked to make that wikibox...:oops:

I confess that I know next to nothing about Georgia’s demography, and I was literally on my lunch break when I got the request (alongside two others), so I basically just filled in random counties because I didn’t have the time to actually research my contribution to a timeline that literally no one else done actual research for.

Yup. That's Queen Nixon in... for you.

Hmmm, that reminds me, what's happening in Queen Nixon in Pinochet Takes a Helicopter Ride at the moment....

...

...

...

Netanyahu staning, with a badly photoshopped picture of Netanyahu in the 90s.

...

...

...

Yup. That's Queen Nixon in... for you.
 
Yup. That's Queen Nixon in... for you.

Queen Nixon in... President Ted Bundy isn't even doing Ted Bundy right. Like, he doesn't even seem to be a murderer or even President Psychopath if they wanted to avoid making him an out-and-out criminal. They made him a very successful, if loud and a bit impulsive, Republican president. I just don't understand why someone would feel the need to try to redeem Ted Bundy of all people.

And since we're on the topic, there's something seriously spooky about their post-Tom Clancy-WW3 world. There's three major blocs: (1. A French-aligned one featuring many of their former colonies. Also France is far-right and led by the National Front; (2. A German-aligned one that is out and out neo-fascist and led by third positionist neo-nazi Gerhard Frey (the Republicans, who receive the lion's share of the black vote ITTL, have a sizable "Freyist" faction); (3. An Idi Amin led "anti-communist alliance" with much of Africa behind it and a handful of other nations (most notably the Chinese military government) also it features Kenyan President Barack Obama; Those three blocs stand in addition to a neutral far-right America who single-handedly dissolved NATO and created this situation. This would be a half-baked dystopian scenario if the author wasn't an unironic fan of all of it.
 
And since we're on the topic, there's something seriously spooky about their post-Tom Clancy-WW3 world.

Well, I just slogged through the WW3 itself in all its wikiboxy glory. Even leaving aside the "WWIII starts and stays mostly conventional" genre necessities as well as the oft-cited politics, ie "Arab-Israeli push into the Caucasus! Restored Imperial Japanese invasion of Siberia! West Germany and some of France being overrun without the button being pushed, vice versa for the USSR itself, and of course the tide turning when the DDR forces switch sides", well.... it's bad.

Just looking at the wikiboxes, the numbers are frequently off-by a lot. Stuff like army sizes in general, troop-to-tank ratios in particular, as well as stuff that can't be "disproven" but still seemed suspiciously off like casualties. Granted, someone like me who reads army organizational charts for fun is probably going to notice more, but still. If you're going to use as rivet-county a format as wikiboxes, you should at least get the number of rivets in the right ballpark. It's very much something where the only research done was figuring out the person and place names to put in the labels.
 
Well, I just slogged through the WW3 itself in all its wikiboxy glory. Even leaving aside the "WWIII starts and stays mostly conventional" genre necessities as well as the oft-cited politics, ie "Arab-Israeli push into the Caucasus! Restored Imperial Japanese invasion of Siberia! West Germany and some of France being overrun without the button being pushed, vice versa for the USSR itself, and of course the tide turning when the DDR forces switch sides", well.... it's bad.

Just looking at the wikiboxes, the numbers are frequently off-by a lot. Stuff like army sizes in general, troop-to-tank ratios in particular, as well as stuff that can't be "disproven" but still seemed suspiciously off like casualties. Granted, someone like me who reads army organizational charts for fun is probably going to notice more, but still. If you're going to use as rivet-county a format as wikiboxes, you should at least get the number of rivets in the right ballpark. It's very much something where the only research done was figuring out the person and place names to put in the labels.

Yeah, I imagine with that sort of niche expertise you're getting all kinds of frustrated. I'd love to see a Coiler's Let's Read on NDCR like the ones you have hosted on Sufficient Velocity.
 
Yeah, I imagine with that sort of niche expertise you're getting all kinds of frustrated. I'd love to see a Coiler's Let's Read on NDCR-

No thanks. The first problem is that it's just not that engaging or fun to read. The second problem is that the criticisms (even if accurate) would get repetitive very quick.

And the third problem is a feeling it might be more attention than NDCR really deserves.
 
Well, I just slogged through the WW3 itself in all its wikiboxy glory. Even leaving aside the "WWIII starts and stays mostly conventional" genre necessities as well as the oft-cited politics, ie "Arab-Israeli push into the Caucasus! Restored Imperial Japanese invasion of Siberia! West Germany and some of France being overrun without the button being pushed, vice versa for the USSR itself, and of course the tide turning when the DDR forces switch sides", well.... it's bad.

Just looking at the wikiboxes, the numbers are frequently off-by a lot. Stuff like army sizes in general, troop-to-tank ratios in particular, as well as stuff that can't be "disproven" but still seemed suspiciously off like casualties. Granted, someone like me who reads army organizational charts for fun is probably going to notice more, but still. If you're going to use as rivet-county a format as wikiboxes, you should at least get the number of rivets in the right ballpark. It's very much something where the only research done was figuring out the person and place names to put in the labels.

Queen Nixon in Nuke-Free WWIII is pretty much the series' nadir. Queen Nixon in Alt-Right Ted Bundy is President, as Pinochet Takes a Helicopter Ride is just a chaotic shambles.
 
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Queen Nixon in... President Ted Bundy isn't even doing Ted Bundy right. Like, he doesn't even seem to be a murderer or even President Psychopath if they wanted to avoid making him an out-and-out criminal. They made him a very successful, if loud and a bit impulsive, Republican president. I just don't understand why someone would feel the need to try to redeem Ted Bundy of all people.

And since we're on the topic, there's something seriously spooky about their post-Tom Clancy-WW3 world. There's three major blocs: (1. A French-aligned one featuring many of their former colonies. Also France is far-right and led by the National Front; (2. A German-aligned one that is out and out neo-fascist and led by third positionist neo-nazi Gerhard Frey (the Republicans, who receive the lion's share of the black vote ITTL, have a sizable "Freyist" faction); (3. An Idi Amin led "anti-communist alliance" with much of Africa behind it and a handful of other nations (most notably the Chinese military government) also it features Kenyan President Barack Obama; Those three blocs stand in addition to a neutral far-right America who single-handedly dissolved NATO and created this situation. This would be a half-baked dystopian scenario if the author wasn't an unironic fan of all of it.

Three comments:

1. Stop trolling

2. Read the TL

3. It's all fully explained and justified

Bonus comment:

4. It's not supposed to be plausible
 
That was The Congressman responding to various penalties his endless shitbirding attracted.

It occurs to me I never really saw many of the author's comments on his own work; I only saw the fans who posted in the thread itself. I was aware of the TL for a while but didn't really pay it much heed until I heard about the bit where Nelson Mandela agrees to work with the South African apartheid government out of this fear of communism which the real Mandela just didn't have. I will give most alternate histories a lot of lattitude for taking liberties, but that was the one thing I just couldn't get to grips with. Richard Nixon's daughter marrying Prince Charles and becoming queen is very silly but it's basically harmless in contrast.
 
It occurs to me I never really saw many of the author's comments on his own work; I only saw the fans who posted in the thread itself. I was aware of the TL for a while but didn't really pay it much heed until I heard about the bit where Nelson Mandela agrees to work with the South African apartheid government out of this fear of communism which the real Mandela just didn't have. I will give most alternate histories a lot of lattitude for taking liberties, but that was the one thing I just couldn't get to grips with. Richard Nixon's daughter marrying Prince Charles and becoming queen is very silly but it's basically harmless in contrast.

Yup.

That's why I went with Queen Nixon in... for my joke titles of the various parts--the TL moves from goofy right-wing trolling to malicious right-wing trolling, and that's an aspect you have to capture.
 
Yup.

That's why I went with Queen Nixon in... for my joke titles of the various parts--the TL moves from goofy right-wing trolling to malicious right-wing trolling, and that's an aspect you have to capture.

I'd say that the maliciousness was undercurrent for awhile but always there. Remember, the TL's POD revolved around making the Republican Party appeal more to blacks without making the Republican Party anything more than marginally more liberal (and that itself appears to be more superficial than anything) if that in the long run.

When President Nixon passes a watered down version of the Civil Rights Act that even Barry Goldwater comes around on (by not desegregating private business you're not really making a civil rights act at all, I mean that was the civil rights act in For All Time) and just having it be not only accepted by blacks but a political move that's worshipped by even socialist black leaders is not only revisionist but insulting too. For starters, it ignores the long history of African-American support for the Democrats since the start of the New Deal and the fact that the civil rights movement wouldn't end as not only is there still more to campaign against but leaders like King would see it as a goddamn betrayal.
 
I'd say that the maliciousness was undercurrent for awhile but always there. Remember, the TL's POD revolved around making the Republican Party appeal more to blacks without making the Republican Party anything more than marginally more liberal (and that itself appears to be more superficial than anything) if that in the long run.

I think in isolation that could just be bad, lazy alternate history. But it's not in isolation......
 
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