this gives me warm fuzzies of my CSA playthroughs in kaiserreich. crawling from the ashes of revolution to lead the International in an epic world spanning crusade against the monarchists and imperialists. all flavors of socialism, from M-L, syndicalism to anarchism uniting together. Landing troops in the ports of Spain to help the CNT-FAI defend their shores and finally marching on Berlin. Then starting a game of Stellaris as a Union of Soviets earth.
Have you tried The New Order? It looks like Nazi trash but I'd argue that it's actually anti-fascist. What it does really well is it has vignettes showing how life is under your leadership. Playing as Leninist Sablin's Buryat SSR is absolutely blessed, you get popups about a father being freed from a nazi concentration camp and being reunited with his daughter. Of a man who has to deal with his friends not being interested in learning how to read as an adult, but how worth it it is to him to be able to read bed time stories to his daughter. Of a peasant woman deciding to bring the communist revolution into her own life by deciding to do her husbands job of chopping wood for the stove, he can wash his own damn clothes!
It's great. The community is horrible, don't interact with it. But the mod is a ton of fun.
That mod has some of the most complex mechanics I've ever seen in a Paradox game, in a good way. Like, balancing power between two leaders? Try three, with a tracker that looks like those soil composition diagrams. The resistance mechanic for England is really cool as well, and their storyline with the lesbian couple is really nice.
Can also vouch that it isn't pro-Nazi at all, they're portrayed negatively in every country I've tried.Yeah the mod is very openly anti-nazi, the entire theme of the mod is showing how the nazi ideology is unsustainable and will inevitably collapse in on itself while also showing a story of how dark life would be under it.
The idea of electing Michael Harrington as PotUS fills me with dread. I can balance the budget of a siberian soviet republic, I have no idea how to handle a senate.
I just 'finished' (as in played out the research tree and was given a text popup saying thanks for playing) the Siberian Black Army which involved reunifying Russia into the Russian Free Territory.
I'm not sure what else there is to do, fascist Europe still exists but since you can't declare war whenever you like I suppose I have to be satisfied with that
Yep, it's an alpha. It's unfortunate that there isn't post reunification content, but it's still a fun ride on the way there.
No. TNO is liberal horseshoe propaganda from an anarchist who bans anyone he deems as a "Tankie". While the Sablin playthrough is good it's also just about the only good portrayal of socialism in the entire mod, and it's only good because it's not "authoritarian".
TNO is fucking trash.
The moment when you unite the country and they let you make Solidarity Forever the national anthem is just perfect
I suck at HOI4. :( I can't even finish a game.
I'm going to acquire Stellaris now. That sounds dope.
make sure to take Shared Burdens when you create your empire and pick the Soviet advisor!
They have a communal root network that ends up making them pretty resilient to natural disaster, if my understanding is correct. So it's a nice allegory for our ideals as communists.
Yeah, it's super cool. And this is based on the quaking aspen, which is indigenous to North America. So it's an appropriately unique symbol that can help distance us from the oft decried hammer and sickle.
I think it was suggested as a way to help distance the American movement from the less popular Stalin and Mao. While we all know that they are better than US history classes would admit, your average American would need to get over that before accepting communism as legitimate. This kind of sidesteps that so we can get buy-in and circle back around to why everything Americans learn about communist regimes of the past is wrong.
Adding to this, all connected aspens are genetically identical, so depending on what you count as a single organism, one of the stands out west is the oldest living organism on the planet by far
The Kaiserriech Hammer and Torch in a Cog are great. Hammer for workers who work with their hands, Torch for workers who work with their brains, and the cog for the industrial union that unites us. It's the hammer and sickle but for a more industrial society, I fucking love it.
I got my partner the shirt from kaisercat and she wears it regularly. What's funny is nobody has ever commented or realized it has anything to do with socialism despite the very obvious and awesome symbolism. personally i love how it looks and you nailed the symbolism.
Oh shit, there's a store. I've spent enough time on the mod that I should probably get a giant CSA flag. :stalin-shining: TOTALIST CSA :stalin-shining:
There are two people who are involved with my IWW branch who have CSA flags behind them in zoom calls. One is poised to be a branch leader, if he runs I'm voting for him, he's a good man. I don't know if the other guy is still a wob, he seemed disappointed by the reality of organizing.
i think kaisercat store is an artist collective that seems to be mostly lefties. i love how it seems to burn up the legit right wingers/fash that also play kaiseriech
###tech###
### is an actual comment marker in at least one scripting language. Techbros thinking they bracket society is likely but probably undesirable result of the curly-brace symbolism. (fuck my typing today)
One of the great peculiarities of modern symbol-presentation... scale
The things that build are power tools and cranes and earth movers and 3D modeling, the things that harvest are combines, all becoming more automated, faster, larger and larger in scale and less conceivable to anyone not in the field itself
A service economy's symbols are... what, a receipt? A headset?
So you fall back into those archetypal symbols, which are simultaneously too distant from the present yet the only thing that can convey meaning in the present
Behold the new symbol of communism: 🎧
Honestly though, why insist on symbols that remind people of the shitty jobs that they hate? I mean obviously socialism is largely about the rights of the working person, but I think most workers don't consider or don't want to consider their workplace as a major part of their identity. Overemphasizing people's status as laborers, even to remind them of their unappreciated and undercompensated value, seems like it could be counterproductive.
We'll always need to work for our bread. Under communism I'll still use my hammer to frame drywall. The difference is I and all other workers will be emancipated. Framing drywall ain't bad, what's bad is the fruits of our labor is stolen from us by capitalists.
I’d say a hard hat is a good symbol for manual labor. Doesn’t matter what field you’re in, everyone’s gotta wear one.
Right, but a register on a flag is an indicator of consumerism and immediately brings us to "beyond parody" level
The register doesn't create, or help create. It's a logistics tool.
I guarantee it will look nothing like this picture. It's cool art, but completely unrealistic.
Cogs have too much negativity attached to them, I think, at least in American culture: "cog in the machine," replaceability of workers, automation, loss of ancestral craft
Oh, but well, yeah, being a worker in this system is being a cog. But also they meant progress and future.
Also they are cool regardless tho.
How about a wrench, and something for the agrarian aspect, like the wheel of a tractor?
ok so wrench is good but idk about spatulas cause they remind me of spongebob
Can we use a flag designed by indigenous artists? The Bolivian flag is dope.
We aren't an industrial country anymore so maybe just repurpose the stars and bars? Cuba kept their flag
Cuba was never an imperial power. American flag's gotta go. No settler colonial symbolism.
I agree but it seems super larpy and lame to just repurpose the hammer and sickle
A pencil inside a torch's flame placed between the empty space of a crossed wheat and corn stalk.
The torch handle, the wheat, and corn all intersect at the same spot with the flame above it and inside is the pencil or whatever appropriate cooler looking writing utensil.
The harvest crops are obvious symbolism, but the flame represents liberty in America as well as strength with the olympic torch. The writing instrument shows the clerical workers as well as philosophers that exist within the society created by these other elements.
