Something similar happened to an extent with the Soviet Union in 1991 I would say? US got everything they wanted, but they still kept an aggressive posture towards Russia.

For me history is associated with super idealist classes covering the Cold War lol. I guess it depends on the professor.

Sociology is like, a super broad field. There are some cool marxist, environmental and feminist sociologists. I imagine it would get better after intro classes once there is a deeper dive into a certain theory. How society works is one of the main questions of Marxism, so I wouldn't just discard the whole field. I do wonder why you feel like its more fake than history.

That is the core of libertarian philosophy

Its a fair reading of the worldbuilding, I don't think a world has to be perfect to be optimistic in some way (dispossessed is a good example of a non-perfect optimistic take on anarchism). However, my problem with Lancer is the core (metropole)/periphery framing, in which for the core to have all of these good things, endless war on the (underdeveloped) periphery must be waged. That is what makes it chauvinist to me, and not liberatory.

If a megacorp empire "trying to be better" is optimistic and liberatory, then we just have different definitions of optimistic imagination. To me, Lancer is incredibly pessimistic about human societies and feels inspired by end of history thought (ergo, yes we were bad at some point, but we are good now) where tweaking the US empire is all there is to societal development.

I really dont get KSR's politics. Ive read his solarpunk stuff, the New York 2140 and Ministry for the Future books, and they both seemed to hyperfocus on financial wunderwaffe as a workable solution to climate change. In NY 2140 it was a rerun of 2008 but the fed doesnt bail out banks, + an index to measure the value of underwater property (?). And in Ministry its a carbon offset bitcoin or something. Anyways if someone can explain whats up with KSR and why he's so liked id love to talk about it.

Becky Chambers is the best. Read all of her stuff. Her Wayfarer series is pretty good too, and one of the books (the third one iirc) is about a generation ship that practices self sustainable communist politics (space juche).

Seconded Everything for everyone. I think about it a lot.

Im sorry but the Union of lancer is a stand in for the US. The pillars that you mention are essentially the US constitution.

The Union only exists at the expense of border regions, the populations of which live under constant violence from the Unions mechas. The Union constantly seeks to expand into states like Aunic Ascendancy, an analogy to the Middle East.

It’s state is essentially fascist, with a secret police and mega corporations running the thing. Yes they think they are the good guys, and yes maybe basic needs of their population is met. But who in this fantasy suffers? It’s one of those "shining city on the hill" utopias that reeks of western chauvinism.

Definitely check out Everything for everyone: an oral history of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by M. E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi.

So the US is not already neoliberal, socially reactionary and borderline fascist?

Russia is a liberal democracy

For me its usually that local orgs and groups cross promote each other and their events. There are also region specific accounts that just aggregate events on certain topic.

I agree tho that the algorithm and ad parts suck

A lot of orgs (also bookstores that I like) promote their events mainly on insta

i don't know I'm just interested in different people's experiences with popular media. by girl spaces I do mean fandom but also middle/high school cliques.

yes for sure. i guess it is connected to gendered reading patterns in some way

yeah i feel like after the popularity wave there is a very gendered division in which media stays in the cultural psyche

to me it seems like there was a generational or cultural shift at some point. i guess part of it is that boys barely engage with books nowadays, if at all

true, although griffindor is definitely considered to be the aryan ubermensch house in the books. so he is both that and a dumb fuck - dialectics

very interesting. ive also mostly seen Percy Jackson talked about in girl spaces. i wonder if there is a generational or a cultural shift at some point