Comments by "buddermonger2000" (@buddermonger2000) on "Whatifalthist" channel.

  1. I think it's also worth noting that for the Anglosphere, with their openness, technical and maritime prowess, and shared language that the Anglosphere is poised to become a civilization state much like China is today. It's a lot easier to maintain an empire when your People can easily traverse it and speak the same language which is exactly the situation it finds itself in today. The only other major language it is developing is Spanish (in a rather poor geography might I add) which will just make itself easy to integrate into and tie another continent to it at the hip for it to draw from as well as give space to improve.
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  2. Honestly there's probably a few things likely exacerbated by Great society programs which got rid of much of the financial reasons for marriage and decline in church authority in the world which started to rid some of the cultural reasons for marriage and weakened away some of the greatest gathering places for the community (the churches). These 3 things happened around the time of that interstate displacement meaning it's likely a confluence of these 3 events as homes were lost, stress caused homes to break, and the cultural factors which kept families strong withered away.
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  3. I think part of what makes this scenario most likely to me is geography. I was always trying to make sense of how any world War could really be pulled off given the only place with any real ability to be fought over is Eastern Europe which realistically is just Russia alone at this point and facing about a billion people. Himilayas, Indo-China, the caucuses, and the mountains which define the borders of Iran are just really difficult to move troops through and is largely why everyone is in the places they are today. The positions are just too defensible with the exception of the Pakistan-Indian border on the north Gangetic plain with realistically the Indian army actually being the better army here. It's really difficult to do any real war. The best you have is a naval conflict at the first island chain which limits casualties a LOT (ships are just inherently limiting with regards to Population) and a conflict in Eastern Europe because of Russia but Russia can't take on all of NATO anyway. So a conflict where China and the US try to break each other's backs economically while trying to keep themselves alive at home makes the most sense with various collapses elsewhere.
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  4. 8:12 "Rather than actual moral action" kind of struck with me. Despite how cringe this connection is, I'd been reading some manga recently and the protagonist has a pretty bad personality on the surface as he openly mocks people, insults them to their face, questions authority, and even tried to seduce his kingdom's queen (all of this is mostly Because he doesn't care and actively WANTS the consequences of those actions). This is contrasted with (at this point) the antagonist who's on the surface very good and has gained the affection of other people seen to be good people. However, the person in question is actively trying to steal the place of someone else genuinely good because she doesn't think anyone can be that good and the people who's affection she gained shirked their duty to both the kingdom and their previous engagements and even break promises they'd made. This is compared to the protagonist actively tries to help people while they're down, attempts to comfort others, cover for misdeeds, and help even people he really kind of hates for the sake of people not dying. The comparison here is apt of people who have the right attitudes and present themselves as moral even though they'll lack it in action vs the person who's actually moral in action even if he doesn't present himself as such in manner. TL;DR this truth is basically the idea behind "kind but not nice" and "nice but not kind"
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  5. I think with Isreal that it's worth noting that they've got Good relations with basically everyone but their immediate neighbors now and are a fairly important regional power that has only survived by having a kick-ass military and a committing to technological superiority. I think there are enough interests in keeping Isreal alive that it can survive.
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  6.  @taan1424  That's the problem and why such ideas are seen as villainous as overall you're basically advocating for extreme social engineering because you think we can't provide for everyone and that we'll run out when realistically it's never been the case and is basically the plot of Soylent Green
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  7. Isn't that basically how Stalin came to power?
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  8. 19:30 Also try to check out Botswana who is currently as rich as a country like Chile and only slightly behind Spain. It's also a place that was never created around a bunch of ethnic groups and instead around one tribe who in colonial times made the decision to be voluntarily colonized and then got left alone meaning it didn't suffer any of the negatives of colonization while also already having a generally pluralistic society and a decently organized one as their "kings" were elected based on competence. So it seems like a place ripe for expansion in the future.
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  9.  @marktrain9498  Also worth remembering the cutoff for gen X was 1964 and 1980. So while many of the later boomers probably had a kid in gen X, majority of gen X are kids of the silent generation (1925 to 1945). The way the generations are supposed to work are that the ones classified basically alternate in being kids of the others (for example gen Z is primarily the children of gen X). Though of course due to ages and age of having children it isn't always 1 to 1.
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  10.  @fluoroantimonictippedcruis1537  That's true, but remember that one of the conditions for language formation is isolation from mother language which we are not getting so long as the internet and television exist. There will be shifts, but there are enough connections amongst the various places to keep that to a minimum. And remember that even middle English is still intelligible with modern English which is from 1300. So likely there will be less changes overall, the changes will be likely far more widespread, and even then they'll be mostly intelligible with the language we started around today. Remember right now we're experiencing accent loss among English populations. That is something that's Unheard of historically but facilitated through the internet and television.
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  11. I'm just kind of baffled that they really thought force on force warfare no longer mattered. Even weirder since they'd just done it 3 and 15 years prior to your start in service.
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  12. Parents of GenX are the ones before the boomers
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  13.  @TheComedyGeek  No the parents of Gen X are the silent generation. They came after the greatest generation but weren't the kids of said generation.
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  14. On the note about their percentage of the population, I'd like to add that small percentages are actually a significant portion of the population. Take 3%, like he said the communists were in the Russian Civil War. It sounds like it isn't very large, since it shouldn't be, but the working age population of almost any country is only 60%. So that's already cutting off almost half of the population, and thus your 3% is almost 6%, at least in relation to who your actual opponents are. If you cut another half to get just men, you already have all working age (fighting age) men in just 30% of the population. Your 3% is now 10%. If you cut off below 30 you get to about 10% or less, and now your 3% has become 30% of your cohort. Now imagine 1 in 3 young men taking up arms. Give them those arms and suddenly they can dominate their cohort, and once they've done that their only resistance is the over 30 crowd who, though most of the modern population, are less capable in their overall physical capabilities and have far more to lose. Once you're above 45 you're basically incapable of fighting. And thus you're only fighting another 10% who is already slightly weaker. And every other cohort, quite literally cannot fight. Thus, by the time you get down to the relevant percentage, you've already wiped away the vast majority of the population who can actually oppose you, and so a small percentage only has to win against a relatively small share of the population. Because once that share falls, there's simply no more resistance to be offered. You've Nickled and Dimed your way to a very large percentage of the truly relevant population.
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  15. Also I'd genuinely like to see any actual significant force get through the Himilayas. There's a reason those countries are still there in the Himilayas and that there have been skirmishes but no real war. It's the Himilayas. You thought the Alpines would be bad? Himilayas you just can't move through in any significant numbers. They're natural choke points so a token force can defend the entire border. The only real force concentrations would be through Pakistan as the east would be too filled with jungles. You'll see some battles but nothing too major. The countries we see there today are only there because they couldn't be conquered by their bigger neighbors. It's not for lack of trying but lack of ability.
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  16.  @Gamerguy826  Nah Turkiye is still doing pretty great tbh. It's hit a rough patch but overall carving out its own sphere, admittedly due to the lack of any real powers in its neighborhood (12% average inflation do be a bitch though).
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  17. Pretty bad tbh
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  18. Now that is quite interesting. Though frankly back here in the US is happening as well. Hell it's how Donald Trump got elected. And much of our current cadre of new representatives.
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  19. My comment from the last video was something along the lines of "it sounds like a very compatible civilization to that of the Anglosphere with both being open and fairly curious of other cultures while also being in economic, geographic, and demographic situations that compliment very well"
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  20.  @tomhalla426  Do you think you could elaborate a bit more on this? It sounds interesting and I'm curious.
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  21. Bro I don't even speak decent Spanish despite living in Miami now. My family probably assimilated harder than even most of the rest of the Hispanic population since my grandmother was from New Jersey, went to Puerto Rico, had some kids, my mom, divorced, went back up to Florida and married a guy from Alabama (who to this day is my grandpa), and my dad is currently married to a woman from Illinois. I didn't even speak Spanish for years while I was living with my grandparents because it was all white and I needed English not Spanish in addition to the fact that my grandpa didn't speak a lick of the language. Also the Miami accent literally is mirrored in Spanish and a local phrase is "eating shit" because it's directly translated from Spanish.
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  22. I think the part which isn't discussed nearly as often as it should be is that the tech level on both sides was basically the same. They were two modern industrialized countries duking it out in a war. With the same doctrine. It is two Russian armies. Much more akin to the American Civil War than most other wars
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  23.  @whm_w8833  Honestly it makes no sense beyond being a coalition. The US really can't take both on and I think it's stupid to think that the US would try to take on both at once or at the very least not give up in Eastern Europe first. The video brought up something very important here: the defensible line is in Poland and not Ukraine. Which is why Russia really only cares for the neighbors of Poland. I can honestly see after this being a deal in that if either side invades through Poland they go to war and so there's a non-agression pact around Poland. Russia NEEDS that as a defensible line. They can't afford otherwise and it's a similar situation for Kazakhstan in Central Asia where the mountains buttress the Chinese borders.
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  24. Do you think you could elaborate and give examples on how?
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  25.  @mikeybarboza3086  We're going to blow it up while doing so
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  26.  @yoyonn1  The west for a long time (and still is) like Greece: politically disunited but politically very similar. At least in comparison to the other civilizations.
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  27. Yeah i think you're on the wrong side of the Dunnings-Kreueger regarding modern war. I think you need some reevaluations regarding how firepower wins wars. You're right manpower is required so drones cannot replace soldiers. However, the reason German output spiked was because it had officially committed its entire economy to the war effort which it had been reluctant to do. Separately, air power won the day in the 3 desert wars as advances in precision munitions allowed not just destruction of strategic assets, but the ability to destroy air defense and command and control assets, something impossible during WW2. This allowed units to roll over now disorganized and effectively leaderless units who thus offered little resistance. Fundamentally, still completely possible in mountains. Though you're correct regarding mechanized pushes in them.
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  28. You have a lot of things that'd happen if society just collectively said no lol
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  29.  @ThiagoPagogna  But that's only if they can fix their demographic issues as well
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  30. @DistrustHumanz  That's called occupation. Also, we're barely in Iraq right now. Only 2500 troops. The armies fell in less than a month for each of those counties, and we changed the government, while continuing occupation to prop it up while they recovered.
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  31. @zachariahhoots1735  Honestly some of the worst. However, I'd actually refrain from saying Ukraine is the smaller army. The trend for manpower for much of the war so far was actually in favor of Ukraine, and the first counter offensive was conducted with personnel advantage. And it's precisely what Russia lacked and was another limiting factor on Russia. But you're right they are absolutely transitioning to western equipment
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  32. No America is quite far removed. Even with mountains on the border there are far more who could come in. The difference between the Italian and American positions is that there is no land route to Europe, and that no-one can really invade the US through Canada or Mexico. Those are effectively choke points which cut it off completely in a way the Italian peninsula never could be.
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  33. He's been on the podcasts who talk about it. His answer was essentially "It doesn't work enough and it isn't real thus not being sufficient" My personal belief is that it's bullshit. It's a series of coping mechanisms which generally happen through these crises anyway and so doesn't stop the underlying problems. I think the aging of society explains that much better, however, for the younger societies such as even America, you do have a much greater potential there. Personally, I've seen things kinda stop happening in countries, including the cessation of economic growth, occurs around when society reaches age 40. At 40 and over, your society seems to just stop and ossify. There's just a bit of wiggle room left in America's age structure for things to kick off big time, and i think Britain shows that even an older society can have tensions that explode.
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  34. sadly a lot of Europe seems to be bought by them as well
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  35. Except Britain didn't strip India of anything with the local lords still having a lot of power, while also giving institutions and technology to the country. Meanwhile, the reason India was poor was because it already was poor as that's the human norm. However, due to industrialization, massive wealth could be created and so agglomerated among the industrial states and left the rest of the world behind. This is why the European powers had more economic might after abandoning their colonies than when they had them.
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  36. I'm honestly fairly certain that most young Hispanic males gravitate toward that as we live in a region where the consequences of the opposite are blatantly obvious while also not wanting to be oppressed. Though I know plenty who aren't and I've got an entire group chat of young male Hispanic left-wingers who do just seem to come off with too much trust in the government.
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  37. The Roman Republic fell into decadence and stopped being functional at which point a military dictator took power and started the imperial phase where they pulled it out of decadence but at the cost of all other pillars of society which is why once the system ran into child emperors it finally fell. The Senate may have survived, but its legitimate power clearly did not after the republican period. And to point out the other part: the wars of religion were a period of barbarism caused by unchecked power and vigor of the population where they had loyalty to God and their communities. They were willing to die for their countries. This is why we saw it on the rise. The doctrinal differences were often part of political disputes more than anything else (which is why we saw catholic France team up with the protestants in the numerous coalition wars), and the nobility were still very much using everything they could for the purpose of gaining power and influence. During that period, it was determined through control and military prowess. Even the wars of religion were very rarely purely about religion, but even then, it's about teachings and the afterlife that do not impinge upon your ability to see the world as it is. Usually, you kind of have to when you're getting invaded every 10 years.
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  38. ​ @SeanMendicino-n3d Mass can be achieved through firepower. Which the US has in spades. And it's a specific issue unique to the Ukraine war in that no-one involved really did the prep for a long war. Compared to the US who has legendary planning abilities complete with pre-positioned stockpiles specifically meant to counter issues regarding munitions shortages.
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  39. I'm going to be honest I don't think China will populate Siberia because it just won't be in any way expansionist demographically and thus doesn't have a way to actually populate the area probably staying within their own boundaries for a while longer. It doesn't make sense to expand in area with a shrinking population and less young people than old. Edit: watching this again the same thing applies to Poland honestly since well... it's aging and a declining population thus making little sense as expansionist unless Belarus just joins Poland willingly.
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  40. well the issue is that basically all of Europe just wants to lay down and cry especially the most militaristic factions (Russia and Germany)
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  41.  @Laotzu.Goldbug  Chinese communist China effectively runs on the same grounds as dynastic China with its central bureaucracy and control of the population. Realistically the difference between dynastic China and communist China is the difference between Burbon France and Republican France. Nowhere near as huge a change as you're attempting to say it is. The British Raj ruled India through its historical ways of local princedoms and local power which was the same way India had been run forever. On top of that, biggest thing which changed India was the abolition of the caste system. It's an incredibly large charge which can't be discussed enough as it removed one of the central pillars holding back Indian society. However India has always had a strong society and so democracy simply fit as the next logical form of government. Also the delay or restart of that which happened in the west still look millions of lives in the case of the black death and finding of the new world. And realistically this idea that it's inevitable is complicit in the decline.
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  42. Just spread across theaters in multiple continents. Frankly I mostly can't see Russia doing a full European alliance fight and definitely can't alone so I'm personally predicting a fight between the US and China at sea without ever touching either mainland. The geography involved makes conflict in Eastern Europe inevitable but conflict in Asia almost impossible. If you have enough army to guard your coastline naval invasions realistically are just not going to be successful and trying to put anything through the Himilayan mountains and the jungles of southeast Asia is damn near possible thus making a Sino-Indian conflict difficult to pull off. So no real world War possible.
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  43.  @infoseeker3047  To be fair they also managed it really well. Which is the biggest thing the Americans have going for them. They just learn to deal with whatever comes their way.
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  44. I think there's something to be said regarding perception. Minus Vietnam where we were trying to prop up a government that was failing to defend itself and couldn't simply invade to end the war (one of the problems he mentioned here), we 3 times rolled a country in a month. And then got annoyed with occupation and left. So we "lost" a war we weren't actually fighting.
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  45.  @whm_w8833  I'll be honest it probably makes more sense that way. Honestly the US's influence has expanded realistically way too far for what it can hold and you clearly don't understand the vital importance of Taiwan. Taiwan creates most of the computer chips for the world so what happens for that is that China gets a grip on the whole modern world. If Russia gets Ukraine the Russians have a defensible border and the US actually has a spot in the Central European plain which is narrow enough to defend. In terms of what can be held the US is overextended and needs to retrench. The far east can be held without too much issue as long as there's an actual balance of power. With Russia a Chinese enemy it allows China to basically be surrounded on all sides and keep it from expanding. The US has the best navy in the world so it can hold the seas which dominate the far East. The US can't hold the largest tank army in the world which is entirely suited to fighting in flat plains. Eastern Europe is realistically all Russian anyway. Honestly the US needs allies though and should probably try to stop any action in the middle east, Mediterranean, and Eastern Europe. Western Europe is mostly fine on its own and it can keep the support there without too much effort. Far east is all water so that's all about its naval presence. Let the Indians and Turks split the rest. Protecting the incredibly important computer chip trade is much more important.
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  46. The biggest thing that those drones are useful for is reconnaissance. And they do tend to die quickly as a result. Secondly, it's worth noting that said war is lacking in air superiority much less air Supremacy. When you have air Supremacy you have ISR free from attrition. It's also worth noting that the US is actually currently training for drone swarms and with far bigger precision munitions. You're absolutely correct in the effectiveness of said munitions, but the US owns the sky from day one. There's little for those drones to defend against when command and control is bombed out thus depriving your units organization and supplies.
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  47. Yeah see that was a point I was going to bring up too. It was even easier for Afghanistan than Iraq. We "lost the war" because we didn't go full out with occupation and when we stopped occupying it a new group took over. Imagine you release all control to your puppet and they simply lose to a dissident group. That's what happened in Afghanistan. Yes I'm using HOI4 terms not because real life isn't infinitely more complicated, but because in this instance, it models that very well.
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  48. Probably most similar to Canada honestly. The issues they face are regional but culturally and politically all of the CANZUK nations are incredibly similar. They're basically regional variants of the same people. The US has changed so much and had so much spreading of other populations that have assimilated into it that it really isn't like the rest of the anglosphere. Compare that to CANZUK which are realistically just the Brits across 3 areas. Oh and even more similarly: they're projections of American power and influence.
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  49. I'll be honest I had better ability to relate and interact with those 5 and 10 years older than me than 2 years older or younger. It's so weird all of this
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  50.  @WispFigment  Yeah I was referring more to a lot of things that'd end. Universities would go broke, the government would basically just be unable to do anything, etc
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