the way they filmed mitch mcconnel falling down with the zoom out is pure kino. like a scene from the office of steve carrel doing slapstick. pic.twitter.com/fQMTpgrMHZ

— doomer (@uncledoomer) February 5, 2025

traverse390 asks:

Are we at risk of censorship of LGBTQ+/adult material re: U.S. 2025 federal policies?

The short answer to your question is yes. Of course, there is a risk of increased censorship of LGBQT+ and "adult material" in 2025 and beyond for those of you living in the United States.

The worrying trend of banning books in schools and public libraries across the United States will worsen before it gets better. The Comic Book Journal reported in September that:

"The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, which tracks book challenges and bans around the U.S., recorded that 378 different graphic novels were threatened with bans or challenges in 2023, with a total of 1,020 total censorship attempts. In the last three years, the numbers have seen a huge jump – 2023's total censorship attempts are twenty times what they were just three years ago in 2020."

In March last year, The Guardian reported on the recent American Libraries Association report covering all of 2023's known book bans. Amongst other things, the report detailed "Seventeen states [that] saw attempts to ban more than 100 books: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin."

Why is the banning of books so prevalent across American public schools and libraries?

Sadly! The banning of books and the occasional outright burning of them has been a regular occurrence throughout American history. Despite its relatively young age as a country, the USA has been banning books pretty much from the get-go. Think about it this way. The first white Europeans arrived in the country and settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and these same "Founders" banned their first book in 1637.

The first book ever to be banned in the United States was New English Canaan by Thomas Morton, who established an early colony in Massachusetts where settlers and native people co-existed fairly harmoniously. Morton espoused a more pragmatic approach to colonization with the land's original inhabitants. This was seen as a threat by the Puritan settlers, and Morton was subsequently twice exiled back to England, where he wrote New English Canaan. He was not a white savior of any kind. He was a fur trader and businessman, and most of the book describes the "opportunities" the New World presented to entrepreneurial readers. Nonetheless, his pragmatic views on peaceful co-existence with native people were seen as a threat to the fabric of the new society the Puritans were attempting to build, and he was punished for it.

It is the fear that certain types of ideas, practices, and beliefs can "undermine" the cultural fabric of America that drives book bans. So! It comes as no surprise that graphic novels that depict "non-traditional" romantic and erotic relationships and/or characters who are non-conformist to the hetero-dominant culture will be targeted by censorious organizations and individuals.

While I wish to focus specifically on the type of material that matters to you in your question, I would like to remind everyone that it isn't just LGBTQ+ material that is being banned. Far from it…

The most recent high-profile case of statewide book banning, including comics and manga, happened last year in Tennessee when the state legislature brought in the HB843 mandate. Books in school libraries must be suitable for the age and maturity levels of the students. Some of the types of content deemed inappropriate for school-age children include any type of nudity, "descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement," excessive violence, and of course, LGBTQ-related subjects.

ANN reported on the mandate at the time that includes the first eight volumes of Assassination Classroom, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (volumes 1 and 3), all of Attack on Titan, and Akira, which really pisses me off. Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha is also on the banned books list in Tennessee, which is a perennial favorite of many younger readers. It contains some sexually suggestive moments, and some of the key characters, including the protagonist, possess an element of what one could argue is gender fluidity, but it is incredibly subtle, and I am genuinely surprised it made it onto this list.

The depiction of LGBTQ characters in manga is not uncommon, and so you have every right to worry about whether more works could be banned in the future. Manga like Sailor Moon, Claudine, Hunter X Hunter, and Rose of Versailles vary in their depictions of same-s*x couples and/or openly trans characters. Some depictions are more overt, others are more subtle, coded even. Some are serious and core to the story. Other characters provide light relief. Nonetheless! They exist and they are featured in some of the most popular and important works of the past forty years, which I find surprising because Japan is also a socially conservative country. For these works and for these characters to exist, and be known and popular with readers is remarkable and a testament to the fact that the majority don't have major issues with depictions of "alternative lifestyles" in literature, contrary to what much of the media and some politicians tell us.

ScreenRant reported in November that Richmond County School District in North Carolina recently banned (pending a review) Unico: Awakening Volume 1, the new reimaging of Osama Tezuka's classic manga by Samuel Sattin and illustrator, Gurihiru following a complaint from a "concerned parent." The parent's six-year-old son purchased a copy of the manga at a local Scholastic Book Fair, and she was "shocked to discover depictions of animal cruelty (I hope they never read Tezuka's Buddha Volume 1. That poor bunny!) and gun violence".

The book ban movement in the USA over recent years has most definitely grown, and as The Guardian reports it is "particularly prevalent in Republican-led states, as religious-political activism gains strength," but the canceling, boycotting, and banning of pop culture in your country is something that unfortunately is a "both sides" issue, and it cuts to the bone of your First Amendment rights. The more organized book banners know this, and while many of us may wonder whether your federal law-makers might seek to increase the scope of these bans, it isn't necessary to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing access to what they may consider to be "dangerous" and/or "unsuitable" reading material for children and young adults. The market will ultimately decide what reading material you can have access to, and unfortunately, book banners know this.

The Unico manga is a case in point. School libraries never used to hold graphic novels or manga in them. Public libraries barely did either. Unico is a flagship manga title for Scholastic's Graphix imprint, which is dedicated to publishing creator-owned graphic novels for early, middle-grade, and young adult readers. Graphix launched in 2005 with Jeff Smith's epic series, BONE #1: Out From Boneville. This imprint came about in part because of the huge shift in boy's reading habits starting in the late 90s. This is when I, as a 15-year-old, first discovered "edgier" books like Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and The Killing Joke in my local library.

This recent ban, "pending review," of Unico is noteworthy because Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a major supplier of books to school libraries. They have a better understanding of what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to age-appropriate literature for school-age children than almost any other publisher. Censorship is a slippery slope, and what one parent may find unacceptable for their six-year-old to read is not necessarily the same as another parent who also monitors what content their kids are consuming. I wanted to use Unico as an example of censorship that isn't driven by an organization, and which doesn't seem politically or religiously motivated.

America's moral majority has been at war with comics as a corrupting influence since the early 1950s and what is now commonly referred to as the "Moral Panic," which was a reaction by the press, religious groups, and politicians against what many considered to be the gradual decline in standards of decency and morality in the media and the arts. Especially film-making and comic books. This moral panic also coincided with a rise in reporting around juvenile delinquency. Senate hearings were held, and miles of column inches were printed, resulting in the voluntary implementation of the Comics Code Authority, which was a self-policing and self-censoring program committed to by all of the major comics magazine publishers at the time. Unbelievably, "The Code" continued well into the 2000s with the final holdouts, DC and Bongo Comics, discontinuing their carrying of the unmistakable CCA badge on every comic cover they printed.

What concerns me is that with your country's rightwards political momentum when it comes to issues of identity and culture, alongside its anti-globalization economic policies, increasing downward pressure on manga and comics publishing will impact readers well beyond the USA's borders. If America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Less than 21% of comics, manga, and graphic novels are currently printed within the USA. If aggressive tariffs are brought in against the majority of America's major international trading partners, including China, where 24% of domestic publishers print their books, the price of the average tankoban is likely to increase considerably. This will mean lower print sales. Combine this with potentially more states banning more manga, and it isn't out of the question that some books may be discontinued and others not printed at all. And sorry, Canadians, Aussies, and Brits, but if fewer books are published in the USA, that means fewer titles for you, too.

I abhor the idea that a book can be dangerous, and I find it ridiculous to believe that a comic or a book can fundamentally change the reader's sexual or gender identity. I've read a lot of books in my lifetime, and none of them caused me to become a straight, cis-hetero male. I am just one, and that identity has, in all likelihood, influenced what types of comics, books, novels, etc. I like to read, as well as what types of movies, series, animation, etc. I like to watch the types of video games I like to play. I feel seen all day long by the culture I inhabit. Erasing what little pop culture is available that recognizes those of us who are not part of "the norm" seems unnecessarily cruel to me.

Based on the strength of some of the aforementioned LGBTQ-friendly manga brands, it could be commercially damaging for some of the biggest names in manga publishing, too. I believe that a change is coming, and it may well impact the print publishing of manga and comics in a significant way. With English-language digital manga and comic sales barely representing 20% of all graphic novel sales currently, perhaps these changes will signal a significant increase in digital manga sales.

References:

Deb Aoki report re: impact of tariffs on manga imports… "In The Comics Journal, Gina Gagliano explains how new tariffs will likely affect comics/manga publishing in 2025 (spoiler: it's not good for readers or publishers)."

"What will potential tariffs mean for comic publishers in 2025? "We'll likely have less customers." - The Comics Journal

"The state of comics and censorship during Banned Books Week" - The Comics Journal, September 2024 [Source: The Comic Book Journal "The state of comics and censorship during Banned Books Week", Gina Gagliana, September 23, 2024

"Books bans in US schools and libraries surged to record highs in 2023 - Though the list is broad, many of the 4,240 books were targeted because they related to issues of LGBTQ+ communities or race " - The Guardian, March 14, 2024

Choice quotes from the forums:

Well, censorship of adult or controversial content is already happening.Whether it's Japan doing this to itself or due to social changes around the world.

This is absolutely drop dead terrifying.

The focus on library bans seems geared toward the all-ages LGBTQ+ side of the question, but don't forget that the same forces are pushing for blanket criminalization of pornography. There are already multiple states that companies releasing adult manga/anime won't ship to.

Mod note: don't conflate libertarianism with LGBT. This is your only warning.

Also, I mentioned that if the book ban goes beyond anime/manga, is that going to escalate to targeting Asian-American/AAPI communities. I asked because a few days ago, I read an article from KQED (a local PBS in San Francisco) about the local Japanese-American communities are going to protect undocumented immigrants and come to the defense of the larger immigrants communities due to their experience of the Japanese internment during WWII. So that is my biggest worries as a anime/manga fan, if Japanese-Americans are building a big resistance toward Trump's treatment to the immigrant communities and the wider AAPI communities, is this going to lead to Trump and MAGA attacking not only the Japanese-American communities, will the MAGA/Trumper dare go after anime/manga and the fandom as an act of retaliation, is that going to lead to more manga ban in the school and public libraries? Is that going to lead to the FCC going after companies like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and other streaming companies that stream and license anime, what about manga publishers like Viz Media, Kodansha USA, etc...

The only thing really saving us from censorship and the other crazy things that these Christo-fascists want to do are the judges and courts blocking the orders and lawsuits being made and present right now which will only increase as time goes on at this pace and will be an astronomical amount.

literally not a single judge will defend queer cartoon kiddie porn sweetie

As a straight person, I feel like the opposite has been in effect on Reddit for a few years now. Unless you're towing water for Left leaning causes, you'll get downkongd or your comment will be deleted by a mod. If platforms would stop censoring opposing viewpoints, that would be great. This applies to both Left (Reddit) and Right (X) dominated platforms.

chud whining about chuds being censored on reddit in unrelated topic award

!fosstards !linuxchads !codecels not a fan of Lunduke, but this is kino Linux drama

If anyone wants, I can post Groomercord screenshots if Aevann allows me because the 'rama is absolutely hilarious in that server lmao.

They lost 250.000 troops, and 900 tanks for this village thats not even important.

— Phillip Hansen (@PhillipHansenS) January 12, 2025

Triple cope

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/01/12/7493165/index

Khohols reached such point that even republicans asking them to throw the 18 year olds.

Mike Waltz, Donald Trump's incoming National Security Adviser, believes that Ukraine should lower the draft age to attract hundreds of thousands of new troops and stabilise the frontline.

Their draft age right now is 26 years old [it is in reality 25 - ed.], not 18. I don't think a lot of people realise that they could generate hundreds of thousands of new soldiers.

He is coping a bit since most 18 year olds were 15 when it all started so they runaway already and who is left also running away

🇺🇦🇪🇺‼️🚨 Ukranian boys aged 16 - 20 are leaving Ukraine in masses, buses full drive to Europe daily!

There are even organized tours for the boys to leave!

The upcoming lowering of the mobilization age to 18 scared people! pic.twitter.com/ut97L1DfXW

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 11, 2025

On top of unreal high desertion

Ukrainian soldier that was busified run away from army base to capture that guy that busified him to bussyfie that guy

A story of "figurative and literal"

Republicans need to stop Russian progress because otherwise there won't be an argument for Russian to stop and Russian now attacking at angles that Ukraine didn't expected

The Ukr. army remains unable to stop the Russian advance on the western riverside of the Oskil in Kharkiv oblast, despite Russians needing to cross the river with every soldier, weapon, ammunition and piece of equipment.
Simply not understandable to me. Thought it was a priority. pic.twitter.com/17eluyoJ76

— Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 (@JulianRoepcke) January 10, 2025

This mb looks like nothing but it gives Russian opportunity to take this all

And neutralise Ukrainian only success in this conflict the "Kharkov counteroffensive 2022"

Not counting Vovchansk that place has around 9k people so barely nothing at such massive territory. It's around 4700km.

If Russian reaches Burluck Ukraine will lose possibility support that area and we will finally understand why Russian attacked Kharkiv.

This bridge also doesn't look impressive but it gives Russian opportunity to strike the choke point Zarizhne from back and directly strike Lyman

That will give them opportunity to easily bomb Sloviansk

Russian are also almost done with Chasiv Yar and they decided to not go after Konstiantynivka but after Mikiolaivka and Sloviansk, because they now don't have to worry that Ukrainian will attack their flanks (Chasiv Yar and then Ivaniske) since if Ukrainian in Konstiantynivka try it Russian will attack that city from Toretsk.

Russian also will enter Dniper oblast soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/11/ukraine-russia-kursk-counterattack/

Ukrainian troops launched a counterattack in the region last weekend, attempting to retake some of the territory it first seized last summer and then lost — with the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office boasting on social media that Russia was "getting what it deserves."

But almost a week into the new operation in Kursk, little progress appears to have been made

There is big difference between "little progress" and not progress and decline. Because the conclusion of that offensive was a decline.

Fights now at outskirts of Sudzha and Ukrainian launching offensive east out of Sudzha with goal of capturing a town 80km from Sudzha that is connected with only one road that goes from Sudzha. Also Zelenskyy was claiming Ukraine controlled like 1500km^2 in Kursk and now official Ukrainian army map says 424km

Ukraine's continued focus on Kursk indicates how important Kyiv believes it is to hold on to the territory, especially as Trump's impending arrival could increase pressure for both sides to come to the negotiating table. Ukrainian officials have also warned that if their troops were to retreat back across the border, the 60,000 troops Kyiv says Russia has deployed would follow them into Ukraine and occupy more land.

It's a war of attrition, Ukraine the side that barely has AD and artillery moves into Russian rural area with no fortifications. So they picked enemy turf to do there defence

Russia, meanwhile, is eager to retake the territory, but has still maintained much of its military might in Ukraine's east, where Russian forces said they captured the Ukrainian town of Kurakhove this week. Ukrainian officials denied those accounts and described the battle as ongoing.

As Trump's inauguration approaches, Moscow, which has the upper hand in manpower and resources, has fewer reasons than Ukraine to see his taking office as an immediate game changer.

"There has been a long-running narrative since the election that both sides are going to try to substantially improve their positions ahead of Jan. 20," Kofman said, describing it as a "fixation" that encourages "short-term thinking" about the war.

I been writing since forever that Trump won't stop it in 24 hours and he just made it official this week by saying he will have a meeting with Putin in 6 or so months.

So did Russian planned to enter Sumy or not now doesn't matter since they ain't going to lose such opportunity so Ukraine GENIUS plan to trade Russian Kursk territory for something would end up giving Ukraine Kursk territory back and some Sumy territory.

"There are signs of a Russian interest to meet with Trump, but that should not be confused with a willingness to negotiate. It's unclear why Moscow would negotiate right now, given the trajectory of the war," he said.

Ukrainian soldiers don't understand why would Russian even accept any negotiation. That's how hard Ukraine is winning.

Oleh said. Ukraine, meanwhile, has taken advantage of communication challenges between Russian and North Korean troops to retake some positions in Kursk, as what Oleh described as confusion between the two groups appears to have slowed Russian efforts to stabilize territory after assaults.

Some news from parallel universe, you won't find those "retaken positions in Kursk" in our universe.

So on top of all other sectors Ukraine also now will need to think what to do with Sumy.

Toretsk was favouriting defenders a lot since look how many industrial areas (triangles) that place had. Only Donetsk city had more. Ukraine losing it faster than Avdiivka shows they have serious problems.

Ukrainian geniuses also didn't build any fortifications in the rare and were stealing like no tomorrow

And it was Kharkiv where some fights were going on all those years since Russian never really kicked Russian out of Kharkiv. Sumy has no fortification and are in such positions that if the retreat Russian will just follow them same roads so no time to mine them.

And Dniper they only now started building something

The geniuses didn't even finished building defence line 1.0

And Russian went in 2024 from 0 defence like to 0,5 > 1.0 > 2.0 > 3.0 > 4.0 and now breaking the unfinished first defence line of Dneper

In 2024 Russian took most of Ukrainian Donbas defence lines and the rest they now can attack from rare or through those defence lines.

They lost 250.000 troops, and 900 tanks for this village thats not even important.

Donbas is also Ukraine most populated region and its main industry

It cost for Ukraine also 4 working man to support one soldier

And when you consider also this

We are past Ukrainian winning arc, we are now at arc of how to persuade Putin to agree for peace and do a goodwill tin

Fun part that now Putin has so many arguments to b-word about. He can point that he steeped out of Kiev and Kharkiv as goodwill tin and that west betrayed him later and when this talks happens Putin will have a huge chunk that Ukrainian "Kharkiv counteroffensive" got. He can point on all Zelenskyy hate speech towards Russia

🇷🇺🇺🇦 “I do not respect either the leader of today's Russia or the Russian people” — Zelensky, President of Ukraine

Well that’s nice. pic.twitter.com/Cr6UqINi9f

— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) January 5, 2025

He can point at Zelenskyy not being elected. At US missiles targeting Russian soil when Biden told no offensive weapons for Ukraine

How Biden warned Putin if Putin uses nukes that Ukraine will receive tanks, jets long range missiles and target black fleet

And attack on Russian soil what was this ?

So goood luck convincing Russian not to finish off Ukrainians who now begging for 2022 March deals

Trump just need some stability to even start the talk since if front constantly moving in one direction you can't start discussing about where to freeze it. But at this point mobilisation won't help it and in worst case for Russian they going to do their own mobilisation

We spent over $1M *each* on the first two @jeremysrazors commercials.

On this latest one, we spent like forty-seven. Dollars.

AI is here. It presents many new challenges. It presents many new opportunities, too.

This commercial couldn’t have been made without AI. Or, at least,… pic.twitter.com/n88JXwZ3IQ

— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) February 6, 2025

2 weeks - at least 3 months or more from now. DM me your rates.

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PUT THE BEST KITTY ON THE CRAZIEST B-WORDS????!?!?

https://old.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1ifxbys/so_is_there_a_genocide_against_uyghurs_or_not/

https://old.reddit.com/r/LivestreamFail/comments/1iflprq/destiny_has_a_suggestion_for_hasan_while_her/

https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1ifxejs/whats_going_on_with_uyghurs_is_there_a_genocide/

https://old.reddit.com/r/GetNoted/comments/1icx2hs/nothing_new_just_more_chinese_propaganda/

https://old.reddit.com/r/leftist/comments/1ie2wcr/is_the_uyghur_genocide_real/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Northeastindia/comments/1ifrkde/this_chinese_dude_on_red_note_commenting_under_a/

https://old.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/1idbtdg/why_the_us_wants_to_separate_xinjiang_from_china/

I thank God in heaven China is heading towards disaster with their demographic crisis . Nuclear holocaust is preferable to a world dominated by these losers. Also Americans have been rendered into Sinoslaves through Tiktok so there's no hope there. The Chinese will exterminate the American pigsogs. Launch the nukes now!

OREBRO, Sweden, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The worst mass shooting in Swedish history was carried out by a 35-year-old Swedish man who lived locally, had been unemployed for a decade and had changed his first and last name, a police source and tax data show.

Swedish media named the suspect as Rickard Andersson. The police source also named Andersson as the alleged gunman.

Aftonbladet reported that, according to documents viewed by the paper, the man had previously been enrolled at the school for several mathematics classes, without finishing them. The most recent class he was enrolled for was in 2021.

Police said the suspect, who died at the scene, was not known to them prior to the event and had never been convicted of any crime. They also said he had no gang connection and was believed to have acted alone.

Aftonbladet, which spoke to relatives of the man believed to be the shooter, described him as a recluse who had limited contact with his family for years.

The paper said the man did not have a high school certificate.

Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which did not cite its sources, said the attacker, like many in Sweden, had a hunting licence and used a hunting weapon.

Tax data showed that the attacker last declared work-related income in 2014 and that he lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a low-rise building less than a kilometre (around half a mile) from the city centre.

Master race at it again!

Trump heard "Free Palestine" and said "Sold!"

— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) February 5, 2025

@Hattie dozens of times an hour, til this week

@Hattie today

Context: jeet threatened to baitop /r/fednews, seethe central

Muh cancer they might fire me m-muh pension park rangers are vital to dark maga

range in heck commie

!metashit !nooticers

There's probably drama here

Thanks for asking! The original Jake did great at delivering his famous line, “uh…khakis.” However, this expanded role is very demanding and is best filled by a professional actor. ~LM

— State Farm (@StateFarm) January 31, 2025

And all through the thread itself

Your name is Kevin Miles and you sold every ounce of your soul to an insurance company https://t.co/TIQgSWha0C

— Fat Failure (@cheeserburger) January 31, 2025

but it's just so surreal that they responded that I'm content to leave it at this

More wholesome reddit parenting stories:

Women's idea of romance is cheating

!africans

!brics we gonna kick some american military industrial class yanks ain't got shit on us

The bill seems aimed at limiting the less tech-savvy from accessing 'piracy' sites, as it says that the blocking order cannot "require service providers to take actions that would prevent users from using virtual private networks (VPNs)."

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1igqnoh/new_bill_to_effectively_kill_anime_other_piracy/

We're playing the turboneurodivergent Dawn of Civilization mod for Civilization IV that replicates world history. !g*mers

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Part 7 Part 8

We now have Russia as a vassal (the "Province of Sarmatia") and directly control Japan, Australia, and America. Settling New Zealand as well.

Publius Valerius Publicola can be used to reform the government for free.

Fascism WINS by a whisker

We are now the New Roman Empire.

Much better for our treasury, espionage, and military. Science and great people generation took a minor hit.

We've gone from Italic Peoples -> Roman Kingdom -> Roman Empire -> Roman Republic -> New Roman Empire.

We're secular now too. We could do the Secular Religious Victory if we wanted

The cathedral goal is a little confusing - we don't have cathedrals for any eastern religions. But with Judaism, Islam, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and Catholicism we have enough I guess

Secularism should our relations with much of the world a little. Most of the Catholic world are our vassals with the exception of Netherlands and Austria.

It's enough for Iran to open borders apparently.

Prussia still has a stick up their butt. I'm hoping when Bismarck becomes leader he'll like us a little more as Nationhood is his favorite civic. I'm going to cultivate good relations with these guys and try to influence them to become fascist too so Hitler appears, just for you chuds.

We still get penalties for "Our rivals are vassal to your empire" but it helps just a little. I realize embarrassingly late into this game session that I could just pay all my vassals to become secular as well to try to ease up this penalty.

Ultimately, fascism helps us Our domestic stability is booming and the economic recession is cooling off. We have a strong civic combo and a bonus for "contemporary civics".

At this point I'm so absurdly advanced that I decide to turn down my research funding and focus entirely on espionage temporarily to let the rest of the world catch up. I'm close to discovering nuclear weapons and we haven't had the American Revolutionary War yet. But I do want biplanes circling in my American colonies just to prove Trump right.

We can also use them to air strike injuns

Rome has hit Legendary Culture

I have to be careful because we're starting to tiptoe toward victory conditions. Vassalizing Russia was awesome but now we're 8% territory control away from Domination. I have a few other cities with Influential culture I need to prevent from hitting Legendary or I'll will Cultural. If really necessary I can just let some shit go but I turn my research funding back up to make sure I can get to space before another victory ticks.

1762, they're coming

I bring "Grippy" Agrippinia's army from Japan to Panama to prepare.

We're starting to discover Uranium deposits, which will of course be very important strategic resources.

We have mines in Ukraine and Australia. Australia is ours, but Ukraine is at risk of seceding. More would be safer.

There's a deposit in Africa we can grab with a colony, but it's a little close to Dutch South Africa.

We have an extra Great Artist we can use to create a Great Work in the city and blow up our cultural borders, getting us gem and rare earth mines as well.

Washington has arrived

I want America to capitulate, but it's going to take a while for "Rise of the Americans" to end before it will even be an option. Fine by me. With totalitarianism we don't get war weariness. America on the other hand does

With Nationhood we also actually get a small stability bonus when at war.

Interestingly America has embraced Slavery, so they're actually the Confederate States of America.

I'll contribute this to my development of the south and rich slave plantations.

It should probably at least require a capital in the south as well, but whatevs. There are some neat dynamic names for America. If they were to vassalize Mesoamerica as the CSA it would be known as the Golden Circle.

Washington attaches a general, Winfield Scott and does a successful job repelling Agrippina's army.

I'm forced to pull them back north to Concord to rendezvous with my other army. Concord is much more vulnerable.

His army marches on French New Orleans and there's little I can do I have to get my planes out.

They've rammed the ramparts and taken the airports.

Winfield Scott attempts to take Concord with my full army there and dies in the process

1810, my thinkpad grinds to a slowdown as Argentina and Mexico enter the map

Colombia shortly after

They all dislike us

And Colombia took the Panama canal away from us

These central/south American civs have some banger themes tho

Argentina:

Mexico:

Colombia:

We've researched Fission, and get The Manhattan Project started in Pella, Greece.

We're really having trouble making friends with Prussia/Germany

If we want Hitler (I assume you chuds do ) we'll probably need to convince Germany to become fascist through civic changes. Not possible if they hate us.

It is possible if they're our vassal.

For example, if we give Spain enough technologies to adopt Totalitarianism (WITHOUT a planned economy, otherwise they're commies), then encourage them to do so...

Philip II becomes Franco

If we want a pet Hitler, we'll have to get Germany to capitulate

First: America. The Rise of the Americans event is over so they can mechanically capitulate. We capture Washington almost right in 1812

It's now the Roman "Province of America". I give them back their cities and board my army to retvrn to Evrope

Interestingly, they seem to think some cities in Japan should belong to them.

I'm getting overextended, so it's worth considering

Btw, despite having almost 15k ducats in the bank we're not #1 in wealth. That honor goes to the original gangsta Mansa Musa

Dom Pedro of Brazil spawns with the smoothest banger yet

Our general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus prepares to vassalize Germany. We have tanks now

Agrippina's army from America is gonna come from the west while Magnus comes from the east

They've been trying unsuccessfully to fight the Archduchy of Austria so are gonna be a little softened up. This should be over quick.

We can speed it up even more by having our spy start a revolt in the city, removing their defenses and allowing us to attack over a river semi-safely.

Within one turn we've taken most of his territory. Get blitzkrieg'd b-word

Bismarck is quickly willing to capitulate.

Now the "Province of Borussia" is willing to accept my new government.

A few turns later and HE'S HERE!!!!

Ethiopia apparently had a Defensive Pact with Germany so we're at war again now. I have just the thing for them

Nukes are much more powerful than in base game. I finish off stragglers with some biplanes and move in to take this irradiated shithole.

Probably nearing the endgame soon. I may be touching grass tomorrow so if not Saturday maybe Sunday

In the meantime, there's a missing String for Communist Sweden - someone give me a good name for them and I'll go into the XML files and change it.

NEXT

The movie starts off where this white trash redneck effortlessly steals chad's gf in a dangerous street race

So he goes to Japan where a real challenge awaits, stealing ricechad's gf

She immediately is into him, she shows no loyalty to ricechad

So he wins some gay car race and steals her

I literally cannot think of a more @BWC plotline if I tried