The Fire Never Dies, Part II: The Red Colossus
- Thread starter Meshakhad
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What is the anti-socialist propaganda against America like? I don't think it'd be too difficult to portray the ASU as authoritarian as the OTL Bolsheviks at first, but I'd imagine it be difficult for the anti-socialists to keep up that charade for too long afterwards, so what do they resort to?
There's a lot of different strains. One of which is indeed the false accusation that the ASU is authoritarian, usually suggesting that the RSP and Progressives are both puppets of the SLP., and that the Commissariat for Public Security in in fact a diabolical secret police force keeping the American people in line. This propaganda is more effective in the 1920s than it would be today, as while major American newspapers and newsreels are available in Europe, it's easy to paint all of them as American propaganda given that all media outlets are part of the Printing and Publishing Workers' Industrial Union, which can be portrayed as a tool of control. Your average Briton, Frenchman, or German in 1921 does not have the ability to easily speak with regular American citizens the way we do today. There are, naturally many overtly anti-Semitic variations on this strain of anti-American propaganda that imagine a secretive Jewish cabal ruling the ASU from the shadows.
At the same time, we also see a lot of anti-American propaganda that is itself basically authoritarian, claiming that the Revolution has unleashed anarchy upon America and destroyed traditional values. Here we see a lot of exaggerated or wholly fictional claims of persecution against the former bourgeoisie and especially the church, often exploiting actual Red Army atrocities. Generally speaking, the people who are spreading this sort of propaganda (not to mention the anti-Semitic stuff from earlier) are future falangists.
The biggest difference compared to the anti-Soviet propaganda of OTL is that there are a lot more voices weighing in against the propaganda, or at least pointing out the inaccuracies and exaggerations. This is mostly coming from the center and moderate left, plus a few conservatives who value the truth over making a political point. So opinions will vary widely among the average European, rather than OTL where the image of the Soviet Union as this brutal totalitarian state was universally accepted (and also closer to reality thanks to the likes of Stalin and Beria).
To be clear, the Red Army was not composed of angels. There were cases where the families and children of American financiers were subject to rape and murder, or where clergymen who spoke against socialism were shot in front of their own altars and left to bleed to death while their churches burned around them. Some of these atrocities were punished. Some were not, often because the only surviving witnesses were the perpetrators. But what is not true is that such atrocities were the norm or were ordered from above. The Red Army has no Huffington Massacres to sully its name.
Honestly it'd be surprising if the Anti-American propaganda in Europe didn't blame Jews at some point. I think it's safe to say that once the Falangists get into power this'll get worse with Falangist pundits positing "solutions."
Of course given the fact that Falangism in OTL has violence as a means of rejuvenation for a society I think as time goes on and falangists start taking power these future Falangists might start proposing unrestrained violence as the only way to "defend traditional values." Not only that but I could also see the propaganda become more targeted towards those viewed as the "malcontents" or "undesirables" in places like Russia, the UK, and France. In specific countries it'd probably be against whatever group that the local falangist blackshirts view as "against traditional values" (for example in the UK it would probably be the Irish and other celtic peoples) but some general groups I can think of are Jews, Romani, and the GSM communities. The first two are pretty obvious however I think the third group would also undergo a lot of demonization and persecution by the Falangist regimes given how uber religious the falangists are.
I'm guessing that these voices won't be having a good time once the falangists take over. Authoritarians always find people who value the truth more than following them as inconveniences at best.
There already is. More than one, actually. The largest camp is the pro-American camp. In some nations, there's an internal split between DeLeonists and Zapatists, but they tend to agree on the big issues. The other two camps are the moderates who think that the ASU went too far with a violent revolution and the Bolshevists who are basically OTL's Leninists. The latter are largely concentrated in the former Russian Empire.
The USSR in OTL also had the disfavor of having the "oriental horde" narrative that had existed for centuries by that point and mixed and mashed with anti-bolshevism and anti-semitism, and the same happened with "yellow peril" in China. I wonder if there will be a sort of narrative created to differentiate the americans from europeans, maybe based on the idea of melting pot but perceived as a negative maybe?
I do imagine you'll cover it eventually but how will the Falangists gain power in the UK? The FPTP system there is very good for the entrenched parties and usually makes any third party winning any seat an uphill battle. I wonder if they will come to power through revolution/a coup, and if they come with some form of democracy if they will have their own party or will attempt some kind of entryism into one of the bigger parties, converting them into Falangism
There might also be a sense that America took all the bad Europeans. Probably a lot of implications that the people who immigrated to the US were criminals or malcontents.
One interesting consequence of the Second American Revolution will be the destruction of "the West" as a unified geopolitical/supercultural bloc. There will be a sense of common culture, but by the mid-20th century, Europeans (or at least Germans) will be used to seeing America as "the other" while China is their noble ally. Meanwhile, Americans will be used to having Mexico and Brazil as their major allies.
I haven't figured that out yet. The most likely option is for the Falangists to form a faction within an existing party and either completely take it over or, more likely, form a splinter party, meaning that when the Falangist Party is born, it already has a significant presence in Parliament and one of the entrenched parties has just been gutted.
The alternative would be some kind of crisis (likely engineered by the Falangists) leading to the appointment of a Falangist Prime Minister, similar to how Hitler came to power IOTL. But when the Falangists do come to power, their leader will bear the title of Prime Minister. The British Falangists will have their own symbol - the knot and sword - but it will be used similarly to the symbols of other British parties and will never displace Britain's existing national symbols. This last part plays a role in the dismemberment of the United Kingdom after WW2, as many (especially outside England) will see the very concept of the United Kingdom as irreparably tainted by Falangism.
Maybe entryism into the Tories or a longer-lasting version of the 1917 National Party?
Honestly a longer lived National Party seems like it would be the more interesting choice and would also allow for this new Falangist movement to have a party where they get the support of Peers, Lords and other highly influential figures which would give the party and movement credibility
Especially as entryism into an existing party would address the question of how do they break through in the British political system.
at its peak the National Party had more peers than MP's (7 MPs and 11 peers)
You should check out Zulfurium's A Day in July, it also has a Red Japan and it's a fascinating alternate history in general.