this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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For worldbuilding purposes, yeah the US would do that stuff but it's kind of fantasyslop thinking to assume that because they are the bad guys their domain would overwhelmingly be Bad Guy Magic. If magic were real, it would require fewer assumptions to suppose that it's a tool like any other and not necessarily have a moral affinity. Nuclear weapons are easily among the most catastrophic inventions of humanity, but nuclear physics can also be used for power generation, treating cancer, dating rocks and fossils, etc. The real differences for a wealthy state-level actor are the ability to extensively study it in a scientific manner and experiment with it with very few limitations, and to use it on an industrial level.
This is, incidentally, why I think many people who claim to believe in non- or less-theurgical magic don't really believe it and know on some level that they are just doing roleplay, because there are so many implications of that belief in terms of replicability and the broader political/humanitarian salience of supernatural powers that they seem to just dismiss.
my biggest disappointment in fantasy and magic is when they don't follow it to the natural logical conclusions it brings and adapt accordingly for the world building they desire
Yeah, I feel that way a lot too.