It is collapsing, though not because of any 250 year tendency.
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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This "250 year thing" makes me feel the same way as when I play new Vegas and Caesar say he will destroy the NCR because of dialectics. THATS NOT HOW IT WORKS YOU FUCK
Yea lmao, Caesar tried to take Hegelian dialectics rather than Marxist, and further misunderstood Hegel himself. Though, I don't blame the writer, Hegelian dialectics is notoriously difficult to parse for those that haven't studied it deliberately, and at an in-game level it adds to Edward Sallow being full of shit.
Though, I don't blame the writer.
I'm convinced they did it in purpose to highlight what a dumbass Caesar is. He verbatim says dialectics makes it inevitable that the NCR is destroyed by him, which is just so incredibly stupid. If you read enough of Hegel to write Caesar talking about Hegel as he does, then you've read enough to know that would be about the dumbest you could say.
Fair enough, intentional or not it works well narratively.
Look the only critique I can leverage at new Vegas is that there isn't a communist or anarchist ending where the courier unites the disparate communities and makes something that lasts until after the courier dies. I want to be the Stalin of the wasteland.
Edit: After getting the Lee Kuan Yew speeches on my Instagram reels I also realise Houses "give me 20 years" speech is taken from there. The people behind the game were very politically aware.
Also apparently fallout 1, 2 and new Vegas are based on a tabletop game the designers played? Arcade Gannon was Josh Sawyer's character
Yea, sadly I feel that the writers just didn't want to write a meaningfully left ending.
Having seen a documentary about the production the designers wanted the game to be about "letting go of Old World Blues". All the factions cling to the past, to systems that led them to where they are today. I take it they were a bit better than regular US radlibs, which is why there isn't any left-bashing, but they probably see communism as part of that old world blues too. It would also go against their goal if there was an obvious "good" ending.
That said it would have done wonders for the political awakening of a bunch of people if there was one. Or, at least, if it was made clear the courier was likewise constrained by their environment, so the reason a post-post-apocalyptic spartacist movement isn't possible is because the courier and like individuals can't think like that. The red scare has long tendrils.
Or at least a yes-man ending that wasn't going all "great man" theory about the courier, where everything revolves around them and their presence.
Yep, the writers are progressives, but not commies. If they had written an explicitly communist path, it likely would have been a "good in theory, bad in practice" type commonly seen in western writing.
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I see this meme all the time, which is an oversimplification. The 250 year time frame that people ascribe to is usually assigned to a country's lifetime, but really, the time frame is the average length of a golden era of a country, not its existence. Rome lasted for 2,000 years and China today still exists. When the Chinese talk about this "250 year" thing, they would refer back to how long certain dynasties ruled, not China's existence. Same with Rome having had its peak come and go while it existed until 1453. France also has had several golden ages as the bigger power in Europe from middle ages to Napoleonic era.
America won't cease to exist, but it will not be the power it once was, and that's okay (except for the ultranationalists). It's okay to be humble.
My first thought was Egypt was old enough that there were ancient Egyptian scholars studying ancient-er Egypt. I could see it as a particular form of gov generally lasted that long and new dynasties etc would reset the counter. Your explaination makes much more sense.
The 250 year timeframe is made up and even if it wasn't the US couldn't realistically be described as an empire until some time in the 1900's. Until then it was "just" a genocidal colonial power like the others. I guess you could make an argument that it became an empire around the time of Teddy or the monroe doctrine, but I wouldnt
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Statistical fallacy #420: Assuming the value of a random arbitrary element will necessarily be close to the mean or median of all elements.
Unified Roman Empire which lasted from 27BC to 395AD (422 years): 👀
The Roman Empire really lasted from 27BC to 1453, the west was a dump when it fell, almost all the ressources and money and population were in the east anyway.
Yes, that’s why I specified Unified Roman Empire ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
Hopium
i think they haven't been an empire for just as long as it had existed?
they were settlers first, right? with the indigenous genocide and all.
so you're saying going to war against a neighboring nation to expand your territory is not what an empire does?
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I just know my shithole red state is gonna become even worse after the collapse. Heres to.hoping Cascadia will accept my family.
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Is she a snoo?
But what if it’s a slow burn instead of a bang?
Also, remember how eastern Roman Empire kept going, on an unrelated note, Canada’s economy is actually doing decent compared to the US.
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So Trump files leak is the first day of the Civil War?
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