Every time I try to come up with a different metric, it usually boils down to, “where does the ultimate power lie”.

In an ideal democracy, that power comes from the consent of the governed, i.e. the people and their direct vote. But that’s usually untenable on larger scales, so thus power is concentrated. The how of that concentration can lead to all sorts of axis on a chart, but in the end, the other side of the chart is usually some form of direct democracy, i.e. returning power to the people.

The point I’m making is that the trough line has always been, Right-wing concentrated power, Left-wing distributed power.

The fact that certain dictators have pretended to be left-wing, and right-wing jackasses have gone along with it, is where the deliberate confusion was introduced.

Communism as proposed by Marx is a true leftwing ideology, the Totalitarian dictatorship created by Lenin was communist in name only, it had more in common with Feudalism than communism. Mao was just as bad. An out of touch dictator who told farmers to plant their seeds several feet underground, and when that obviously failed, feasted while they starved.

That doesn’t seem anything like what Marx wrote about, or rather it was disturbingly similar to what Marx wrote about capitalism.

But again, right-wingers love to confuse the issue, because it turns out kings are not popular, so you have to lie to get people to bow before one.

Reagan actively courted the Religious Right, which as everyone knows, was a bad idea for democracy.

Those fuckers do not compromise, because they want theocracy.

Now, the fact that there was a religious right in the first place is a whole other cn of worms.

Actually, going back to the origins of Left and Right, that fateful vote in the French Assembly just before the Revolution, those on the Right of the Speaker’s podium were in favor of the Monarchy, those on the Left Democracy.

Using the terms correctly, you cannot have Authoritarian Left.

The problem was Lenin, who lied about being of the people when he lost the election. He seized power and then murdered the actual political Left of Russia.

It’s just like the Nazis lied about being socialist. They murdered the socialists first.

Horseshoe theory completely ignores the actual origins of the terms Left and Right in order to push a false narrative that they’re somehow the same.

It’s very simple. The terms Left and Right come from a vote held in the French Assembly just before the Revolution.

The vote was, “should the King have an absolute veto over laws passed by the Assembly?” Those sitting to the Left of the Speaker’s podium said No, those to the Right said Yes.

Knowing the true origin of the terms makes defining them easy, if you are in favor of more power to the people, then you are on the left, if you think power should be concentrated to the few, you’re on the right.

This can apply to social issues as well. If you think minorities deserve protection and representation then you are on the left, if not you’re a horrible person.

The economy, if you think everyone should have a truly fair shake, you’re on the left, if you think money makes some people better than others, you’re on the right.

See how easy that is? Which is why the right wing invented Horseshoe theory. To confuse people.

That and some dictators flat out lied about what they were doing and claimed to be Communist.

Because Lenin betrayed the Revolution after losing the only free and fair election that Russia has ever had.

Maybe. We don’t actually know, because most of our information about the skeptics and stoics come from their detractors. Very little of their actual beliefs made it into writing that survived the years.

Is the leader alive or not? Alive is likely a cult, dead is usually religion.

The next question is how isolated from friends and family or society at large are the members. More isolated is more likely to be a cult.

Other than that, there’s not much difference.

The usual setup is a cult is formed and then the second or third leader opens things up a bit and transitions it into just another religion… But sometimes a cult can be born from a religion as a small group breaks off to follow a charismatic leader.

Tradesmen and Merchants.

The layer under the actual elite of the time.

Except that’s not 100% correct.

Sure the American Elite joined in, well, some of them did. Mostly it was revolution driven by the middle class. Maybe the upper middle class, but the stamp and tea taxes were incredibly unpopular.

I’d imagine the sentiment among the poorer people was something along the lines of “better to be lorded over by a local asshole, than one half the world away”.

Also, the quartering bullshit. That was just as unpopular, so much so that we have an entire amendment banning it specifically.

Honestly, the orange soda that we think of might be Crush, which debuted in 1911.

Tang would also like a word.

But really, the most popular orange based drink, is just orange juice. That or Mountain Dew, which is lemon, lime, and orange plus lots of sugar and caffeine.

Companies open subdivisions in other countries. These subdivisions are often responsible for full operations in that country.

Coca-Cola opened a subsidiary in Germany sometime after the end of the first world war. (My Google fu has failed me)

The main company stopped sending syrup to Germany after 1939 or so, but didn’t close it’s German subdivision. The German plant manager then created Fanta out of ingredients that were available to Germany during the war.

And then after WW2 ended, the main Coca-Cola company regained control of their German subdivision, and adopted Fanta as a brand.

As a note here, Coke was one of a bunch of American companies that were extremely friendly with the Nazis.

As a fellow stickler, you can sometimes find these works at the cave entrance, but time tends to be less kind to works that are less protected.

I personally know of several sites in North America where the works are on an open cliff face, but also continue into the nearby caves. I’ll not be specific with locations, because people have vandalized a few of the sites.

But yes, the deeper into the cave, the more likely that such drawings have survived to modern times.

They didn’t use to.

The problem is the studios have gotten lazy and risk adverse.

The reason why Endgame was so huge was because the studio took some risks and did the work to set everything up for that payoff.

There were movies in the first few phases that fell flat, like Thor 2, but even that movie pushed the plotlines forward.

Post Endgame, marvel hasn’t really had a unified plan. They’ve also become so risk adverse that if any given movie underperforms, it kills the entire plotline.

Which leads to movies that don’t have meaningful character growth, so who cares about those characters? Or those movies?

Luckily, they’re all in a plate. Take the plate take them all. Bar the door on the way out.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-07-mn-21878-story.html

Back in the 90s, there was this guy who donated his body to science.

The scientists froze him, and then shaved off something like a millimeter at a time before polishing the ice and taking a high quality picture.

They started at the head, and slowly worked down the body. Keeping everything frozen the entire time.

Anyway what?

Snidely Whiplash only needs to find a bridge, preferably one over a large ravine.

Then he just has to tie the hostage to the center of the bridge. Then when the hero makes a daring rescue Snidely can blow up the bridge.

ICE arrested a guy the other day, at his citizenship hearing. They don’t care.

Another one from the other day, ICE also arrested a guy for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were after someone specific, and just grabbed a guy because he was brown skinned.

It was one of the reasons I switched. That and my favorite mod manager is working on a Linux native version. It’s not done yet, but it’s good to play other games from time to time.

Valheim is pretty brutal, but also highly moddable.

What’s the Roche limit of the ground you’re standing on?