Well, I’m burnt out. Going on a week’s vacation now. Uh, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe?

The second, which proved much harder to write, is a ‘spotlight romance’ between a delivery driver and a j-pop star in… J-pop Panic. Also, the mafia is involved. www.honeyfeed.fm/novels/27832

The first: a tokusatsu/sentai type parody urban fantasy series. The go-home club has to save a small Japanese hamlet as… Some Kind of Sentai Squad: www.honeyfeed.fm/novels/27529

I feel like the fact that Renegade options usually lead to you being mean to your squadmates might affect this.

Even selecting a ‘I don’t have time for this, I’m on a mission’ option can cut off entire questlines, so theres an incentive to act like you care even with rando NPCs.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is absolutely the heir to old pulp in the ‘weird tales’ mold.

I feel like an essential unsaid notion to ‘this minor inflationary period has destroyed US society’ is the idea that Americans are uniquely spoiled and weak.

I mean, I haven’t seen much evidence to disprove the notion lately, but I would be open minded when hearing a rebuttal.

In Antonio’s case the format is just hiding the salient/deciding factors. If there was a ‘guns’ bullet point the answer would’ve been much more obvious.

What would a competitive 7th party system even look like at this point? Like, what would the coalitions be?

It’s kind of amazing how well John Carter/A Princess of Mars fits in formula-wise with the Great 2010s Isekai Light Novel Boom.

‘That TV Business Man’s name is displayed in gold. Which means he has money. Which means if I vote for him maybe I’ll inherit his wealth making properties by osmosis!’ is entirely irrational but also nigh-impossible messaging to counter if some low-double digit % of voters apparently believe it.

Eh, I think it’s 100% name rec, polarization, a sprawling partisan news propaganda network, and an increasingly low-info/ed/trust median voter that hard-carry him rather than a specific talent in the political realm. (Though your greater point still stands)

I remember it got that one guy’s parents to divorce.

... it's a preppy half-orc adventurer! She's clearly kin to the orc priestess in Skott's old party, whom he got to know /very well/ during his Aeirun adventure. And wouldn't you know it, she has Skott's eyes...

It's a 'second chance' isekai that's fun for the whole family. G-get it?

Skott is a mild-mannered IT guy midway through his career. In the year after high school, however, he was Skott of Omaha, great liberator of the land of Aeirun from elf tyranny. Those days just feel like a half-remembered dream... until a surprise visitor arrives in his backyard...

I have to object on one point: we do not see Trump ‘twice a month’ for casual shittalking - he’s literally everywhere all of the time.

Also I must say the people of WI/AR/OK would not have such fawning reverence for a camp straight New Yorker in literally any other context.

It’s a doorstopper fantasy LitRPG set In A World reverently adherent to the divine System Interface of the Most Holy Menu. Want good boy Paladin x suave Thief lady moderately-spicy shenanigans? Get it today~

It’s also part of a full court press to Horst Wessel a Party-affiliated podcaster in a way that’s transparently Regime-y. Snitch firings, mandated hagiography, the military apparently considering a partisan Kirk recruitment campaign(?!?) - These all hit the three categories described above.

Silencing late night hosts is a pretty clear attempt at seizing power for power’s sake in a way that is 1) antithetical to the constitution, 2) at odds with American culture, and, crucially, 3) done in a way impossible for apolitical normies to ignore.

That plus the fact that trying to steal
the ‘20 election through violence clearly didn’t move the needle amidst the public at large. ‘There’s apparently no constituency for civic virtue,’ has to be part of the calculus here, one assumes.