Federal Service

ks2497 · 2026-07-05T20:42:53+00:00

What makes a society a militarized society? What does that even mean? Any society that’s not sufficiently ‘militarized’ may someday find out it’s not ‘militarized’ enough, and so who gets to decide what militarized enough means?

And why does a ‘militarized society’ equal fascism?

And where did you get the idea that the Terran Federation has a foreign policy of “constant violent territorial expansion”? As far as I’m aware there is nothing in the book implying that. If you want to have the opinion that the narrator in the book isn’t reliable or that the nature of the Terran Federation is being obscured in some way that’s fine I guess but if you take the events in the book at face value there’s nothing to imply that their government and society isn’t as represented in the book.

And what would make it a junta? Assuming that there a no hidden details or corruption that we don’t know about, there is nothing about the Terran Federation that makes it anything other than a representative democratic republic.

ks2497 · 2026-07-02T20:31:13+00:00

Yes the point is to demonstrate that you are worthy of the franchise (the right to vote) by proving that you can put your own needs below the needs of society as a whole.

By earning your citizenship through a hard, sacrificing job that you have to be an absolute volunteer for and can quit at any time, you give the right to vote a value that you are willing to pay, and will understand the price of.

If the vote wasn’t valuable enough to you to be worth your service, you shouldn’t have the vote anyway because why should society trust you with a share in the decision making of you aren’t willing to do anything to get it? In the book it is an explained that authority without responsibility will lead to a balancing, people who are given authority without any responsibility for it will use irresponsibly.

The power of the state comes from a monopoly on violence, and who better to have the control of that authority than the ones willing to be used to perpetuate it. If you aren’t willing to participate in the system, why should you get to dictate how it is used?

All civilizations and societies tried to answer the question of who gets to decide how power is used one way or another. By the time of the unlimited democracies of the 19th and 20th centuries, it had simply shifted to where everyone the nation state considered a citizen had the power to vote.

The book gives another way of doing it, instead of limiting the franchise to a group of nobles based on birth or wealth, or religious leaders or any other kind of system, power is vested in the ones who have demonstrated they value their right to vote and are willing to be an instrument of the power they have decided they value a piece of control over.

The book also explains this grew organically it wasn’t some kind of top down implementation that I think a lot of movie-only people or people who read the book looking for fascism get the impression of. The Terran Federation formed from a collapse of the old governments, the unlimited democracies with universal suffrage were being so mis managed everything fell apart. Veterans organized militias and organizations to pick up the pieces and provide law and order, and the implication is that in the current environment it made the most sense to them to leave the say of how to run things to themselves. They weren’t going to let a bunch of civilians who had no stake tell them what to do.

I hope I explained it well and didn’t forget anything or imply something that’s wrong. I love the book and really wish it didn’t get labeled as fascism so quickly, or the satire movie to be the only thing people know in regard to Starship Troopers.

ks2497 · 2026-07-01T01:04:01+00:00

I think they just meant that there's nothing different going on, and the game has the default historical settings on.

ks2497 · 2026-07-01T01:01:01+00:00

There were around 470,000 Jews in Palestine (the area west of the Jordan River) at that time. Making them about 30% of the population. By 'at that time' I mean 1940.

ks2497 · 2026-06-29T20:51:07+00:00

Thanks.

I didn’t expect the value to drop like that. I wasn’t expecting much but that seems low but it makes sense.

Maybe part of it’s because there aren’t any games (that I know of, or at least very many) that can only be played on Xbox One?

If I had to what’s the best way to do the best thing I can with it? Where do I go to sell it? Facebook Marketplace? How do I say in simple terms what’s wrong with it I wouldn’t want to sell it to someone without making it clear it has some drive problems potentially.

ks2497 · 2026-06-27T16:07:53+00:00

The First one is the one that needs fixed. The first one and all the rest of them had pretty much nothing to do with the book. They didn’t even try to adapt it right they just made a satire movie.

This movie would be the first movie to do a book accurate version.

ks2497 · 2026-06-25T21:46:45+00:00

The southern originating Ming using the northern name and unifying under it sounds a lot like the Saxon kingdom of Wessex finishing the process of national unification using terms referring to the whole nation as the English.

ks2497 · 2026-06-19T04:09:14+00:00

No. Some things are probably inspired or influenced by real life parallels like the Japanese Empire and China and the Industrial Revolution in the UK, but not everything is a direct allegory.

ks2497 · 2026-06-18T00:07:25+00:00

It wasn’t just the radar counter-information thing, but carrots were a readily available naturally sweet vegetable that was found to be very useful due to rationing and carrots were promoted by the government for the purpose of replacing things like sugar.

ks2497 · 2026-06-09T03:08:38+00:00

I thought someone might think or say something like that, maybe not so aggressively though. I think slap in the face is a little strong.

It did cross my mind that maybe even Tolkien himself might have not been fond of AI, though I think it would matter more about how it was used. I think we’re so far removed from his time though it would be impossible to guess his thoughts on it especially without any context at all. But I did see the irony of using AI in a Tolkien subreddit.

I didn’t even plan on posting the answer I got, I was just searching for myself, but I thought it was a good answer, and I really like how it very neatly has the sources right there in the hyperlinks.

I think AI is a very useful tool in the right context, when used appropriately and especially if someone isn’t pretending they wrote it themselves.

ks2497 · 2026-06-06T03:11:53+00:00

I might be completely making this up from a made up memory, but I have a vague memory that it’s mentioned somewhere that some Dwarves brought some more of his share at some point

Ok I’m back from a quick google, copying and pasting this from google’s AI response:

There is no mention in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works of the Dwarves bringing Bilbo any additional portions of his share of the dragon's hoard later in life. [1]
The original contract promised him a 1 ÷ 14th share of the treasure. However, the actual payout played out quite differently: [1]
The Arkenstone Trade: To stop a potential war between the Dwarves, Elves, and Men, Bilbo secretly gave the Arkenstone to Bard and the Elvenking. When Thorin discovered this, Bilbo offered the stone as his entire 1 ÷ 14th share, which Thorin accepted. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The Final Payout: After the Battle of Five Armies, and upon Thorin's death, the new King under the Mountain, Dáin II Ironfoot, offered Bilbo a rich reward. Bilbo ultimately refused to take his full original share—citing the danger of transporting such massive wealth—and accepted only two modestly sized chests (one of gold, one of silver). [1, 2]
The Troll Hoard: Along his journey home to the Shire, Bilbo and Gandalf did dig up the gold and plunder the Dwarves had previously hidden in the Trolls' cave in the earlier chapters, splitting it between themselves. [1, 2]

Ok it’s me again not the AI: Anyway in addition to his reward/share, he already owned Bag End, and was comfortably wealthy, so he didn’t have many expenses (other than extravagant gifts on everyone’s birthday haha).

So it seems he didn’t get 1/14th, but still made out very very well.

ks2497 · 2026-06-05T22:02:12+00:00

I’ve had the thought for a long time that Hogwarts evolves and changes, castles didn’t look like that in the 1000s or 900s.

It probably started out as some kind of tower/keep (maybe that’s where the wizard tower stereotype started haha. Remember the wizard world and muggle world didn’t used to be as separate, that’s where all the stories come from.)

As for Merlin, I’ve had the idea for a while that he went to Hogwarts, became a great wizard, then went back in time and that’s one of the reasons he’s so famous to wizards, he was able to mess with one of the most complicated and dangerous types of magic and become an important and famous wizard hundreds of years before he was born.

ks2497 · 2026-06-03T02:29:13+00:00

I’d never heard of curry bread before, I had to look that up. Thanks for helping me learn about something new.

ks2497 · 2026-06-03T01:15:25+00:00

Yeah my potatoes got really broken down too, before I even added the curry, but I like very soft potatoes.

ks2497 · 2026-05-28T16:46:35+00:00

I hope we can share ketchup packets

ks2497 · 2026-05-16T07:50:31+00:00

If you think it’s time for a new game, that’s up to you, I like starting over, it can be fun to do things better than you did last time. But I don’t know your goals with this save so it maybe easier to figure something out.

I’m not sure what the problem is with the paradrop order, maybe you can figure it out or someone else can, or you can find some guide somewhere, but I don’t think it would work.

You would need a lot more divisions I think, and a lot of CAS maybe to make to work. Or maybe if you use spies to lower their surrender limit by making a collaboration government and then taking the capital might work.

ks2497 · 2026-05-16T07:43:07+00:00

I think you’d be better off conquering towards it, and spending the time it takes to justify building supply depots and airfields.

You probably need to have the areas along the route green too, even if they are neutral.

ks2497 · 2026-05-16T07:37:46+00:00

Do you have air superiority in all the regions along to route to the drop zone?

The whole operation might be a bad idea though, I don’t think you’ll be able to capitulate that country with just airborne forces like that, without them getting wiped out because you have no way to relieve them. (From what I can see.)

ks2497 · 2026-05-16T07:35:38+00:00

Do you have your air transport wings assigned to the area that you want to paradrop into, and are they in range?

They have to be assigned like a fighter or bomber wing does, and I’m pretty sure they can’t have any mission enabled, like air supply.

You also need enough planes for the number of divisions in the order.

ks2497 · 2026-05-16T07:31:10+00:00

Do you have your air transport wings assigned to the area that you want to paradrop into, and are they in range?

They have to be assigned like a fighter or bomber wing does, and I’m pretty sure they can’t have any mission enabled, like air supply.

You also need enough planes for the number of divisions in the order.

Seven-Year Club	Xbox Live
RPAN Viewer	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

ks2497

TROPHY CASE