Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
To return this thread to the OP, one explanation for New America's success in certain regions is that it provides security and services in its AoCs*. Sure, they only provide it to some, often at the expense of others, but pandering to the majority can often be a winning strategy.
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To mix metaphors, it's like boiling the frog and outrunning the bear rolled up into one. For the untermensch, the screws are applied slowly so it's not obvious from the get-go what is happening. This is helped by the general increase in overall tyranny, lawlessness, and "extreme measures" the government has already taken to restore/keep order.
As far as outrunning the bear, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the slowest guy. Using the Pareto principle, maybe 20% of an area under New American control are true believers, but if they are present, seem to be getting civilization working again to a degree, a lot of people are going to glom on.
Additionally, I imagine things in a lot of post-collapse areas would take on "prison-rules" aspects, so a lot of people not naturally draw to a New America ideology pre-war might find themselves having to "clique up" just to survive.
BTW, I'm not trying to make New America the good guy here, I think they are and should pretty clearly remain the bad guy. But historically, the really successful and really evil bad guys don't don a black shield and black armor and fly the Jolly Roger. They come dressed as the good guys.