I wonder if both Bushes being one-term Presidents would also make them seem like bigger memetic losers in pop culture. Would Jeb even consider running for President in this environment?
WI: Pop Culture in a world without 9/11?
- Thread starter woweed
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I wonder if both Bushes being one-term Presidents would also make them seem like bigger memetic losers in pop culture. Would Jeb even consider running for President in this environment?
Yeah, for sure. Bush II would end up not much better than his dad in that regards. However, it's also gonna rub alot of salt in the GOP wounds in the fact that after Reagan', they've only got two one-termers and they don't have much of a clear direction to go to. In a sense, approaching the problem of how to stay relevant where they're becoming increasingly associated with incompetency.
Well, the Dixie Chicks wouldn't have been cancelled, that's all I know. But the idea of alternate country on the rise alongside with a swing toward the Democrats sounds quite intriguing.
It makes me wonder on how would Americans especially those who live in the Great Lakes Region which is known as the Rust Belt feel about deindustrialization getting more attention then OTL? I have a feeling that the effects of Globalization on the American working class would be getting much more attention then OTL without the War on Terror?
I do think it might lead to Americans being a bit more critical on the domestic state in TTL since domestic issues would likely get more media attention since outside of the Middle East, TTL’s world in the 2000s is pretty uneventful even in the global south.
Yes, but would this attention result in any substantive policy changes?
Could we see a Trumpian figure emerge a few years earlier who denounces America’s deindustrialization?
One thing that just came to mind if the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically Iron Man. Assuming the MCU isn't butterflied away by some really obscure shift in the timeline caused by no 9/11, and Iron Man gets made, how different would this movie be?
The reason I bring this up is because the first Iron Man begins with Tony Stark trapped in Afghanistan after going there with the US military to test his weapons, and his origin is him building his first suit to fight his way back to freedom. But no 9/11 means no War on Terror, which means the US never invades and indefinitely occupies Afghanistan, which means the plot of Iron Man wouldn't really be able to use Afghanistan in this way.
Is there any way to remove Afghanistan from the first Iron Man and keep the plot mostly the same?
Afghanistan in this movie was used as a modern substitute for Vietnam, which is where Tony was trapped in the comics. On that note, the Punisher TV show on Netflix also used Afghanistan to substitute Vietnam for Frank Castle's origin. So consider that too.
Afghanistan really was useful for writers using any kind of military angle for many years, because it was this forever war in a far-off hellhole with no end in sight. It really was kind of like a modern Vietnam in many ways, minus the conscription. You take out Afghanistan, a lot of stories would have to fundamentally change. If not, they just don't exist.
The reason I bring this up is because the first Iron Man begins with Tony Stark trapped in Afghanistan after going there with the US military to test his weapons, and his origin is him building his first suit to fight his way back to freedom. But no 9/11 means no War on Terror, which means the US never invades and indefinitely occupies Afghanistan, which means the plot of Iron Man wouldn't really be able to use Afghanistan in this way.
Is there any way to remove Afghanistan from the first Iron Man and keep the plot mostly the same?
Afghanistan in this movie was used as a modern substitute for Vietnam, which is where Tony was trapped in the comics. On that note, the Punisher TV show on Netflix also used Afghanistan to substitute Vietnam for Frank Castle's origin. So consider that too.
Afghanistan really was useful for writers using any kind of military angle for many years, because it was this forever war in a far-off hellhole with no end in sight. It really was kind of like a modern Vietnam in many ways, minus the conscription. You take out Afghanistan, a lot of stories would have to fundamentally change. If not, they just don't exist.
Maybe it could be drug gangs?
Or, if China was the big geopolitical threat, a Chinese deep state agency?
It's likely some generic middle eastern country resembling Saddam's Iraq or Gaddafi's Libya.
Again, mocking the Middle East is nothing new. Even in the 1980s, Transformers featured, as an antagonist, a dictator from a fictional Arab country called "Carbombya." Transformers was mocking Arab despots before it was "cool."
Also, in the 1990s, there were caricatures of Saddam Hussein in movies like Naked Gun, Animaniacs, and, lest we forget, from the South Park movie.
If ol'Saddy continued his wacky antics, he'd or a caricature of him, would still appear in media.
What about Al Jazeera Media ? According to Wikipedia it was started in 1996 . does it become the voice of the Mid East ?
The first Iron Man film probably takes place in a Venezuela-expy, or an Saddam Iraq expy, or something else.
I don't think the film's plot is that dependent on being set in Afghanistan.
I don't think the film's plot is that dependent on being set in Afghanistan.
You could easily have Tony abducted by Colombian drug dealers, with the cartel leader being a thinly-veiled reference to Pablo Escobar.
Not on Afghanistan, but I don’t see Iraq because I’m not sure how relevant enough it will be to the zeitgeist and cartel leaders somehow being the big bad makes less sense regarding the how and why.
Iraq could still be a setting: remember Saddam Hussein's "shenanigans" were a fact of life in the 90s and 2000s. If Iraq had never been invaded, he and his regime would still be used as a stock villain.
I imagined cartels as a villain because I can imagine them wanting Tony's arms.
Or a hit by Obadiah Stone to get rid off Tony,that was the point of the original,use the cartels as a front
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I mean, by this alt-2008 though? Could be possible, but still be sorta unlikely. I mean, with the cartels, I doubt they're be able to get anything major like what Stark makes there.
So in this universe, if Saddam Hussein stays in power, then he'll remain the punching bag for American movies.
Saddam Hussein would also probably appear more often in South Park as well.
realistically, they'd probably set it in one of Marvel's fictional countries that they would legally be able to use at the time and just retrofitted to their purposes, assuming the same film-rights sell-off from OTL still happened. after all, it wasn't "just any" terrorists that abducted Tony in the movie, it was the Ten Rings, also from the comics