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by FrustratedMonky 72 days ago
Not just 'other girls'. That happens, but also, it's a theme that has been around a long time. The 'Maga' movement existed before Trump. This is 1992

Was also in Snow Crash.

"All these beefy Caucasians with guns! Get enough of them together, looking for the America they always believed they'd grow up in, and they glom together like overcooked rice…With their power tools, portable generators, weapons, four-wheel-drive vehicles, and personal computers, they are like beavers hyped up on crystal meth, manic engineers without a blueprint, chewing through the wilderness, building things and abandoning them, altering the flow of mighty rivers and then moving on because the place ain't what it used to be.

The byproduct of the lifestyle is polluted rivers, greenhouse effect, spouse abuse, televangelists, and serial killers.

But as long as you have that fourwheel-drive vehicle and can keep driving north, you can sustain it, keep moving just quickly enough to stay one step ahead of your own waste stream.

"

Snow Crash Chapter 39 (Hiro's observation as he drives along the Alaska Highway)

2 comments

> The 'Maga' movement existed before Trump. This is 1992

Anti-intellectualism has a long and storied in the US (and other countries):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism#In_the_Un...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_Americ...

Snow Crash came to mind, but so did several other Neal Stephenson books!
yes, I think his book "Reamde" had the concept of "Ameristan" which was the redneck-Idaho equivalent of many racial/religious/socioecon tropes.
Ackshually this is "Fall, or Dodge in Hell"
also

If the "Right/Left" or "Liberal/Conservative" is too hot button for any kind of discussion.

He also wrote "Anathem"

Which is fictional world, with fictional sides, that can be used to explore similar concepts a little less triggering.