SCPs are modern folklore.
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When I read accounts of this speech there is a lot of focus on the phrase "evil empire" and how more secular media found it inflammatory. There was a "presidents don't speak like this" freak out. I think this misses the things that made the speech necessary from the perspective of the interventionist right wing political stance.
They were LOSING the evangelicals over this nonsense. They needed to frame it as a moral battle against "communism."
And it worked.
Reading about it has helped me to understand some of the nonsense we are seeing now. But today talking about an "evil empire" is even more of a non-starter than it was in 1983... Americans regard communism as over. This has left the interventionists flailing and struggling to explain what they are doing.
Though this stuff still works on some older people.
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Among Evangelicals the need to do "foreign wars" was increasingly questioned. In an era of greater media centralization a single great speech by a president could still be blown up into a moment (and 'the gipper*' was pretty good at speeches) so the narrative was that this wonderful message sealed the deal and lay all those worries to rest.
America was good and helping everyone by "stopping communism" and Jesus agrees.
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* tf is a 'gipper'?
@futurebird re: gipper
George Gipp was a college football player who's name was used to motivate his team after his death. Reagan played the coach that gave a speech that included the line, "Win one for the Gipper." At some point after that, people started referring to Reagan as the Gipper because of his association with that speech.
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Reading about it has helped me to understand some of the nonsense we are seeing now. But today talking about an "evil empire" is even more of a non-starter than it was in 1983... Americans regard communism as over. This has left the interventionists flailing and struggling to explain what they are doing.
Though this stuff still works on some older people.
@futurebird And Communism got a rebrand as "Anything a lefty says".
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@futurebird Sidenote: the earliest version of that SCP had a mention of "unfolders" (changed to "unravellers" to avoid plagiarism accusations), which referenced Zach Parsons' "That Insidious Beast" (https://www.somethingawful.com/series/that-insidious-beast/), a story of an alternate US driven by religious fervor but with actually-existing supernatural(-seeming) entities driving cataclysmic violence.
@delta_vee @futurebird Those were rather creepy.
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Reading about it has helped me to understand some of the nonsense we are seeing now. But today talking about an "evil empire" is even more of a non-starter than it was in 1983... Americans regard communism as over. This has left the interventionists flailing and struggling to explain what they are doing.
Though this stuff still works on some older people.
@futurebird i dunno; if i hear someone use the phrase "evil empire" now, as a knee-jerk reaction i'll assume they're referring to the united states (though on 2nd thought, they could also be referring to the netanyahu regime, or the putin regime; but maybe less so, bc they don't really have much of an empire (yet)).
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SCPs are modern folklore. The universe and associated media are very popular. I don't think the SCP fanbase is especially interested in politics or literally analysis. SCPs gain fame (infamy?) by being creepy, by having the right mix of plausible and horrific.
This is why I find SCP-1981 especially interesting. It's a haunted VHS tape of Ronald Reagan delivering his "Evil Empire" speech to the National Association of Evangelicals.
SCP-1981 - SCP Foundation
The SCP Foundation's 'top-secret' archives, declassified for your enjoyment.
The SCP Foundation (scp-wiki.wikidot.com)
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@futurebird most cassette based scp ought to be partially taped-over with non-anomalous content, for realism and flavor.
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Reading about it has helped me to understand some of the nonsense we are seeing now. But today talking about an "evil empire" is even more of a non-starter than it was in 1983... Americans regard communism as over. This has left the interventionists flailing and struggling to explain what they are doing.
Though this stuff still works on some older people.
@futurebird
They've moved on to Bush's Axis of Evil. Combining memories of the Cold War with WWII. -
@futurebird
They've moved on to Bush's Axis of Evil. Combining memories of the Cold War with WWII.Oh god im having flashback now.... this country ...
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Oh god im having flashback now.... this country ...
@futurebird
Sorry
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I was born around 1983 so in many ways this speech defined the international political climate of my youth. In the speech Ronald Reagan seeks win over his Christian evangelical supporters to the cause of fighting communism (in the early 80s this was feeling less and less urgent) by talking about how "stopping communism" was in line with Christian values.
But this was an era of US foreign policy that was driven more by business interests than any moral ideals.
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@futurebird how am I older than you? You're an adult and I'm just... me
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SCPs are modern folklore. The universe and associated media are very popular. I don't think the SCP fanbase is especially interested in politics or literally analysis. SCPs gain fame (infamy?) by being creepy, by having the right mix of plausible and horrific.
This is why I find SCP-1981 especially interesting. It's a haunted VHS tape of Ronald Reagan delivering his "Evil Empire" speech to the National Association of Evangelicals.
SCP-1981 - SCP Foundation
The SCP Foundation's 'top-secret' archives, declassified for your enjoyment.
The SCP Foundation (scp-wiki.wikidot.com)
1/
@futurebird thank you for these posts! I have been an SCP enjoyer for years but was unaware of the speech on which it is based.
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When I read accounts of this speech there is a lot of focus on the phrase "evil empire" and how more secular media found it inflammatory. There was a "presidents don't speak like this" freak out. I think this misses the things that made the speech necessary from the perspective of the interventionist right wing political stance.
They were LOSING the evangelicals over this nonsense. They needed to frame it as a moral battle against "communism."
And it worked.
@futurebird
When Reagan made that speech, people had mostly become numb to the fact that an actor was elected president. But even so, that event marked a new low in his administration for those of us who weren't fans of him or his policies, and even some Republicans found his rhetoric too aggressive.It's hard to believe now, but when he got elected it was considered an unmatchable low point in American politics, having an actor who starred in Bedtime for Bonzo leading the government. At this point, having an animatronic president would be an improvement. (I'm sure that's next.)
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So why does this SCP "work" ?
I don't think you need to dig very deep to understand it. A politician gives a "pivotal" speech later we come to see the dishonesty of that speech.
Like a haunted house the tape begins to expose the true nature and violence behind the ideas in the speech.
But would someone who loved Ronald Reagan see it the same way?
5/5
@futurebird if you haven’t seen the play “Conscience” please do. The story of Margaret Chase Smith and Joseph McCarthy, it was chilling to realize how often history repeats. And uplifting to know that things do get better at some point.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
