Earth Throttled

All hail Battery Tongue, intrepid resident of Alfheim, Gollat in the year 2097. For his trashy tales of artists and soldiers relate a chilling report from the future, where fact and fiction have coalesced in global delirium. The world order as we know it has crumbled under the thumb of dictators helming Russia, the United States, and China. It's easier to spot an authoritarian head of state than a decent automobile in this brave new era. California persists against all odds as "New Amaerica," while 70% of the world's remaining land mass flails under an authoritarian kakistocracy known as Rumera. The former territories of Germany and Denmark comprise a battle-hardened oasis known as Gollat. The tragic rise of Rumera is traced by its contemporaries (to the extent they can locate and interpret untainted historical accounts) to Old America circa 2025 - and perhaps a few decades earlier when they squint. But Trump... Musk... Miller... that's when matters came to a head, democracy rotted dry, and personal freedom fell victim to the equivalent of a cerebral vascular accident. Rumera... a land where any truth qualifies, for the right price. Where anyone can be king, for the right price. Where the 1890s serve as a benchmark for societal values and also - following the silicon industry collapse of 2048 - a vast swath of technology. Earth Throttled casts its gaze on various bits and pieces of light twenty-first century pathos... a few teaspoons of ramshackle prose to keep you occupied while the "zone is flooded," free thought evaporates, self-preservation rules, and democracy burns right now, right here at home. Danspeed...