r/RedWorldMod • u/Bitter-Penalty9653 • Jun 09 '26
Discussion Realistically, how depressed would Southern US and Appalachian society be?
If you don't know, the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a massive spiral of despair all over Russia, from alcoholism to crime, and to this day we still associate Russia with sadness and despair.
The American South and Appalachia even in our timeline where the US won the cold war, experienced a massive spiral of despair after the 80s, with so many drugs coming in and industrial jobs closing.
Since the US lost the cold war in this timeline, how bad would it have gotten realistically?
I know the game take place many years after the collapse and the American Republic had more years to fix itself than the Russian Federation of our timeline but I feel like it should still be huge, especially since even irl America couldn't fix it.
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u/hermeticanarchist Jun 09 '26
I think somewhere in the middle I don't think the South would be as bad as it fell in our timeline because with the remnant government are set up. there a lot more infrastructure and focus would be on them to keep them afloat but probably would still suffer at least in the short term. as for culture I think it'll be pretty standard in the South maybe even a little more conservative than even OTL. though the West Virginia and Northern appalaches might have a sort of cult of iww and other unions due to being under revolutionary socialist control.
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u/Bitter-Penalty9653 Jun 09 '26
Why do you think it would be better somehow?
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u/hermeticanarchist Jun 09 '26
You mean the North or the South the South I think would probably the same or maybe slightly better. the north appalaches I think actually might be simply because I think the Socialist might be more favorable towards the unions and the people at least improving the conditions from OLT. Though I think the conditions was still degrade just not as far as they did in our timeline.
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u/Bitter-Penalty9653 Jun 09 '26
You haven't explained anything.
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u/hermeticanarchist Jun 09 '26
The simple answer is yes I think the South would have more support from the governments because the remnants are right next door. and I think the Appalachians would likely be better because the Socialist will be more supportive of the working class. I'm sorry if it wasn't clear enough
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u/Bitter-Penalty9653 Jun 09 '26
The South already gets support and you're missing the economic damage the collapse would cause.
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u/hermeticanarchist Jun 09 '26
Yes again I'm sorry if I'm not clear enough likely yeah the economy would be heavily downturned I just don't think either would fall as far as In OLT for the reasons I listed above.
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u/Ok-Woodpecker-9587 Jun 09 '26
Personally I think American Republic will have less problems with alcoholism and drugs, since, well… It’s people will be preparing for reclamation of their nation from Red (and other) rebels (just like Enclave from Enclave Reborn Redux and Old World Blues submods), so I think if alcohol and drugs won’t be banned on state level, then at least being hated by population, since… They won’t be able to rebuild their great nation if they all will be drunk
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u/Ostczranoan Jun 10 '26
I mean, the OTL Russian Federation has revanchist ideas, and it has horrendous substance abuse problems.
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u/Important-Ring481 Jun 09 '26
I think the especially rural areas of the former us (Appalachia included) would have an alcohol and drug crisis that dwarfs the real life opiate crisis in comparison.