Ask Lemmy

The bobiverse series (about a guy who is hit by a car right after signing up for a cryogenics thing and then wakes in the future to find out he's basically been legislated to have no rights and is stuck into a self-replicating drone for space exploration, it's pretty good) kind of starts off setting the backstory like it. The christofascism just started a bit later.

Obviously it's not one to one but given Trump's performative Christianity it was all I could think about around the failed coup on Jan 6.

Literally the first novel ever written "Sinuhe" speaks of a very similar crisis in ancient Egypt.

The Ultra podcast has two seasons and goes in-depth into previous attempts by fascists at taking over the US government.

Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power.

When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks.

Any sci-fi by Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley Phillip K.Dick, some by Robert Heinlein iirc.

Take a serious look at the collapse of the Soviet Union, the gutting of the Commonwealth, and the rise of Russia under Yeltsin, then Putin. I'm not sure of any fictionalized works that examine this in any detail, but the aftermath and the new reality is well-described in Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev. Link is a 10 year old review in the Guardian.

The falls of other empires would also be instructive. There is an excellent podcast/YouTube channel, the Fall of Civilizations(YouTube Link)(Spotify Link). In listening, I found several parallels to the first Trump presidency. I haven't listened in years.

A paper-thin skinned hegemon leads a dying empire against his staunch allies. I fed this prompt to ChatGPT and it handed me back Dune by Frank Herbert and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Player Piano by Vonnegut

The Great Dictator

I've found the expanse to be somewhat loosely analogous, but making the associations is a bit of a stretch I guess.

UN is America, Mars is Israel, Belters are Palestinians or other brown folk.

Or they're any number of similar analogues.

Spoilers from the last books (post the current end of the show)

! The entire premise of the current leadership is endless unchecked growth

! This mirrors the Laconian goal of superiority through holding onto what's basically a free infinite energy machine, only it's not really free, it's just being stolen from neighboring universes who's very advanced inhabitants really don't like that.

! We see the same hubris from the people in charge thinking that just a little more control or a little more power will be enough to save us, when really the answer is to let go and stop trying to control everything