Banana Republics

[jawillroy]

Oooh! I like POGs. That's a good'un.

Maybe you could call the denizens of any mining-heavy resource planets "Quarrier Societies."

 

[far-trader]

Oooh! I like POGs.

Me too, that's why I stole... er, borrowed it :smirk:

From...

Prisoners of Gravity

There might be some episodes or partials on You Tube iirc and you want a look.

I can't recall if I imagined it or what but I think the title of the show came from Sci-Fi lit somewhere...

EDIT: Still not sure, can't find much info on it but it appears to be the title of a short story "The Prisoner of Gravity" by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre published in "Isaac Asimov’s Tomorrow’s Voices" anthology of Apr-Mar 1984. No idea of when it was written though, the anthology is a collection of earlier passed over submissions it seems.

 

[Darkhstarr]

In some culture or context 'wog' might become a compliment rather than insult. Partly because of lost of original meaning, partly because somebody thought it sounded 'cool', or simply because the recipient of the insult twists around as a badge of honor. Historical examples are the Dutch 'Sea-Beggars' & the small ranchers & farmers in Wyoming prior to the Johnson County War being called 'rustlers' by the large cattle owners. In the latter case, the children of the 'rustlers' made up a game where the rustlers were the good guys & the rich ranchers were the bad guys.

 

[Whipsnade]

Gentlemen,

Some general derogatory names used IMTU for the inhabitants of 57th Century "banana republics": Muddies, Flots(1), Targets, Bennies(2), Whos, and Trogs(3).

Some general derogatory terms for their political leaders: Grand Poobah and H(various letters)IC(4), Piffle(5), and That One.

Some derogatory terms for 57th century "banana republics": Etceterastan, Arglebargle, Downrange(6), "Locus"(7), and Tuesday(8).


Have fun,
Bill

1 - From the word "flotsam".

2 - From the term "beneath notice".

3 - From the word "troglodyte".

4 - For "Head-Various terms-In-Charge"; hence HMIC for muddies, HFIC for flots, etc.

5 - For "president for life".

6 - From a firing range term.

7 - From Loyal Client [State

8 - From If it's Tuesday it must be...

 

[dean]

Downers.
Groundhogs.
Cavemen.
Suckers ("Trading Partners")

 

[otherles]

Mud sucker.

 

[Icosahedron]

Wunster - contraction of One Star.

Lily - contraction of Liliputian Empire

Penny-ante Empire

 

[rancke]

I was just thinking that a lot of planetary governments, especially in the smaller polities and independent systems, could probably be called banana republics by our standards.

However, I wonder, since just as probably nobody except a few historians remembers what that term was about, would they still be called "banana republics"?

And, if they are not called banana republics, what ARE they called?

And, of course, are there any other 20th-/21st-century terms like this one that would not mean anything to Imperials any more, and what would they be replaced with?

First of all, many of the languages of the 57th Century will have been translated into their 21st Century equivalents, so any such terms could be perfectly correct even if they're wrong, if you see what I mean.

That said, when I wrote up the Outrim Frontier for JTAS Online, I changed the term to 'banana state' to indicate a slight linguistic drift (besides, most of them weren't republics ). The editor changed that to 'banana republic'. <Shrug>.

'"Banana Republic" is an ancient term which refers to a small nation with shaky economy and unstable government.'
-http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/article.cgi?962



Hans

 

[Chaos]

Gentlemen,

Some general derogatory names used IMTU for the inhabitants of 57th Century "banana republics": Muddies, Flots(1), Targets, Bennies(2), Whos, and Trogs(3).

Some general derogatory terms for their political leaders: Grand Poobah and H(various letters)IC(4), Piffle(5), and That One.

Some derogatory terms for 57th century "banana republics": Eceterastan, Arglebargle, Downrange(6), "Locus"(7), and Tuesday(8).


Have fun,
Bill

1 - From the word "flotsam".

2 - From the term "beneath notice".

3 - From the word "troglodyte".

4 - For "Head-Various terms-In-Charge"; hence HMIC for muddies, HFIC for flots, etc.

5 - For "president for life".

6 - From a firing range term.

7 - From Loyal Client [State

8 - From If it's Tuesday it must be...

ROFL! (even though it should be "etceterastan" ;-))

Perhaps "Wog" could be the Spinward Marches term for people from the Sword Worlds... "Worthy Outworlds Gentleman"... which said gentlemen would probably mistake for a term for respect, with all their fixation for being called Most Esteemed Lord Whatshisname and stuff like that.

"Dirtsiders," though, I thought is the general derogatory of space travellers for planetary populations.

 

[su_liam]

I've been known to play with this a bit. It's worth considering that a non-balkanized high population TL8 world makes the RL USA look like Liechtenstein. My PCs still call 'em, "bunnies(there's a tortured etymological link there to Banana Republic)," but have learned to approach them with a good deal more caution, if no respect.

Also, I have a totalitarian state on a balkanized TL12 world about the size of Eurasia. The PCs call them, "pathies," for pathetic and psychopath. They're in the process of learning humility there at the moment.:devil:

Heh heh. The Sword Worlders are more familiar with wog than the Imperials. IMtU, at least.

 

[Icosahedron]

Well, so far I'm happy to adopt 'Pogs' or 'Mudsuckers' as inhabitants of 'Dirtside Empires', for the pre-spaceflight types, but nothing so far has thrilled me as a derogatory term for pocket empires of several systems. More suggestions for these, anyone?

 

[aramis]

One-Week-Ruleships... as in, can't hold together past one week, and punning on weak, as in not strong.

Billy Buffer Boy: such a state between two larger powers... or a citizen thereof

Border Princes.

 

[Darkhstarr]

In my non-Imperium campaign I've had the locals Imps or Impies for Imperials. Variations are nimps(Imp. Navy), mimps (Imp. Marines), simps (Imp. Scouts), dimps (Imp. Bureaucrats-though specifically members of the Ministry of State), aimps (Imp. Army).

 

[JAFARR]

Also we need to remember that in RL history many of these derogatory terms have gone on to become proudly held names. A lot of those have to do with church names so I wouldn't list them to keep from sending this to the pit. Wonder how many of those we can come up with for the 57th centry.

U S militarily speaking, marines were called "Leathernecks" - now a badge of honor, Solders were called "dog faces", and sailors were called "swabbies" - still terms of derision by members of other armed forces units. Even within the same branch of the armed forces there are terms of derision for other parts of the service. Submariners call the surface navy "Targets" and surface navy calls submariners "Sinkers". Where does this go in the 57th century?

 

[far-trader]

Also we need to remember that in RL history many of these derogatory terms have gone on to become proudly held names...

Where does this go in the 57th century?

Well I've used and shared Gro-Pos here before, but it can't hurt to repeat it. The derisive/honoured nickname for Imperial Army troops. Shortened from Ground Pounders.

And I've got a term in MTU for those who use Combat Drug, but it escapes me at the moment

It was once an elitist status to be part of a unit using CD, but with cheaper production it became the norm. Then it was eventually relegated only to green and/or expendable troops. Now the Imperium doesn't use it at all (officially). It's only resorted to by certain planetary forces, mercenaries, and criminals.