Rumor: Are Mega-Billionaires Skinner and EarlG Manipulating DU Users With Russian Propaganda?

Ah, no. Nope. Not.

A few Russian or Koch-sponsored Democratic Underground users may be occasionally trying to do just that, but this community is pretty goddamned generally immune to bullshit. Usually you get to the Absolute Truth somewhere halfway down the thread, and if it's coming from babylonsister, kpete, H2OMan, hatrack, JudiLynn or any of the other dozens to hundreds of Seriously Cool DUers you can probably take the OP to the bank.

And that is why I live here, and happily pay for the privilege of my star.

I don't really think Skinner or EarlG or Elad are billionaires. But I do think they'd make good billionaires. The very best of billionaires.

Interviews with elderly people filmed in 1929.

'Babylon Berlin' is us -- ninety years ago and six inches over. It's amazing.

I've never seen anything like this before. Shockingly artistic and intelligent, gripping, prescient. The Best.

It is intense, and made all the more so by the absolute reflection of the modern US crisis. What a story. Good Germans struggle against ruthless militarists to keep Germany from descending into brutal decay -- in 1929. It's terrifying, gorgeous and just so Real.

Modern humanity is a beautiful promise that carries a curse. People who love democracy struggle against people who do not. The proportion of those, and their relative strength and skillset, determines whether or not the democracy survives or fails.

Of course, the protectors of democracy play by rules that the destroyers do not. Opportunistic nationalism is an incompetent creed, practiced by the incompetent -- but because they have no guiding principle other than insect-thinking, they gain the advantage. People who will gerrymander and vote-suppress and coordinate with a foreign power get the upper hand over people who respect and observe the boundaries of civilized democratic behavior.

'Babylon Berlin' is about a time and place where the protectors of democracy became outmaneuvered and overwhelmed. It is, at its core, a heart-pounding horror story. Because we all know the ending.

It's not us. We just haven't been this close to true failure since the Civil War, and now our complacency and smallness are disappearing in the face of our possible destruction. They're going to lose, and we're going to fix this.

But in Berlin, in 1929 -- there were people just like us, who tried desperately to hold on to democracy and were washed away in conflagration.

They were so brave, to fight that fight and fail.

This is an inspiring, intuitive, important, action-packed thriller that burns with relevance. So good.

This will be our year.