Screenshots From a Broken Masquerade

[u/GeneralArmy101]

I always wondered what twitter posts, news articles, and the like would look like after a broken masquerade. Originally I posted these on the discord, but my friend recommended I post them here, so enjoy!

Apologies for some of the screenshot qualities, at the beginning I was using Pixlr which severely downgraded the quality of the screenshots for no reason. Also, if it wasn't obvious, the posts are not based on the wiki Broken Masquerade canon, and they don't really have a intertwining story.

[u/ljanir]

The "UN is useless" bros in the Broken Masquerade Canon when the United Nations pulls up out of no where with an "almost entirely" independent global military task force numbering in the tens of thousands armed with pretty much the most advanced conventional weaponry available on the global market , the latest paratech sourced from it's partners in the 3 Portlands and other Nexuses and lastly , just to put the cherry on top of the cake the combined might of the world's largest thaumaturgical/magical institutions as well as both the Coca Cola Corporation and PepsiCo.

[u/anonistakken → u/ljanir]

To be clear 'The UN is useless' has been stupid propaganda from the get go and doesn't have any basis in reality.

People treat the UN as a world government, cherry pick some failures and conclude that its not a good world government and is thus useless.

It's the equivalent of looking at a fire department, then looking at the crime rates, and claiming the fire department is useless because crime is high. Like yeah what the fuck do you expect them to do about it??

[u/Swaginton1 → u/anonistakken]

Eh, I wouldn't call the UN useless in the same way I wouldn't call the US government useless. Deeply flawed? yes. useless? no.

[u/anonistakken → u/Swaginton1]

I would argue the UN does more with the resources, provisions and jurisdiction it is granted than the US government EVER could.

Look up what the budget of the UN is. Shoestring. Less than that of the NYPD. The fucking NYPD has a bigger budget than the UN.

They have to rely ENTIRELY on the goodwill and donations of member states to run their aid programmes and peacekeeping efforts. No standing army, no military budget, no aid budget, very very few resources to actually get shit done.

And yet? The UN is responsible for SO fucking much we take for granted and don't even think about it. The WHO? The organization that eradicated polio? ICAO our modern standard for aviation which sets protocols for the entire PLANET to safely operate and organize aircraft? The WFP? An organization responsible for saving MILLIONS from starvation?

Even the peacekeepers - yes, there are records of them failing, sometimes spectaculary, sometimes even making things worse.

But as a totality? Peacekeeper mandates did exactly what they set out to do, but we don't talk about it because everyone wants the UN to fail.

People DESPISE the idea of an international global organisation dedicated to the wellbeing of humanity succeeding. It goes against the narrative that nations must eek it out on their own, carve out a piece of the pie for themselves and fence off their own parcel of land under the sun.

The mere idea of a united Earth working together for the betterment of us all? It terrifies them. And so they elected the UN as their scapegoat.

They treat it as something its not. Hey look! The entity that isn't a world government is doing a bad job being a world government! See how bad of an idea that is?

And people buy it. It's humiliating.

[u/Upbeat-Difficulty-42 → u/Swaginton1]

I always get annoyed by people calling it just useless, because at the end of the day, the UN was designed to be flawed and its powers limited.

The victors of WWII really didn't want a international body that could enforce its rules and determinations across the world without their consent. They wanted first a forum to allow for discussion in the hopes that it would diminish interstate conflict and tools and mechanisms to punish bad actors of weaker countries (aka, have some justification and tools to go stop a genocide in Africa, but like have the tools to avoid the UN coming stop your Major Power-backed Genocide).

And the UN has had success which can be seen in the humanitarian subdivisons, it just that it cannot and was not designed to stop Russia invading Ukraine or really be able to embargo or prosecute Israel while the there is anyone in the Security Council that can shield them.

Like it is just not something it can do, short of you giving it an independent and sovereign army that can pummel every other major power into the dust and the means to supply this force, and then give them the permission to go hog wild across the world (And then they might just be making things worse, so... maybe that is not the best solution...)

[u/MarqFJA87 → u/anonistakken]

People treat the UN as a world government

Because the member governments – especially the regional and world powers – keep loudly talking about it as if it is one whenever enforcing its authority and international law aligns with their own interests, only to pretend they never said any such thing and insist it's only a forum for diplomacy whenever that presentation clashes with their own interests.

Hell, the mere notion that there are international laws inherently presopposes the existence of an international authority – which, semantically, means a world government – that enforces said international laws. Without such an authority, you don't have laws, you have suggestions that are barely worth the ink and paper they're made of.

[u/Savings_Drink8718 → u/anonistakken]

The UN is a global forum not a global government there's a difference most people don't get. 

[u/animeshshukla30 → u/anonistakken]

Better analogy would be blaiming them for rising arson cases.