Zonetrooper

While the kits may use standardized plumbing connector, they are not all guaranteed to use the same standard sizes.

Tossup between "You didn't join the military?" and "Why the hell do you want to sleep so much! You're an adult! You could be up at midnight!"

It's not a great classical literature, for sure. The characters are almost entirely flat and forgettable, and even the handful that do grow (the young Soviet commander, the US destroyer captain) barely do so. Their experiences never almost never inform their later actions.

But among the techno-thriller/war-simulator genre, I found it more compelling than several more recent attempts (Ghost Fleet, Nuclear War: A Scenario, etc). Many of those seem to go out of their way to bend the plot to produce the author's intended point, and while RSR wasn't exactly innocent in that regard, I found it far less guilty than others - largely because Clancy was holding to the known or theorized-near-future capabilities.

Where I actually find it fascinating is how, in retrospect, we can see the biases of the era influencing how Clancy makes certain predictions:

• The Soviets place immense importance on taking Iceland to permit a "second Battle of the Atlantic" against US carrier groups. In retrospect, we know the Soviet Navy had no interest in this and intended to act as a cordon around northern Europe; specifically the Soviet SSBN bastions.

• While Clancy did loosely predict the nature, role, and value of Stealth aircraft, the design and air-to-air role he describes them in is actually too advanced for the 1980s setting. Essentially, Clancy bought the rumors, which were wrong.

• Land attack helicopters with ATGMs play relatively little role in the ground fighting. This was because the current generation (namely the AH-64) had just been introduced; their full capabilities and impact were not yet publicly available.

These mistakes, although understandable, provide an interesting insight into what the American defense establishment was thinking about in the early 80s.

Absolutely solid choice both.

Talon isn't that deep of a character, but he's a great look at a smuggler who "made it". Mara, meanwhile, is just distilled awesome.

Grand Admiral Thrawn - but only the EU version.

Really a fascinating character in so many respects. One of the more complex and difficult to decipher ones. Was he really a genius out for the good of the galaxy? Or a social status-climber willing to latch on to any cause he could while serving his own ends? Were his more questionable deeds really done regretfully "for the greater good", or was that just an excuse?

I have, thank you! Unfortunately, I don't see the niches I'm looking for, and even when they do, they're basically dead. I can only scream into the void so long...

If I'm understanding this correctly, you're looking for fiction that focuses on framing more of cultural and societal shifts than technological changes?

What you're looking for is difficult to find in the framing of Science Fiction because its very framing invokes technological advancement - technology is the application of science, and machinery is the result of technological innovation. Science fiction is, at its core, about how discoveries in science may change the world.

Nonetheless, you may want to look into the sub-genre referred to as "social science fiction". Although it's not going to be devoid of advanced technology, the focus will be more on the social and societal impacts thereof, than the machinery itself.

The problem is honest conservative media is basically gone.

Yep. And it's frustrating, because it also makes it harder to engage with people who are on the edge or might be drawn back to a more sane position, when you can't say "So I read this article, and I think I understand where you're coming from..." when there are so, so few sources which aren't totally divorced from reality.

(moderate left, for reference)

• BBC. Mildly right-wing, very national POV.

• WSJ... sometimes. There's definitely points where they become utterly insufferable, but sometimes it can be helpful for an insight into the approach of a business-centric, right wing POV.

Really, as a moderate lefty, the collapse of the right-wing movement in the US into its current state has made it very difficult to find reasonable sources from the opposing side. Even "mainstream" right-wing sources take a lot of the batshit stuff at face value, or try and excuse off the more overtly insane elements.

Like:

• It has that small-community feel still. I don't see (perhaps because I stay out of a lot of the more tech-ey communities?) the kind of farming, low-effort, generally mediocre content I saw on Reddit.
• Lack of the sense of a hyper-corporatized, "You're only allowed to do things that make us money" sense that's enshittified much of the internet lately. I'm not even sure if Lemmy can be monetized.

Dislike:

• Not yet large enough either. I don't want hundreds of millions of users, but I still miss a lot of the more niche hobby/discussion communities I used to be able to participate in. Even communities for fairly large hobbies or interests can be dead on Lemmy.
• The awful political takes. Everything from typical dumbness up to advocating violence (but it's okay because it's my point). And it's everywhere.

See, this one I like, because it's one of those "man, I know the writers didn't mean it that way, but it makes sense... and it's horrifying!" theories.

The Falcon is so good, because for decades it has essentially had the crippled, half-dead "ghost" of a droid locked inside its computer systems, unable to fully die yet clearly devoid of her true consciousness.

Char Aznable's wild shift in character between the end of Zeta and the beginning of Char's Counterattack can be directly pinned on Kamille Bidan's mental crippling at the end of Zeta and Haman Karm's actions in ZZ.

Char, who always had a rather strong protective streak, more or less pinned his hopes on Kamille as a key to the future. Instead he directly experienced the Newtype backlash of Kamille being mentally crippled, and subequently could no longer sense him. This convinced him that humanity was doomed to eternal conflict, unless it was forced to advance.

Still unable to get over his protective streak, Char then manages to extricate Mineva Lao Zabi, the last remaining Zabi and perhaps the only one who he doesn't actually seem to harbor any hatred towards, to Earth. But Haman just creates a double, which she uses to drag Neo Zeon into yet another war for personal power. This convinces Char he cannot trust the future to anyone else, even after protecting the ones he cares about.

Thus, we reach CCA with a Char who is fixedly convinced of both the need for forced human advancement, and that he alone must be that leader.