u/JustaDreamer617

During the rise of the Ming Dynasty, the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, who as the uncle of the Emperor, seized the throne during a Civil War under the banner of eliminating corrupt officials within the Imperial Court.

During his reign, Ming Dynasty in the early 1400s reached its peak with Zheng He's treasure fleet voyages across Asia, India, the Middle East, and East Africa, decades before the Portuguese began their trade journeys. However, after his death, Confucian officials within the Ming Court discontinued the explorations and reduced the size of the fleet to that of coastal defense only (causing issues to arise for its people with ocean raiding Wukou Japanese pirates).

While nominally, the Yongle Emperor promoted himself as an ideal Confucian leader, he was a radical who opposed some of that era's Confucian scholars, especially ministers of his nephew, the Emperor he eventually usurped. In a famous historical event, after taking power and arresting the former officials of his nephew, he ordered the only example of a Chinese emperor executing a person by the 10th degree. Scholar Fang Xiaoru’s entire family, extended kin, and—uniquely—his students and peers within the same school of Confucian thought were all executed, totalling 873 people. Then, he promoted his own version of Confucianism with commentaries on the Four Books to secure the loyalty of other Confucian schools.

So, in this scenario, let's assume Yongle Emperor went further than just one school of Confucianism, we're talking about hundreds of thousands scholars purged to narrow Confucian thought, eliminating elements like spendthrift on military development, ban on commercial development, conservative foreign affairs, benevolent relations between nations (The bad tributary relationship where a nation gives 1 pound of gold and the Ming Dynasty must return 5 times the gift's value as Confucians argued), and the formation of official cliques such as the later Ming Dynasty's corrupt Donglin party of Confucian officials who exempted taxation on the gentry and overtaxed peasants, leading to the revolts within the Ming Dynasty.

Some may ask the basic question: Can this even be accomplished with the means available? Well, the Ming Dynasty had probably the most advanced secret police of that era, with its Eastern Depot being remembered even in contemporary literature as an all-knowing and all-seeing agency under direct control of the Emperor. There are also the embroidered guards, who act as the Emperor's enforcers and assassins within the empire. Essentially, Ming China had early elements of a strong central government in the making, except Yongle Emperor wanted to maintain a semblance of Confucian scholarship for posterity.

This desire for Confucian acceptance of his rule ultimately sowed the seeds of the Ming Dynasty's eventual fall, as Confucian court officials later undermined and ultimately removed the power of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Guards.

Does anyone else think purging more Confucians and eliminating more schools of Confucian thought could have lengthened the Ming Dynasty's reign?

Libertarianism values individual effort, independent thought, and freedom under minimal government oversight or regulation.

The current US Republican platform values a team effort with fellow conservatives, group goals towards traditional American values, and orderly actions with the government for directed goals with peak efficiency and lower cost.

I mentioned in a thread before that I think the US conservatism is moving towards centralization, rather than what we had traditionally with decentralized individual efforts. In simple terms, the movement appears to be realigning against a small government/individual liberty approach, which is favored by libertarians and conservatives in the past.

I was a libertarian in my 20s initially, before I became a conservative as I aged with small government principles being the joint for transition, so this shift hits close to me.

With the apparent shift, I think the current Republican Party may no longer support libertarian minded conservatives. Rep. Thomas Massie is the most recent example, so there may be a trend developing within the Republican Party. If so, I expect Senator Rand Paul to either conform to the new dynamics or also be purged in 2028.

What do others think?

I am wondering why there's been no discussion about this stock recently. Expand Energy Corp is the largest independent US producer of natural gas. The stock is traded on NASDAQ.

As of May 8, 2026, EXE shares closed at approximately $95.92. Their P/E is 7.15, which is pretty low for an energy company. Net income was about $3.2 billion for twelve months ending 3/31/26 and they have $5 billion in debt.

I only have 25 shares in the stock, bought at $95 on April 21st 2026, because I wanted to have a relatively safe energy stock in my portfolio.

Overall, it looks like a good company and the fundamentals offer room for growth. The macro environment, despite the Iran war, has seen natural gas prices falling due to abundant inventory from less LNG exports, but they're still able to make a good profit their debt load is light.

Was wondering if other people have noticed this stock, since I haven't found any discussion on it?

I am wondering if anyone has seen the idea of recycling human bodies for fertilizer, protein, water, among other resources in the near future stories (50-100 years).

I had the idea come to my mind from replaying an old PC Game called "Alpha Centauri" created by Civilizations turned-based strategy game creator Sid Meier, where human colonists were recycled into "Recycling tanks" in order to produce nutrients for the cities.

I know the idea isn't new and variants like Dune's "water" recycling by Freman is one example. The Expanse doesn't highlight it, but Martians in the story were also heavily invested in the concept of recycling their resources due to harsh nature of Mars.

But, is the idea of using human bodies as resources even feasible?

It's a macabre subject, but I can see why it might be needed especially in environments like Mars, where there's a lack of soil nutrients and human bodies could very likely serve that purpose.

PS: I am not being edgy, just thought I'd ask about the opinions of folks who might be considering science fiction with hard science on agricultural engineering for alien worlds without nutrients and limited water resources. It seems like a decent idea. Not sure if folks are considering this aspect as much.