The Mystery of A Slanted Black Stripe is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by The Reluctant Delegate with an even hand, and renowned for its strictly enforced bedtime, anti-smoking policies, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cheerful population of 37.759 billion Slantees are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of San Francisco. The average income tax rate is 95.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Slanted Black Stripean economy, worth a remarkable 7,029 trillion stripenotes a year, is quite specialized and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Information Technology, and Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 186,179 stripenotes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Giggling elementary school newspaper reporters want to know why The Reluctant Delegate is a silly poophead, military equipment is being auctioned off to extend comatose centenarians' lives, the media seems excessively interested in what The Reluctant Delegate is wearing this season, and burning yourself alive is not okay but starving and whipping yourself is fine. Crime is totally unknown. A Slanted Black Stripe's national animal is the zebra, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is All are Welcome.

A Slanted Black Stripe is ranked 2,509^th in the world and 18^th in The East Pacific for Largest Populations, with 37.8 billion capita.