Every fascist is portrayed as a reprehensible dumbass, and while the game always pokes fun at you, being a fascist is the only option that really asks like “what the fuck are you doing?”. Past that, fascist is obviously not portrayed with any type of grounds to it. There is technically a libertarian free capital type option, but dialogue is so sparse and so obviously just jokes that it’s not really at the same level. The game doesn’t say “this side is right”, it has leans.įor reference, this game essentially has 3 options:įascist Communist/Socialist “Moralist” (which is kind of a “liberal” or centrist option depending on the context) That there has to be another, radical project that can overcome the status quo, and in essence another vision of communism (as Marx defined it: The real movement to overcome the status quo, which already exists in the contradictions of today). To me, the implied answer is, that a new, radical vision is needed. The alternatives to it are self-delusion or grasping at caricatures of bitter memories. The status quo as portrayed is an illusion of humanity, that will engage in total and utter brutality when it is threatened, while the status quo also masks that the world is indeed coming to an end. As Mark Fisher said in "Capitalist Realism: Is there no Alternative?" - it is easier to imagine the end of the world, than to imagine the end of capitalism. Yet hope is also a central theme of the story, at the fringes of the narrative.Ĭonsidering the authors are verifiably leftist, it strikes me as a critique and portrayal of the current "end of history" climate, where there is no visible alternative and vision opposing the status quo anymore. Meanwhile, none of the ideologies as they are presented can do anything to halt the encroaching end times. It is heavily implied that the world is slowly ending, and the total domination of capital is portrayed as wearing a human mask that can always be taken off to crush any dissent in a brutal, inhuman way. There is only a small couple of hints at people who actually engage in an equivalent of actual Marxist analysis, and it is more a forgotten, bitter dream after the failed revolution. The way communism is portrayed, is as a fading, old, self-deluded ideology seen through the eyes of our broken detective who looks for blame outside of his own misery and of course (Ending spoiler) The Deserter, who lived through the euphoria of revolution but also can't let its destruction go and only has a shadowy caricature of what the revolution stood for remain within him, clouded by hatred and nerve damage from the phasmid. I see the way ideology is approached mainly as a critique of ideology itself. They had CTH-hosts for voiceovers, so it's clear that their own position is very leftist and they don't want to hide behind "political neutrality", the way they make fun of moralism and centrism hints at that, too. ![]() According to their self-description, though, they see themselves as a socialist art-collective with their roots in surrealism, dadaism and according to their name also Zaum. I was trying to find where I had read it, but I can't find the direct quote any more. Guys, what is political preference of ZA/UM? I will just repeat something I wrote on this subreddit before, when the topic came up: ![]() I think I really do get your position here, and the points you bring up are definitely things found in the game, however, I think there is still a point to be made about DE being inherently political. By contrast the corporate interests in the game have two main representatives, the fascist death squad that’s trying to spark a violent clash between the Union and the large crowd they themselves gathered, and Joyce who describes herself as an ultra liberal and is generally sorta a really bad person when you actually stop to think about what she believes On a whole everyone else within the Union (excluding the racist dude on the lock) is largely sympathetic, from the Hardie Boys, who legitimately are just doing what the police should be doing but better, to the strikers themselves, who although being manipulated don’t actually seem to understand that their strike will result in violence. The current problems with the Union are caused primarily by its leadership, which has been overrun by men like Evrart Claire. Like sure the Union is corrupt, and it’s leadership is almost definitely trying to start a fight, but these problems aren’t systemic to the Union. The game is starkly left wing, (at least in my opinion) no matter how you see it the Union is unquestionably better then the corporation is.
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