• axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    48·
    6 months ago

    Yeah but empathy is the voice of moralism, even though moralists believe in nothing. Endurance is the voice of fascism though, which is clever because the game presents fascist ideology as self-harm.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        45·
        6 months ago
        spoilers

        Harry is an amnesiac cop who was a moralist before the amnesia. His moralism is also psychologically tied up with stuff like his ex-wife. It’s what his brain defaults to when he considers questions of how society should operate and how to treat people. Kim’s the same way. It’s what Harry has been conditioned into, so his empathy is the same thing as his default political outlook.

        Rhetoric is communist because Harry has to be talked into it. It doesn’t quite appeal to his conditions or interests. His first step to becoming a communist is talking himself through it. He goes through a period of basically making stuff up in his head, or adopting a persona. Yeah, that’s how I’d describe it. His communism is a persona he’s trying to adopt, because he hasn’t spent much time with actual communists or engaged with the literature.

        Like there’s a quote when Harry is talking to the deserter. “I’m a communist too. I have communist thoughts in my head.” And that’s all it’s been for Harry at this point, it’s a bunch of thoughts swirling in his head, changing his default outlook. To a good outlook I should say. The communist quest is the only one where he seems like a more optimistic person at the end. Harry’s able to cope with pain in a more healthy way.

        Also ultraliberalism’s skill is Savoir faire because that entire ideology is about being a smarmy smug asshole.

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            29·
            6 months ago

            He’s a cop, seems to have believed in being a cop since he handled three times as many cases as his coworkers. All the other cops you meet, including Kim, have moralist beliefs. Like the church. Kim does a quick prayer and Harry has a dim feeling of religious ecstasy when he first enters the church. It’s stuff like that. I don’t think it’s outright stated anywhere, you’re right.

            • Teapot [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              22·
              6 months ago

              Kim is vaguely a moralist but it’s not important to him. The Revachol Citizen’s Militia has its roots in the old commune. The end of the game shows the leader of the precinct planning another Communist revolution. I don’t think these particular cops care about moralism one way or the other, it’s just the prevailing system that they work under

              • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
                19·
                6 months ago

                Yeah, that’s how I interpret moralism in general. No one actually cares that much about it, it’s just dominant and has trickled down into people’s brains. The people who do care about it are like religious acolytes.