#'let me tell you how I'm suffering under imperialism too unlike my ancestors and those who lived it in my family so i can excuse'

[desertdragon]

This shit got me heated and reminded me why I stay away from people who also play this game but it also made me think again about Why the Ga/lean section of E/W was just more tone deaf apologism for me (and as I've learned, many others)

Also I am seeing people in the quotes using having a lot of empathy as an excuse to frame themselves as superior to others and implying ableism against those that have low empathy so that's another thing where I'm like shut the fuck up you're literally fucking arrogant for making that equivalency anyway- empathy level does NOT equal a person's value or moral value/humanity and ironically thinking it does shows you dehumanize others on prejudice, which you claim not to be doing because you're empathetic-

Like I don't like this person actually I have them blocked on here and I forgot they were even on Twitter until I saw the people "dragging" this post but I agree with the essence of what op is saying- if you are ACTIVELY still being a piece of shit (And even if you're NOT because forgiveness is never OWED) No it is not an obligation on anyone to forgive you or suck your dick and not care how hurtful you're still being; it's dehumanizing, entitled, and victim blaming to tell someone they cannot be allowed to their feelings or defending themselves when met with prejudiced hate and violence

It's frustrating however seeing people turn how SE handled this into black and white self righteousness or obnoxious selfishness because I don't think anyone actually remembers how badly once again the ball was fumbled despite starting from a reasonable place, this is how I feel about it from what I remember explicitly because it made me angry to see a good thing ruined again by centrist ignorant nonsense:

It is legitimately a good thing to help the helpless! It is and that is a noble first instinct to have and not everyone has to agree with it as Lyse says if the helpless at that moment was once or still is your oppressor! But people who rush to suck SE's corporate cock stop it at that fact, at the Idea That Is Included and refuse to examine The Execution of That Idea. Any idea can be included in anything, it's been done forever, but how you describe and show that idea is what speaks. And the execution on this serious topic as with others was deeply flawed and one sided. You cannot insist that people motivated by dehumanizing fascist hatred, giving themselves wholely to the duty of extermination for national interest and personal pride, to commit countless atrocities they don't even reflect on when it's given back to Them, who see anyone not of the Perfect Chosen Civilization/Race as animals, are simply misguided and misunderstood. People coming to you purposefully in bad faith, still being entitled to absolute forgiveness and acceptance.

The few people who are welcoming to you in Ga/lemald and those who just want to move on and not hate after the dust clears, who are not actively hateful and who are repentant, should be taken care of imo. And I appreciate that they were included. And I do find it disturbing in the thought exercise it represents to insist on slaughtering destitute people who want to break the cycle. Because they come in good faith. But looking at the actual campaign and dialogue it cannot CANNOT be denied that this same lens of acceptance/pity/woobying is also extended to those who continue to only see themselves as true human beings worthy of life. It cannot be ignored how quickly the implications and weight of the evil function of a soldier for an imperialist fascist empire is ignored with zero self reflection for the military's conquered victims. Particularly represented by the character of Julius, which I have seen other people rightfully call out as well, even some of his sympathizers. Instead the story suggests you must be a doormat for everyone no matter how they treat you without any dignity for yourself and others who are targeted. That we don't need to hold those who commit evil as accountable for what they did without blaming it on something else, some outside influence having total control rather than the fact of them choosing to be an inhumane instrument. That ignorance literally happens everyday in real life, just look at how many people truly trust in the idea of authority figures or soldiers and glamorize it. Often times hateful people in real life don't move out of or detach from one of their hateful groups because of a true change of heart, but rather out of convenience for their image, or because the hate group targeted them for some different part of their identity. But it doesn't nessesarily change that they still mindlessly hate X Population for baseless reasons.

These nuances are lost, the conversation in the game refuses to engage with the detail work and instead paints using a wide brush. Because it needs to appeal to making money. And also I saw someone in the Twitter thread saying "Well the girls who run away from you because you're a dirty savage to them (which they explicitly stated) were just scared, so you can't not feel bad when they die by their own actions." This is rhetoric I have seen white people use to defend the killing or harm of people of color in real cases. You don't call someone a slur, tell them they're subhuman, that you'd rather die than get help from an animal- and then brush it off as you being scared (how many cops/bigot gun owners shoot for no fucking reason at ALL and then say Well I had to take the shot they were threatening me, I was scared, they were endangering Me when they tried to get away or ask I stop or they were scared; how many times have Whites or other hateful strangers ever called you a slur or treated you unfairly because you're not White too or not part of their group and that makes them feel threatened, because you did nothing but exist, how many times do you experience discrimination and it gets turned around/used to gaslight you with Well you were scaring me so abusing you was justified etc). You see how the jump between this prejudiced rhetoric being justified in fictional thought experiments can mirror the same logic as a takeaway real already prejudiced people have viewing the story.

So no, under no circumstances do I find calling the Ga/lemald section of EW amazingly written something I can agree with, in fact I find it incredibly ignorant and then turning it into a soapbox to target dissenters as if they're inhuman for not getting it and using ableist language as well to help do so is appalling; nor do I agree with its most extremist of detractors, who deny it any positives simply for suggesting people want to help those who suffer even if they once wronged you. This is yet another case of the SE writer's room having no fucking idea how to write anything more complex than a toddler book about shapes or focused character stories with an actual nuanced sense of perspective. How every time they have a great or decent starting point on a broad heavy topic they can't find where to address the lines within it. And the rare times they do succeed at it it still amounts to clean corns in a big picture that's a pile of diarrhea shit. And they keep getting away with it because nobody wants to lift their head instead of indulging the rat race that is fighting each other.

#the way I have seen people collectively forget shit that happened in cutscenes so they can feel superior & don't bother fact checking LMAOO #GOD I HATE Y'ALL SO MUCH! Consider silence! #and you can tell which poc defending this type of shit so they can attack people don't give a fuck about punching down other poc who're mad #'oh i live in the most powerful imperial core country- America & i can afford expensive smoothies and other shit-' #'let me tell you how I'm suffering under imperialism too unlike my ancestors and those who lived it in my family so i can excuse' #'the fantasy racism and imperialism those other dirtier poc complain about because it was poorly handled' BITCH SHUT UP!! #i expect that shit from white people you fucking stop that right now! you and me live in an imperial core country we're safe from it!! #we're not safe from racism and prejudice and other bad things but we're fucking safe from that; we DO the imperialism you privileged fuck #i do not like Sun'ra i think he's a fucking asshole BUT i also think people are jumping for his throat so hard bc his character is dark ski #*dark skinned #he bothers me cuz of shit he's said about fiction not affecting reality proship nonsense and believing trigger warnings makes you a pussy #but here he's right this is the one thing we agree on lol #anytime the evil things get misrepresented badly and it generates anger from irl ppl affected by those same issues the ballfondlers come ou