Centrism - Tumblr Posts
Of all the political satire in Disco Elysium, I find the Moralists to be the most poignant. Because you trend towards Moralism--towards Centrism--just by staying on track and focusing on the task at hand. You're trying to deal with the world as it is, and so it feels logical and right. My first playthrough, I felt guilty for all the trouble I had caused people, and so I ended up leaning hard into Moralism and becoming a Sorry Boring Cop.
Except "focusing on the task at hand" isn't logical at all, because it actually means ignoring information. Do not question why things are the way they are. Continue to obey the very people who have stolen from and victimized you and everyone you are likely to meet and care about.
While the "traditionalists" are repugnant, hateful, and deluded, they aren't the game's true threat, because they are not in power. The Moralists have already won, and they've convinced everyone that obeying them, enriching them, and living under the watchful eye of their distant warships is normal and uncontroversial.
They promise incremental change, but we know for certain that the future of Elysium is a sudden, apocalyptic flash of light. Moralism is associated with faith and religious imagery, but it is a faith that will never be rewarded. If you build the radio tower, you reach someone who cannot help. If you get to talk to someone in power at all, they will at best be a Sunday friend offering meaningless platitudes.
And the most tragic part is that Kim--the person you most trust and rely on--is the embodiment of this mindset. No matter how much it hurts him, he's still going to try to be a good cop.
I have no confidence in our legal or political system so I am now explaining that this is SATIRE. Satire is a form of comedy. Plz don't come shoot my cat.
You cannot be a centrist on reproductive rights. You cannot be a centrist on trans and gay rights. You cannot be a centrist on intersex people and our rights and our bodies. You cannot be a centrist on social security, disability, retirement, etc. You cannot be a centrist on immigration. You cannot be a centrist on war. You're either pro human rights, anti war, pro immigration, or you're not.
The very act of 'centrism' is allowing fascism to exist because you 'understand both sides' or don't want to pick a side. You are just as bad as the nazis and those who hang with them, because you don't denounce them like a normal person. It's just a more pretty looking way of saying you're a right wing fascist freak. If you can listen to a fascist and go 'well I just don't agree with them :)' you are enabling that fascist. You might as well chant 'kill the jews! Trans people are child predators!' too if you can listen to that and not actively denounce it. I don't care if this is an extremist view, it's just a fact. You cannot be a centrist on human rights, I don't trust anyone who says they are because they enable the people against human rights, and may just be mask on anti rights themselves.
After all, doesn't Ben Shapiro call himself a liberal?