From the 2019 game, Disco Elysium
The Deserter: (he opens his eyes and stares right through you) “It was real. I’d seen it. I’d seen it in reality.”
Half-Light: Some kind of great terror. Worse than what you’ve seen.
You: “Seen what?”
The Deserter: “The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed.
And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death… the sweetest, most courageous people in the world…” (he’s silent for a second) You see the fear and power in its eyes. “Then you know.”
You: “What?”
The Deserter: “That the bourgeois are not human.”
Bad take.
Dehumanising our opposition takes away all of their agency and responsibility. They’re not some other evil beings in human suits, they are, at the end of the day, only people.
The power they have lies in them having privileges that are provided to them by, and making selfish choices that would get them ahead in, the social and economic constructs they’ve designed and/or uphold (or worse, workers who fall for the propaganda of said constructs and participate against their own best interests)
Those constructs can and should be dismantled, and the people who created and benefitted from them, held accountable.They’ve given up everything that makes them human. Now they’re nothing more than a conglomeration of sin and cowardice.
They’re human, and that’s a more concrete concept than “sin” or “cowardice”. Your attitude leads to executions.
If they were still human, it would be possible to reason with them. So why don’t you go and try and convince a billionaire to stop raping the planet and exploiting everyone else’s lives for their personal gain.
When you come back and report success, I’ll see them as human. I’ll even grant you success if one single billionaire willingly becomes a millionaire by any means.
If they were still human, it would be possible to reason with them.
This premise is false.
In between stimulus and reaction is the capacity for reason. That’s the only place you’ll find humanity.
If they lost their capacity for reason they’d be a lot easier to defeat than they are. You are underestimating your enemy.
Your contempt will undermine your ability to create an effective response to them.
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It’s really not meant to be taken seriously. These comments are made from segments of an alcoholic, depressed, and jaded detective’s fractured psyche. He’s so fucked up that each element of his psyche speaks to him in his mind as entirely separate entities.
Amazing game though
Jfc, can’t even talk about anarchism in a fucking anarchism community anymore… 🤦♀️
I am aware this is from a game, it literally says so.
Who said it and why doesn’t matter, it was posted as is in an anarchism community, but doesn’t actually reflect anarchism at all. I replied in literally 3 sentences to point out why.
If that is “too serious” for you, maybe you should stick to the meme communities…Im just participating in the conversation by providing context as to why its a bad take. Im agreeing with you for fucks sake.
Who said it and why does matter because it explains why its a bad take. Its not coming from a rational place at all.
If you cant have a conversation about anarchism without getting defensive then maybe you should stick to the meme communities
You were defensive in your first reply, because I think you know you fucked up.
If you think the quote is wrong then you should frame it as such. As it is this quote is given no context. “It’s from a game” isn’t enough.
Loads of people don’t know what that game is and even if they do the explanation of what’s wrong with the quote should come before it, not buried in the comments because you let someone else do it for you.
The framing of this quote implies agreement, not critique.
Greatest game I’ve ever played. Highly recommend, even if you’re not a gamer.
What game?
Disco Elysium
