Meme Thread for Both Posting and Discussing Memes

The Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout. Probably a joke, but there was that time the NCR subreddit got taken down by automated software for formulating sucessionism against the American goverment...


Wait what? How did I never hear about that?

Also the Brotherhood is kinda fascistic. Especially in Fallout 4. In 3 they are more of benevolent attempt at a military junta salvage type and in 1 they are mostly US Army remnants hoarding tech more than anything.
 
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Wait what? How did I never hear about that?

Also the Brotherhood is kinda fascistic. Especially in Fallout 4. In 3 they are more of benevolent attempt at a military junta salvage type and in 1 they are mostly US Army remnants hoarding tech more than anything.
No rendition of the Brotherhood of Steel qualifies as "fascistic", unless you're using such a broad brush that the term becomes utterly meaningless. Fascism as a political system requires a relatively complex society that is industrialized to actually be a THING, which none of the regions that the Brotherhood operate in qualify as. Just because in FO4 they suddenly got written as racists doesn't mean they're fascists, as fascism as a system, has little to do with race (certain subsets of Fascism, like Nazism do, but even then just because something has a race element doesn't make it fascistic), and to be frank in FO4 fear of the Institutes Synths is a rational position to take and the Railroad are a bunch of kinda ridiculous hippies who care more about Synths than their fellow humans...

The actual closest the Brotherhood ever came to being Fascistic was arguably in Fallout: Tactics, when a branch of the Brotherhood actively went on a conquering spree and forcefully brought settlements under their direct rule, but even then, it was more of a classic military junta / warlord set up than anything resembling Fascism, especially given that the Midwest Brotherhood actively integrated everyone they conquered into their military (and I do mean everyone, you could have Ghoul and Hairy Deathclaw recruits in FO:T and the main character is a tribal who was "recruited" into the Brotherhood).

Maxim was an asshole and a dictator who fucked up what was otherwise a fairly benevolent chapter of the Brotherhood in DC, but regardless of all that, they weren't fascists...
 
No rendition of the Brotherhood of Steel qualifies as "fascistic", unless you're using such a broad brush that the term becomes utterly meaningless. Fascism as a political system requires a relatively complex society that is industrialized to actually be a THING, which none of the regions that the Brotherhood operate in qualify as. Just because in FO4 they suddenly got written as racists doesn't mean they're fascists, as fascism as a system, has little to do with race (certain subsets of Fascism, like Nazism do, but even then just because something has a race element doesn't make it fascistic), and to be frank in FO4 fear of the Institutes Synths is a rational position to take and the Railroad are a bunch of kinda ridiculous hippies who care more about Synths than their fellow humans...

The actual closest the Brotherhood ever came to being Fascistic was arguably in Fallout: Tactics, when a branch of the Brotherhood actively went on a conquering spree and forcefully brought settlements under their direct rule, but even then, it was more of a classic military junta / warlord set up than anything resembling Fascism, especially given that the Midwest Brotherhood actively integrated everyone they conquered into their military (and I do mean everyone, you could have Ghoul and Hairy Deathclaw recruits in FO:T and the main character is a tribal who was "recruited" into the Brotherhood).

Maxim was an asshole and a dictator who fucked up what was otherwise a fairly benevolent chapter of the Brotherhood in DC, but regardless of all that, they weren't fascists...


This is the perfect summation of the Brotherhood of Steel.

 
No rendition of the Brotherhood of Steel qualifies as "fascistic", unless you're using such a broad brush that the term becomes utterly meaningless. Fascism as a political system requires a relatively complex society that is industrialized to actually be a THING, which none of the regions that the Brotherhood operate in qualify as. Just because in FO4 they suddenly got written as racists doesn't mean they're fascists, as fascism as a system, has little to do with race (certain subsets of Fascism, like Nazism do, but even then just because something has a race element doesn't make it fascistic), and to be frank in FO4 fear of the Institutes Synths is a rational position to take and the Railroad are a bunch of kinda ridiculous hippies who care more about Synths than their fellow humans...

The actual closest the Brotherhood ever came to being Fascistic was arguably in Fallout: Tactics, when a branch of the Brotherhood actively went on a conquering spree and forcefully brought settlements under their direct rule, but even then, it was more of a classic military junta / warlord set up than anything resembling Fascism, especially given that the Midwest Brotherhood actively integrated everyone they conquered into their military (and I do mean everyone, you could have Ghoul and Hairy Deathclaw recruits in FO:T and the main character is a tribal who was "recruited" into the Brotherhood).

Maxim was an asshole and a dictator who fucked up what was otherwise a fairly benevolent chapter of the Brotherhood in DC, but regardless of all that, they weren't fascists...
You seem to forget Elijah and the Sierra Madre; Maxim wasn't the only lunatic who was once in charge of a chapter.

Also, the BoS surface patrol massacring the Followers of the Apocalypse if Veronica tries to join them.

The benevolent BoS is the minority, at least for main line chapters.

Edit: As House says, you don't see the BoS trying to set up hospitals or such, just take old weapons; at least the Followers try to run medical services for the regular people.
 
You seem to forget Elijah and the Sierra Madre; Maxim wasn't the only lunatic who was once in charge of a chapter.

Also, the BoS surface patrol massacring the Followers of the Apocalypse if Veronica tries to join them.

The benevolent BoS is the minority, at least for main line chapters.

Edit: As House says, you don't see the BoS trying to set up hospitals or such, just take old weapons; at least the Followers try to run medical services for the regular people.
I don't think he's arguing they are good, he's saying they aren't fascistic. Honestly, the closest real world historical equivalent to what they seem to be is a colonialist/imperialist power. It reflects how they act in a bunch of places: a small, unassailable foot hold (the Zeppelin in 4, the hidden base in New Vegas, etc), where they are outnumbered but still a powerhouse. Note also their frequent use of arming the natives with better tech to fight on their behalf, while not letting them have the really nice tech. Honestly, an even closer match would be the Spanish Conquistadores.
 
I don't think he's arguing they are good, he's saying they aren't fascistic. Honestly, the closest real world historical equivalent to what they seem to be is a colonialist/imperialist power. It reflects how they act in a bunch of places: a small, unassailable foot hold (the Zeppelin in 4, the hidden base in New Vegas, etc), where they are outnumbered but still a powerhouse. Note also their frequent use of arming the natives with better tech to fight on their behalf, while not letting them have the really nice tech. Honestly, an even closer match would be the Spanish Conquistadores.
Well, they do have the whole feudal mystique going already.

Though they do not have any real commerce centered views, unlike the Conquistadors.

They seem closer to Knights Templars, of the Wasteland, mixed with definite dislike of the US gov for the FEV experiments.

The Brotherhoods origin is righteous, what it became and how little it cared for other former US citizens later on is horrendous for the most part.
 
Though they do not have any real commerce centered views, unlike the Conquistadors.
See, I'd swap the lure of gold for the lure of tech here.
They seem closer to Knights Templars, of the Wasteland, mixed with definite dislike of the US gov for the FEV experiments.

The Brotherhoods origin is righteous, what it became and how little it cared for other former US citizens later on is horrendous for the most part.
Internally, I really like the Templars as a fit.

The issue with the Knight Templars is that the BOS's outside focused actions aren't really similar to the Crusades. They operate externally much more like the conquistadores: using natives to fight a bunch, small expeditions for treasure (not gold but tech now, but still), etc.
 
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