this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
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[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The first game doesn't dabble much in ideology; its big talking point is that war is bad and everything else in the game is meant to revolve around this. The second game is more geared toward anti-fascism. Neither really touch on communism as an ideology or a system in practice.

Fallout 3 is centrist slop that simultaneously treats communism and anti-communism as being equally bad because it doesn't have anything it actually wants to say.

New Vegas doesn't touch on communism at all but it does offer some stark critiques of liberal democracy and colonialism (and capitalism of course) as well as Caesar's weird Primitivist philosophy resulting from his inability to understand Hegel, which in turn attacks conservatism and similar Right-wing ideologies.

Fallout 4 doesn't have anything to say about anything other than "slavery bad" and that's about it. Like FO3 it's just centrist slop with no political literacy whatsoever.

I don't know about the other two games because nobody really played them.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t know about the other two games because nobody really played them.

Fallout Tactics is generally "we will save you from the destruction (by conquering you)" tactics game except it's actually way better as a game than usually admitted, it just got smashed in reviews because it was not actual Fallout 3 when everyone was hyped for one. Also Broterhood in it is least hitlerite of all its versions since it's actually inclusive (you can have ghouls, supermutants, robots, deathclaws) and everyone is getting high in random moment, though the armed paladin taking psycho while on watch was pretty alarming.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 month ago

I kinda prefer the Brotherhood to be fascist-coded since that is the logical conclusion of their philosophy and they've always canonically been assholes.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Followers of the Apocalypse in New Vegas and 2 are essentially communist and presented in a good light.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The Followers of the Apocalypse are a volunteer aid group. There's nothing really communist about them; they're altruists and pacifists motivated primarily by moralism. They don't appear interested in the economic structure of societies, the use of labor, or who owns the modes of production. They're "socialist" in a purely idealist sense.

[–] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

True, but there isn’t much of a society left. Productive forces don’t really exist beyond artisanal and sustenance production, and neither does organized or capitalist modes of production. There isn’t anything to really organize, let alone lead.

They live in commune societies where the collective own the means of production, reject money, they attempt to elevate tribal groups through education, they’re anti-fascist and only maintain a tenuous relationship with the liberal NCR, and attempt to recruit through their outreach.

Society tetters between tribal and early feudal at best, and even then barely. What is a socialist to do in a “society” like that? Volunteer outreach is all that’s left, not like there’s much to do a “revolution” against.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago

True, but there isn’t much of a society left. Productive forces don’t really exist beyond artisanal and sustenance production, and neither does organized or capitalist modes of production. There isn’t anything to really organize, let alone lead.

This would be true if they didn't literally come from the NCR - which does in fact have an organized, capitalist mode of production.

The reality is they're simply not Marxists. FotA are closer to Christian missionaries that do charity work.

They live in commune societies where the collective own the means of production, reject money, they attempt to elevate tribal groups through education, they’re anti-fascist and only maintain a tenuous relationship with the liberal NCR, and attempt to recruit through their outreach.

Which makes them closer to utopian socialism rather than full-blown communism.

Society tetters between tribal and early feudal at best, and even then barely. What is a socialist to do in a “society” like that? Volunteer outreach is all that’s left, not like there’s much to do a “revolution” against.

Again this argument would make more sense if the NCR, the Strip, and Caesar's Legion didn't exist. Complex civilizations are coming back and they're reviving exploitative modes of production such as the imperialism of the NCR, the Strip's more basic capitalist model, and the Legion's slave economy.

[–] demerit@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They’re “socialist” in a purely idealist sense.

I mean they are kinda supposed to be - this is how their leader Nicole speaks/quotes about her in Fallout 1

They claim to want peace, like us. But anyone who disagrees with them just disappears. Their Dark God is not what he seems, believe me.

We never give up hope. We never will, even though most live by the gun these days. And we are concerned with the Children of the Cathedral...

We don't worship so much as follow a set of principles. We want to bring peace back to this wasteland. The world tends toward destruction, so we try to make a difference

After my parents were killed by a marauders, it was time the killing stopped. It's our goal to make this land the way it used to be, before the war.

Nicole is our leader. She's compelled by insight and spirituality to bring peace to a world broken by war.

See the absence of any socialist big words? They are much more christian moralistic in nature.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago

Exactly. They're a morality movement rather than a political or economic faction. This is a big reason as to why they keep taking Ls from the NCR and BoS.