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Question: Do you call the Combine Fascist or Communist? Why or Why Not

TRL said:
which one is the real obama
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Totalitarian democracy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
the combine administration is the devolution of an autocratic caretaker regime that serves and echoes the whims and decrees of their absolutist, gangster-alien overlords. the earth administration, in Willard, derives most of its legitimacy from old-world institutions such as the united nations. democracy is controlled: the opposition is controlled: city administrators are appointed: and elections are monitored, scrutinized, and recorded without special protections or anonymity.

when referring to the combine's ideology, you are attempting to define the individual earth administrations superficially. in-universe, it's unfitting to draw false parallels between it (the combine) and pre-existing human-centric ideologies because they're innately tied to human dialectics, materialism, and perspective. meta-textually, out-of-universe, as Boris himself said, they're an allegory to totalitarianism & fascism.
 
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Processed_Grain said:
I know they're weird technocratic aliens and all and we cannot possibly perceive how their 'Government' actually works but

What is the Combine's Occupation Government of Earth ideologically closest to?
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It is closest to fascist occupation. The entire civilian populace is drafted into labour force to sustain its own commerce. The merger of state and corporate power is Mussolini's own description of fascism.
Also "aesthetically", the promotion of collaboration and the everpresent and unabashedly violent police force mirror fascist clichés. Spoofs on communism usually include stuff like agitprops, cults of personality, and comissars. That's not really the vibe here - the average citizen is not expected to attend rallies and shout "Hail Breen!", he's expected to keep his mouth shut and crank away at the factory.
 
MrMindBlow said:
from willard prospective they might as well be democratic beings seeing as they give us elections and shit + willard lore the only real lore so :love:
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they even got a fair justice system (pk-appeals)
albertossic said:
Also "aesthetically", the promotion of collaboration and the everpresent and unabashedly violent police force mirror fascist clichés. Spoofs on communism usually include stuff like agitprops, cults of personality, and comissars. That's not really the vibe here - the average citizen is not expected to attend rallies and shout "Hail Breen!", he's expected to keep his mouth shut and crank away at the factory.
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I disagree on this, we've had like 1-5 pro breen like groups with their own nuances in the breenist grindset spectrum.
Several of these groups have been banned for being too pro breen. This sets the precedent for the willard lore that if you are a true loyalist and see another joe loyalist sacrificing his life for breen at their breendesk altar, in their apartment, with ration packs and candles, they are no real loyalist.
albertossic said:
It is closest to fascist occupation. The entire civilian populace is drafted into labour force to sustain its own commerce. The merger of state and corporate power is Mussolini's own description of fascism.
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Also, citizens are not really being forced to go to work. I can charfallover at the apartment bathroom, geeking, and the combine wouldn't give two cents about my character's existence.
 
Rebel RP Philosopher said:
Also, citizens are not really being forced to go to work. I can charfallover at the apartment bathroom, geeking, and the combine wouldn't give two cents about my character's existence.
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Yes, exactly, the government only cares about the citizens insofar as they are work assets. All food production is under combine authority and you don't get any if you don't work. Mistaking the timed ration mechanic for the idea that your characters are literally only working when they actively show up for an on-server workshift is just a misunderstand of the setting, in my opinion.

Breen worship groups are always player-made events not particularly concerned with the larger l o r e implications & are basically almost utilised as a path to collaborator status. The actual citizens are not expected to hail Breen except when CP is bullying them into saying it
 
albertossic said:
The actual citizens are not expected to hail Breen except when CP is bullying them into saying it
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CPs acting as political commissars are roleplay interactions which are like needles in a haystack, they barely do this - more often being annoyed about the routinization of everyday life and desensitized with their citizen interactions.
 
Rebel RP Philosopher said:
CPs acting as political commissars are roleplay interactions which are like needles in a haystack, they barely do this - more often being annoyed about the routinization of everyday life and desensitized with their citizen interactions.
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Yes, you are agreeing with me.
 
albertossic said:
include stuff like agitprops, cults of personality, and comissars. That's not really the vibe here - the average citizen is not expected to attend rallies and shout "Hail Breen!", he's expected to keep his mouth shut and crank away at the factory.
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this is not exclusive to any particular ideology. propaganda, personality cults, and partification exist in all sorts of ideologies.
 
In some very early HL2 lore (and echoed in Breengrub by Laidlaw) it was stated that the Combine would adapt their "governing" to whatever species they came across, at least until they'd gotten into a comfortable enough position that it didn't matter if they stopped giving whatever they conquered an opinion on things.

You can sort of tell this was kept in HL2, too, because Dispatch uses very human medical terminology and such. Everything is adapted to us, rather than being a 'pure' reflection of how The Combine do anything (which even then only matters until they get what they want anyway).
 
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Rabid said:
In some very early HL2 lore (and echoed in Breengrub by Laidlaw) it was stated that the Combine would adapt their "governing" to whatever species they came across, at least until they'd gotten into a comfortable enough position to exploit that planet/species that it didn't matter if the mask came off.

You can sort of tell this in HL2, too, because Dispatch uses very human medical terminology and such. Everything is adapted to us, rather than being a 'pure' reflection of how The Combine do anything (which even then only matters until they get what they want anyway).
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Same idea, as with how Mongols adopted the societies in which they conquered. Combine can't be bothered to make an essay on how the next government should work, so they just adopt dude breen to do their homework - who essentially is allowed to do whatever he wants
 
Rabid said:
In some very early HL2 lore (and echoed in Breengrub by Laidlaw) it was stated that the Combine would adapt their "governing" to whatever species they came across, at least until they'd gotten into a comfortable enough position that it didn't matter if they stopped giving whatever they conquered an opinion on things.
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Sounds interesting, what’s the early lore from?
 
HalfLife2CitizenMale09 said:
Sounds interesting, what’s the early lore from?
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I remember reading it on one of Laidlaw's blog posts from years ago, about the HL1-era lore for stuff. It vaguely hinted towards what would become The Combine years later but was obviously super underdeveloped.
 
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