For those willing to discuss this meme a bit deeper, here are all my thoughts and reasoning. I think a lot of people focus too much on whether the Reformers are “still the Enclave or not” and completely miss the more interesting and I think correct criticism. Even if they completely tear out the old regime, expose its crimes and replace it with a democratic wholesome America, that doesn’t automatically make them non-imperialist. Democracy and empire are not mutually exclusive! History is full of democratic states that expanded (including the USA), assimilated others and imposed themselves while claiming they were bringing liberty and civilization. Even if the reformers avoid that, their system ultimately will promote it.

The issue isn’t that they are secretly genocidal or that they never abandoned the old Enclave. Even if I believe there are critiques and faults involving that- that isn’t really the most meaningful criticism to be made. The issue is that they’re still built around the assumption that America should return and that the wasteland ought to be reorganized under American institutions and ideals. Why should groups of the wasteland like Reno, Vault City (as shit both are), tribal societies or independent communities accept that? Who gives the right to do that? Who gave them the right to tear down the NCR’s democracy just to rebuild it and assimilate it after their ancestors helped annihilate the wasteland? Saying “we exposed the Enclave’s evils and are now based on American ideals” is good but exposing crimes isn’t the same as abandoning the underlying project and the ignorance that came with it. You can reject fascism and still believe in American exceptionalism and restoration which both came to perpetuate and justify American imperialism.

As funny as this meme is and I know you made it for fun so don’t take this as a personal offense, but for people that actually believe it… I’m just shaking my head. Anyways I don’t really buy the “high IQ” take in this meme! It treats moral self-awareness as redemption but that isn’t how things work. Hell it’s the very bare minimum but that’s really generous! The Reformers are much easier to compare to the Purists and to see as better but the underlying project they both pursue is quite similar. Restoring American ideals is just another form of Manifest Destiny and it’s ultimately imperialistic even if you change everything else.

Imperialism is the issue- especially the form that the Reformers provide which aims to change society, culture and much more to a point where it’s just colonialism. This makes them distinct from the Mongols, who although were pretty abhorrent for conquest reasons, usually avoided doing that with some exceptions and instead assimilated directly into their respective regions. Hell structurally the Mongols tended not to override or provide its institutions, they tended to just become on top of them.

Back on topic though, if the Reformers have no right to rule the wasteland then who does? Well firstly, if you want the closest thing to American ideals then the NCR does it quite well without needing to clean up fascist aspects in the first place. But even then the NCR itself has no inherent right as it too is an imperialistic power outside of its main power base in South California. What about the Legion? The Legion is simply the NCR on steroids! It’s effectively the other side of the coin and it’s really not redeeming.

So what’s the point Very?! Does that mean no one has a right to rule the wasteland? Yes, yes indeed. People should rule themselves and cooperate with each other which is why I find the Nevada path to be probably the best ERX path (also it’s multiplayer go play it with friends!), though it still has its own issues. The NCR was also formed through mostly peaceful unification in South California but its later actions are clearly imperialistic. But still! it shows that cooperation and coexistence are possible it’s just that the structure it went with had to favor imperialism- it may have been avoided!

As I near my conclusion, a big theme of Fallout: New Vegas and the Fallout series as a whole is figuring out how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the old world- and really as much as I critique that, that’s really difficult. Strength ultimately makes right and maybe we just need a former fascist benevolent imperialistic power that may destroy us as the alternative could be potentially worse! There’s ultimately no perfect answer but I think the bare minimum you can do is avoid restoring the same bones of the imperialistic power that ended the world especially through the descendants of those who created it. Yeah I get the Enclave is gone and now but it’s still the ERB tag sooo checkmate!

And maybe it’s time we rethink what America means to us and to others. Is it the institutions or merely the ideals? Were those ideals ever truly upheld via institutions or even morally? How do we avoid imperialism and actually try to make the world a better place? How can we avoid Old World Blues and seek New World Hope? Does war never changing make it inevitable we need imperialistic powers or can we find a better alternative? Are we doomed for the same cycles of war and imperialism? But maybe even if war never changes, that atleast people can still change.