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Post by Gatekeeper on Aug 4, 2018 10:09:00 GMT -8
"Unfortunately, while I'm sure those people exist, our government is run by a would-be fascist, and even if it wasn't, the state department and Homeland Security would never let someone with my kind of power roam free. It would be a bit like letting a private citizen own a nuclear weapon - it doesn't matter if she built it with her own two hands and bothered no one. It doesn't matter if she never intended on using it. That she might use it is a threat. That someone might make her use it is a threat. International affairs are a game, and you don't leave tools like superheroes on the table and expect not to lose - and when losing means you lose power, when it means you might die, you do everything in your power not to." She looks down at her shabti, the increasingly self-willed pieces of her power, and crouches down to rub their heads.
"Your idea, that people would just let me work on stuff for the 'common good' is not how the world works. People might say they want that, but deep down everyone wants advantage. In the last few months, our government has dropped standards for gas mileage in cars. They've pushed through drilling in protected land. They've pardoned criminals for political points. They locked children in cages for the crime of their parents walking across the border, and some died. They cozy up to dictators in Russia, the Middle East, and North Korea, while demeaning democratic leaders in Canada and Europe. How much force does your optimism carry against that? If I did live in Canada, do you seriously think their government could allow me to operate on my own? Even La Lame Argentee has to step carefully, making deals, because her power won't protect her from a government assassin. What do you think Wetzstein traded to get that building? Do you really believe the statement that said it was out of respect, that it was just their purchase of land? If they run into a CIA black site in some foreign country where they torture people to get around US laws, do you think she or anyone in the organization will lift a finger to assist the people inside, now that they have a treaty with the government that operates it? When a drone bombs a child in Afghanistan, do you think she'll flick her finger and cut drones out of the sky?"
She frowns at him. "What happens if a black man is murdered by police in nearby Boston and the town riots? We'll be called to contain it. Do you really think we'll be allowed to exercise our judgement when we're ordered to put it down? Do you think that if I refused, they'd hesitate one moment to call that a violation of my parole?
"What about the crimes we stop? You've analyzed the statistics - most of the robberies, the petty theft, the laws you enforce on patrol target minorities, who receive harsher sentences than equivalent crimes committed by white people, leading to jail time that hurts their families and leads to psychological damage that leaves them less able to cope with society when they leave, and inevitably get roped back in. Their children grow up with their fathers in prison and have to struggle through endemic racism that the majority white population doesn't give two fucks about really fixing.
"'What about criminal supers?' one might ask. Is it any coincidence that the majority are minorities who don't feel protected by the state? Yeah there's the Neo-Nazi ones and fuck them, but when we stop Ken Cedilla, whose movement is primarily composed of young, disillusioned minorites, are we really doing the right thing? Did I fuck up by providing the information that led to his capture? I don't know! I can't answer that.
"Kenan... the world is not a good place. It's not a happy place. It's not a place where we all come together and figure out solutions to problems. The world where I get to walk out those doors and just live my life like everything is fine doesn't exist, and being optimistic and pretending that it does actually hurts because it's not a real solution to my problem.
"How am I supposed to feel good about any of this when I know that me and my fath-!" She cuts off, almost biting her tongue.
She sighs, turning her head away. "Look at that, we're already fighting. I've gotta go."
She turns, making her way out of the workshop.
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