Commentary
for July 19, 2022:
In my first draft
of the script, the debate was a lot shorter and it wasn’t inter-cut
with these panels showing the E-1000’s infiltrating the studio. But
I wasn’t at all happy with the way I’d handled it, so I came back
the next day and re-wrote more-or-less the entire chapter from this
page onwards. I used pretty much all of the same dialogue I’d
originally written, but spaced it out a bit and expanded on it,
because I wanted the candidates to say more, to get across the kind
of competing values in play here, and to really showcase what Sally
in particular stands for.
Now, I mentioned how I could have had this debate be about
sci-fi/fantasy issues, like Mobian civil rights in a human dominated
world, but I chose to focus on more grounded questions of economic
justice that we can expect to see politicians and activists discuss
in the real world. Of course, the relationship between humans and
Mobians is, nevertheless, an important part of this setting, so I
couldn’t leave it out completely. When Haig asks if they even have
high school on the Islands, that’s actually a subtle dig at the fact
that she’s a Mobian. Doesn’t sound like that to you? Well, that’s
the point, because it’s a dogwhistle.
Westside Archipelago (a.k.a. “the Islands”) has an overwhelming
majority Mobian population, close to 99.9 percent. It’s also one of
the last bastions of traditional Mobian culture anywhere in the
world, as most Mobians who live elsewhere have largely integrated
with human culture and live basically the way humans do. But there
is a perception that Mobians, left to their own devices, are
irresponsible towards their children, don’t keep them in school, and
basically let them run free and do whatever they want. The truth is
more complicated than that, as is usually the case with different
cultures. I won’t go into details, but essentially Mobian culture
allows youngsters a great deal more freedom and
autonomy than human culture does, and they handle education quite
differently on the Islands than elsewhere. I haven’t worked out all
the details and, frankly, I don’t think I need to, but recall that
Sonic objected to the idea of going back to school in the previous
chapter. While Island Mobians do go to school, it’s not so strictly
regimented for them as it is for humans and Mobians in other places.
Of course, bigots don’t give a damn about the truth and will latch
on to anything to justify their prejudice towards an out group,
which is why you have some anti-Mobian humans who think Mobians (and
Island Mobians in particular) are irresponsible, uneducated, and
therefore unworthy of being trusted with power. Haig’s barb about
Sally’s age (she’s 21) and the follow up question about whether or
not they have high school on the Islands is all pandering to that
crowd. That crowd knows it, Sally knows it, and Haig knows that they
know it; but the average viewer won’t pick up on it, so if Sally
takes the bait, Haig can use that to make her look irrational or as
if she’s “playing the race card”. That is why it’s a dogwhistle. |
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