Major Video Game Studio Depicts Right-Wing Militias As Terrorists (VIDEO)

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Ever since the 1990s, during Bill Clinton’s presidency, it has been common knowledge that the militia movement in America is a time bomb waiting to go off. It’s also common knowledge that everyone is supposed to pretend that it isn’t. The media is complicit in this in that every act of violence stemming from right-wing extremists is labeled an ISOLATED INCIDENT. Any suggestion that the atmosphere of hate and fear the right specializes in contributed in any way at all is met with howls of protest. Even when the person carrying out the violence specifies he picked his target because of right-wing rhetoric, it’s taboo to actually blame the right for it. Still, the vast majority of political violence and violent rhetoric emanates from the right. We all know it. We’re just not supposed to say it.

Well, Ubisoft, one of the top video game companies in the world, has decided to just go ahead and say it anyway.

Due out next year, Rainbow 6 Patriots is poised to set off a firestorm on the right. In it, you head Rainbow 6, an elite multinational team of soldiers tasked with fighting terrorism across the globe. Previous games had players fighting Russian splinter cells and Islamic Fundamentalists. This time, however, the target is an anti-government right-wing militia calling itself the True Patriots. Alex Jones’ head will most likely explode when confronted with such a scenario, even if it’s only a video game.

The video game industry is no stranger to controversy; it has long been a punching bag for politicians looking to blame violence among children and teens in much the same way Elvis and Rock-n-Roll were blamed for the same thing in generations past. Numerous studies have debunked this idea but such a deeply political statement is a new development for a maturing art form. Until now, American politics have been, if not a taboo subject, then routinely glossed over. The majority of military games pit the player against an external threat like aliens or foreign terrorists. And Nazis. Lots and lots of Nazi killing. Even when the bad guys are American, they invariably have betrayed the hero and are only a rogue element to be defeated. Video game morals are, by and large, very black and white.

Rainbow 6 Patriots looks to change that. After having lost the entirety of his 401k in the economic collapse, R6P Creative Director David Sears is now channeling his, and the nation’s, dark mood into his creation. Instead of looking for an external threat, he realized that there was a ready-made threat right here in the United States that would resonate strongly with the American public: the paranoid and extremely anti-government militia movement.

“Our enemies are inspired by these paramilitary groups, political radicals who we see all over YouTube, and former military men and women who have valiantly served their country but then return home and feel disenfranchised and forgotten. They don’t return as heroes, and they feel like they have been neglected. These are the people who would join a movement like our terrorist group.”

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI agree and, in 2009, released a report stating as much. The right exploded with indignation at the suggestion that right-wing militias might be dangerous. Of course, since then, that prediction turned out to be 100% accurate as one militia plot was thwarted in 2010 and another in 2011. The number of militias has risen dramatically in the three years since a black Democratic president was elected, up from 149 to over 1200 according theSouthern Poverty Law Center (probably just a coincidence). This is the festering violence that Sears has tapped for his story. All it was lacking was a leader to unite them and provide focus for a truly frightening force to be unleashed. To this end, Sears created Tredway, the leader of the True Patriots.

According to Gameinformer:

The main targets of Tredway’s ire are the government and financial institutions, which he sees colluding at the detriment of the common man. to overthrow the corrupt leaders of the nation, he apsires to behead corporate America.

It’s tempting to assume that Sears is freely mingling the ideology from right wing militias and left wing Occupy but Rainbow 6 Patriots was in production well before the first Occupy protest on September 17, 2011. Sears may avoid mentioning Fox News or conservatism or anything that would specify the True Patriots as politically identifying with the right wing but if it looks like a duck,walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and shoots other ducks with an AR15 while wearing camouflage and screaming about government conspiracies…

Here’s a clip from the game:

R6P is not due out until next year and Sears may yet soften the story line. This would not be unheard of. In 2010 Medal of Honor had players facing off against each other as either American soldiers or the Taliban. Before its release, Electronic Arts, the game’s producer gave in to pressure from families of soldiers who found it disrespectful and relabeled the Taliban simple as the “Opposing force.” It will be interesting to see if Sears and Ubisoft can thread the needle of accurately depicting the anger of militia groups and making caricatures of them. Either way, expect the right to go off the deep end at the portrayal of right-wing militias as the violent fanatics they actually are.

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