Part of me really thinks that I should move this to another thread, since this really isn't about upcoming releases anymore (except in the vaguest sense, since "Sister" isn't even on the production schedule yet since I've not technically, formally pitched it to Jason and Peter just yet). I'm loath to do it, though, because of issues of momentum and inertia that are just as real in coversation as they are in physics.
That's what I'm getting at, actually. There are plenty of Infected that are just trying to get by. Vampires have it worse than Ghouls, since they can't just get fresh body parts from organleggers to sustain themselves.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of the ones trying to get by are lying to themselves, as are some of the people trying to help them. I think "Infected rights" is a tragedy and a travesty, not because I think the Infected need to be marginalized and exterminated, but because I think they need to be cured. When you create this "rights movement" and create a new class of victims, you demonstrate acceptance, and nothing gets done
because now it's acceptable.
Thomas McAllister doesn't want "Infected rights," he wants a cure for HMHVV. Mr. Big doesn't want them because he thinks it's insulting and unnatural. They both have their reasons, and they're both blind in their own way.
Vampires (and I use the term very generically here) are mostly just holding on, hoping that they can become not-monsters again somehow. And most of them justify their monster-ness to themselves, telling themselves that they're just victims and can't help themselves...which is true. That they fight it is commendable. Doesn't for an instant make them not-monsters. That's where the delusion sets in, IMO. They think because they fight it, they're not monsters. This is not the case, and it drives some of them mad.
If I sound self-contradictory in places...well, in some cases I am. As I said elsewhere, it's complex (and I know you get that, but I feel the need to point it out again for some of the rest of the audience, who might just be joining the show already in progress, as it were).
At a certain point, supremacist groups and cults have a lot in common. You take someone who is isolated and alone, give them a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, a sense that they are better than the people around them. You tell them that their problems are caused by outsiders, and you make them shun everyone else until they are completely dedicated to your cause. The guy at the top and his main disciples are almost certainly monsters. But most of the people involved likely are the same kind of people as the ghouls who used to live in Ghoultown before Bug City, people who simply had nowhere else to go.
Yes and no. Yes, because you really do seem to understand the dynamic of how these things really work. No, because it's not always universal, IMO. I don't want to give too much away, but I don't think that most of the people in Mr. Big's organization are brainwashed drone-soldiers (though, to be fair, Teresa was). Mr. Big provided them with organization and logistical support, but most of the organization would be doing more or less the same thing without him.
Painting all the Infected as scary and dangerous as some may want to is as bad as people who say they're all sparkly and emo.
I can't really argue with this, even though in some ways I'm one of the guilty parties....