Games

Eh, in Fallout 3 and 4 Bethesda diverted the canon a bit too much for me. It never seemed like they understood the universe. In 1 and 2, the BoS was, if not good, at least lawful neutral, and quite helpful, despite isolationist. I haven't played New Vegas yet.

We are talking about the same people who think Fallout isn’t political and the Brotherhood of Steel is a cool good guy army.

Firstly, in the Bethesda games the political aspect of Fallout is so paper thin they may as well be correct, most people have not played the Black Isle fallouts.

Secondly, you need to realise that people don't see something as political if there is no dilemma in their mind, they see it as moral instead.

A good example: the Megaton ""dilemma"" in Fallout 3. Ostensibly, you could make an argument that the conversation of land development vs settler rights is a political one. The argument as to whether the lives of rando fucks living in shanties and slowly dying of radiation exposure are worth preserving if the alternative is starting over and building something better for other people could also be political at some point in history.

But in modern society, shaped by enlightenment ideas of equality and the concept of human rights and dignity, these have stopped being political questions because they sit in conflict with the basic social mores (hence moral questions) our society is built upon, and thus they take on a moral character instead.

The question "should we slaughter a bunch of useless peasants we are not in charge of to turn their land into my 15th palace" would hardly have been a matter of debate for some Mongolian horde for instance (yes, I know they didn't have palaces, you get the point), the debate would have been about ratios of enslaved captives vs killed in battle, if anything.

The vast majority of people's engagement with politics doesn't even approach the level of brainrot you see online.

People want security, prosperity, and for people not to suffer needlessly. That's about it.

In fact, most debate in society is about what those 3 concepts mean, not whether they're good ideas.

Some people also demand freedom but they're not the majority, and definitions of such and whom it should extend to also vary greatly.

So looking at the fallout 3 and 4 Brotherhood and saying "those are the cool post apocalyptic knights and they're the good guys" is a perfectly in line read for the average not politically savvy person. The Brotherhood is not perfect, but they want more or less those things.

That's also why New Vegas is by far the better game because it actually poses 2 forces (Legion and NCR) in opposition as to the meaning of those concepts and not as to whether they are goals worth pursuing, an actual political dilemma, unlike say "should people be allowed to drink water without getting radiation poisoning."