Amelia: Counterrevolution

Imagine if you worked at Shout Out UK, an organization supposed to educate youth.  Your assignment is to create a game to propagandize them instead.  It is essential that youth accept all decisions from the government.  Even though it is clear the government of the United Kingdom is a monarchy, questioning immigration policies, going to protests, or even waving the Union Jack undermines democracy.

The game should have been a success.  It casts a villain, a character called Amelia.  She was supposed to be racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and a hateful character.  Only, she wasn't.  She said only reasonable things that most Britons agree with.  Her initial complaint was immigrants aren't assimilating into English culture, but instead take jobs and opportunities from British citizens.

It was a mistake to make Amelia a sympathetic character to those on the English right since she shares their beliefs.  She is not hateful.  She doesn't try to get the game player to commit any terrorist acts against the immigrant community.  She merely speaks her mind and complains about immigrants not assimilating.

If Amelia were fat and ugly, she might have been more effective.  Instead, the designer made her a goth girl.  She received a purple dress with a matching hair color.  She wore a choker and a short dress.  The image is of an appealing woman to a disaffected young man.  The only nod to making her unappealing is a mole on her face.  The problem is moles are considered to be beauty marks in Western society.  That one blemish contrasts with the beauty of her other features.  The fact she agrees with disaffected youth makes her even more appealing.

The surveillance culture in the United Kingdom is not new.  There are now CCTV cameras on every corner.  Some areas were monitored since the 1960s, but cameras only became ubiquitous in the 1990s.  Today, AI monitors the cameras to look for any hint of crime and alerts the authorities.  Under the guise of public safety, Brits are being watched.  In this Internet Age, the very telecommunications system we rely on is turned inward to surveil the public.  In America, we see the Internet as an anonymous town hall.  In the United Kingdom, the government interprets free speech as a threat and wants to identify what people say on the Internet with their real names.

Today, individuals in the UK are regularly arrested for saying nothing different from what Amelia says.  As the United Kingdom allows immigrants to enter without integrating into society, Brits grow ever more concerned about the culture clash this represents.  Under surveillance, those who dare speak out are called racists and visited by police.  Those who wish to go to a march or even view an unapproved video may receive this treatment.

Those who make Amelia memes now speak out through the very character that Shout Out UK created as a villain.  Amelia proclaims loudly what many are afraid to say quietly.  She resonates with those who have even slightly right-wing views.
The founder and CEO of Shout Out UK complained that meme makers were "monetizing hate." He claimed the game was perfect, and the far right exploited the game for profit.  In all honesty, the game was bad.  Amelia didn't push anyone to do anything illegal.  Brits resented the fact that reasonable views were seen as radical and racist.  If nothing else, a cute goth girl does not make a convincing villain.  

That didn't backfire at all.