Wait, you do realize how much worse regular slavery is to Imperial slavery, right? Imperial slaves have more rights and are well cared for. They are people and not property, and typically are not slaves for life.
"Slaves under slavery aren't property." -wise words of wisdom winding wisely wherever wise wisdom winds whisper wise wisdom
zeq said:
There could be a fair argument
I think it's unfair that I had to even
witness the argument that slaves aren't property, much less applying standards of fairness to your argument qua your argument, so you'll forgive me if I don't trust your assessment of the fairness of arguments on any level at the mo.
zeq said:
that the vast majority of Imperial slaves have a better standard of living than the impoverished masses of the Federation. In the Federation, the lower class are slaves in all but name. The people who are given the illusion of choice, but really have no economic mobility, and don't actually have any choice at all but to work for scraps. I don't see how you could rank someone who deals in illicit slave trade over Imperial slaves.
Actually, if you think about it Pirate King is worse because he'd sell the slaves to criminal markets
and the Empire. What my Cmdr balks at for 3/4 Empire Powers more than Delaine is that they all want to continue the system of Imperial slavery, whereas Delaine could give two es about what streams of illicit revenue are the most strategic to invest in any given week...he just goes for the spoils what'er they be, yarrr. He doesn't have an Empire behind him, or an Empire of Slaves to win like the Empire Powers do (even Aisling might not manage to rid the Empire of slaves upon victory, it's just one of her "campaign promises" so to speak). But I get your point, in a sense it might be more ideologically pure (if less strategic) to place Empire Powers above Archon Delaine, but ultimately I'm rootin' for the Pirate King to take chunks out of every Imperial Power but Aisling, the Big Data CEO and the Feds as well (for the reasons you've outlined and more).
zeq said:
I will agree with you on Torval though. She abuses the system of Imperial slavery to force people into debts they can't ever work off, and if she had her way she would put an end to Imperial slavery, replacing it with just slavery. Most people would become societal outcasts, losing their property and place, or even see criminal charges if they treated their slaves as she did, but she has too much political and economical clout, and the current emperor is on his deathbed. Although I also cannot stand Aisling. If she isn't already a puppet for some other power, she is bound to be soon. She spouts idealism like ending slavery, but fails to realize that it is a welfare system in the empire, and without it, those who encounter great misfortune would simply be left with nothing but shady people like Torval to take them in. And believe me, if Imperial slavery was made illegal, Torval would resort to the same tactics Federation corporations do, and the only thing that would change is that she would be "paying" them money that would go entirely to the debts she holds, instead of directly having them work off debts.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and so whatever powers would emerge even more radical than Aisling to say, "NOT ENOUGH!" if she managed to trounce the other 3 is who I'd prefer to align with than the struggling Aisling in that future-scenario. I don't think the answer is to retain the current Imperial slavery system, "welfare system" or not. The answer is to fight slavery, and then fight for democracy, subvert the Empire from within, found Republican Space Rome like a Benjamin Button Gracchi brothers dragging Empire backwards into glorious ancient communism.
zeq said:
Hudson never really seemed like a great guy. Always trying to incite controversy and nitpicking every little thing before he got into power. Felicia Winters seems pretty alright though. Don't know enough about her to really say she is a favorable power, but she hasn't done anything like Aisling, Hudson, Torval, and Patreus to really turn me away from them. The pirate lord Delaine, I don't know, I guess I find it kind of refreshing for a guy to be upfront about how much scum he is? The rest of the independents I couldn't care less about. Don't know much about them, and don't care too much. Then Mahon. If I weren't siding with Arrisa and the Imperials, I would side with him in a heartbeat. If things ever look like they aren't going so great in Empire, that is where I will be.
Y'know, the more I think about it the more I like the idea of backing Aisling...that's a true underdog, because no one who wants to back Empire bc of Empire flavour wants to see radical changes to the left occur, even in baby steps! I think my new list goes:
1. Aisling Duval
2. Pranav Antal (practically tied with Aisling, they both seem like such extreme longshots I'm chomping at the bit to join up)
3. Edmund Mahon
4. Felicia Winters
5. Zachary Hudson
6. Li Yong-Rui
7. Archon Delaine
8. Arissa Lavigny-Duval
9. Denton Patreus
10. Zemina Torval
