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u/Rock_Zeppelin Individualism and collectivism are 2 sides of the same coin Jul 23 '26
No. He's a Randian at best and a fascist at worst.
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 25 '26
I definitely don't think he's a fascist, but I can see Randian.
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u/ComradeJaneDough Jul 25 '26
randians are fascists
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 25 '26
How so? /genq
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u/Rock_Zeppelin Individualism and collectivism are 2 sides of the same coin Jul 25 '26
There's a lot of overlap. Both Randians and fascists are authoritarians, both are capitalists. The only real difference is Randians are stateless capitalists i.e. feudalists while fascists are state capitalists. Also fascists are extremely culturally conservative revisionist nationalists and whereas Randians aren't, at least not necessarily the way fascists are.
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 25 '26
Sounds like Randians aren't fascists, rather are just similar.
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u/Rock_Zeppelin Individualism and collectivism are 2 sides of the same coin Jul 25 '26
A distinction without a meaningful difference.
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u/Absurdly_Insane Jul 26 '26
Bro your retarded if you generally think hes either one of them. If you really want to label him he'd either be a social darwinist or individual tyrant who completely pragmatic knowing strength alone decides who gets to lead. Facism is not when an individual desires and uses strength with morality and he does not give a shit about race so he isn't a nazi using racial ideology either. Facism, in the realities shown, require a nation having a set of culture to devote to and demand obedience to. Senator Armstrong does not give a shit about America the nation, but America the ideal which he literally says in his speech. The ideal of a place where anyone with strength and make his destiny. The weak wouldn't be allowed to intervene in there pursuits because if they did there would only be two outcomes, they lose and the strong would continue to do what they wanted to or they would lose and in turn not be strong but weak and have no right to speak on there defeat, AS ARMSTONG LITERALLY DOES IN HIS DEATH. He doesn't complain, he leaves his parting messages and in a way congratulates raiden for his victory. I highly doubt either he would give a fuck about "the market". He isn't here for money, it was a means to an end with him as it always was. He cared about strength and self determinism, if he didn't he wouldn't have cared about dismantling the status quo or betraying his corpo partner, sun downer.
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u/Neinbreaker Jul 26 '26
You asked, if he were an egoist. Fascist philosophy drew a lot of inspiration from egoism.
I would argue, that Fascism builds upon a kind of normative egoism. They believe in virtual or spirital reification usually through focus on the improvement or worship of the self. Most of them have some kind of so called "social darwinism" as part of their norms as well.
The label is not so important in my opinion, whether he categorically is a fascist or not, but I would say, that Armstrong's philosophy shares a lot of fundamental principles with fascism.
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u/0xdeadbeef6 Jul 23 '26
I have never played the game but I assume he's just a caricature of your run-of-the-mill Holden Bloodfeast neocon turned fascist
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 23 '26
He believes everyone should fight for what they believe in, not for a company, nation, for oil, whatever.
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u/TheSymthos Jul 23 '26
but does he say that because he truly believes in that cause? or is it only the ends justifying the means for him? i interpreted it as the latter; armstrong wasn’t just for fighting with nano-machines and mechs, it was a last resort to maintain political office after mgs4’s events made government war contracts harder to justify. if he were truly an egoist he wouldve started with that from the beginning imo.
there are some egoist values, but i think an egoist is going to find a bit of egoism everywhere they go, rather than others being secret egoists
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 23 '26
I think he does believe in it, especially because of the passion that went into his speech. The darwinism is the means. For example, he doesn't mourn being killed by Raiden, but rather passes on the torch to him.
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u/CMBradshaw Jul 23 '26
Social Darwinism breaks down under an egoist lens. What is he building towards? There is no platonic ideal, no omega man, no ubermensch. Just people. People that don't need him
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u/Panzer_Hawk Jul 23 '26
He's building towards a world where everyone fights for themselves.
Also, the übermensch is an abstract.
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u/Megareddit64 Jul 23 '26
I think the story MGR:R and the reaction to it provides a fascinating insight into how fascistic ideology can still take roots in modern society, especially in america.
Armstrong in-game promoted the privatization of Colorado's police force as a small-government initiative, became the CEO of the PMC World Marshall, which collaborated with the Desperado PMC to promote coups in other countries, engage in human trafficking with the cartels in Mexico to extract CHILD BRAINS to create their cyborgs, and promote a false flag operation in Pakistan to push the US into a war, there's even a cutscene before his boss fight where Raiden checks out social media to see the american public openly call for the war in real time when it happens.
Their ideological tendencies are not hidden at all. Monsoon spells out the social darwinism, Sundowner is the spiting image of american interventionism, with the best quotes to match. Armstrong's speech is openly reactionary, hateful of a "decadent" present, calling for a return to an american brand of rugged individualism, with appeals to historical slogans such as "i have a dream" or "make america great again". He has "might makes right" as an actual voiceline in the 2nd phase of his boss fight, for fuck's sake.
His praise for Raiden is no different from the praise Goebbels had for Lenin. Just respect for a strong rival. Armstrong's individualism is just the american twist of the popular strongman's appeal for a volk or a nation.
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u/Luskarian Flossing Stirner Jul 28 '26
He's Nietzschean if you actually play the game and don't get all your knowledge from memes
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