Why Are You Like This?

Transcript:
Angel: Why are you like this?
Duplicator:
Duplicator: Why are you like this?
----Angel: Very funny. I’m not the one going on about mind control lasers, pirate moon bases, and humans.
Duplicator: Those are all very real, and as a Government employee, I know you know it.
Angel: What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Just answer the question. Why are you like this?
----Duplicator: Well, supposing you were innocent, you would deserve to know the truth about your employers. I’ll humor you.
Angel: Ugh.
Duplicator: Or you can keep interrupting and never find out.
Angel: Yes, fine, just tell me where your ideas come from. Go.
----Duplicator: Everything the Government does – every last thing – serves the ultimate goal of keeping you under control.
Duplicator: Laws, money, schools, public works, housing, all of it.
----Duplicator: By the time you finish school, you have a name, a job, a gender, a uniform. All elements of a carefully planned and controlled life, which the Government will use against you from then on.
Duplicator: They tell you your choices aren’t permanent. If you’re unhappy, just fill out the corresponding form. They’re lying.
Duplicator: For all practical intents and purposes, you’re stuck the moment you enter the workforce.
----Duplicator: There’s layers and layers of defense to keep you in your box.
Duplicator: Friends and family will peer pressure you to stay.
Duplicator: You have to request the forms by name, and the names are long and hard to remember. If you try to look them up, the information is hidden in the most counterintuitive spot in the Database.
Duplicator: Each time you try to file, you spend hours of time in the Hall of Records, built specifically to be the most unpleasant building in existence. Convoluted floor plans, harsh lighting that imperceptibly flickers, awful airflow, and itching powder on most surfaces.
Duplicator: Then they reject your forms for the slightest reason, so you have to go through it again and again until you give up.
----Angel: Or you can file online.
Duplicator: No you can’t, and stop interrupting. I’m not done.
----Duplicator: You can’t trust your friends and family. Most people have bought into the propaganda and will keep you in line “for your own good.”
Duplicator: You can’t trust celebrities. All of them are bought and paid for, or at least all the ones who are still famous. A celebrity’s job is to give you something simple – controllable – to strive for. Isn’t it odd how the word “success” is taken to mean “fame and wealth”?
Duplicator: Speaking of, you can’t trust the wealthy. They rigged the Economy based on the Government’s exact specifications. There’s a reason most people have never heard of recycling!
Duplicator: You can’t trust athletes. Sports are designed to make you turn off your brain instead of thinking about the awful state society is in.
Duplicator: You can’t trust psychologists. Especially not Government-licensed ones. They say therapy is for understanding yourself, but it’s really about keeping you functioning as a cog in the machine.
----Duplicator: You certainly can’t trust ninjas. Ninjas spy on you from the shadows, observing, reporting, manipulating, sabotaging.
Duplicator: Did you know that citizens aren’t guaranteed their monthly allowance of filament? There’s an intentional loophole in the regulations, but most people never find out unless the ninjas catch them stepping out of line.
Duplicator: If you’re too far out of line, suddenly here comes a pirate raid! Your house is wrecked and half of it gets taken to the Moon. You blame the pirates and never even consider that they were working with the ninjas.
Duplicator: And finally, the Government comes back and offers you a new house on the condition that you get back in your assigned box.
----Angel: About done? Because I have a question.
Duplicator: Their motive? I’m glad you as-
Angel: Do any of your stories happen to include evidence?