Avaritia says "I'm not a good person, but nobody is really good, and I do what I do because I need it to survive."
That reading doesn't make sense to me, to be frank about it.
This doesn't seem like it's condemning Corpos as Virtuous, it's condemning Virtue for not actually caring about evil corporations, and even defending child abuse; "I may not be good, but you're no better." Hence me saying "Virtue is Sin in denial"; that seems to be how Avaritia sees things.
It feels like you're assuming that Avaritia worked out eir beliefs from first principles, and are trying to
find those first principles. I don't think that's what's going on; I don't think there's a consistent set of principles behind Avaritia's worldview.
That is the core point I was trying to make, which is why I emphasized the contradictions in eir beliefs.
Superbia says the world is ruled and ruined by virtue; Avaritia sees that the world is ruled and ruined by capitalism; therefore, capitalism is a virtue.
Which is...kinda true, if you define virtue as "the ideals that a society privileges". But that's not the definition that Superbia believes in, so it's not the one Avaricia is working with.
I didn't say "Avaritia believes that capitalism is a virtue, and that's why corporations are bad". I said "Avaritia believes these two things, therefore ey believes a third thing, which doesn't square with this fourth thing ey believes".
Why do I think Avaritia's beliefs are self-contradictory? There are a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones is the "magic HRT" (and turning C into an Abyssal Beast more generally) goes against one of her major stated beliefs. Avaritia thinks of self-determination as one of eir core values, that embracing what you
really want is more important than bowing to outside pressure. But Avaritia also thinks ey know what people want well enough to
force what they want on them...even when it goes directly against their stated desires.
Avaritia condemns the world for forcing Charlie to be a guy because that's what they think he is, and then ey force C to be a girl because that's what ey thinks she is. This is a contradiction, and a really obvious one—the kind of contradiction you can't get if you think about your own beliefs more than the average teenager or cult member.
But Lupin/Avaricia
is a teenager, and whether Superbia is technically running a cult or not, ey're definitely in an ideological high control group. We shouldn't expect eir ideology to be well-developed. We should look at it as-is.
Anyways, let's get back to the core of this discussion. Make sure we're all on the same page about what we're talking about.
- Shadell posted a new chapter. Yay!
- RiceRockRekt argued that Avaritia's beliefs are contradictory, arguing that the problems ey see in the world are a result of sin, not virtue.
- You argued that Avaritia's actual beliefs are that everyone sins, nobody's good, but Virtue thinks they're better, which makes them worse.
- I argued that the apparent contradictions RiRoRe pointed out come from the fact that Avaritia's beliefs are just contradictory.
- You said that take didn't make much sense, I argued that you missed my actual point, then I summarized the argument and the summary.
So...yeah. The stuff RiRoRe was talking about looks like a contradiction in Avaritia's beliefs, because it is!
Avaritia believes that the problems with the world come from the dominance of virtue, because that's what Superbia preaches. If ey didn't believe that, ey would be going directly against Superbia's plan. But ey also believe that corporations doing bad things without getting punished is bad, because ey have eyes. When Avaritia argues that the world is rotten, that it needs to embrace vice, ey bring up the systemic violence of the status quo because ey believe Superbia's ideology will make it better.
Does this make sense? No! But it's less absurd than the Libertarians/anarcho-capitalists/etc who have told me that corporate malpractice would go away if there was
less government regulation. "The invisible hand of the free market leads to optimal business practices, therefore any suboptimal business practices must be a result of meddling from the government or some other external source, therefore reducing regulations and letting private individuals sue private corporations for private damages would do a better job of preventing companies from dumping toxic chemicals in the river." I am not exaggerating, my brother made almost this exact argument to me, just phrased differently.
Does Avaritia believe virtue is just sin in denial? I dunno, maybe. Does it affect eir actions, or even her other beliefs? Avaritia probably
thinks it does, but ey also think that turning someone who has stated that they are not and don't want to be a girl into a girl is a good way to help people embrace their desires. Avaritia does not have a coherent belief system.
Avaritia is a
child, not a philosopher.
