But a Jape

“Actually, my clothes are ethically sourced from a local shop that fairly compensates its orphan laborers with room and board!”

– Janice

As I’ve grown older, I’ve found I’m growing more cynical with certain fantasy worldbuilding tropes. Referenced in today’s comic is the idea of a dark secret underpinning the foundations of a society – philosopher’s stones are made from human sacrifice, Soylent Green is people, the government is built upon the foundation of genocide and minority oppression, etc. Often in these kinds of stories, those in power keep these dark secrets under wraps because if the public were to ever learn about it, they would never stand for such an unjust system to stay in place.

And yet, for some reason in recent times, I’ve come to wonder if these dark overlords might be trying too hard. Maybe if they just left these dark underpinnings of society out in the open, people would just shrug and say, “I mean, I don’t like that my comfortable lifestyle is contingent upon the suffering of other people, but I do like that my lifestyle is comfortable.”

– James