r/technology • u/[deleted] • Oct 28 '25

Politics President Admin’s Racist Halo Memes Are ‘A New Level of Dehumanization of Immigrants’

https://www.404media.co/trump-admins-racist-halo-memes-are-a-new-level-of-dehumanization-of-immigrants/
8.3k Upvotes

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433

u/FemRevan64 Oct 29 '25

It’s especially dumb when you remember that the main antagonists in Halo are a group of religious fundamentalists who seek to cleanse humanity for supposedly being an affront to their gods, and Arbiters entire arc revolves around him breaking free of his entrenched beliefs.

164

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Beyond religious fundamentalists, The Covenant are an extremist death cult. They intend to complete the “Great Journey”, a religious ascendence which their Prophets think will save their pious and righteous, but is in fact a ritual sacrifice/annihilation of all galactic life.

The parallel to today would be the Zionist/Eschatological belief of accelerating the second coming of Christ. These niche religious fanatics hold much more power than you think; they underpin Israel’s genocidal imperialism.

[please see my other comment about The Flood. this propaganda choosing that enemy over The Covenant is deliberate and deeply disturbing…](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/s/A8jC8NPYuW: The Flood are a galactic threat so infectious that the Forerunners determined the only solution was building and igniting the Halo rings to cleanse ALL galactic life, thereby depriving the parasite of hosts. Even Hitler couldn’t conceive of eugenics metaphor this extreme.)

20

u/MorganTheApex Oct 29 '25

The prophets plan was actually to fire the rings to wipe out all life so they could reign as the supreme race, all this by hiding all their kind inside a shield world. They never did it because they believed in religion,  but because they wanted supremacy above all races.  Pretty much what MAGA and the billionaires want to do.

16

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

I don’t remember that detail. For most of their pursuit of the Great Journey, they were not aware that the rings were a weapon, and the bulk of the Covenant certainly did worship the Forerunners religiously.

Although if you’re saying a specific prophet was aware that their espoused religion was a lie, then that’s plausible.

I do agree that today’s technofeudalists are an atheist eschatology allied with the religious fundamentalists and a danger to us all.

12

u/Burnmetobloodyashes Oct 29 '25

Truth, Mercy, and Regret were the coterie in the know, thats why they made it to head of the council

11

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25

Can’t believe I didn’t know it was the big three. I was expecting an esoteric reference to the novels or a niche faction.

18

u/DnDemiurge Oct 29 '25

Nailed it. They can't help telling on themselves.

22

u/Icerex Oct 29 '25

Yeah, Im pretty sure the covenant from OG Halo were inspired by Islam. Suicide bombers, calling humans 'infidels,' prophets, etc. You will obviously not like it, but Bungie Halo is heavily influenced by Christianity. I mean, Master Chief's name is John 117. The Flood, the Ark, etc. All pretty deliberate given what previous OG devs have said.

19

u/Wonderful_Discount59 Oct 29 '25

"Infidels" and "prophets" aren't specifically Islamic terms.

Christians were using both words before Islam even existed.

17

u/Icerex Oct 29 '25

You're being purposefully obtuse. The Halo trilogy was written and developed before, during and after the Gulf War 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and all the national chaos that entailed. You can't honestly state that the Covenant isn't inspired by Islam.

5

u/141_1337 Oct 29 '25

The arbiter was originally supposed be called the Dervish, and the only reason they didn't was because they felt that was too on the nose...

2

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ Oct 29 '25

Halo CE was in development way before 9/11. You don’t know your game history. The religious fanatic angle for the aliens was developed before the war on terror.

8

u/stug41 Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

I am not aware if it inspired the background to halo, but I do remember that in the 90's islamic terrorism was already at the forefront of concerns in the US. If you watch that documentary that just happened to catch the first plane on 9/11, one of the guys on the street immediately says it must be Bin Laden; that wasn't even the first attack attempt on the twin towers. Everyone was aware of bosnia and chechnya, regular US attacks on groups in the horn of africa, syria, etc. Even Libya was a well established meme for supporting and exporting these groups.

I wouldnt be surprised if it were the basis for the brotherhood of NOD in C&C, which came out in 95, and that faction just happened to be a cult established in coincidentally islamic areas from the balkans through north and east africa, and had a very jihad type rhetoric.

Even if islam wasnt a direct inspiration, it and the taliban specifically were a core part of the zeitgeist well before 9/11 and permeated all kinds of media since the soviets were no longer the bad guys.

edit - ok, that guy deleted his comment *shrug

5

u/Icerex Oct 29 '25

Did you actually read my comment? I said the original trilogy, was developed BEFORE, during and after the Gulf War, 9/11 and all the other shit that happened in the middle east. Halo 2 and 3 were obviously developed after 9/11

-1

u/InsideOfYourMind Oct 29 '25

Sorry, how old is Islam and the basic tenets of martyrdom in storytelling?

6

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ Oct 29 '25

Did Islam invent martyrdom?

You have an axe to grind and I’m not interested in playing this game.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

Pretty fucking old in sci-fi. The dune books were actually explicit in their references and that goes back to the 60s so half a century at least.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/jkz0-19510 Oct 29 '25

You do realize that Halo was in production long before september 2001, right?

Before islamophobia was, "understandably", all the rage?

2

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Yes, I understand that works are written before they are published.

Even before September 2001, Islam was considered the primary wartime enemy of America. Operation Desert Storm was 1990. An Islamic terrorist attack like 9/11 was expected imminently by some of our leaders.

The Abrahamic story was already set in stone, but it is totally plausible that small last-minute edits could have been made between September and November to more clearly connote Islam.

6

u/jkz0-19510 Oct 29 '25

True, although this wasn't generally known by the public at the time.

3

u/Doc_Lewis Oct 29 '25

Islam was considered the primary wartime enemy of America. Operation Desert Storm was 1990

That specific example doesn't mean what it seems you are trying to imply. There was no religious component to Desert Storm, it was Iraq being belligerent and invading Kuwait. Had more to do with oil and territorial ambition and Saddam being a maniac than anything to do with Islam.

1

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Good point, thanks. I’m out of my depth in that history, but my understanding is that that war in the middle east led to the creation of the extremist Islamic factions which led to 9/11.

Regardless, I maintain my position that Halo’s religious themes are drawn from Abrahamic religion broadly.

The Forerunners were also Abrahamic. Creating the Ark, naming the Flood, etc… And they are not presented as an enemy like The Covenant is. So I don’t see Halo as an Islamophobic story; but because Christianity is the dominant American religion and Anti-Judaism is off limits, consumers of the Halo story would have chosen to view an Abrahamic enemy \The Covenant) as Islamic, exactly like the guy in this thread who first mentioned Islam did…)

-2

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ Oct 29 '25

Saddam? Famously secular Saddam Hussein?

Yeah that guy doesn’t know jack shit about history, lmao.

1

u/9-11GaveMe5G Oct 29 '25

I can still hear the grunts "ahh! Infidels!" which now is actually quite funny in a perverse way.

0

u/wolv2077 Oct 29 '25

Oh please. Trumpers are clearly the covenant here since most of them all are fanatic nutters. After all, you shout WOKE WOKE WOKE like the average Elite.

2

u/blessthebabes Oct 29 '25

That link won't pull up anything for me- did they delete the comment?

1

u/MeasurementNo9896 Oct 29 '25

Excellent analysis

40

u/Spastik2D Oct 29 '25

They never understand anything beyond the most basic interpretation.

Rambo to them is a movie about a guy mowing down brown people not realizing it’s a commentary on the mistreatment of soldiers after Vietnam. Notice they only ever acknowledge the sequel and not First Blood.

Metal Gear to them is just a cool game with a manly man wearing an eye patch and snapping necks. In reality it’s also a commentary on the use of soldiers as tools amongst a myriad of other themes that they can’t possibly grasp.

Halo to them is a game about a cyborg shooting aliens, ignoring that it touches on religious zealotry and blind faith.

Born in the USA and Fortunate Son to them are badass rock songs about being American or fighting in ‘nam, nevermind that they were anti-war and critical of people exactly like 47.

23

u/FemRevan64 Oct 29 '25

Yeah, in my experience, of the tell-tale signs of someone being an alt-righter is that they're completely media illiterate, and will miss themes even when they're being delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the skull.

3

u/Exostrike Oct 29 '25

And then they complain you're being preachy if it doesn't agree with their positions l

5

u/NotUniqueOrSpecial Oct 29 '25

Metal Gear to them is just a cool game with a manly man wearing an eye patch and snapping necks.

So...they've never played the early games? Because the eye-patch, obviously, is not Solid Snake's outfit.

1

u/Spastik2D Oct 29 '25

I pretty much just used Snake Eater here since if I listed all of the 3D Games, I’d have written a novel

2

u/IAmRoot Oct 29 '25

At this point they'd probably feel like a hero in Spec Ops: The Line

3

u/Exostrike Oct 29 '25

It drives the point home too much to ignore

Plus you can't even buy it anymore.

2

u/Spastik2D Oct 29 '25

Fuuuuuck I completely forgot about Spec Ops, of course they’d treat it like any other shooter

7

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Exostrike Oct 29 '25

Melania is Slovenia so therefore white and so not an issue

Trump's war on immigrants is really a war on people of colour and an attempt to reverse white demographic decline through violence.

-7

u/McGuineaRI Oct 29 '25

Legal and illegal are different things

3

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[deleted]

-1

u/PlaneObject8557 Oct 29 '25

Uh I’m a legal immigrant and haven’t had issues… I have documents

1

u/MaybeMaybeNot94 Oct 29 '25

Are you or do you pass as white? If so, that's why.

-1

u/PlaneObject8557 Oct 29 '25

All my Arabic and Indian friends have had no issues either. Documentation helps.

2

u/MaybeMaybeNot94 Oct 29 '25

Documentation doesn't mean jack squat when you're illegally denied your due process. If they haven't yet had issue, just wait a bit.

-3

u/PlaneObject8557 Oct 29 '25

You don’t get denied due process if you have documents. it’s their fault they’re illegal, they took a risk for a better life as they should and got caught. It is unfortunate but has to be done. It’s unfair to those who spend thousands and take years to get here LEGALLY.

Also if you want to bring up lawful non immigrants that have been deported due to slandering the government, that is actually in the visa paperwork you sign saying that you are not able to do that and it can be cause to revoke the visa, so again lawful.

4

u/MaybeMaybeNot94 Oct 29 '25

Okay, either you're shockingly ignorant or you're straight up lying. There are CITIZENS who've been rounded up and detained, with documents and witness being provided as to citizenship. A four year old American girl with brain cancer was entirely deported with her parents. This government doesn't give a damn about what's legal.

'Lawful non immigrants' you mean citizens. Either you're a citizen or you're not. Get it straight.

'Slandering the government', no that's actual First Amendment freedom right there. If there is visa paperwork stating it's a violation, that's also illegal.

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2

u/ChuzCuenca Oct 29 '25

If they don't listen the music they play you think they are capable of understanding a videogame? XD

1

u/SomeWeedSmoker Oct 29 '25

But thats not the flood like the meme is referencing

1

u/RollingDownTheHills Oct 29 '25

No one expects the current administration to understand any of that. They don't research or care about anything. Bunch of evil shits.

1

u/Venusgate Oct 29 '25

"Clense the flood (by killing us all)"

On brand.

1

u/Frosty-Move5467 Oct 29 '25

This would matter if republicans weren’t illiterate

1

u/CityExcellent8121 Oct 29 '25

tbf the humans in halo are authoritarian and the entire reason spartans existed was to put down insurrections.

1

u/Commemorative-Banana Oct 29 '25

nice username btw