Reality Becomes BioShock: FOX Illustrates News of Extreme Anti-Immigrant Movement with Art from Game About Extreme Anti-Immigrant Movement

Yesterday, anti-immigrant protesters converged on a California town waving American flags and chanting “USA! USA!” in order to block buses containing hundreds of immigrant families from entering a Border Patrol processing center. To illustrate this news story about anti-immigrant protesters, FOX News ironically used this image of the Statue of Liberty:

But that wasn't just ironic because the Statue of Liberty actually symbolizes how America welcomes immigrants. To make the irony even more keen, the "Defending the Homeland" sign beneath Liberty is a knockoff of BioShock Infinite logo:

... and BioShock Infinite, as we've written about before, is a game set in an alternate history in which extremist anti-immigrants try to keep America free from anyone who's not white and Christian. And so art from that game is now being used to illustrate a movement of actual extremist anti-immigrants actually trying to keep America free from anyone who's not white and Christian. And unless there's a brilliant subversive in FOX's art department, the media outlet which supports the anti-immigrant group doesn't even know how much virtual reality is invading into FOX News' own version of alternate reality.

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs. Lead BioShock Infinite creator Ken Levine posted about this bit of FOX News appropriation, but I don't think even he realized how ironic the irony of all that truly is.

Happy Fourth, my fellow Americans.

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[Metacam Oh]

The Nazi's would have been in awe at Fox News.

[Iris Ophelia]

It's not that ironic, though. (Spoilers ahead) While BioShock Infinite starts out painting the pro-white patriots as hateful monsters, the latter half of the game goes on to completely confirm a lot of their hateful opinions. They say the lower-classes/non-white races are cruel and violent and kill women and children and it all sounds so ridiculous, and then that is exactly what happens. That is one of the core problems with the game and why a lot of critics turned on it.

[Hamlet Au]

I don't agree with that interpretation, it's not meant to be a characterization of lower classes/non-whites in general -- that twist is illustrating how the original extremism of the separatists has provoked the opposite extreme in the rebels. I believe Ken has said that was his intent.

[Amanda Dallin]

I hate it when you go into politics but here's my two cents anyway.

The Statue of Liberty represents a legal and controlled immigration process not the chaos we have here in Texas and other border states now.

It's disgusting the way the current crisis is being used for politics by many sides including the current Administration as well as opposition in Congress.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Some shows offshore their graphics work -- they don't have to pay American wages and digital delivery is as good as having somebody on site.

If Fox does that (and I don't know whether they do or not), it would just add another delicious layer to the irony sandwich.

Whoever did it, I think the commentary was deliberate, subtle, subversive as hell and nicely executed.

[Nalates]

One of the most serious issues is health related. The legal immigration process requires health checks. The illegal process we are seeing in Murrieta is bring in diseases we had eliminated from the US. Border patrol agents are getting sick and endangering their families. The children are put in schools with health checks and endangering all of our children.

Anti-migration people did not DESCEND on Murrieta. These are people that live in the area and are objecting to the Federal Gov not enforcing laws and dumping people on the streets, which is often what happens once the illegals are processed.

Oh and are you aware the UN WHO is anticipating declaring an Ebola pandemic in Africa?

[Dave]

Honestly, I'm a conservative, white, Christian male, and the hostile reception our country has given these child refugees sickens me.

Bottom line is these women and kids are refugees. They're coming from Guatemala and El Salvador to escape violence. While we should be able to rely on the government to provide services for refugees, the fact is that as of right now, the government is overwhelmed. Instead of asking for more resources to deal with the crisis, government leadership (yes, even Obama) is asking for more leniency in deporting them quickly.

Go read about what these kids are running from, why the number of them showing up has nearly doubled in the last year, why many of them are granted asylum after a court hearing.

If a baby showed up on your doorstep, would you leave it outside to die? In a lot of cases, deporting these kids isn't much different.

There are non-government organizations that are actually trying to catch these women kids when they hit the streets and take some of the burden off the government. You can find them if you look, and if you really want to help, they can show you how.