A Galaxy of Tactics in Going Rogue
"What is worthy of our sacrifice? When is it more important that we live to fight another day?"
Political movements are never as black and white as fiction, history books, and the hyper-polarized two-party American system make them seem. It is never just Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative, Empire and Rebellion. Within each umbrella, there are as many overlapping ideologies and methodologies as there are people. Each person with a vision for a better world has their own idea of how to get there, an admirable act of radical imagination. Optimistically, this diversity of tactics — a practice and theory first coined by Black thinkers and activists during the American Civil Rights movement — works in tandem as different factions strive towards a common goal. Cynically, it becomes an opportunity for political implosion, one that was taken advantage of by the American government during the FBI’s counterintelligence program, commonly known as COINTELPRO.
As much as leftist infighting has become a meme, the concepts that incite these disagreements are anything but trivial. What actions clear a path for a new world, without recreating the patterns of the old? What means justify what ends? What actions are effective in their goals, and which are merely cathartic? How do we maintain humanity when fighting an enemy that has denied ours and forsaken their own? These are the central questions of every liberation struggle — and ones that lead to unending division in organizing spaces online and in real life.
The discussion of radical action, violence versus nonviolence, and effective resistance is undoubtedly safer to explore in the container of a game than on the streets. Throughout her companion game to Riley Rethal’s Galactic, Jess Levine weaves these ideas for players to confront as they move through a galaxy dominated by a fascist, violent regime. Going Rogue is saturated with Levine’s experience as an organizer and activist, bringing the reality of those ideological divisions into the realm of Star Wars-flavored science fantasy.
In the second installment of our two-part interview, Rascal discusses the divisions of liberation movements and presents Levine with Going Rogue’s core thesis questions. You can read the first installment of the interview here.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
