Is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus an SJW game?

A bit prior to the launch of the video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, an ad campaign caused a bit of a controversy when it drew clear parallels between the premise of the game, which is an alternate steampunk/dieselpunk history where Nazi Germany won, and invaded the United States, and the current real-life political accusations of the United States being governed by a Nazi-like regime (and conservatives being "Nazis"). This angered quite many people (and not only conservatives) because the creators of the game seemed to be indeed saying, not even so subtly, that they thought that American conservatives, and the current American government, were Nazis (and that this is a game where you can kill them.)

Back then I thought that "fuck this game, I'm not going to buy it, just because of that stupid ad."

Now, much later, I simply thought that it was a stupid ad. Probably some advertisement company thought they would make a clever political commentary, taking advantage of the fact that the game just happened, perhaps by coincidence, to be about fighting Nazis in the United States. Maybe they didn't even think of the backlash that it would cause. Maybe they were trying to be funny, or clever, or something.

Surely the game itself would be just like the good old Wolfenstein games. Killing fictitious Nazis in a fictitious alternate universe history, nothing more to it. Probably no political message, just a bit of fun. That ad was just stupid and probably didn't actually reflect any political message that the game itself was trying to convey.

Or so I thought. After having played the game, I'm not so sure anymore.

It's perhaps not overtly and obnoxiously pushing a regressive leftist social justice message, and shoving it down the player's throat, but there are way too many aspects to it that make me think it's not just coincidence.

It's mostly an amalgamation of many little things. Almost none of these are things that alone, on their own, would raise any suspicion of a regressive leftist agenda being shoved into the game. If only one of these things appeared in the game, then it would be nothing. But it's their amount and abundance that makes me suspect that it is indeed what the developers of the game had in mind.

Let me list all the things that I noticed in the game, which make me suspicious that that stupid ad wasn't actually some ad company trying to be clever, but that it actually reflects the politics of the game developers as well.

Note that some of these things might be considered minor storyline spoilers (not too bad ones, but just be warned, if you are huge purist who hates spoilers of any kind).

* The game, at launch, shows this disclaimer:

Ok, I suppose it's not that bad, but I just have to wonder why they felt the need to say this. I don't remember any other video game saying anything like this, this seriously. (There may be, but I don't remember ever seeing them.)

* Near the beginning of the game, a flashback set in the 1910's is shown to the childhood of the protagonist. His father is depicted as extremely abusive, and the scene depicts him trying to find his son to beat him because he's been seen dating a black girl. His wife, who's revealed as Jewish, is trying to stop him. He openly uses racial slurs, like the n-word, and the word "queer". When his wife tries to stop him, he hits her and uses both sexist and anti-semitic slurs.

* In a cutscene at the beginning parts of the game, the biggest Nazi villain in the game, who appeared in that same role in the previous games as well, is a female high-ranking official. She is seen as having a 20-or-so years old daughter, who is very obese, and is revealed to be lesbian (her mother discovering this by reading her diary). Her mother berates her in a very nasty way for both things, scolding her for being so fat and not following the exercise regime she had ordered, and berating, taunting and insulting her for her "deviancy" for being a lesbian. (It gets even worse from that point on, but I won't spoil too much of the cutscene.)

Not surprisingly, the daughter very quickly deserts the Nazis and joins the heroes of the game. She is shown to have no negative personality characteristics or attitudes.

* I'm not exactly certain of this (because it has been so long since I have played the previous games), but I get the strong feeling that the word "Nazi" is spoken a lot more in this game than in the previous ones. Previous games used many other terms, such as "German forces", and while "Nazi" was also used, I don't think it was used even nearly as much as here. It's very often used in expressions like "killing Nazis", and "Nazis are not welcome here", and other such peculiar expressions (which, as commented earlier, wouldn't raise any suspicion on their own, but given everything else...)

* More peculiarly, however, the word "fascist" is used extraordinarily often as well, especially in the parts of the game that happen in America. I don't remember ever seeing or hearing that word being used in any video game that depicts Nazis (either in a historically semi-accurate way, or in a more fictional settings). If that word has ever been used in another video game to describe Nazis, I don't remember ever hearing or seeing it. In this game it's said by many characters, and perhaps the most prominent (and perhaps very telling) example is uttered by the playable character himself at one point:

"Come and get me, you white-ass fascist Nazi pigs!"

This is eerily similar to the regressive leftist rhetoric in the United States. (I really have to wonder why the word "fascist" is there. The boast would work perfectly well without it. Yet they decided to put it there. I just have to wonder why.)

* There's an unusual amount of black people among the American rebels fighting the Nazis.

* In one scene, a black woman is shown with burn scars from a bomb. This exchange happens between her and the protagonist:

Him: "Monsters did this."
Her: "No, men did this."

If there is a political message being depicted in this dialogue, it's really smart. It plays on the ambiguity of the word "men", and could be construed as "plausible deniability" of sorts.

On one hand, "men" is a very common word (especially in the 1960's, which is the time where the game is situated) for "people". In other words, that sentence would be completely synonymous with "no, people did this."

On the other hand, this is a woman, who is depicted as a victim of an attack, saying "men did this", which feels like an accusation eerily parroting the current regressive feminist narrative. Of course I can't say for sure, but I just get the feeling that the ambiguity is completely deliberate.

* The journal of a Nazi soldier describes the protagonist with these words: "[...] big, murderous ape. Blazkowicz. People like him. Communists, anarchists, degenerates. They need to be exterminated from this planet, just like the Führer said. We are superior. Strongest and bravest! We are not afraid of them! Earth belongs to us!"

I suppose that historically Nazi soldiers probably did detest communists and anarchists. However, I can't help but to think that this is trying to garner some kind of sympathy for "communists" and "anarchists", by having a Nazi soldier hate them and wish them exterminated.

* Fictional newspaper articles can be collected throughout the game. One of them says the following. I have the strong feeling the game developers are referring to Donald Trump:

"...the larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre - the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move towards a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."