History Main / ConceptsAreCheap

** It also tends to coincide with American warcrimes.

** Spinning off from Prometheus comes the mini-series "Cry for Justice" where, suddenly, every single major character becomes this. They spend the entire series demanding "justice" without ever bothering to define what it means or how it's different from what the other heroes are already doing.

* ''MetalWolfChaos'' has propaganda broadcasts from the Policy Promotion Department, making pronouncements like "A heart of '''Justice''' is a heart that loves '''Freedom'''." This is when they're not promising to execute everyone who's even tangentially connected to Metal Wolf.

** They are the good guys because they offer the option of not dying and instead joning their Orwellian dictatorship.

** It's even worse when you consider the {{Narm}} line from Episode III during the Anakin/Obi-Wan: "Anakin the Chancellor is evil!" "From my point of view the Jedi are evil!" which is just randomly throwing moral relativism in there for some extra drama, not because it actually fit (since there wasn't an indication Anakin actually though that before, aside from being ticked at how the council treated him).

*** Kind of. Originally Superman fought for truth and justice and was in a constant battle against evil. The Truth, Justice and the American Way part came in in the 40s for the radio program and it was more of an anti Nazi thing than an anti commie thing. Though it definatly became anti communist.

* One problem with GundamSEEDDestiny. On one hand, one ([[DecoyProtagonist possible]]) protagonist has the Destiny Gundam. And his opponents are piloting machines with the names Freedom and Justice.

* Fallout 3 gives us the DJ Three Dog who spouts off fighting the good fight while simultaneously being really really vague on what the good fight was.

* Parodied in ''GrandTheftAutoIII" on the [[GTARadio Chatterbox radio station]]. A guy by the name of "Jeff" calls in, advertising a rally at Liberty City Park. However, when the show's host asks what the rally's actually about, Jeff responds with an escalation of otherwise meaningless phrases and appeals, including "for justice" "for the future," and "for hope." The host continues asking, only to be met with more cheap concepts and pleas for attendance, until it turns out the guy doesn't know what it's about.

* More politicians than not, if not all politicians. It doesn't matter whether you're talking to the [[AmericanGunPolitics National Rifle Association or Handgun Control Inc]], the American Civil Liberties Union or an attorney general, everyone is for the protection of rights and has no problem with reasonable regulation. Those phrases means ''exactly'' nothing.

* In third edition DungeonsAndDragons, clerics can choose to devote themselves to some broad concepts rather than a deity. This allows the cleric to act pretty much however he or she wants as long it can be said to not violate the concept rather than worry about how his or her patron deity feels. Of course, some deity’s concepts can be just as cheap as those of patronless cleric, too.

** They also lampshade this mercilessly.

* Althought the ones obsessed with "freedom", "justice" and "liberty" tend to be Americans. In Europe, politicians tend to have more muted speeches (except when talking about other countries: then "democracy" and "human rights" pop up very frequently): they usually don't go further than "social equality", "citizenship", and "the republic" in the worst case (but that's from French Persident Sarkozy's administration, and that guy is very much into "american" methods). I think European leaders want to look more "dignified". There WAS a fad with "change" to try to copy Obama's vibe. But it settled very quickly...
** In Britain the current concepts are fairness and progressive. Every policy of the Tory parties in government is fair and progressive. Every policy of the Labour party in opposition is fair and progressive.

* In the latest BBC series of ''Series/RobinHood'', the main character would often use King Richard as his rallying cry. This posed problems within the context of the show, which because of its modern PC sensibilities, took a negative stance against the Crusades. Therefore, the storylines ran on an odd paradox: King Richard was good, but his actions were bad. Many of the storylines revolved around trying to bring King Richard home, yet when the outlaws travel all the way to the Holy Land, Richard is revealed to be a rather weak, misguided King, raising questions as to why Robin was so slavishly devoted to him in the first place. The King even tries to have Robin and the gang executed, but by season three, everyone has reverted back to the mind-set of King Richard = good, peace, justice.

* Mohinder's voice-overs at the beginning of each episode of ''{{Heroes}}'' can be summed up thusly: "Destiny, blah, blah, blah, fate, blah, blah, blah, life, blah, blah, blah, heroes.

* [[GoldenAge Back in the day]] ''{{Superman}}'' spent a lot of time demolishing substandard ghetto housing, exposing political corruption and standing up for the rights of immigrants and the little guy. He was a New Deal superhero! But politics is bad for sales - even corrupt politicians buy comic books, after all. So Superman started to fight for the magnificent generality of 'truth, justice and the American way', and so long as he restrains himself to hitting supervillains in the jaw, it doesn't matter. No two people can agree on what Superman 'really stands for' anymore, but they all agree it's ''very heroic''. "The American way" part is also often dropped in modern stories, although it's usually [[EagleLand only Americans who complain about this.]]

* Inverted by the morally gray characters of AlanMoore. V (''VForVendetta'') not only fights for "freedom", but puts into practice. In ''{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach and Ozymandias, in very different ways and results, devote their entire lives to their ideals, at the cost of distancing themselves from the morality (and, in Rorschach's case, hygiene standards) of everyday folk. For his characters UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans and they sometimes cause the end of the current cycle of being, initiating a new one.
** Meaning, basically, that his comics sometimes feature super''villains'' (ie the Watchmen) with the same one word motivations as his super''heroes'' (ie V)

* The Tau of ''WH40k'' are the good guys. Why are they the good guys? Because they serve "The Greater Good". What's "The Greater Good"? Um...
** Even more nebulous as the Greater Good tends to be whatever is best for the Tau race, and not always their allies. Although there's no directly Canon source flat out saying so, it's heavily implied that brainwashing, mind control and genocide for "The Greater Good" occurs. Even with that though, with the {{Crapsack World}} that ''WH40k'' is set in, they might still be the good guys by default.
** Soldiers of the Imperium of Man serve "Mankind", but that's not as nebulous a concept when there are aliens involved.
*** They're actually clear(er) about that (than the Tau, at least). They fight for the faction of the Imperium of Man, which is comprised entirely of humans. And those humans who are not with them are written off as mutants or heretics and thus need to be killed since most are liable to attack humans (or someone else, but it doesn't really matter since they're going to kill someone). And those ([[AMillionIsAStatistic few]]) people that are killed by the soldiers of the Imperium are killed for the sole purpose of ensuring the survival of the rest from what grave threat would still exist if the soldiers took the time to try something else.
**** That's not true, the Imperium has billions of human offshots, also most pykers are taken to be trained. Of course they all count as human (minus the Space Marines who are above human)

**** That's not true, the Imperium has billions of human offshots, also most pykers are taken to be trained. Of course they all count as human (minus the Space Marines who are above human)

* Meaning, basically, that his comics sometimes feature super''villains'' (ie the Watchmen) with the same one word motivations as his super''heroes'' (ie V)