History CrapsaccharineWorld / Fallout

The entire Pre-War USA of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series is like this. The entire world is ''known'', not only feared, to be on the fast track to destruction, and society is more dog-eat-dog than ever before. There are hints that the average attitude in the pre-war world is far more cynical and self serving than our own. On the surface, however, the nation presents itself to be a patriotic heaven filled with wholesome families and optimistic cheerful people. Some hints include that in Washington, D.C.'s alternate Mall, they had a War Museum where we have part of the Smithsonian, and that they willingly allowed the addictive, radioactive Nuka-Cola Quantum to be produced.

* Vault 11, where the residents were told to have annual ''[[HumanSacrifice human sacrifice]]'' or else the vault computer would kill everyone. After a long history of corrupt politics followed a brief civil war, there were only five people left, who told the computer to GetItOverWith and wipe out the rest of them. [[spoiler:The whole thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter all along. The computer praised them for selflessly refusing to sacrifice their fellow man to save their own skin and unlocked the vault door as a reward for being such paragons of human decency. Faced with the fact that all those people died for nothing, four out of the five survivors committed suicide and the fifth left the vault.]]

* Vault 11, where the residents were told to have annual ''[[HumanSacrifice human sacrifice]]'' or else the vault computer would kill everyone. After a long history of corrupt politics followed a brief civil war, there were only five people left, who told the computer to GetItOverWith and wipe out the rest of them. [[spoiler:The whole thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter all along]]. The computer praised them for selflessly refusing to sacrifice their fellow man to save their own skin and unlocked the vault door as a reward for being such paragons of human decency. Faced with the fact that all those people died for nothing, four out of the five survivors committed suicide and the fifth left the vault

** Of the three casinos, the Ultra Luxe is the one that most prides itself on elegance, refinement, and class. Its owners, The White Glove Society, enjoy putting up a high society atmosphere, making sure their casino/HQ is the most beautiful and fancy looking of the three casinos, and dressing in fine clothing and [[UncannyValley fairly unsettling masks.]] But, other than the creepy masks and the somewhat self entitled attitude of the residence, it seems like a fairly pleasant place to stay the night and grab a bite in possibly the only high end restaurant in the entire wasteland. Then a visiting cattle baron loses track of his son, while discussing business with the society, and asks you to investigate. Then you learn [[spoiler: The White Glove Society used to be [[CannibalClan a tribe of cannibals]] before Mr. House's efforts to "reform" the local tribes, and although they have more or less abandoned this tradition, one sub-faction wants to return to their old cannibalistic ways and their leader plans on making the Cattle Baron's son the main course of their next dinner.]]

* There's one area of society in pre-war America that is a subversion of this trope: given that the USA of the Falloutverse is essentially a Neo-50s dystopia, one would expect that the pre-apocalypse America would suffer under real-world social issues from that time frame, such as racism, sexual inequality and homophobia. But, the prelude segment in VideoGame/Fallout4 suggests otherwise. Nora, the female protagonist, had a successful legal career despite being a woman (and, potentially, non-white). Likewise, Nate, the male protagonist, attained a significant military rank despite, potentially, being non-white himself. Likewise, if one or both protagonists are non-white, there's no indication of them facing racism, [[MalignedMixedMarriage nor any of the rampant bigotry that they would have faced for being a mixed-race couple]]. There's also an established pair of neighbors strongly implied to be a biracial lesbian couple, a pair of African-American neighbors, an Asian-American neighbor, and an AmbiguouslyBrown implied neighbor in the Vault, all of whom seem to have been living a happy, normal life before the bombs dropped. In ''our'' 1950s, the lesbian couple would be damned twice over as perverts, and the other neighbors wouldn't have a chance in hell of being allowed to own nice houses near "decent white folk". In the VideoGame/Fallout3 DLC Operation Anchorage many female soldiers can be seen serving in the US Military, even in frontline roles, something that wasn't possible [[https://www.voanews.com/a/first-women-graduate-us-army-infantry-course/3567503.html until very recently]] in our own timeline. Except for Chinese-Americans. During the Sino-American war, thousands were rounded up and sent to internment camps, where they were kept in squalid conditions and often experimented on. They were also fitted with explosive collars to prevent any of them from attempting escape.
** There is, however, a holotape from a young woman who was disowned by her parents and forced to flee over an argument. [[spoiler:The implication is that she was pregnant.]]

* Even the sleazy Gomorrah resort and casino hides a dark secret behind the allure of booze, caps and wanton prostitution. So what could be so horrifying as to make such a place look so cheery in comparison? Simple: [[spoiler: Snuff films.]]

* Vault 11, where the residents were told to have annual ''[[HumanSacrifice human sacrifice]]'' or else the vault computer would kill everyone. After a long history of corrupt politics followed a brief civil war, there were only five people left, who told the computer to GetItOverWith and wipe out the rest of them. [[spoiler:The whole thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter all along. The computer praised them for selflessly refusing to sacrifice their fellow man to save their own skin and unlocked the vault door as a reward for being such paragons of human decency. Faced with the fact that all those people died for nothing, four out of the five survivors committed suicide and the fifth left the vault

* Vault 11, where the residents were told to have annual ''[[HumanSacrifice human sacrifice]]'' or they would all die, [[spoiler: [[CruelTwistEnding only to reveal after a massive civil war that it was bluff and a pre-recorded message congratulates the]] '''[[CruelTwistEnding five]]''' [[CruelTwistEnding remaining survivors, for choosing to stick by their virtues instead of sending their own to die.]] It's even worse when you find a recorder at the vault's entrance that reveals that [[SurvivorGuilt four out of the five survivors shot themselves in the head because they felt too guilty for sacrificing their friends]]]].

* Vault 95 was designed to be one big rehab center for its residents, that consisted almost entirely of drug addicts, which turned out to be a complete success... then Vault Tech's agent initiated ''phase 2'' of the plane and revealed a secret compartment loaded with drugs, just to see what happened. It went about as well as you would think.

* Vault 34 was too small to support its population ''and'' had an overstocked armory. As the Vault became overpopulated, the Overseer installed a remote link to the armory to ensure only he could decide who accesses it. This didn't sit well with some of the residents, who requested access to the weapons on the grounds of defending themselves. When the Overseer denied, a riot broke out and the group that requested access stormed the Vault's exit and left. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, whether by accident or as an intentional design choice, the Vault door remained sealed after it closed a second time. The other residents didn't realize they were trapped until a failed coup and an attempt at storming the armory damaged large areas of the Vault, including the reactor. And then radioactive gases started leaking everywhere...]]

* Vault 111, the starting point of the Player Character in Fallout 4, was a cryogenics lab. Since civilization was going down the drain, may as well freeze some test subjects until the world stops being a nuclear holocaust, right? Wrong. Riots began over whether to unfreeze the current victims or freeze new ones to get a vacation, and the whole non-frozen population was killed or forcefully evacuated soon after. The human popsicles were left stuck in time until the Institute raided the place, killed most of the population via asphyxiation, and stole a baby. The player character is left to wake alone in a cold, dead vault, in front of their murdered spouse.

** The Tranquillity Lane simulation. At first glance it's an overly sweet mimic of black-and-white 50s sitcoms a la ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'', but soon you discover that it's being run by a sadistic scientist disguised as a CreepyChild who has been using the people in the simulation to slowly break each other down (reading the designer's journal reveals he'd done the same thing placed in a tropical island paradise prior to Tranquillity Lane). In order to save your father, he sends you on increasingly heinous deeds, like murdering a mistress of a man and framing his wife. In the end, [[SadisticChoice you have to choose between]] allowing the people in the simulation to remain trapped forever, or run a program that sends AI to kill everyone inside, freeing them from their prison but ending their lives in the process. On the plus side, killing them is releasing them from torment, and leaves the villain alive. [[GoMadFromTheIsolation Alone]]. [[WhoWantsToLiveForever Forever]].

* Vault 95 was designed to be one big rehab center for it's residents, that consisted almost entirely of drug addicts, which turned out to be a complete success... then Vault Tech's agent initiated ''phase 2'' of the plane and revealed a secret compartment loaded with drugs, just to see what happened. It went about as well as you would think.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has Vault City. It is one of the most peaceful and prosperous places in the entirety of New California and it has the best medical technology and knowledge in the entire region. The dark side of this is that only citizens of Vault City have access to any of this and the only way outsiders can enjoy any of this is to either become citizen which is very unlikely because the citizenship test in nigh impossible and only one person has been able to pass it or alternatively you can servant which essentially means that you become a slave. Vault City also actively participates in slave trading and the city itself is a dictatorship under the rule of the extremely arrogant First Citizen Joanne Lynette who actively despises democracy. Information is also constantly censored and the city is trying to keep a lid on the fact that their drinking water has been recently contaminated by a nearby nuclear power plant.

* The dog-eat-dog aspect also extended to America's foreign policy. For example, in 2051, the country accused Mexico's pollution and political instability as a threat. They placed sanctions on Mexico, causing it to destabilize completely. This was followed by an American military intervention to protect business interests and keep the oil supply flowing across the border, while leaving the rest of Mexico to fend for themselves. And then there was their bullying Canada into allow American troops onto their land and planes to fly over their airspace in order to better reach Alaska. As the Sino-American war dragged on, they also began drawing upon Canadian resources, destroying whole swaths of timberland and stretching others to the breaking point. When Canadian protesters tried to break the pipeline in 2072, it was the perfect excuse America needed to begin forcibly annexing the whole country, gunning down any resistance in their path.

* Vault 11, where the residents were told to have annual ''[[HumanSacrifice human sacrifice]]'' or they would all die, [[spoiler: [[CruelTwistEnding only to reveal after a massive civil war that it was bluff and a pre-recorded message congratulates the]] '''[[CruelTwistEnding five]]''' [[CruelTwistEnding remaining survivors, for choosing to stick by their virtues instead of sending their own to die]]]].