History Main / EvilStatesOfAmerica

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. The American Empire is depicted as being imperialistic (invading Central and South American countries) and committing war crimes. In the original series, American Empire CIA officers try to manipulate Batou into killing a former Imperial naval officer to cover up U.S. war crimes. In the 2nd GIG it launches a nuclear missile at Dejima, which would have killed all of the refugees living there.

* In ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'', while the Laundry, the British occult spy agency is definitely morally ambiguous, the American equivalent, the [[NamestoRunAwayFromReallyFast Black Chamber]], is consistently shown as evil in its methods and goals. However, [[CIAEvilFBIGood The Commstock Office was pretty reasonable until the Black Chamber got them shutdown]]

* The United States in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' seemed to be a friendly, patriotic utopia full of wholesome families and cheerful optimism. However, it gradually transformed into a corrupt, jingoistic, Orwellian police state that saw nothing wrong with imprisoning its own citizens and experimenting on them. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt corporate executives]] were in power everywhere, safety regulations were pretty much nonexistent, radioactive food was approved for stores, and the nation gladly invaded Mexico and later annexed Canada just to seize their resources. As the situation dragged on, riots from angry Americans led to the government even opening fire on their own people with ''military-grade weapons.'' With a nuclear war as a real threat, they approved the construction of 122 Vaults to shield the civilian population. However, this was just a cover story, since the vaults were actually designed to subject their residents to cruel and sadistic experiments to see how people in enclosed environments react. And even after the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Great War]], the scattered remnants of the government survived, seeking to regain their power by killing off all the wastelanders so they can repopulate.
** Put another way: a lot of players argue that the ''post''-apocalyptic United States, filled with badly mutated animals, malfunctioning war robots, warring tribals and every kind of human evil you could imagine, is an ''improvement'' on living in the Pre-War United States.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', United States Government orders HECU to conduct a FieryCoverup, after Black Mesa's latest teleportation experiment causes aliens from Xen to start popping all over the planet, to hide their own involvement in the mess. In the ''Opposing Force'' expansion, Government orders a secret Black Ops unit to conduct another cover up, this time also involving killing off the previously mentioned Marine Corps unit and nuking the whole facility.

May involve AmericaTakesOverTheWorld and OppressiveStatesOfAmerica. On a smaller, but more governmental level, see CIAEvilFBIGood. See also {{Eagleland}}, EvilColonialist and WesternTerrorists.

* ''Valley of the Wolves: Iraq'', a controversial Turkish action film about the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] in which the American soldiers are portrayed as evil thugs, with references to both the [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques Abu Ghraib]] [[HellholePrison scandal]] and the "Hood Event" in 2003 in which Turkish troops in northern Iraq were captured, interrogated, and paraded with hoods over their heads. For good measure, the Kurds are portrayed as LesCollaborateurs.

* ''Valley of the Wolves: Iraq'', a controversial Turkish action film about the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] in which the American soldiers are portrayed as evil thugs, with references to both the [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques Abu Ghraib scandal]] and the "Hood Event" in 2003 in which Turkish troops in northern Iraq were captured, interrogated, and paraded with hoods over their heads. For good measure, the Kurds are portrayed as LesCollaborateurs.

* The United States in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' seemed to be a friendly, patriotic utopia full of wholesome families and cheerful optimism. However, it gradually transformed into a corrupt, jingoistic, Orwellian police state who saw nothing wrong with imprisoning their own citizens and experimenting on them. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt corporate executives]] were in power everywhere, safety regulations were pretty much nonexistent, radioactive food was approved for stores, and the nation gladly invaded Mexico and later annexed Canada just to seize their resources. As the situation dragged on, riots from angry Americans lead to the government even opening fire on their own people with ''military-grade weapons.'' With a nuclear war as a real threat, they approved the construction of 122 Vaults to shield the civilian population. However, this was just a cover story, since the vaults were actually designed to subject their residents to cruel and sadistic experiments to see how people in enclosed environments react. And even after the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Great War]], the scattered remnants of the government survived, seeking to regain their power by killing off all the wastelanders so they can repopulate.

Well, another good candidate could be America, a powerful nation that exceeds or equals (or at least exceeded or equaled) the previous enemies in terms of military might, reach, and influence can also be used in a work as powerful villains. Many times, they could be portrayed as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]], KnightTemplar with GreyAndGrayMorality varieties, or at worst, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazis by any other name]].

May involve AmericaTakesOverTheWorld and OppressiveStatesOfAmerica. On a smaller, but more governmental level, see CIAEvilFBIGood. See also {{Eagleland}} and WesternTerrorists.

* The AlternateHistory {{mockumentary}} ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'' features a world where [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Confederacy]] took over the whole of America, becoming an imperialistic pariah state where white supremacy and non-white slavery are cherished American institutions up there with baseball and apple pie. It's ultimately portrayed as not that different from the actual United States.

* The satirical horror film series ''Film/ThePurge'' is set in a [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near-future]] America where, after an economic collapse, a far-right party called the New Founding Fathers took power on a promise to restore America's prosperity. They accomplished this by creating the titular Purge, an annual holiday in which, for twelve hours, all crime is legal -- ostensibly to allow Americans to unleash their repressed primal urges, in truth a plot to KillThePoor and enrich the corporate elite. What's more, the Purge has genuine support from broad swaths of the American people, its opponents mostly concentrated in marginalized communities, indicating that America as a whole is rotten to the core in these films while serving as a reflection of all of the most violent trends in American society, from [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racism]] to [[TheSocialDarwinist social Darwinism]] to [[GunNut gun fetishism]]. When the third film, ''Election Year'', ends with [[spoiler:Charlie Roan being elected President on a platform of ending the Purge, the election result is met with rioting by supporters of the Purge and the New Founding Fathers]].

* In ''Literature/TeenLitWasteland'', the Confederacy of Panamerica has what is arguably the best claim to descent from the pre-apocalypse United States (though the Emergency Government, a less outwardly malicious but still unpleasant version of ''Fallout''[='=]s Enclave, would challenge them) -- and is also among the setting's most clear-cut bad guys. It was founded by {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s in Idaho and Montana who exemplified the Boorish side of {{Eagleland}}, creating a stratified system with themselves at the top and the refugees from the cities destroyed in WorldWarIII (plus anybody who wasn't white) held at the bottom, seeing the latter's lifestyle as decadent and having destroyed the world. In the years since, however, [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis they themselves became a decadent elite]] whose ideology has been hollowed out to mere platitudes, simply a figleaf for their continued power. They routinely rattle their sabers at Canada to the north, a country that, while itself questionably authoritarian, still retains democratic institutions and a civil society and is the closest thing to unambiguous "good guys" in the setting.

[[folder:Animated Film]]

[[folder:Live Action Film]]

* The AlternateHistory {{mockumentary}} ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'' features a world where [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the Confederacy]] took over the whole of America, becoming an imperialistic pariah state where white supremacy and non-white slavery are cherished American institutions up there with baseball and apple pie. It's ultimately portrayed as NotSoDifferent from the actual United States.

Well, another good candidate could be America, a powerful nation that exceeds or equals (or at least exceedED or equalED) the previous enemies in terms of military might, reach, and influence can also be used in a work as powerful villains. Many times, they could be portrayed as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]], KnightTemplar with GreyAndGrayMorality varieties, or at worst, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazis by any other name]].

May involve AmericaTakesOverTheWorld and OppressiveStatesOfAmerica. On a smaller, but more governmental level, see CIAEvilFBIGood. See also {{Eagleland}}.

* In the second ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, ''Schrodinger's Cat'', RobertAntonWilson and Robert Shea introduce "Unistat", an alternative-universe and somewhat more malevolent version of the USA.

* In ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', the US in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 1997]] is an authoritarian police state currently in the middle of WorldWarIII that has turned [[TheBigRottenApple Manhattan]] into a prison island in order to solve its crime problem, and serves as the GreaterScopeVillain for Snake Plissken to deal with. It's even worse in the sequel ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', where the US in 2013 is not merely authoritarian but a [[TheTheocracy theocracy]] on top of it, run by a Christian fundamentalist based on Jerry Falwell who has created the "Sword of Damocles" EMP KillSat system in order to destroy America's enemies and dominate the world. [[spoiler:Snake, deciding that the "Moral America" and the [[DirtyCommunists Shining Path forces]] threatening to invade it are both equally evil, plugs in the "world code" on the Sword of Damocles in order to wipe out the entire world's power grid and destroy them both.]]

Well, another good candidate could be America, a powerful nation that exceeds or equals (or at least exceedED or equalED) the previous enemies in terms of military might, reach, and influence can also be used in a work as powerful villains. Many times, they could be portrayed as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]], KnightTemplar with GreyAndGreyMorality varieties, or at worst, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazis by any other name]].

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' averts this with Britannia. The Americas are the "Homeland", but the series takes place in an AlternateHistory where the American Revolution failed. They stayed as American colonies until the British Isles fell, making them the new homeland.

* The AlternateHistory story ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'' has the United States, owing to a disastrous loss in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 that saw the [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]] states, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}, and UsefulNotes/NewJersey secede as the Republic of New England while the British (by way of Canada) took over a large chunk of the Midwest around the Great Lakes, coming under the domination of the planter aristocrats of the DeepSouth. As a result, the US becomes a white supremacist empire that not only maintains slavery well into the 20th century, but extends it to the Latin American peoples it conquers (save for a few [[LesCollaborateurs collaborators]] who can pass for white) and adapts it to the industrial era as its armies push its southern border ever further south.

Well, another good candidate could be America, a powerful nation that exceeds or equals (or at least exceedED or equalED) the previous enemies in terms of military might, reach, and influence can also be used in a work as powerful villains. Many times, they could be portrayed as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]], KnightTemplar with GreyAndGreyMorality varieties, or at worst, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazis by any other name}}.

Well, another good candidate could be America, a powerful nation that exceeds or equals (or at least exceedED or equalED) the previous enemies in terms of military might, reach, and influence can also be used in a work as powerful villains. Many times, they could be portrayed as the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]] or KnightTemplar with GreyAndGreyMorality varieties.

* ''Valley of the Wolves: Iraq'', a controversial Turkish action film about the [[TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]] in which the American soldiers are portrayed as evil thugs, with references to both the [[EnhancedInterrogationTechniques Abu Ghraib scandal]] and the "Hood Event" in 2003 in which Turkish troops in northern Iraq were captured, interrogated, and paraded with hoods over their heads. For good measure, the Kurds are portrayed as LesCollaborateurs.

* ''VideoGame/MagicalCannonWars'' features the US, most specifically the Pentagon, to be behind the whole conflict.]]

* The AlternateHistory story ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'' has the United States, owing to a disastrous loss in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 that saw the British (by way of Canada) take over the Great Lakes and the [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]] states, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}, and UsefulNotes/NewJersey secede as the Republic of New England, coming under the domination of the planter aristocrats of the DeepSouth. As a result, the US becomes a white supremacist empire that not only maintains slavery well into the 20th century, but extends it to the Latin American peoples it conquers (save for a few [[LesCollaborateurs collaborators]] who can pass for white) as its armies push its southern border ever further south.
* In the SequelSeries to ''Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo'', the United States becomes a truly awful place in the 1980's. Donald Rumsfeld is elected [[PresidentEvil president]] despite losing the popular vote by a decisive margin, and resorts to blatant voter fraud to earn a second term. He goes hard to work turning the country into a police state, his anarcho-capitalist policies create serious economic disparity, interstate travel is restricted, the civilian internet is strangled in its crib, Hollywood is transformed into a far-right PropagandaMachine that vilifies historic figures like [=FDR=], dissidents (such as George Carlin, Barry Goldwater, and Roger Ebert] are "disappeared", Liberty Battalions start burning books that are deemed Anti-American or Anti-Capitalist, environmentalist polices are revoked and climate change is encouraged, the AIDS virus is studied as a potential bioweapon, and all of America's allies (sans Apartheid South Africa) are alienated, especially after Rumsfeld supports terrorism in Northern Ireland to "punish" the United Kingdom for voting in a labor government. He even privately admits he plans to repeal the constitution, aside from the Second Amendment, and plans to make himself President for life. You can't really blame all the states who decide to secede.

* In ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', the US in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 1997]] is an authoritarian police state currently in the middle of WorldWarIII that has turned [[TheBigRottenApple Manhattan]] into a prison island in order to solve its crime problem, and serves as the GreaterScopeVillain for Snake Plissken to deal with. It's even worse in the sequel ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', where the US in 2013 is not merely authoritarian but a [[TheTheocracy theocracy]] on top of it, run by a Christian fundamentalist based on Jerry Falwell who has created the "Sword of Damocles" EMP KillSat system in order to destroy America's enemies and dominate the world. [[spoiler:Snake, deciding that the "Moral America" and the [[DirtyCommunists Shining Path forces]] threatening to invade it are both equally evil, plugs in the "world code" on the Sword of Damocles in order to wipe out the entire world's power grid and destroy them both.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', United States Government orders HECU to conduct a FieryCoverup of Black Mesa's latest teleportation experiment causes aliens from Xen to start popping all over the planet to hide their own involvement in the mess. In the ''Opposing Force'' expansion, Government orders a secret Black Ops unit to conduct another cover up, this time also involving killing off the previously mentioned USMC unit and nuking the whole facility.