"The Gileadites nuked us a few decades ago and we have a national trauma about it."

"I'm sorry to hear that - what does that have to do with farm animals -"

"When the nukes hit and the war started, it disrupted the supply lines and a lot of people went hungry. So a lot of people bought animals so that if it happens again they'll be able to rely on their own food. --And then once enough people started doing it it became normal to have your own pig. They are loving and intelligent animals who are also delicious to eat."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"I assume in the future you've figured out vat meat and you think this is all very barbaric."

"Our meat comes from animals. I believe some of them are genetically engineered to be able to eat Ibyabekan native plants."

"...That's odd. At least in Cascadia most people who think about it think that normal farms-- not like, a person and their pets whom they eat-- are really terrible for animals, and as soon as we can grow meat without animals we'd switch. Is it very hard, do you know--"

"I don't, I'm sorry."

"Huh. You seem... weirdly unadvanced for a society with spaceships."

"I don't know what to tell you about that."

"Maybe a better approach is to ask about what things people have invented recently."

"I don't particularly keep up with that sort of thing."

"Right, but you'd still-- notice some things? We recently invented virtual reality that lets you feel sensations, I have one in my house, and you'd at least know about that sort of thing even if you can't afford one." 

"It sounds somewhat frivolous."

"So are movies."

"Movies contribute to a cohesive culture."

"People here go to movies because they're fun." 

"They're that too. Things can be fun without being entirely frivolous."

"I'm not sure we think of it as-- creating a shared culture, even though obviously it does. We think about... people being allowed to tell their stories and say the things they want to say."

"...allowed to tell their stories about shooting at hostile wildlife on unsettled planets?"

"Sure, if they want to. Or falling in love, or wandering through the woods, or beating up CGI monsters, or escaping Gilead--"

Kyeo nods along. "We don't have the ones specifically about Gilead, of course."

Lev says, very casually, "and sometimes stories about people going the other way too."

"Oh, I've seen one of those, smugglers kidnapped an Ibyabekan farmer and were performing experiments on him."

"Nah. Ours was about girl who converted to be a Gileadite and wanted to immigrate so she could live out her faith around people who agreed with her. It won a bunch of awards."