By definition, a red has hereditary pollution.

I have read the studies on the effects of chronic pollution exposure. Lower IQ, antisocial behavior, disease… it is not pretty. (I fear we are only beginning to see the effects of prenatal pollution exposure during the Voan crisis.) A red is literally made of filth, the way feces is. To make matters worse, they grow up among people made of filth, in an environment continually polluted in a way the clean castes cannot understand. What effects does that have on a person’s psychology?

Clearly, reds are sapient. (The opposing position is puzzlingly common on this website, mostly among greens and blues who never have to interact with one.) But just as clearly reds do not have the moral system the clean castes do. Look at the riots. Look at the callous murder of roboticists, purples, children. Look at the creation of red mods to video games– sometimes even children’s games!

It is a zero-sum game. Every credit wasted on a red is a credit we cannot give to a clean childless nineteen-year-old. That is the stark reality. Our interests are not– cannot be– aligned.

I eagerly await the adoption of the Orvaran system in Voa, and hope that future transitions may happen with minimal loss of non-red life.