Is any of it real? I mean, look at this. Look at it! A world built on fantasy! Synthetic emotions in the form of pills, psychological warfare in the form of advertising, mind-altering chemicals in the form of food, brainwashing seminars in the form of media, controlled isolated bubbles in the form of social networks. Real? You want to talk about reality? We haven’t lived in anything remotely close to it since the turn of the century. We turned it off, took out the batteries, snacked on a bag of GMOs while we tossed the remnants in the ever-expanding dumpster of the human condition. We live in branded houses trademarked by corporations built on bipolar numbers jumping up and down on digital displays, hypnotizing us into the biggest slumber mankind has ever seen. You have to dig pretty deep, kiddo, before you can find anything real. We live in a kingdom of bullshit, a kingdom you’ve lived in for far too long. So don’t tell me about not being real. I’m no less real than the fucking beef patty in your Big Mac. **Mr. Robot** --- How do we know if we’re in control? That we’re not just making the best of what comes at us, and that’s it. Trying to constantly pick between two options. Like your two paintings in the waiting room. Or Coke and Pepsi. McDonald’s or Burger King? Hyundai or Honda? It’s all part of the same blur, right? Just out of focus enough. It’s the illusion of choice. Half of us can’t even pick our own our cable, gas, electric. The water we drink, our health insurance. Even if we did, would it matter? You know, if our only option is Blue Cross or Blue Shield, what the fuck is the difference? In fact, aren’t they the same? No, man, our choices are prepaid for us, long time ago **Elliot Anderson** --- Is it that we collectively thought Steve Jobs was a great man, even when we knew he made billions off the backs of children? Or maybe it’s that it feels like all our heroes are counterfeit. The world itself’s just one big hoax. Spamming each other with our running commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight, our social media faking as intimacy. Or is it that we voted for this? Not with our rigged elections, but with our things, our property, our money. I’m not saying anything new, we all know why we do this, not because Hunger Games books makes us happy but because we wanna be sedated. Because it’s painful not to pretend, because we’re cowards. Fuck society. **Elliot Anderson** --- A bug is never just a mistake. It represents something bigger. An error of thinking. That makes you who you are. **Elliot Anderson** --- We’re all living in each other’s paranoia. **Elliot Anderson** --- True courage is about being honest with yourself. Especially when it’s difficult. **Mr. Robot** --- Daemons. They don’t stop working. They’re always active. They seduce. They manipulate. They own us. And even though you’re with me, even though I created you, it makes no difference. We all must deal with them alone. The best we can hope for, the only silver lining in all of this is that when we break through, we find a few familiar faces waiting on the other side. **Elliot Anderson** --- When I was a kid I got into web design by ripping off sites I liked. All you had to do was view source on your browser and there it was. The code. You could copy paste it, modify it a little, put your name on it, and like that, it was your site. View source. What if we had that for people? Would people really wanna see? **Elliot Anderson** --- The bug forces the software to adapt, evolve into something new because of it. Work around it or work through it. No matter what, it changes. It becomes something new. The next version. The inevitable upgrade. **Elliot Anderson** --- People are all just people, right? When it gets down to it, everyone’s the same. They love something. They want something. They fear something. Specifics help, but specifics don’t change the way that everyone is vulnerable. It just changes the way that we access those vulnerabilities. **Mobley** --- People walk around, act like they know what hate means. Nah, no one does, until you hate yourself. I mean truly hate yourself. That’s power. **Fernando Vera** --- Every day, we change the world, but to change the world in a way that means anything, that takes more time than most people have. It never happens all at once. It’s slow. It’s methodical. It’s exhausting. We don’t all have the stomach for it. **Elliot Anderson** --- This is the world we live in. People relying on each other’s mistakes to manipulate one another and use one another, even relate to one another. A warm, messy circle of humanity. **Elliot Anderson** --- Life is so much easier when you’re numb. **Elliot Anderson** --- The concept of waiting bewilders me. There are always deadlines. There are always ticking clocks. That’s why you must manage your time. **Whiterose** --- You think people out there are getting exactly what they deserve? No. They’re getting paid over or under, but someone in the chain always gets bamboozled. **Mr. Robot** --- If they lock me up, the kind of door they close don’t matter. **Fernando Vera** --- I hurt Krista. I don’t feel good about that. I hope you’re not mad at me. But you have to admit, she’s just like everyone else. Too afraid to peak over their walls for fear of what they might see. Not me. That’s what I do. I look. **Elliot Anderson** --- People always make the best exploits. **Elliot Anderson** --- Even extraordinary people, and I believe you are, are driven by human banalities. **Tyrell Wellick** --- Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, but give a man a bank, and he can rob the world. **Tyrell Wellick** [[Quotes]]