I’m scrolling through TikTok and come across a “#cozy” game about a turnip who attempts to evade his property taxes. I check the Nintendo e-store and find, hey, it’s on sale! So, I make the impulse purchase just a week after the 2024 presidential debate. Hoping to escape the constant stream of political dread for a few short hours, I open the game and find myself in resistance to paying taxes on my greenhouse.
Playing Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion during the United States 2024 election cycle asks the hard questions, like “Why am I paying taxes to support the United States military industrial complex, aka, Mayor Onion?” and “Should Turnip Boy wear cat ears or a knife on his head?”
As I’m exploring the dangerous tunnels of a nuclear bunker, I think about the actual threat of nuclear war that often trickles into Twitter discourse. A piece of macaroni recites the entire “what the fuck did you just say to me” copy pasta to break the tension.
What Turnip Boy taught me is that sometimes our coziest games can also be the most political. The conversation surrounding the cozy game genre promises an escape from the chaos and dread of our social media feeds. Yet, the games ask us to make political decisions that affect our virtual worlds. Sometimes you’re a tax evading turnip. Sometimes you’re a farmer weighing the pros and cons of funding the local market or a mass grocery chain.
I could be overthinking it. For now, I’ll go back to finding another hat for my anamorphic turnip.
Into The Spine