Senator Armstrong's Speech / Limp Dick Lawyers and Chickenshit Bureaucrats

About

Senator Armstrong's Speech refers to a copypasta taken from a scene in the 2013 video game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in which the character Senator Armstrong monologues at Raiden about the state of America, notably saying the lines, "Fuck all these limp-dick lawyers and chicken-shit bureaucrats. Fuck this 24/7 Internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit." Since the game's release, the speech and several individual quotes from it have been used in memes online.

Origin

In the climactic battle of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (released in early 2013), Raiden fights Senator Armstrong. During the battle, Armstrong monologues to Raiden about what he sees as his future for America. The full speech reads:

I do need capital. And votes. Wanna know why? "I have a dream." That one day, every person in this nation will control their OWN destiny. A land of the TRULY free, dammit. A nation of ACTION, not words. Ruled by STRENGTH, not committee. Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around. Where power and justice are back where they belong: in the hands of the people! Where every man is free to think -- to act -- for himself! Fuck all these limp-dick lawyers and chicken-shit bureaucrats. Fuck this 24/7 Internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit. Fuck "American pride". Fuck the media! Fuck all of it! America is diseased. Rotten to the core. There's no saving it -- we need to pull it out by the roots. Wipe the slate clean. BURN IT DOWN! And from the ashes, a new America will be born. Evolved, but untamed! The weak will be purged, and the strongest will thrive -- free to live as they see fit, they will make America GREAT AGAIN!

On March 25th, 2013, the speech was uploaded to YouTube by user Stranding Reaper, gaining over 5.7 million views in 10 years (shown below).

Spread

Over the following years, Armstrong's speech became a copypasta and was widely cited as one of the best monologues in the Metal Gear series by many online. For example, on June 2nd, 2017, it was included by Redditor ThePhxRises in a thread about the best quotes from the Metal Gear series.^[1] On December 25th, 2018, Redditor RestlessRiot added the full text to /r/copypasta,^[2] gaining over 610 points in four and a half years (shown below).

The copypasta also inspired parodies. For example, on May 22nd, 2023, Twitter user @UltimaShadowX^[3] posted a fighting game-themed variation on the speech, gaining over 2,800 retweets and 17,000 likes in 11 days (shown below).

Ten days later on June 1st, Twitter user @ganglemanva then created a voiceover of the post in a video, gaining over 2,800 retweets and 11,000 likes in one day (shown below).

armstrong's thoughts on the FGC

ft. the incredible @funnywes as Raiden, who easily helped made this one of my favorite posts in a while https://t.co/UrFO84KkH6 pic.twitter.com/xI1yIZXCsP

— E.G. Simmons ☕ (@ganglemanVA) June 1, 2023

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References