I remember reading a review of Disco Elysium back when it first came out that analyzed the Union something along the lines of "the game isn't as clever as it thinks it is by making the union members the corrupt bad guys, which would have been a tired subversion years ago."
And it just makes me think that Evrart and Manana are so clever that they even fool a lot of the players. At the risk of stating the obvious at this point, these two know exactly how to use society's prejudice to their advantage. Reminds me of two great pieces of advice from two great tricksters:
"Don't forget what you are. The World will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used against you" from Tyrion Lannister, and Mr. Wednesday's insistence that the easiest person to fool is someone who thinks they're clever.
How does Evrart manage to keep tabs on everyone and everything in Martinaise, despite being cloistered and immobile? Surely it's not that he's stationed his smartest lieutenant at a perch that gives him a bird's eye view of the entire district directly adjacent to the office and telephone--after all, that's just a lazy Mesque, a rootless Boiadeiro who believes in nothing but self-interest.
Then you take one look at Evrart--this fat, disabled man with a lazy eye and a slimy disposition. No one would believe he's a hero. He wants you to feel clever for seeing through his lies; he wants you to hate him. After all, aren't fat, disabled people greedy and lazy? The powers that be can control a man who wants to line his pockets: literally, controlled opposition. A man like that only speaks of seizing the means of production as an empty promise--hot air--because to do more would be a dangerous, idealistic proposition, of greater benefit to the line worker than the union leader skimming off the top.
I think there are really only two moments that we get a picture of the real Evrart: in his moment of triumph after seizing the docks from Joyce--and in Easy Leo's story of the two brothers who protected him in school.
You can't trust a word Evrart or Manana say, but that's not because they're corrupt, it's because they're true believers dedicated to the cause, and they're talking to a cop.
