I'm actually surprised a word like "bigot" even survived the apocalypse. Considering she was born into this world, and yet she says it with ease like some Californian college student.
It was my first thought when I heard it too.
They are telling you that is useless to sincerely repent, try to compensate offense or apologize to them, like conservatives do. You are going to be an enemy no matter what.
The lesson is very clear.
I just finished watching the leak to the end, and I think it's more open to interpretation. The superficial reaction to this scene would be to side with Ellie if you are the same insecure little dipshit that she is, or side with Maria if you are a balanced person. I think this scene is actually meant to foreshadow and summarize the bigger conflict that the story is about. The older and more empathetic Maria is trying to encourage the younger, and more black-vs-white person that is Ellie to learn to see the world through the eyes of the other side, and resolve differences through empathy and understanding, as opposed to conflict and shutting out the person with a different view. When you live in a post-apoc commune it's difficult to "cancel" people like your regular snowflake finds preferable to do - instead you have to face those with a different outlook on life and learn to live with them, that's what's harder.
I'm pretty sure this whole game will present just part of Ellie's arc, and eventually we'll get to see some kind of "TLOU3: Redemption", where Ellie will have to be in Maria's role towards some other character who will be "her younger self".
The story is still a dumb movie however, my mind is unchanged. I hate it when in movies they do this thing, and they've done it in the game as well - they try to pretend they are very edgy, gritty and realistic about characters and story, and suddenly they break their own rules by putting a character in a situation where he wouldn't realistically survive, and yet he survives.
There is no conceivable reason Abby's gang would have left Tommy or Ellie alive, so what was the point in directing this whole scene that way, so that all three of them with Joel would end up getting captured, but Tommy and Ellie would be left alive. Typical dumb movie writing.
Combine this with zero or next to zero replayability, hardly any changes to the stealth gameplay, and you have one balnd and depressing game, at least in my opinion, that's only interesting as a tech showcase.
