i dont even know what to say about this man

    • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      IMO all of these kinds of satire fail because they revel in the fascist power fantasy, but if you portray the fascists in your story as the lonely insecure dorks that they often are in real life I don’t think they’d be so quick to appropriate the imagery.

      • FlakesBongler [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        Right

        I like the game because it’s chaotic, one second you’re pouring napalm into a bug nest and the next you’re being slammed into a brick wall at 60mph by a charger

        The problem is, it’s a product designed to make money, so despite the inherent satire, Arrowhead appeases the reactionary parts of the fanbase

        The moment I knew they were never really going to make it as biting as they could was the whole “Save the Children’s Hospital” MO

        I thought it was funny at first because why was there a children’s hospital on the frontline of a war zone in the first place?

        But they played it completely straight and convinced the loudest worst chunk of the fanbase that even if Super Earth was bad, Helldivers themselves can be good people

        Even when they made fun of that with the MO to save the hospital for spindly 20-something men, it was cooked

        Well, There’s that and the fact that i’m convinced that most of the people who play the game can’t/won’t read

      • Abracadaniel [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        How do you feel about the film Jojo Rabbit? It used the more silly characterization you describe, but that exact thing is what many criticize it for. I think some found it too humanizing of the Nazis it portrayed.

        • FlakesBongler [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          Oh yeah, the effeminate gay nazi in that movie was definitely played for laughs but also sympathy because of course the Soviets are portrayed as monstrous for executing him

          When, newsflash, he was eagerly participating in THE FUCKIN HOLOCAUST

    • AnarchoAnarchist [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      While I think you are 99% correct, there are one or two pieces of satire I have not seen fascists adopt.

      “Springtime for Hitler”, the musical number in “History of the World part 1” - both seem to effectively satirize the third Reich in a way that is unpalatable to fascists. I think in both cases, it’s because they are made to look silly.

      Normally, satire of fascism tries to keep them dangerous and scary. Your typical fascist wants to be likened to a rabid dog, because a rabid dog demands respect, they want to be feared. They do not want to be the subject of ridicule. They want you to see their intricately choreographed marches and think that it is intimidating, not campy.

      Then again maybe I’m completely off base, and Nick Fuentes is actually a huge fan of both.

      • Frivolous_Beatnik [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        not satire but this bit of anticommunist propaganda (political officer shooting deserters, one man gets rifle one gets ammo etc) from early CoD kinda goes hard

        Welcome to Stalingrad. You’re about to begin the greatest moment of your life. The Germans have lost hundreds of tanks and planes. Hitler’s brutalized hordes are now advancing towards Stalingrad over mountains of their own dead bodies. Our Bolshevik Party, our nation, our great country, have given us the task not to let the enemy reach the Volga and to defend the city of Stalingrad. Forward against the enemy!

        Up into the unremitting battle, comrades, for Stalingrad, for our great country! Not one step back! Cowards and traitors will be shot!

        Do not count days, do not count miles, count only the number of Germans you have killed. Kill the German - this is your mother’s prayer. Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth. Do not waver! Do not let up! Kill! Death to the German invader!

        mfw lenin-pogger

        • SickSemper [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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          2 months ago

          COD did some unironically good portrayals of communists in WaW, especially compared to every other piece of American propaganda. Yeah they eventually go “killing nazi prisoners is bad”, but that moral stance rings hollow when you started out in a fountain filled with the corpses of your comrades as the fascists execute the wounded and dying. Plus ending the campaign blasting the Soviet anthem and planting the flag is incredible

  • nohaybanda [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    Ironic fascisms in the end is just an invitation to gratuitously revel in the cruelty and awfulness of the ideology and then “safely” step away from it when you wish. I don’t think there’s a way to make it not a pipeline towards real fascism.