Comment on Why play a fascist? Unpacking the hideousness of the Space Marine
CaptSatelliteJack@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
I’ll be honest, I thought this was gonna be a thoughtless rage-bait click getter. Instead, it was a fascinating examination of what a Space Marine really is, through the lenses of history, politics, and culture. I’m glad I read that.
Letstakealook@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
I agree. I only have shallow knowledge of 40k, but the exploration of the history around the universe was very fascinating. I also think it’s interesting that this issue seems to occur with satire, particularly when involving fascism. It brings to mind starship troopers and the more recent helldivers, how so many miss the point. I can’t help but feel the glorification of the military and military service in many of today’s societies lends itself to this problem. The military is inherently authoritarian, against diversity (including diversity of thought), and intentionally dehumanizes “the enemy” (turns out, it isn’t easy to kill people). Couple this with an image of masculinity that centers around adversity at best, and violence at worst along with so many men who feel they have missed opportunities to meet this standard and you have a recipe for fascists. How do we address this within our society? I don’t have the answers, but we should all be thinking about it.