At every level, from loading screens to shipboard chatter to the text on loading screens, the Helldivers 2 satirizes fascism. But that doesn’t stop fascists from swarming to it. It doesn’t matter that the message is critical or that the intent was good, it just crestes a safe space for them.
You go into a random group with voice chat on and you’ll quickly find them, being openly fascist and openly racist, and they just duck behind the cover of “I’m just leaning into the lore/roleplaying” when you call them out.
Same thing happened when I played Darktide.
In Helldivers 2, though, friendly fire is on and very lethal. And it feels good to shoot real nazis in a videogame.
Tbf in the case of 40k this is mostly an online problem. I can’t speak for every region but at least here in my part of Germany I have yet to met a fascist playing Warhammer irl.
Which is impressive considering I life in east Germany which is unfortunately swarmed by Nazis.
It’s been proven time and time again, if it’s possible for fascists to ignore the satirical aspects of the media that criticises them, they’ll happily do so. They’ll appropriate the satire that makes them look scary, violent or insane. The only surefire way to avoid that is to make them look stupid and ridiculous.
See this is what gets me about 40k as well.
At every level, from loading screens to shipboard chatter to the text on loading screens, the Helldivers 2 satirizes fascism. But that doesn’t stop fascists from swarming to it. It doesn’t matter that the message is critical or that the intent was good, it just crestes a safe space for them.
You go into a random group with voice chat on and you’ll quickly find them, being openly fascist and openly racist, and they just duck behind the cover of “I’m just leaning into the lore/roleplaying” when you call them out.
Same thing happened when I played Darktide.
In Helldivers 2, though, friendly fire is on and very lethal. And it feels good to shoot real nazis in a videogame.
Tbf in the case of 40k this is mostly an online problem. I can’t speak for every region but at least here in my part of Germany I have yet to met a fascist playing Warhammer irl. Which is impressive considering I life in east Germany which is unfortunately swarmed by Nazis.
It’s been proven time and time again, if it’s possible for fascists to ignore the satirical aspects of the media that criticises them, they’ll happily do so. They’ll appropriate the satire that makes them look scary, violent or insane. The only surefire way to avoid that is to make them look stupid and ridiculous.