Kontextmaschine

17th January 2021

Post reblogged from Baconmancer with 10,808 notes

nightbringer24:
we-are-knight:
nurselofwyr:
tripropellant:
tripropellant:
fascists latching on so so so hard to warhammer 40k because they are too stupid to realize that warhammer 40k is about how evil fascism is is easily one of the biggest ironies of idiot nerdboy culture
warhammer 40k: there’s a civilization in our setting that sacrifices millions of people and wages constant war in the name of what is essentially a big corpse, they’re so stupid they think their own crumbling obsolete-ass technology is magic, everyone around them is objectively better than them at everything except having a ton of soldiers, even the people who live amongst literal demons have a higher quality of life than these idiots
someone who jacks off to photos of kaiser wilhelm: oh right, you mean the good guys
Reblogging, since this blog occasionally discusses 40k, and this is my stance on it.
Why does everyone forget that one of the main groups that was routinely and very clearly parodied in early 40k was the USSR and communism? It’s not just fascism that’s being solely parodied in 40k, it’s the WHOLE GAMUTE of authoritarian regimes: absolute monarchy, fascism, communism, theocracy.
Hell, one of the units in the Imperial Guard is called a FUCKING commissar, who’s sole job is propaganda and shooting retreating soldiers. Gee… I wonder what real world government implemented that idea?
The Imperium is a despotic fundamentalistic oligarch feudal society, anyone that tries to assign good guys or bad guys to this setting utterly fail to see “the point” of it. It started as a company selling product, setting up a satirical setting of the bleak future of humanity regressing to uber catholic medieval society BUT IN SPACE.
This is not a setting meant to proclaim any political thought, or really making any other statement than “we are fucked as a species”, beyond a potential heavy handed version of Frank Herbert’s Dune, in which charismatic leaders are fucking lethal to the species, or Isaac Asimov predicting and up and down in intergalactic society, and 40k is right now in the low part.
Also, if anyone tries to point to something and says “fascism”, just keep your eye out. Chances are they are not going to appreciate nuance, or understand the origins of something as complicated as 40k and it’s history. Just like you wouldn’t blindly trust someone pointing at a country with free healthcare and call it “socialist”.

Yes, the Imperium is “Totalitarianism, as seen from later 20th Century England.” That’s why the Imperial Guard are WWII Soviets (human waves herded by harsh commissars, tanks, tanks, tanks), the Space Marines are WWII Nazis (highly equipped and trained ubermenschen stormtroopers, but expensive to field) and it’s all held together by a wash of Catholicism.