bonkFeb 26, 2025
William Gillis 🏴

The new Deputy Director of the FBI, Bongino, said that Trump should do like "The Dark Knight Rises", and “set up a courtroom” in the White House and “just start making judicial decisions.”

This is why I'm constantly going on about the need to think critically about how even .01% of the population will react to media with a power fantasy in it, no matter how narratively disparaged. Doesn't matter if it was a critique of the left/jacobins, every latent fascist sees this shit and just goes WANT!!!

Feb 25, 2025 at 11:46pmWeb
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 25, 2025
A ton of these people will never engage with theory or history on even the most shallow level. They just see big strong man get to hurt people in a way that looks cool and fucking wank to it. Contrast that cool evil court with the irritating horrible banality in Andor's court sentencing scene.
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 25, 2025
This shit is a fucking plague in Star Wars fandoms, where a good half of random folks who see a thing couldn't tell you even the slightest bit what the Rebellion is or whatever, they know individual characters and moments/images of COOL BADASS POWER. Lots of fans really fanatically love the Empire.
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 25, 2025
Such media images constitute the base vernacular of a society. This is why when the architect of neoreaction, Curtis Yarvin, writes his wildly influential screeds, he speaks in terms of being "a Sith Lord" and basically reproduces movie villain shit. It's what people know. And it's attractive to a significant subset.
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 25, 2025

Libs, unfortunately, understand this shit too. Which is how you get the fucking State Of Israel tweeting about how doing a genocide is cool because they're Harry Potter or some shit.

Horrifically cringe? Yes. Vapid and insultingly stupid? Of course. But effectively speaks to fuck tons of people.

Show threadGary HoustonFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon reasoning things out before you act, contemplating likely consequences and whether you or others would be better off, is apparently a minority and unpopular preoccupation.
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon I keep thinking about this when I’m not even writing just thinking about writing. Another example I think about a lot is hellsing (or hellsing ultimate), and how the whole “fascist femboys” thing in part is because of that one character from that show. And the show unambiguously portrays fascists as evil and pathetic, and it ridicules them, and it’s about them being turned into a bloody pulp. Yet fascists see this and they love it because they feel represented. Like what are authors even supposed to do at this point (to be fair, maybe they shouldn’t have made fascism appear so “exciting”, and it still is part of the so bad it’s good again kind of genre so there’s plenty of over the top cartoonish villainy).
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon (that anime is trash but a campy kind of trash)
Show threadCibo 🏴Feb 26, 2025

@enby_of_the_apocalypse @rechelon What doesn't help with Hellsing is that it's a show/manga whose main appeal is seeing over the top bloody action scenes and it climaxes at supernatural Nazis having the fun of their lives descending on a capital during an "epic" Nazi monologue. They die smiling like they are finally entering Valhalla, with a couple hyper competent Warriors along the way.

They act like rabid animals and die in clownish ways but it seems easy to compartmentalize for dipshits

Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@cibo @rechelon true… :/
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon @cibo that’s why I like how for example the abridged version lets Walter die a pathetic, pointless death after his betrayal, not giving him the opportunity to redeem himself
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon @cibo the entire thing does illustrate how fascism is a death cult though. The whole point is how they are so *excited* to die in a war (and take as many civilians as they can with them), which is what motivates them. (Well that, and revenge on alucard and hellsing, but I feel like that mostly serves as an excuse for starting the war they so desperately want)
Show threadundead enby of the apocalypseFeb 26, 2025
@rechelon @cibo overall the entire thing is just over the top edgy as fuck, so i definitely do see your point. (I mostly like to watch it occasionally despite its many flaws as a sort of guilty pleasure because it’s a hilarious parody of itself, because seeing nazis die in over-the-top grotesque gory ways is oddly satisfying, and because integra is an absolute badass and I love her)
Show threadCibo 🏴Feb 26, 2025
@enby_of_the_apocalypse @rechelon Oh it's definitely satisfying to watch (well, read in my case). It's been many years so I don't remember the story being rancid in itself, it's just that everything operates under the rule of cool so it's liable to get fascists pumped up just like Star Wars with its imperials and Siths, and I friggin' love SW