this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Way too keen on the Imperium of Man or the Star Wars Empire or "humanity, fuck yeah" stuff in fiction.
Ya, why is that exactly? The "humanity, fuck yeah" stuff I remember loving when I was a young 4chan dweeb, but at some point it started to make me uncomfortable and I'm not sure why. I figured it was just the cringe of that trope being overplayed in reddit writing prompt suggestions, but there definitely could be something else there, related to in-groups or maybe the victimization makes it appeal to fascists. Idk lol.
I saw it on tumblr of all places.
These are just my related thoughts.
RPGs (both computer and tabletop) use "races" in a way that enables "race play" for comfortable middle class white kids. Orks in Shadowrun are "just" black people, but in the setting all the real life beliefs of the white hegemony about black people (more resilient to pain, gruff, high birthrates, bad at maths) are made real in the setting through the statline juking. "Humanity, fuck yeah" presents a safe, plausibly-deniable, way of being racist.
"Humanity, fuck yeah" also allows a racist to say "Oh, no, I love all races of humanity. Captain Anderson is black in Mass Effect!" while still engaging in exactly the same behaviours. Their eagerness to lean into the fantastical is a way of evading voicing any of their actual beliefs about their own position in white society.
It also reflects the fascist belief that some people are just born for greatness. Obviously, for the fascist, this is about the nation and local industrialists, but "Humanity, fuck yeah" leans into this belief without stating anything about particular groups of humans. Being part of the special noble ones (through birth) that will save humanity/everyone (through shedding empathy and "woke nonsense", and engaging in ruthless realpolitik) is actually a pretty common fantasy/sci-fi trope and fascist rhetoric.
After a while, if enough fashy people lean into it, it becomes a sort of shibboleth, but more naturally formed than the OK symbol.
Not to say that anyone who is into "humanity fuck yeah" stuff or has posted it once is a fascist, it's just something that I've seen crop up a lot and I'd consider a reddish flag.