askchapo

22977 readers

333 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

Posts must ask a question.
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Asterix and Tintin. Good or Racist? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Discuss

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Asterix consciously served a very clear purpose in post war France. After a humiliating surrender and widespread collaboration with the Nazi regime, liberal French ideology and identity was in crisis. Asterix is about a little Gaulish village keeping up the resistance in Roman occupied Gaul — conquered, but with unbroken spirit. It was exactly the story the patriotic French ego needed after the Vichy government had betrayed, arrested, deported and handed over to the Nazis over 75.000 of their Jewish friends and neighbors, who were murdered in the death camps.

De Gaulle pushed the narrative:

starting in 1944, that almost the entire French nation had been united in resisting the occupation with the exception of a few dishonorable traitors.

It wasn't until 2012, that a French president acknowledged, that the round up of French Jews

was a crime committed "in France, by France,"

On the other hand, Asterix helped to interest kids in ancient history, so there is that.