this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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There is currently a very funny, kind of sad dust-up over Helldivers 2, in which self-proclaimed “anti-woke” gamers have previously heralded it as a rare game where they believe “politics” does not play a factor. Their faith was been shaken by an Arrowhead community manager they believed they found to be (gasp) progressive who was then subsequently harassed, but their head-scratching reading of Helldivers 2 as a “non-political” game is worth examining.

The only thing that makes sense is that these players have the shallowest of surface-level readings of the game. You are a patriotic soldier serving Super Earth. You must kill bugs and evil robots trying to hurt your brothers-in-arms and innocent citizens. There are no storylines to insert progressive causes into, everyone wears helmets so no “forced diversity.” Therefore, no politics.

Of course, this is…wildly off the mark, as Helldivers 2 is about the most blatantly obvious satire of militaristic fascism since the film that inspired it, Starship Troopers.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (4 children)

This seems like some made up shit. For all 5 people who don't seem to get the stinging nature of this game's satire, I just can't bring myself to care.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

If you can't tell it's satire, you are the punchline of the joke.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This could be right and maybe I'm under a rock but I am suspicious of articles that reference dumb things people are supposedly saying without any quotes or citations

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (20 children)

I think what a lot of people miss here is that when people say "keep politics out of x" what they mean is "keep blatant cringeworthy soapboxing out of x."

Helldivers is tongue in cheek and doesn't feel the need to bash you over the head with "But actually fascism bad" every five seconds, instead it has gag recruitment ads and an overall really funny presentation that works whether you get it or you don't.

I guarantee you that no rightoid looks at a one world government "super earth" with fond eyes.

  • If you're an identitarian the fact that the Helldivers can be men or women is unacceptable, not to mention it's not clear if they're ethnically homogeneous

  • If you're a libertarian the de-individualization and constant surveillance/propaganda from a totalitarian state is unacceptable, double that if you're an ancap

  • Monarchists would probably like this if it were an explicit monarchy, but it's not, so they would probably also not like it

The only faction who would like this game's world is classical fascists, the kind Mussolini was, which ironically a lot of people seem to really really like on any side of the political spectrum, cause it's literally just totalitarian ideological illiberal authority.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

I guarantee you that no rightoid looks at a one world government “super earth” with fond eyes.

My brother in Christ, "rightoids" are literally falling over themselves to support a man who openly proclaims his intentions to become a dictator.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

You're giving these people too much benefit of the doubt on their critical thinking skills. The kinds of people you're talking about aren't the ones who complain about politics in media. It might annoy them when it's as bad as you're talking about, but it bothers everybody else as well when it's that bad. The ones who can't see the satire here are the same ones who scream about the main character being a woman.

To them, any politics is blatant cringeworthy soapboxing, and their definition of politics is anything that disagrees with their black and white worldview. When they say "keep politics out of x", they mean "never give me anything outside of my echo chamber." And they absolutely love the Super Earth world government. They don't think any deeper than whether something affirms their worldview or not. They'll go from supporting the cops and government taking away other people's freedoms to screaming at a cop a second later for giving them a speeding ticket because the cop "violated their first amendment rights" or whatever. As somebody else put it in the comments:

Conservatives think they're the default. They don't have an ideology, a religion, a sexuality, or an ethnicity. They're normal. It's everyone else who's different.

These kinds of people believe that there are two groups of people: an in-group that consists of themselves, and an out-group that is everybody else. And they aren't political, but the out-group is.

They believe that there are two races: white and political. Two sexualities: straight and political. Two genders: male and political.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (7 children)

Are you high?

Fascists are really good at misreading shit. They can assume ethnic homogeneity

'Double that if youre an ancap' wut?

'Everybody likes Mussolini' citation n... No. I like that he was dragged around on a meat hook. Nobody left of an ultraconservative like Obama likes any fascist (though if we time travel to kill 40s nazis, i call coco Chanel; and yes I'm stealing most of her wardrobe after, no you can't have any. I have a seam ripper for those parts, or I'll buy a trophy case)

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because people disagree about whether a certain ideology is desirable, you could have an accurate portrayal of it accepted as positive by its supporters and negative by its opponents. The supporters aren't necessarily missing "satire" - maybe they see the same thing that the opponents do, but they like it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

conservatives do not comprehend satire

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's very dangerous to oversimplify your opponents (in a strategic sense). Generalization is also very risky.

Also, to label them as particularly different from yourself/your social group in some way (especially a way that you consider to be inferior) is the first step on the path to dehumanizing them, as a basis for justifying disdain/anger/hatred/etc. It's far more likely that they have different life experiences from yours which have lead them to understanding the world differently, but are generally similar otherwise. They "do not comprehend satire" in the same way that you do, that does not mean they are incapable broadly.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I'm gonna watch the opening video to restore my faith in managed democracy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I am all about killing fucking bugs in the name of humanity. They are the bugs, after all, not us! Hell yeah.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Paul would be so proud.

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