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Politics in Media - The Good, the Bad, and the Preachy

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This thread's purpose is to discuss politics in works of fiction/media. Please do not use this thread to talk about politics or media in isolation from each other.

REMINDER: US politics is a banned topic. Mentioning or alluding to it will get you thumped or suspended

     Original OP 
I felt we needed a place to discuss this because a lot of us love discussing the politics behind stories both intended or unintended. We all love discussing it and its nice to have a place to discuss it in these charged times.

I was thinking of asking what people thought were the most interesting post-election Trump related media.

The Good Fight on CBS Access devoted their entire second season to dealing with the subject.

Edited by kory on Feb 26th 2025 at 5:46:51 AM

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#301: Nov 12th 2018 at 10:48:13 PM

I mean, yes? But 2 was also a lot more ridiculous and pulpy at the same time, which I thought hampered its message a lot. You start 1 hiding out with an old couple and their granddaughter living under the Nazi yoke in Poland, dodging patrols and having to keep your head down in a country that's suffered under Nazi rule for around 30 years; you start 2 with a super suit and a secret nuclear submarine, doing battle with the Aryan version of a SHIELD helicarrier. The escalation lends itself to, if not directly contributes to, a sort of Denser and Wackier take on it. It is balanced somewhat by the excellent subplot with BJ's dad showing him as an awful racist and even giving him time to talk up the whole 'proud white man of the South' thing before BJ kills him, but the first one definitely felt like a more realistic handling of the subject matter.

It's been fun.
Alycus Since: Apr, 2018
#302: Nov 12th 2018 at 11:41:15 PM

[up] One other moment in the game that was quite interesting was in Roswell, where a Nazi military parade is ongoing and average white Americans are cheering it on, while BJ looks on in horror and sadness at how the people are letting this happen. And since he's in disguise at the time, the player can't just massacre them.

Other things that stood out to me include an old pre-invasion newspaper opted arguing that America should just give up the war and embrace the Nazis because "they're just trying to defend the white man".

Additionally, a character that joins the resistance later on, who was part of an analog of the Black Panthers, argues that white America mostly rolled over to the Nazis while black America kept up the fight, and BJ realizes she's right.

So the game did have quite a few hints at how America was easily conquered by Nazis not just due to military defeat but also because of willing collaboration, it just took a backseat to Nazi killing.

NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#303: Nov 13th 2018 at 1:16:25 AM

I watched a play called Girls Kill Nazis, and it made the very good point that direct violent action is as often required as official, high road action in dealing with fascists / Nazis, especially when they achieve power.

Tolerating or otherwise enabling them just results in them grabbing for more and more.

To make a reference to my own work, Dolph Gradich, a repentant former officer trying to fight white supremacy to make up for his past, states at one point that the worst White Supremacists he dealt with were people who honestly believed they weren't racists simply because they weren't Hitler.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#304: Nov 13th 2018 at 1:18:20 AM

Once again I'm going to express my dismay that Nazis keep becoming the topic of discussion in OTC. I get why, but it's still really disheartening.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#305: Nov 13th 2018 at 3:46:35 AM

[up]It is disheartening, but also necessary. The moment we decide to stop talking about the Fash because we're worn down by how depressing it is that they are even a thing, is the moment they win.

Angry gets shit done.
Corvidae It's a bird. from Somewhere Else Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
It's a bird.
#306: Nov 13th 2018 at 8:36:32 AM

And since he's in disguise at the time, the player can't just massacre them.

Considering that the game also explicitly tells you that the town has been evacuated before you go on to nuke the nearby Nazi HQ, I kind of doubt it would have let you done that anyway.

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#307: Nov 13th 2018 at 9:59:29 AM

With the new Wolfenstiens what I've heard (I have yet to play either-I'd like to, but have no $$$) is that they have a case of Mood Whiplash due to combining pulp Nazis with realistic ones. I think that's an interesting concept personally, but I do agree the themes can kinda clash.

Leviticus 19:34
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#308: Nov 13th 2018 at 10:14:15 AM

Again, we run into the fact Reality Is Unrealistic.

The Nazis were a collection of bizarre personalities and caricatures in real life. People who believed in insane racial theory, some actual occultists, and people who rewrote human civilization the way they thought it should be on Rule of Cool. They also did try to make super-weapons and their own Bisonopolis.

Pulp Nazis downplayed elements.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
KazuyaProta Shin Megami Tensei IV from A Industrial Farm Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Shin Megami Tensei IV
#309: Nov 13th 2018 at 11:05:24 AM

Most ideologies actually go downright bizarre. I mean, terrorism in the Third World countries is had being sometimes inspired for Mao, sharing his millitary guerrilla tactics. In a way, I can actually blame Mao from the Peruvian Interal Conflict (more exactly, for getting as bloody as it did). Is just bizarre.

Especially with dictators, who tend to have massive personality disorders and abusive relations.

Yeah. A dictatorship is—in a way—Domestic Abuse taken to national level.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Nov 13th 2018 at 2:08:47 PM

Watch me destroying my country
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#310: Nov 13th 2018 at 11:06:34 AM

[up]I can confirm living in a dictatorship: dictators and their followers are absuing boyfriends in general, the parallel are pretty glaring a this point.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
KazuyaProta Shin Megami Tensei IV from A Industrial Farm Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Shin Megami Tensei IV
#311: Nov 13th 2018 at 11:14:39 AM

I told you! This ideology works. I know that all previous attempts were wrong, but...please. I will do it right this time.

Thanks babe. You're so cute.

two weeks later

How is that you didn't make dinner today!? You're cheating in me with that other country, eh? If you want them so much, go live with him!

one week later

Please. Come back babe

Watch me destroying my country
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#312: Nov 13th 2018 at 11:30:47 AM

I can vouch for that. Trickle-down economics has charted the same course. We broke up with trickle-down in 2008 after it sent our country spiraling into a recession and spent the intervening years building our economy back up. Then in 2016, trickle-down came crawling back swearing it was a changed man and like a fool, we accepted him back into our home.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 13th 2018 at 12:30:53 PM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#313: Nov 16th 2018 at 11:34:16 AM

https://www.white-wolf.com/newsblog/a-message-from-white-wolf?fbclid=IwAR3_GkU_L2upW-0FgaHPBK64iZFqljk09LxVeZsl-MVs0IWkJbYWx9FjsAA

Well, the White wolf thing became a much much bigger deal than it might have been before.

Chechnya's government got involved and it was national news in Russia.

I was quoted in the Kommersant for my review.

Here's an English article.

https://hybridtechcar.com/2018/11/16/the-americans-released-a-board-game-about-chechen-vampires-and-sultan-ramzan-in-the-republic-they-called-it-blackening/?fbclid=IwAR1OPYdaia3NMtdSDrTTLC6lCyVPkmoYo3yOON2WQZJNP3oSTgGEy6sShps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#314: Nov 16th 2018 at 1:22:06 PM

Isn't that the same company that got into trouble for turning the IRA into Fianna Kinfolk?

If they haven't learned the lesson after twenty years, they're not going to.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#315: Nov 16th 2018 at 1:37:11 PM

Which is probably why Paradox Interactive imposed direct rule from Stockholm took over administering White Wolf.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#316: Nov 16th 2018 at 1:38:03 PM

[up]Some of them and I can see why, the game try a lot to be grimdark and that werewolf were kinda fuck up a lot, just look the get of fenrir or the black furies....

or dear gaia, the black furies.....

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#318: Nov 16th 2018 at 5:05:10 PM

@Tobias: Hm, I'm of two minds regarding that approach. On the one hand, what you said. On the other, it's makes it sound like people are just stupid or co-dependent, when in fact there is a well-funded, highly organized propaganda machine that deliberately and systematically keeps bringing that ideology (and other's associated with it) back again and again. They will never stop, because a lot of money is at stake for certain groups of well-connected people.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#319: Nov 16th 2018 at 7:20:05 PM

[up][up]Woah, that second one even name-checks you, that would be kinda cool... If it wasn't fucking Crimerussia.

As a side note, Paradox taking direct control of WW as a result of this is part of why, despite the horrible insensitivity of the Chechnya chapter of V5, I still feel comfortable about getting the Tremere clan symbol tattooed on my arm today. (Of course, the MET LRP I play in has been using the 1st Edition rules and setting since it started over 20 years ago, so that's part of it too).

Angry gets shit done.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#320: Nov 16th 2018 at 8:21:18 PM

I may get a Malkavian tattoo because of it.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#321: Nov 17th 2018 at 5:43:09 PM

I'm not sure where this fits, so I figured this would be the best place...

Bill Maher slammed for disrespecting Stan Lee, questioning the importance of comic books.

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#322: Nov 17th 2018 at 5:49:35 PM

It's impressive how much Bill Maher can be loathed by 'his' side and still be considered the voice of the Left by the Right.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#323: Nov 17th 2018 at 6:06:32 PM

In Maher, we have a clear demonstration of worthless, parasitical sub-annelid that spits in the face of things of value their reptile brain can't even comprehend while calling itself enlightened for doing so.

Leviticus 19:34
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#324: Nov 17th 2018 at 7:00:02 PM

Maher is useful for demonstrating every Republican liberal stereotype combined.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#325: Nov 17th 2018 at 8:38:42 PM

Maher's theme song

Angry gets shit done.

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