Title says it all.

I am a huge 40k fan and I know how problematic 40k is with its portrayal of endless war and facism. Comrade @relay@lemmygrad.ml has put it best:

Maybe all of the 40k factions are fascist and that universe’s lore has no dialectic of class struggle and is to violent to be realistic, thus serves as part of the superstructure for fascism.

it reinforces the idea that the conflict between tribes will always supercede the conflict between classes. It’s wrong on so many levels.

And yet I can’t hate it. I have a hard time taking 40k serious and seeing it as more than a silly boardgame with cool minis and (deliciously) stupid lore.

Same with B99. I know that the show is horrid copacanda, I know that shows like this prevent people from seeing pigs as the pigs they are because “funny cop show portraits them as silly and relatable.” But I still like the show a lot. I like the characters and just pretend that it plays in a parallel universe were cops aren’t the worst.

I just sort of suppress any critical thoughts and take those things at face value without thinking about what they imply. It’s just very hard to find alternatives.

So yeah I feel terrible for finding enjoyment in this stuff even though I know I shouldn’t. Can anyone relate or do you perhaps have similar feelings towards other franchises?

  • EuthanatosMurderhobo
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    10 months ago

    40k actually got pretty funny to me, as GW are trying to portray Tau as communist, when the closest to communism by a country mile as they’re described are…Craftworld Eldar=) Automated production, near total social mobility, meritocracy, war only waged by necessity… Still dicks to the others, of course, couldn’t have it any other way in 40k.

    I mostly dropped it because GW aren’t even trying to keep the lore consistent. Shitty philosophical and political ideas in fiction just help me separate it from reality.

    When content is both uninteresting and pushing some cringe, that’s…yeah, that just amplifies the cringe damage.

    • Shrike502
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      10 months ago

      trying to portray Tau as communist

      Pretty sure that was just fanbase memes, GW was too busy with shitty, half-baked Asian stereotypes. Meanwhile Gav Thorpe, one of the most prominent Black Library authors, claimed in a reddit logo AMA that Tau were “based on NATO”. Which is a separate layer of hilarious

      • EuthanatosMurderhobo
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        10 months ago

        Nice. Didn’t know about that. Are we sure he meant it in a based way?

        The whole “that’s something vaguely Asian and tOtAlItArIaN” thing with the Tau was always a part of that for me though. I mean, China and DPRK’ve been the main commie boogeymen since USSR collapsed. That’s probably why the meme sprung up to begin with.

        • Shrike502
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          10 months ago

          Are we sure he meant it in a based way?

          I’ll try to find the actual thread or screenshots. But he probably did not tbh. Agreed with the rest

      • RedCatOP
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        10 months ago

        Fucking what?!

        What’s next?

        “Hey Guys, Dan Abnett here I just wanted to check in to tell you that the Imperium is actually based on Ukraine and Chaos is modern day Russia.”

        Thinking about it that might already be the case anyway.

        • Shrike502
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          10 months ago

          Lmao, that thread. I’ll try to find the thread with Gav, see what was said verbatim.

          Incidentally, I once saw a fan (mod of a 40k RP server) claim “Imperium are the Nazis, and Chaos are the Jews”, and then get mad and throw a tantrum, when people pointed out comparing victims of Holocaust to a faction that practices all sorts of monstrous rituals and specifically seeks to destroy reality is, you know, not a good look. But that’s fans, and fans are silly