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?
I am at peace with it because it’s the environment I am forced to live in and entertainment is part of what makes it bearable. I am aware of the propaganda laced into it, whether it’s there as capitalist realism from makers that don’t even examine their ideology, or whether it’s deliberate messaging.
I have more of an issue with defensive-to-toxic fandoms of such liberal media. I don’t feel guilty by association. I feel disgust, sometimes even pity, for people that don’t just fail to examine what they consume but outright refuse to believe there’s any such ideology to it and get weird and defensive about the product.