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?

  • Munrock ☭
    21·
    1 year ago

    First and I think only time I’ve argued with comrades here was over 40k.

    I think at the end of the day any given 40k fan can be someone who’s aware of the issues with 40k but still enjoys it (for so many possible reasons, but growing up with it being the focus of your social circles is a big one I think), or they could be someone who enjoys the fascist fantasy, or they could be completely politically ignorant and unaware of how much it’s shaping their worldview.

    There’s too many variables. There’s a vast diversity of liberal media out there, an even bigger variety of people consuming it, and every combination thereof should be judged on its own merits.

    I used to love Age of Sail Royal Navy/British Empire stuff. I read all the Patrick O’Brien books (Master and Commander etc), Hornblower, and tangentially Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe books. I can’t read any of it anymore without it making my skin crawl, but I can remember how much I loved those stories. I’ll still get goose bumps listening to the Sharpe theme, but I’d rather pull my brains out through my nose than defend the actions of the British Empire. I don’t think there’s a contradiction there. It’s just the emotional vestiges of the growth and change we go through as humans. I feel a little sadness and nostalgia when I see the colonial Hong Kong flag I grew up under burning, but I’ll also be the one that set it on fire.

    And Star Trek. I don’t doubt for a second that Gene Rodenberry died a closet communist. The shows themselves are a mess ideologically, with writers and showrunners of different ideologies all throwing their ideas into the mix of what the Federation is and how a stateless, moneyless society that has a science-exploration-diplomacy space navy with a military rank system actually works under the hood. But then because of that ambiguity Star Trek becomes what you make of it. I can see the old me, who enjoyed it as a space military thing, getting pissed off about the recent musical episode while the current me thought it was genius.

    At the end of the day what happens between you and liberal (any) media is unique to you, and only you can judge the effect it’s having on you. Where we have to be careful, though, is how we conspicuously consume and talk about media around other people, because our actions and words affect how they interact with the same.