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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 2:04:41 GMT
How did we get to the point where I am starting to wonder if I owe the Gamergaters an apology? How? Here is an article claiming that 40K players are facists. Yep, this is a thing. I don't even know how to respond to this level of insanity.Am I taking crazy pills? Or is it the rest of the world that has lost its minds? Rather wonderfully the article never gets around to explaining WHY we are facists (BFG is in the 40K universe, so I am one of the fascists I guess). Someone posted a picture of Trump on the Emperors body and Someone made a gamergate meme once. There are vague references to harassment but no explanation on how they relate to 40K players. The author always bitches that people didnt like their previous article about 40K. I guess that proves it, I'm a nazi. I don't even know what to say in reponse to such absolute crap. I am stumped.
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Post by TempestFennac on Nov 22, 2016 6:07:19 GMT
Their arguments don't make a whole lot of sense. Seemingly linking Thatcher to Fascism suggests a lack of credibility, and complaining about people not thinking critically about something they do for fun seems kind of like complaining because a restaurant reviewer doesn't go into detail about the sort of decorations the restaurants they visit have. I don't know much about WH but the fact that it depicts Fascism as being super-inefficient hardly seems like it's supporting the idea even if people aren't analysing all the background fluff.
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Post by Canuovea on Nov 22, 2016 6:33:45 GMT
Um, I don't see all that much wrong with the article, actually. He seems to be referring mostly to the denizens of /pol appropriating 40K crap and using it seriously. This is a thing that happens, and frankly, even most of 4chan seems to think that /pol is full of crazy fucking fascists/racists/etc. That's something according to someone I know who is actually often on 4chan. I'm not entirely sure what you think his thesis is here? I mean, the idea that some people actually do think the Imperium of Man is a good thing is not so far fetched. I do think he misses the point of appropriating these things from 40K, though. It doesn't mean they're good or bad, but they can be used, via memeing, to convey certain ideas and emotions. Though I do think the Trumperor was meant to cast Trump favourably. That being said, I could use a "HERESY" stamp to convey comic distaste because, yes, its obviously satire and kind of funny. For instance, say I see someone suggesting that the Gotetra should be turned into pastel colours, you know, to match MLP:FIM. That doesn't mean I actually think that the Inquisition is a good thing, its just a way to express my disagreement in a humorous fashion. I don't actually think whoever suggested that should be taken out and shot. That doesn't mean one can't use this in a harmful way, or in a way that spreads harmful ideas... for instance a strange rabid hatred of furries... images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.moddb.com%2Fimages%2Fgroups%2F1%2F3%2F2055%2FExterminatus.jpg&f=1Of course now we have to coin the phrase: "Trumperor". That all being said, that is the extent of my disagreement. Nowhere does the author (a big fan of 40K) suggest that all 40K players are fascist. To say so seems to miss the point of the article by a pretty big degree. I mean, he even goes through the trouble of showing how 40K has an inherently anti-fascist message! He seems more interested in the dangers of satire gone wrong and how a chunk of 40K players seem to have missed the point (not that I'm sure as many as he thinks have done so, but a chunk have). If anything, the confusion seems to come from the assumption that /pol is full of fascists... many of whom like 40K despite the fact that 40K is clearly anti-fascist. And frankly, uh, that seems kind true from where I stand.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 17:01:21 GMT
Honestly the article is so badly written I don't entirely understand what he's trying to say.
He seems to be drawing a connection between- 1- 40K players view the imperium as the good guys
2- some 40K players hold poltical views he doesn't like
3- there is a significant number of 40k players who wish to live under facism.
No he doesn't say literally all 40K playrs are facist. But he implied its some kind of large problem, like its not there are one or two nutters out there as in any group but that 40K in particular has a lot of facists playing it. If he doesn't think its a more than usual number, why the fuck did he write an article? In the same way if someone showed up and said "Have you noticed how many Harkovast readers are thieves?" I assume most of you would get offended. If the person then went "Well if you aren't a thief you aren't one of the ones I meant, you aren't ALL thieves." I think you would find them disingenious, and still be offended. I mean if hes saying that 40K players have the exact same amount of facism as society in general, what is the point of the article? If he is writing an article about it he is implying that 40K players are more likely to be facist then the general population and the difference is great enough to require comment. I, personally, think that is completley insane and the author provides no evidence to back up this insane proposition.
The implication here is that there is that there is some kind of wide spread facism/trump support amongst 40K players. The title is literally "why are there so many..." so he clearly thinks is very wide spread.
My guess would be a lot of american 40K players do support trump, becuase a lot of americans generally do! Shock news liberals, you cant control other peoples politics. Horrifying I know. Supporting Trump isn't facism and there is no proof beyond one funny picture that Trump support is more wide spread amongst 40K players than anyone else.
I dont support Trump or facism, so why am I getting tarred with this assholes broad brush?
Okay well let me play this game too.
There's a problem of people involved in the Mary Sue who are pedophiles. I mean theres just this creepy under current of wanting to molest kids going on over there. Whoa whoa, I didn't say they were ALL pedophiles. If you work there or read mary sue and don't touch kids, I don't mean you, why would you be offended? But I think its a really serious problem. They posted this picture of Trump as the God Emperor on their site once, and we all know he likes grabbing pussy, what does that tell you? I heard a news story about kids getting touched once nad it made me want to just smash my computer screen so I never have to see Mary Sue again. I read the Mary Sue, so I'm not saying this as some obnovioux outsider who hates that subculture, I am part of it so you know you can trust me. But speaking as a none pedophile mary sue reader, I really think we need to confront the kid fucking element of the fandom.
See how that works? No proof, not really saying anything specific, just a nice broad smear that can't really be defended against.
The idea that people miss the point of the satire doens't mean they support facism or mean they support trump or any other stupid shit. It just means they haven't thought abotu it that deeply. You can like batman without worrying about if you want a millionair in his underware to punch criminals in real life. You can like judge Dredd without a disclaiminer that you dont really want a facist cop to execute criminals. Taking something at face value and not giving it much thought it not the same as endorsing it. People just like space marines blasting aliens, that doesn't relate to them holding any real world political views. Unless this author can show me people saying "I wish I lived in the Imperium" then hes talking bullshit.
If the author is not trying to smear 40K players, why does he even bring up Trump or mention vague statements about harassment? The comments include people saying how bad the 40K fandom is, especially since they made 40K video games and you got video game fans invovled and made the whole fan base became toxic. So if the author ISN'T insulting 40K fans it seems like his own supporters are missing the point as badly as I am.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 17:16:33 GMT
Also, the guys claim of being a real fan kinda rings bullshit. The stuff he refers to, the idea that its parody, the jokey named characters are all from the first eddition (called Rogue Trader) from the 80s. That shit came out when I was a kid. The modern setting is not how he describes it at all. He also called Eldar the good guys, which is something only someone who knows NOTHING would jump in with. The Eldar would kill a billion humans to save one eldar life and think nothing of it. Their arrogance created the eye of terror. Only someone with a totally superficial knowledge would say that. This guy played it when he was young, recently bought a Knight model he thought looked cool and thinks he has the authority now to insult the entire fandom.
He is the stereotypical SJW, pretending to be a fan of something so he can insult the fan base. He's almost a self parody. He's also like Hillary (the goddess of misguided progressives) talking about how Pepe the frog is a nazi becuase someone made a meme.
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Post by Canuovea on Nov 22, 2016 20:01:45 GMT
I don't know what to say. To me the biggest mistake he makes is that he has some misunderstanding of how memes work, but the rest of what he is saying doesn't seem controversial. Have you been watching that Arch Warhammer guy's channel? I saw him post something similar about this article, also claiming that "SJW thinks 40K players are fascist". To me that seems to miss the main thrust of the argument the guy is making. He isn't really arguing that 40K players are fascist, because that some are is something he points out early and uses as the base of his argument. His actual argument seems more about how people can mess up satire and coming to terms with such disagreement and divide within the community.
And if that Trumperor meme came from /pol, it probably was made by fascists.
I don't see how he isn't an actual fan. If the bloke was painting a fucking titan, a model that costs over $140, he's a 40K fan. That's the metric GW uses anyway, I'm sure. His references to older things should mean he has been in the hobby for a while, not that he is out of touch, especially when talking about everything else. Also, "how dare he put forward the argument that the Eldar are good guys (moreso than the Imperium at least), he clearly isn't a real 40K fan!" sounds a bit off, yes?
And the modern setting IS how he describes it. He says it was once less serious, but now GW has lost sight of that. He also says that even in the modern incarnation the Imperium is a shitfest of fascism and bureaucratic incompetence that would rather make use of a turd to clean the governor's boots than use it to save a life. He's right about that. He even points out that the Salamanders are one of the few forces of actual good in the Imperium, something I wasn't aware of until rather recently. So overall his core point is correct with regards to 40K: Anyone who thinks the Imperium of Man is an argument for fascism is basically incapable of actually thinking about the setting at all, because it makes Fascism look like the worst of all possible worlds.
But no, he believes something about the setting that you disagree with and therefore he is not a real 40K fan. THINK ABOUT THAT. Even he didn't say the people who disagreed with him on the Imperium's state of fascism aren't actually fans, they're just not thinking critically about their setting. And again, this was a guy who was (according to himself) painting a fucking titan when the election results came in. Not to mention he talks about the Tau, who are a relatively recent addition.
Except he has not done that. You're blowing this way way out of proportion. I'm not insulted by his article, for instance.
The bloke is a fan and participates in the setting. I'll prove it, I'll make a case for the Eldar being the good guys, and I dare you to accuse me of not being in touch with the setting. Watch.
Eldar would kill a billion humans to save a handful of their own: Yes, of course they would, such tribalism is common in 40K generally speaking, and while the Eldar undervalue human life, they don't actually undervalue human life all that much more than the actual Imperium. At least the Eldar care about some life!
The arrogance of the Eldar Empire created the Eye of Terror... and their descendants have spent their entire existence dwindling to nothing in an attempt to actually help correct that mistake! They constantly attempt to foil the designs of Chaos and the other denizens of the Galaxy despite being so few. They are the final bulwark against the madness of the 40k world, and they are crumbling. Iyanden did not stand against the Tyranids because they were arrogant, they did it because they had to for the greater good of the universe; they could have fled and maybe the Imperium would have stopped the bugs, but probably not.
Blaming the current Eldar for the Eye of Terror is like blaming the current Leadership of the Imperium for the Chaos Space Marines. That's the Emperor's fault.
Blam, the Eldar are the good guys. Or the better guys. And who knows, maybe the Tau are the only hope for the bloody useless Galaxy just like he says.
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Post by StyxD on Nov 22, 2016 20:17:41 GMT
I also don't know what to say. Or at least I don't know how to say it without insulting you, Hark. Reading your posts here and how you completely missed the point of the article is just painful. I would try to debate, but... really, if you just elect to read the most superficial level of "there are two Trump/GG memes with WH40K and therefore all players are fascist" and choose to be offended at it, then why should I put any effort? Good luck, Canouvea. He is the stereotypical SJW, pretending to be a fan of something so he can insult the fan base. He's almost a self parody. Meanwhile you seem to be a stereotypical 4channer, who read the title "Gamers are over" and decided that SJWs are coming to take away his games and dignity. And then claims those who disagree are "not real gamers". To be honest, I don't think the article is very good and it certainly likes remotely performed psychology, which is always iffy... but I guess you never noticed how many nerd rightists seem to just adore WH40K? Okay. Also, at this point you will not convince me, Hark, that you're not just looking for stuff to be offended at SJWs.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 20:57:34 GMT
I am baffled about what you think I've getting wrong. "Why Are There So Many Actual Fascists in the Warhammer 40K Fandom?"
He brings up gamergate, harassment, and Trump and some how ties them to 40K players.
If his point is just "40K is parody, why dont people see that?" why not make an article titled that and why bring up the other stuff I just listed? If he isn't trying to smear 40K players I don't see what that other stuff has to do with it.
Also all the comments by people agreeing that 40K players are toxic doesn't seem to be helping your case. They like the article, but agree with my interpretation of it.
if the question is "why dont 40K players realise the setting is parody?" the answer is "it isn't. This isnt rogue trader, you are about 6 or 7 edditions out of date." If the question is why don't players realise hte Imperium arent very nice, teh answer is "Because all the bad guys are much worse."
But to pretend the guy was just asking innocent questions and not making nasty assertions seems dishonest to me.
My example of "Mary Sue fans touch kids" seems abotu as valid as this article.
Why when Trump won would he want to smash him 40K models? How the fuck does an Imperial Knight relate to Trump? If he isn't saying the 40K fan base are all Trump supporting facists, what was that part supposed to mean?
Canuovea nad SttXD you seem to be giving this guy amazing benefit of the doubt to the point of literally ignoring all the things he actually said.
I guess I will do an artile called "Why do black men rape white women so much?" When you complain that thats incredibly racist I can say "Are you tryign to claim NO black men rape white women? I was just discussing the issue. Men of all types cna commit rape, I wasn't singling anyone out for condemnation." Would you believe me? Cause i sure as fuck wouldn't believe me! I would think I was an asshole that didn't like black men.
And no I am not saying 40K players suffer racism like black people blah blah. My point is that this article if insulting to people who play 40K. It uses innuendo and not evidence to back up its insulting claims.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 21:07:20 GMT
I am not sying he disagrees with me about the setting, I am saying what he says abotu the setting is wrong. Most of what he quotes is from a very early eddition, like 20 years ago. Eldar aren't "the good guys" any more than the Imperium are.
If you are going to get rightious sayign how bad it is that peopel like the imperium because thats facist, why is he okay saying eldar (racial supremacists who view otehr peoples as having no intrinsic value) are good? Hes doing exactly what he attacked others for.
He's not doing a differnet interpretation, hes using out of date information and things that are demonstrably untrue. I mean the funny named character is an exmaple in the ORGINAL RULEBOOK! Thats 20 years old!
When he says "I am a real 40K ffan and i think the fandom are facists" and then talks like someone with only a passing knowledge who hasn't played in 20 years, that kinda makes me think hes not a fan. He has a acasual interest, bought a model recently cause he liked it and uses that as cover to attack the fandom unfairly. "See, I'm a 40K fan, so when I call you all facists, you know you can trust me" The fact you refered to him being a 40K fan and that proves his views are valid is somethign CANOUVEA BROUGHT UP FIRST!
I questioned his credentions in response to Canuovea lording them up. Canuovea said he was a big fan to proive hes legit, so i questioned if he really is. Now StyxD is are recharacterising that as me leaping in going hes not a true fan so ignore him.
I hate to say it, but thats kinda dishonest. You can't raise points and then cry foul if I question them.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 21:13:51 GMT
Show me a 40K fan who wants to live in the Imperium. Find me that person, who thinks it would be awesome place to be. They don't exist. So in what way are they actual facists?
You say he never said "all 40K players are facist."
He said "Why Are There So Many Actual Fascists in the Warhammer 40K Fandom?" What the fuck is that meant to mean except that lots of 40K players, more than teh normal population are facists? No he didn't literally say 100% of them, obviously, thats just being pedantic. But hes implying actual facism is some kind of real problem in the 40K fandom.
If hes not saying 40K players are related to facism (which he relates to Trump) why did a Trump victory make him want to destroy him Knight model? Was it just a random object he wanted to break in anger and hes mentioning it completely at random and its got nothing to do with the article?
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 21:17:45 GMT
This is demonstrably false and is never stated in Canon. Eldar do nothing for hte good of the universe. They fought the Tyranids to save themselves from teh Tyranids. Their original plan was to hide but the hive fleet was too big so they had to fight. Eldar wouldn't lift a finger to stop Tyranids eating human planets. The idea that they were worrying abotu anyone but themselves when they fought the tyranids is something I have never heard before.
But I'm getting side tracked now.
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Post by Canuovea on Nov 22, 2016 21:31:13 GMT
I'm being dishonest?!
Right. He claims to be a fan throughout the article. You decide he is somehow tarring all 40k players as fascist, which would in theory then include himself unless he isn't really a fan. I pointed out (or "lorded up") that he is a fan and therefore the idea he is calling all 40k fans (including himself) fascists is essentially wrong. It was a weakness with your previous point. Your response is to then claim he isn't a fan. This is something you must have thought originally or you'd never have made this thread because you aren't stupid enough to believe that he would call himself a fascist.
I then point out that your underlying assumption that he was not a fan was unfair. What is more, I'll say, it was implicit in your original post and necessary for what you have said here. You claim I'm being dishonest because I revealed an underlying assumption necessary to your point here from the beginning and then say how unfair it is?
It was unfair to begin with! It didn't start being unfair when you explained it, it was something you had to believe from the beginning! If it is dishonest to demonstrate and then attack implicit premises, than I suppose argument generally is dishonest.
He even puts it very specifically in the article when getting to the point!
Even if you're caught up with the article's title rather than the article's contents, I'd say that an entire segment of a popular website counts as "many". And yes, /pol/ is a fucking cesspool, go ahead and dispute that underlying premise if you like.
Fucking clickbait titles, never properly specific. But that's everywhere on the Internet, you have to get used to it and read the actual article.
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Post by Harkovast on Nov 22, 2016 21:42:32 GMT
Sorry cnauovea, I clarified that, it was StyxD that should be aimed at. he was the one mischaracterising me. I clarified what I meant in an edit while you were posting. StyxD implied I was the one that brought that up, not you. That was unclear when I posted becuase I was mixing up who said what. Again, apologies for not being clear with that.
If what you say is the point of the guys article, he dances around the houses so much casting smears and insults that I can hardly be blamed for not getting it. The article is really badly written and casts a lot of weird innuendo about 40k players.
To go back to my article ideas, if I find some weird internet subreddit of people who molest kids but like reading teh mary sue, would an article titled "why are so many mary sue fans kiddie touchers?" be okay? Or would that be insulting and deliberately misleading.
yeah, there are facists who like 40k. there are facists who like my little pony. There are facists who read the mary sue. There are people who would love to live under facism everywhere. Some peopel think that shit sounds good.
If he didn't want to imply that there is a problem with facism in the 40K community...WHY DOES HE KEEP IMPLYING THAT?
It seems super sleazy.
"Well I never TECHNICALLY said they were facists. I never said they ALL were. I was just asking questions..."
That's Glenn Beck level arguing. "Why wont Obama deny that hes a terrorist? I dont think he is, I never said he was, but why wont he deny it?"
Just Asking Questions is a really dirty tactic. If you want to accuse someone, accuse them and own it, otherwise dont make nasty implications.
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Post by Canuovea on Nov 22, 2016 21:48:38 GMT
As I said, the problem with the article is that it misses how memeing actually works. Using 40k stuff for memes, propaganda or not, does not actually imply admiration for the 40k universe. At least not in most cases. But that's the only real problem with the argument.
Also, now you're backtracking. You're saying he didn't really say that 40k fans are all fascists, just "many". And again, he was quite specific which fans in particular. Now why would that include you, Hark? You said that this apparently made you a Nazi, when really it didn't.
And yes, /pol/ is filled with fascists, not just fascists, but generally the "Alt-Right", who Trump has catered to and used to become President. The link, then, between that titan he was painting, the Alt-Right, and Trump's victory becomes pretty clear.
So if /pol/ counts as "many", and its denizens can be counted as 40k fans, then yeah, 40k has a fascism problem with "many" of its fans.
I don't think it truly adds up to that much though, as I said, the memeing can't really be used as evidence. But that is the problem with the article, not much else.
Basically, since 40k is obviously anti-fascist in terms of its message (after all, who would want to live there?) why is it so popular with the actual fascists at /pol/? You'd think that they would recognize that it isn't actually agreeing with them, yes? But they don't. That is what the article is about. The article is not about how horrible 40k is and how people who play it are fascists.
As I've said before, the underlying assumption there is that /pol/ is filled with fascists who like 40k. Sure. But that's kinda hard to dispute. Even other boards on 4chan tell the racists and fascists to "take that shit back to /pol/". I mean, I suppose it could be wrong, and I don't think it is quite as widespread as the author makes out (as in, memeing is not evidence for fascism), but /pol/ is pretty bad.
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Post by Canuovea on Nov 22, 2016 21:49:58 GMT
Alright, fair enough.
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