There is no satire on the nose enough that its targets won't unironically adopt it
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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IMO all of these kinds of satire fail because they revel in the fascist power fantasy, but if you portray the fascists in your story as the lonely insecure dorks that they often are in real life I don't think they'd be so quick to appropriate the imagery.
There's a reason fascists don't love The Great Dictator.
This is why Disco Elysium did fascism so well.
Right
I like the game because it's chaotic, one second you're pouring napalm into a bug nest and the next you're being slammed into a brick wall at 60mph by a charger
The problem is, it's a product designed to make money, so despite the inherent satire, Arrowhead appeases the reactionary parts of the fanbase
The moment I knew they were never really going to make it as biting as they could was the whole "Save the Children's Hospital" MO
I thought it was funny at first because why was there a children's hospital on the frontline of a war zone in the first place?
But they played it completely straight and convinced the loudest worst chunk of the fanbase that even if Super Earth was bad, Helldivers themselves can be good people
Even when they made fun of that with the MO to save the hospital for spindly 20-something men, it was cooked
Well, There's that and the fact that i'm convinced that most of the people who play the game can't/won't read
It's a cool action game and as a antifascist I enjoy the satire but it's not going to educate the chuds.
Definitely
Arrowhead is selling a product and their behavior in doing so definitely defangs the satire
but I am glad they refuse to put cowboy hats into the game
Nothing froths up the chuds more than being denied their western wear
My friends didn't even remember element 710 smh.
The number of people who have never picked up on the fact that Super Earth seeds planets with Terminids so that they can later kill them and harvest E-710 is astonishing
They explain it in the game too. But I guess it's easy to miss especially if you miss the MO.
The average gamer is not what we would call literate
The gamers are not intellectual, to put it mildly.
The depictions of lonely sad dorks in teen romcoms helped the formation of the incel movement.
How do you feel about the film Jojo Rabbit? It used the more silly characterization you describe, but that exact thing is what many criticize it for. I think some found it too humanizing of the Nazis it portrayed.
Oh yeah, the effeminate gay nazi in that movie was definitely played for laughs but also sympathy because of course the Soviets are portrayed as monstrous for executing him
When, newsflash, he was eagerly participating in THE FUCKIN HOLOCAUST
You say that but I've met people who think Ignatius J. Reilly is supposed to be relatable and cool
IJR steals from his boss, thats cool.
While I think you are 99% correct, there are one or two pieces of satire I have not seen fascists adopt.
"Springtime for Hitler", the musical number in "History of the World part 1" - both seem to effectively satirize the third Reich in a way that is unpalatable to fascists. I think in both cases, it's because they are made to look silly.
Normally, satire of fascism tries to keep them dangerous and scary. Your typical fascist wants to be likened to a rabid dog, because a rabid dog demands respect, they want to be feared. They do not want to be the subject of ridicule. They want you to see their intricately choreographed marches and think that it is intimidating, not campy.
Then again maybe I'm completely off base, and Nick Fuentes is actually a huge fan of both.
True for some anticommunist satire too.
not satire but this bit of anticommunist propaganda (political officer shooting deserters, one man gets rifle one gets ammo etc) from early CoD kinda goes hard
Welcome to Stalingrad. You're about to begin the greatest moment of your life. The Germans have lost hundreds of tanks and planes. Hitler's brutalized hordes are now advancing towards Stalingrad over mountains of their own dead bodies. Our Bolshevik Party, our nation, our great country, have given us the task not to let the enemy reach the Volga and to defend the city of Stalingrad. Forward against the enemy!
Up into the unremitting battle, comrades, for Stalingrad, for our great country! Not one step back! Cowards and traitors will be shot!
Do not count days, do not count miles, count only the number of Germans you have killed. Kill the German - this is your mother's prayer. Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth. Do not waver! Do not let up! Kill! Death to the German invader!
mfw 
Is my most frequently used emoji for a reason.
COD did some unironically good portrayals of communists in WaW, especially compared to every other piece of American propaganda. Yeah they eventually go “killing nazi prisoners is bad”, but that moral stance rings hollow when you started out in a fountain filled with the corpses of your comrades as the fascists execute the wounded and dying. Plus ending the campaign blasting the Soviet anthem and planting the flag is incredible
who made this? 1000% accurate
Cdigoddess (i think thats her handle on everything, at least on tumblr it is)👍
Ironic fascisms in the end is just an invitation to gratuitously revel in the cruelty and awfulness of the ideology and then “safely” step away from it when you wish. I don’t think there’s a way to make it not a pipeline towards real fascism.
That is why yall should dump this game and play deep rock galactic with me instead. Also the dwarves are communists.
ROCK AND FUCKING STONE
FOR KARL
Are they communists? They're definitely in a union but they complain about their jobs and the company all the time
communism is when no complaints?
Communism is when the company has spent eight years promising new kneepads and hasn't delivered
Yeah - definitely have a strong union culture but I figured they're more "vaguely class conscious manual laborers/mercenaries" with aspirations of owning their own mining companies based on some of their lines.
Is the offline/singleplayer release worth checking out? I heard there's like a non-online/multiplayer version released.
They have a singeplayer vampire-survivors-like called DRG Survivor, and a roguelite called DRG Rogue Core - though iirc Rogue Core is as singleplayer as the original DRG, in that you can play it solo or up to 4 player coop. I heard Survivor was fun but idk anything about Rogue Core
more importantly, they're union dwarves
Yeah I should have been more specific, they aren't all communists but in my local we sure are.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: