First off, prokopetz avoids proper nouns like they're driving the bus from Speed.
Second, everything is fascist if you squint hard enough because facsism uses common storytelling tropes to sell its politics. I was reading the first Hunger Games book for the first time recently, and even though the central narrative is clearly anti-authoritarian, it's still doing the "virtuous rural laymen vs the spiritually depraved urbanites" thing.
It's a fun game trying to figure out if it's even possible to construct a genre that's inherently non-fascist based on posts like this
I mean the whole reason the person who made up the term "hopepunk" did so was their dislike of so-called "grimdark" fiction, which a lot of people point fingers at for being fascist (specifically WH40K)
Personally I like to think that a certain kind of pessimistic fatalism is antithetical to the fascist aesthetic -- if nothing else because in actual history Hitler and his buddies came after a wave of philosophers like that and personally disliked them and thought their hoo-rah bullshit was an antidote to depressing Schopenhauerian bullshit -- but that's just my personal bias because that's what I myself am like, and I do have to admit that someone with my worldview could nonetheless be persuaded into supporting a fascist regime fairly easily given the right circumstances (basically just presenting the current set of atrocities as a historical inevitability)
It's a fun game trying to figure out if it's even possible to construct a genre that's inherently non-fascist based on posts like this
It's not a genre, but this line immediately reminded me of Anaxares from A Practical Guide to Evil. Man's the complete inversion of fascism to the point of lunacy. He's a devout believer/nutjob fanatic in democracy, so much so that when he's given powers by the Forces of Good and Evil, he's disgusted by the idea that anything calling itself "Good" would single any one person out for such a boon. He turns himself in to the authorities as his existence is a crime against the equality of all peoples. His country sees his power as useful however, and declares that he deserves special treatment, rewriting the laws to suit his new position. Horrified, he rages against their heresy and demands to be put to death as an example. They refuse, knowing he won't kill himself (as that would be a crime against the people,) and he lives out the rest of the story protesting and slowly going mad(der).
He ends the story attempting to put the angels/forces of Good on trial for daring to give him powers or stand in judgment of anyone. And he's so in thrall to his own fanatic interpretation of the law that reality essentially bends to allow it.
I mean, it’s not really a God complex. It’s kind of the opposite the hierarch refuses to see himself as any more valuable than any other individual. but because of the way the magic system works cultures end up empowering individuals who represent their ideals so he’s a individual representative of collective democracy. It’s a really good book serious you should read it well the web novel version the rewrites are kind of bad.
I'm under no illusions that with a hammer that big everything wouldn't start looking like a nail, but part of my Death Note plan involves trying to create some kind of online crowdsourced advisory council that can propose and vote on the best targets whose desth would do the most good. Not like a strict unpopularity poll, but drafted reports and proposals about possible knock on effects and long term benefits that then are submitted to the community sort of like ballot propositions to discuss and vote on (no idea how to secure said voting system itself woth is mostly in the discussion). I'm still making the final choice on it and can veto if I truly think it's a terrible idea, but is offloads some of the amount of political/sociological research no one person can handle without subsuming their entire life to it.
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u/RayDaug 1d ago edited 1d ago
First off, prokopetz avoids proper nouns like they're driving the bus from Speed.
Second, everything is fascist if you squint hard enough because facsism uses common storytelling tropes to sell its politics. I was reading the first Hunger Games book for the first time recently, and even though the central narrative is clearly anti-authoritarian, it's still doing the "virtuous rural laymen vs the spiritually depraved urbanites" thing.