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Honestly one of the enormous problems with the stance of pushing the Imperium as the heroes of 40k is the combination of the inherent conservative undercurrent of tabletop hobbies in general, the increasing focus on orthodox readings of works within a given canon, and the push
in fandom that increasingly makes parody and critique nearly impossible. The parasitic nature of fandom and the hidebound nature of opening, formerly isolative communities is a perfect storm of problems where you have people who want a faction which they can project onto, excuse
the evils of the faction which is chosen as the "good guys", and then excuses are made to form a particular orthodox reading of the canon (and the Imperium is Good is a fomenting orthodox canon both due to the popularity of the imperium and the long standing problem of people who
use the nature of the setting as one where evil is the "logical" conclusion of its metaphysics to excuse all of that evil)
Combine with fandoms need for projection, anything which might spell out that the Imperium is evil becomes difficult to struggle against because no one wants
Combine with fandoms need for projection, anything which might spell out that the Imperium is evil becomes difficult to struggle against because no one wants
to hear that they're projecting onto genocidal, xenophobic monsters. In much the same manner as reading, say, 1984 and relating to the experiences of Winston that without the ability to critique or understand the origin point of the initial commentary as well as the intent it was
attempting to relate. Critique is hard enough in very straight forward, unsubtle works when people have already decided what it means before critiquing it. It is even harder when it starts as parody and three decades of incestuous design leads to people not only forgetting but
never having even known it was parody, that they cannot imagine the world in which it was created nor do they know who and what it was poking fun at. The world of Margaret Thatcher's England is, to them, past.
Breaking a fandom out of it can be very difficult, if not impossible.
Breaking a fandom out of it can be very difficult, if not impossible.
The conclusions have been made and evidence will be drawn to meet it. And that fans now write it, create for it, influence means that those will come in further. This is redoubled by the nature of nerd communities to reject any reading save the orthodox reading as coming from
outsiders and invaders. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, a feed back loop. And while 40k has not yet become A Nazi Bar, it has over the course of my life swung back and forth to very close, and its own content pendulums very close, and never even far at all, from openly
accepting and admitting it.
40k is a spectacle game where no one is the good guy, but it never critiques itself, let alone allows others to critique it. Always beware people who think there are heroes when at best there are flawed, immoral protagonists serving a direly corrupt
40k is a spectacle game where no one is the good guy, but it never critiques itself, let alone allows others to critique it. Always beware people who think there are heroes when at best there are flawed, immoral protagonists serving a direly corrupt
and monstrous empire. Do not forget that space marines are representative of an ur fascist force, a militant christian (and Catholic Space Nazis is very blatant, fascism is inherently middle class and Christian in Christian countries) special forces forever persecuting and
creating new enemies in the forever war which fascisms demands. Do not ever let anyone tell you that they are the good guys because they are the point of view characters.
