In this context, I feel like if he was trying to make that point then it would include more of a “by killing Nazis you become a Nazi” critique. I’m down for critiquing hero worship and individualist adventurism, but not by satirizing or smearing antifascists.
it wouldn’t have to. like if there was enough revisionist stuff (like the americans raising the flag over berlin in jojo rabbit) and a bunch of anti-soviet content then you could make it clear the message isn’t some mealymouthed liberal i-am-very-smart nonsense like that
not effective as a political tool but art never is. if people wanted to take a ‘by killing Nazis you become a Nazi’ lesson from it that’s no different than the white supremacists that love american history x or the fash that love starship troopers.
Hmm. I don’t fully understand how that would resolve it, but I do also agree that the perceiver is usually in a stronger position to interpret the perceived than the artist’s intention so it’s true that certain segments will interpret it however blatantly incorrectly they want anyway.
the underlying message of this hypothetical film being that americans/the capitalist west didn’t want to fight fascism and certainly shouldn’t be called antifascist, and that despite being the fourth reich themselves their war-glorfying media has consistently rewritten that history to suggest that they were the defenders of the free world at the time and minimize the efforts of the communists that did the bulk of the work defeating fascism, communists that they immediately targeted with war and violence as soon as the fascists were defeated. while also doing everything in their power (including the horrific bombing of japan) to ensure those fascists were recuperated into american empire instead of seeing justice.
Would he be though?
In this context, I feel like if he was trying to make that point then it would include more of a “by killing Nazis you become a Nazi” critique. I’m down for critiquing hero worship and individualist adventurism, but not by satirizing or smearing antifascists.
it wouldn’t have to. like if there was enough revisionist stuff (like the americans raising the flag over berlin in jojo rabbit) and a bunch of anti-soviet content then you could make it clear the message isn’t some mealymouthed liberal i-am-very-smart nonsense like that
not effective as a political tool but art never is. if people wanted to take a ‘by killing Nazis you become a Nazi’ lesson from it that’s no different than the white supremacists that love american history x or the fash that love starship troopers.
Hmm. I don’t fully understand how that would resolve it, but I do also agree that the perceiver is usually in a stronger position to interpret the perceived than the artist’s intention so it’s true that certain segments will interpret it however blatantly incorrectly they want anyway.
the underlying message of this hypothetical film being that americans/the capitalist west didn’t want to fight fascism and certainly shouldn’t be called antifascist, and that despite being the fourth reich themselves their war-glorfying media has consistently rewritten that history to suggest that they were the defenders of the free world at the time and minimize the efforts of the communists that did the bulk of the work defeating fascism, communists that they immediately targeted with war and violence as soon as the fascists were defeated. while also doing everything in their power (including the horrific bombing of japan) to ensure those fascists were recuperated into american empire instead of seeing justice.