#fascim

If you look at the of ideology of generations throughout the twentieth century, there's a pattern: each new gen is going to swing opposite of their parents. 50's patriotism, 60's and 70's hippies, 80's Reagan era America, 90's 3rd wave feminism, 00's ultra patriotism, you get the idea. So to some extent, it's not that surprising that Gen Z is starting to lean conservative. But as someone who's been in fandom spaces for well over two decades now, believe me when I tell you that the pendulum has swung so far right that--given the current political climate in America (and to some extent globally)--this is a microcosm of a much bigger issue.

Back in the 2010's, the internet was starting to grow its roots. The truly experimental days of random websites, chat sites, strange niche forums, etc, had started to congeal into a handful of massive platforms. Facebook was taking off. YouTube was past its baby stage and into its adolescence. There was a fragile stability that allowed for growth and expression in art. Particularly in fandom culture. We as a generation were growing with this new, amazing technology. And humans, when curious, like to stretch their limits. Fandom and geek spaces stretched wide, from insanely ambitious fancomics to the dredges of FF.net. And a not insignificant part of this new community was diving into the dark and the taboo.

Artists and writers wanted to explore all elements of humanity. Because, plainly, we weren't allowed to experiment with mass media. And so we made our own. Queer kids explored identity and sexuality, trauma survivors craved catharsis. Growing brains tapped into the dark and depraved if only to see where it led them. It was a playground. It wasn't always safe, and it wasn't always productive. Sometimes it was just porn for porn's sake. But that in and of itself was not a moral judgment. Sure, you'd absolutely get side-eyes if you proudly boasted that your favorite anime OVA was Boku no Pico, but most people would laugh it off at a convention and then head out to their next panel.

What I'm saying is, ten, fifteen years ago, there was a sense of understanding that the dark, sexual things in fandom spaces were just another facet of the culture. This is not to say that truly disturbing media and criticism of it did not exist. Hell, when Twilight debuted, I was one of the first of my high school to criticize the abusive relationships for what they were. The ability to criticize, to analyze and reflect on what makes something "good" or "bad" is a healthy mechanism to have. And those who did not want to engage with material that they found disturbing or uncomfortable simply didn't have to engage with it. It's why AO3 has tags. It's why Tumblr has a block or mute tag function.

But what we're seeing now is so far beyond the healthy critiquing of distasteful art. More and more now I've been seeing well meaning, liberal presenting voices equate real harm to distasteful material found in books, movies, TV shows, you name it. That is not to say that things like racial stereotypes or romanticised abuse does not have real world implications. But it is one thing to point out that "hey, 50 Shades of Gray is an unrealistic depiction of a BDSM lifestyle and if you try these things you'll likely get hurt" and "seeing characters on screen have sex violates my consent as a viewer." (that is a real argument I have seen online)

There is a hyper moral slant to this kind of thinking. The same line of thought that immediately equates "a character does a bad thing" to "the author must condone this bad thing." I have always said that we do not have a lack of media literacy, but an uptick in a reaction based economy. That reacting to a controversial thing without first digesting the thing you're reacting to gets good views and feeds the algo, so the conversation then becomes a shouting match between people that haven't even seen the damn thing. This is how you get people coming away with "Steven Universe is a show that supports genocide" with their full chest.

The push to have blatant censorship in fandom is upsetting for a good number of reasons. It's discouraging to younger creatives who want to play in those spaces for their own reasons, and it feeds into a frenzy of paranoia. Because at a certain point, it no longer becomes about the art, but whether or not you, with your Right Opinion, is the first on the dogpile.

So what does this have to do with fascism? A whole hell of a lot.

One of the first targets in a fascist regime is art. It's expression, it's creativity. Why? Because creativity is often the best vehicle (sometimes the only vehicle) to criticize the people in power. Why do you think gigantic corporations are trying to push AI art on us so bad? Because art makes us human, and humans like to point out when Shit Is Going Bad. So if you take the human out of the art, you can trick people who aren't looking too closely into being compliant.

The recent hyper-policing of fandom spaces is a tool of fascism. This is not hyperbole, nor hypothetical. It is the reality of how fascism lives and breathes. If you can convince a population to weed out the "bad" art on their own volition, weeding out the rest on your own is a piece of cake.

Before anyone puts words in my mouth, I am not talking about child abuse content, content surrounding victims of trafficking, revenge porn, or anything that brings actual physical or psychological harm to another person. With that being said, policing sexual content in fandom leads to policing any kind of intimate content at all. And as so often is the case, queer content is often lumped in with the former, despite the fact that identity and gender has nothing to do with sexuality. And that sexuality itself is a part of the human experience, and its rejection of its imitation in art is a rejection of that humanity. It's the dominos that lead into history being flat out erased. Once all the nasty sexual content is dead and gone, they'll push further. What conflict, what subject matters, are obscene? Coming of age stories? Slice of life stories? Epic fantasies, scifi, non fiction? Perhaps all of them. You can't be too careful. The heart and soul of stories, art, poetry, expression, all of it is subject to the whims of an oligarchy that frankly doesn't care if you have food in your fridge. If you speak up, speak out, put your foot down, you too are subject to those same whims. And it is so much easier to make sure you shut up forever than to be diplomatic.

Time to bring back one of my near and dear hyper fixations, WW1-2 era European history

History may repeat itself but let’s not let all of us be ignorant to her teachings

There’s spoilers and typos in this brief primer for the events of the Ace Combat games, but it’s worth a read in my biased opinion. 

With the exception of one of the mobile games, Infinity, and Assault Horizon, the games all take place on a version of Earth fans have taken to calling Strangereal. Some of the continents and landforms are ones you’d recognize, and some of the oceans even have the same names. But the geopolitical landscape is entirely different.

The two big events that shaped the world happened in the 1990’s: The Belkan War and the Uylsses1994X04 Impact. The Belkan war was an attempt at expansion by a nationalistic state that’s reminiscent of Germany and saw it quickly overrun neighboring states before being pushed back by an international coalition that was spearheaded by the Osean Federation and the Union of Yuktobanian Republics. Osea is a US analogue, and Yuktobania is based on the USSR.

A mercenary air squadron, the Galm Team was responsible for many of the strategic victories over the Belkans, and the rapid reversal lead to Belkan high command nuking a series of cities to blunt an allied advance. This was the first use of nuclear weapons in history, and they were deployed mainly against Belka’s own civilian population. This shocking act failed to cause more than a mild delay, but it did lead to mass desertions on all sides and the formation of numerous terrorist groups.

Many of those groups included ace pilots from the allied nations, and Belkan weapons experts who were involved in the creation of advanced aircraft and super weapons like huge flying fortresses and the Sword of Excalibur, a powerful laser array. The most prominent of these groups called themselves A World With No Boundaries, and developed an anarchist ethos that saw the peace talks underway as futile and ineffective at preventing future conflict. They gained access to a secret ICBM silo and attempted to destroy every world capital simultaneously to reset society to “zero.” They were defeated, but many members escaped prosecution.

A purely Belkan group also went to ground, and formed a shadowy organization called The Grey Men. Their sole goal was vengeance, and they were very patient in their attempts to achieve it.

Around the same time, on the continent of Usea, numerous nations were planning to join together to create a continent spanning government to better counter super powers like Osea and Yuktobania. Unfortunately, significant elements from some nations in the South were opposed to the union, and were able to find sympathetic conservatives in the militaries of most other nations on the continent. They organized simultaneous coup de’tas on the morning of the signing ceremony. Mercenary air units and allied central government forces led a counterattack which quelled the rebellions, although they did in the end prevent unification. Instead the Usean Treaty Organization was founded to coordinate work between the continent’s governments.

As the war had raged, the rest of the world had been preparing for the arrival of Ulysses, an asteroid detected on a collision course for Earth in 1994. Many Belkan scientists found their services in high demand as countries scrambled to develop systems to defend against the asteroid.

Numerous railguns were constructed around the world, as were systems designed to redirect fragments away from populated areas. Rapidly built at the end of the Usean Continental war, a system known as “Stonehenge” was constructed in San Salvacion, a tiny nation with no standing military. Stonehenge consisted of a ring of high powered railguns with an unobstructed view of the sky right in the middle of the Usean continent, each paired with highly accurate targeting and tracking systems.

Stonehenge’s unique design wound up being particularly well suited to protecting against Ulysses, which wound up breaking apart as it entered the atmosphere. As a result, fragments rained down across the world, hitting many areas outside of the coverage of systems designed to prevent a single world ending event instead of numerous smaller impacts.

Among the hardest hit were areas that fell outside of Stonehenge’s cover in Usea, and the country of Estovokia, a small state on the Anean continent north of Yuktobania.

Erusea, one of the most powerful states on Usea, suffered a direct hit to hits capital city, rendering much of its downtown a flooded area with ruined skyscrapers poking out of the waves. In the wake of the impact, a fascist government took hold, and began closing its borders to refugees from other, worse afflicted areas despite UTO membership obligating it to do so. In response, widespread boycotts and sanctions by other Usean powers crippled the Erusean economy.

Backed into a corner, Erusea launched an all-out assault on the rest of the continent, seizing Stonehenge right away to establish almost continent wide air superiority in the first week. The militaries of the other UTO states reorganized into the Independent States Allied Forces, and ironically found themselves pushed back to the islands which had held the last holdout of the rebel forces just a few years before.

From there, thanks in large part to the efforts of the pilot Mobeius 1, the ISAF slowly re-established a foothold on the continent proper. The turning point came after a daring raid on Stonehenge where ISAF forces not only destroyed the installation, but also managed to shoot down a member of the now legendary Yellow Squadron, a seemingly invincible Erusean unit.

Eventually the Erusean capital fell, although holdouts would try to use the Megalith installation to redirect orbiting asteroid fragments towards ISAF units, and later capture a number of arms factories. Both attempts were foiled thanks largely to to Mobeius 1, and by the end of 2006 the continent was at peace.

That peace was largely global, although a mild cold war between Osea and Yuktobania did keep the arms industry innovating.

By the end of 2010, however, a series of incursions by drones and unmarked aircraft into both Osean and Yuktobanian airspace brought both countries to the brink of war. Yuktobania eventually declared war and launched a surprise attack on a key Osean harbor.

Both countries deployed super weapons in the opening days of the war. Yuktobania’s Hrimfaxi class super submarines were capable of launching sky-clearing burst missiles and deploying air forces from entirely unexpected locations. In response, Osea weaponized the Arkbird, a spaceplane originally built to host a G7 conference about bringing the world’s nations into the space age. The Arkbird’s global reach and powerful laser made it a capable counter to the Hrimfaxi. However, shortly after neutralizing the submarine, an explosive knocked the laser out of commission.

The leaders of both nations sought an end to the bloodshed, and plans were made to have a secret peace conference in the neutral country of North Point. Unfortunately, both disappeared en-route, which the second-in-command of both countries saw as reason to continue the war.

War Dog Squadron, a unit that had still been in training but saw action in the war’s opening days, made a name for itself in short order, but was accused of committing a war crime by attacking an engineering college shortly after Osean forces began their invasion of the Yuktobanian mainland. Recalled and put on trial, the War Dogs redeemed themselves after being sent to counter one of two retaliatory terrorist strikes on Osean civilians carried out by Yuktobanian commando units.

The squadron was sent back to the front, became something of a good luck charm for ground forces. Their reputation was furthered bolstered after they were sent to the arctic Razgriz Straits north of Anea to sink a second Hrmfaxi class sub. They became known as the Demons of Razgriz after their success, a name taken from a fairytale about a creature said to live in the straits but present whenever history undergoes a great change.

This unit would engage in numerous key battles and tipped the tide of the war in Osea’s favor, and were subsequently tasked with a flyover during a speech at a football stadium by the Vice-President. The VP’s speech was interrupted first by the gathered crowd, who broke out singing a pro-peace protest song, and by a Yuktobanian air unit attempting a decapitating strike.

Upon returning to their home base, the War Dog squadron was charged with treason and shot down while attempting to flee in trainer aircraft.

Shortly after that, a flight of black aircraft began making surgical strikes against both Yuktobanian and Osean forces. Bearing markings that labeled them the Razgriz Squadron, this mysterious unit engaged secret squadrons composed of Belkan aces that both Osea and Yuktobania had formed, and conducted operations in Belkan territory near the country’s uranium mines and the site of their nuclear strikes. They also engaged the Arkbird as it fell from orbit while in the hands of a terrorist organization.

They also played a key part in supporting a student uprising against the Yuktobanian government and were present on the aircraft carrier Kestrel when both the President and Premier re-emerged and denounced the Grey Men, a Belkan group that had installed itself in the governments of both nations and built up a sizeable military force of its own through ownership of Gründer Industries, Osea’s main military supplier.

Their announcement lead to a brief set of blue-on-blue engagements as Osean and Yuktobanian forces both dealt with competing orders from their commanders-in chief and the politicians they had been following for months.

In the end, Razgriz lead a combined Osean-Yuktobanian force on a secret tunnel running beneath the borders of Osea and Belka. They managed to destroy the control center for the SOLG, a massive orbital railgun Osea had abandoned building after the end of the Belkan War but which the Grey Men had completed in secret. Destruction of the control module led to the satellite being set on a collision course for Oured, the Osean capital. Razgriz managed to prevent the city’s destruction and also shoot down a final squadron of Grey Man fighters. What happened to them afterwards was classified.

Around 2015, Estovakia the country to which the Razgriz Straits belonged, emerged from a long asteroid precipitated civil war, with a militant faction victorious. They invaded their neighbors to the east, the Republic of Emmeria, and hoped to seize the prosperous nation’s resources for their own. They were eventually beaten back after initial success brought on by the use of Belkan technology in the form of a powerful flying fortress.

They engaged in a scorched earth policy in the final days of the war, attempting to use the Chandelier facility, a massive anti-asteroid railgun that had not been completed in time to prevent a disaster. A fairly short but devastating regional conflict, the Anean War also saw ancient artifacts and sloganizing play an unusually large part in enhancing the Emmerian fighting spirit.

In the 2020s, the technologically advanced nation of Aureilia in the south of the Osean continent was invaded by Leasath to the north on a pretense of promoting civil war in the neighboring nation. I don’t know much more about what happens there though, because it’s covered in a game that only came out on the PSP.

Ace Combat 7 will cover events in the mid 2020’s, I believe. It seems that at some point Osea built a space elevator, but that Erusea, which became a monarchy at some point after their defeats in the aughts, claims the land used for it as their own.

Communism and Fascism are a very very fine line between each other.

This "Eat the rich" movement shares characteristics of both.

Without looking at the individual people will judge and persecute a rich person because they are wealthy. Not by their deeds. Communism.

Without thinking about how that person got there, without thinking about the possible struggle they made from poor to rich. People will vandalize, steal and even community acts of violence against them because "It's okay to commit crimes against those in a specific group that we do not like." Fascism.

It's a movement of Selfish and entitled twats who are all "woah is me. They arent as unhappy as me because they are rich." Grow the fuck up.