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Helldivers 2’s Politics Appear To Be Flying Over The Heads Of Some (www.forbes.com)

submitted 7 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/games@sh.itjust.works

201 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There is currently a very funny, kind of sad dust-up over Helldivers 2, in which self-proclaimed “anti-woke” gamers have previously heralded it as a rare game where they believe “politics” does not play a factor. Their faith was been shaken by an Arrowhead community manager they believed they found to be (gasp) progressive who was then subsequently harassed, but their head-scratching reading of Helldivers 2 as a “non-political” game is worth examining.

The only thing that makes sense is that these players have the shallowest of surface-level readings of the game. You are a patriotic soldier serving Super Earth. You must kill bugs and evil robots trying to hurt your brothers-in-arms and innocent citizens. There are no storylines to insert progressive causes into, everyone wears helmets so no “forced diversity.” Therefore, no politics.

Of course, this is…wildly off the mark, as Helldivers 2 is about the most blatantly obvious satire of militaristic fascism since the film that inspired it, Starship Troopers.

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Because people disagree about whether a certain ideology is desirable, you could have an accurate portrayal of it accepted as positive by its supporters and negative by its opponents. The supporters aren't necessarily missing "satire" - maybe they see the same thing that the opponents do, but they like it.

[–] theodewere@kbin.social 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

conservatives do not comprehend satire

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's very dangerous to oversimplify your opponents (in a strategic sense). Generalization is also very risky.

Also, to label them as particularly different from yourself/your social group in some way (especially a way that you consider to be inferior) is the first step on the path to dehumanizing them, as a basis for justifying disdain/anger/hatred/etc. It's far more likely that they have different life experiences from yours which have lead them to understanding the world differently, but are generally similar otherwise. They "do not comprehend satire" in the same way that you do, that does not mean they are incapable broadly.