• cabbage@piefed.social
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    9 days ago

    When talking about the making of Jojo Rabbit (a must see movie, in my opinion), I remember Taika Waititi making a point out wanting to represent the colourful fashion and more lively sides of Germany under the Third Reich. War movies tend to portray Nazis as dark and dull figures with no inner life other than murdering Jews and plotting for world domination. This is probably dangerous, as we won’t recognize the fascists when they’re in front of us. They’ll be laughing and dancing as they murder the innocent.

    Similar to how we study Eichmann to learn about the banality of evil, I think pictures like this one should be in every text book. This is what evil looks like — pretty much like anything else, if you’re willing to ignore the atrocities.

    • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 days ago

      Highly recommend The Zone of Interest as well. An unusual film about everyday life of nazis.

      • cabbage@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        Very different from Jojo Rabbit of course, but fantastic for showing what humans can come to consider the trivialities of ordinary life.

        I’m very happy I saw it in the cinema. Also very happy I was somehow completely oblivious to the thematic when the movie started: I first saw the swimsuits, thinking “huh, is this the 30s?”. Then I heard the German, at which point I realized nothing good was going to go down. I guess the sound during the intro also gave a hint.

        Anyway, amazing movie. Worth seeing without distractions.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Except maybe for children and the dumber types, most people already know what evil looks like. They are willing to pretend, so what more lifelike portrayals will do is irritate them.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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        9 days ago

        Except maybe for… the dumber types,

        A non-negligible portion of the electorate, unfortunately.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          The latter portion, which wants portrayed evil to be grotesque and not like reality, because they are not going to avoid evil anyway, is even bigger.

          I mean, I don’t like fools. Like half of my family are terrible fools. But the “smart” people with no idea of kindness, fair conduct or at least sport are worse, and in my experience more common than fools, not less.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          No, it’s the “neutral” types. Who are all good when the guys with skulls are defeated, and all compliant when the guys with skulls are in charge.

          Guys with skulls themselves are usually more peculiar types, not really discomforted by open public discourse. Just not limiting themselves to any moral boundary. You’d probably find them interesting.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      9 days ago

      This is probably dangerous, as we won’t recognize the fascists when they’re in front of us.

      Speak for yourself.

      • gravityowl@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        Considering how much fascism is on the rise globally and the results in the latest US election, most people do not in fact recognize fascism. Nor see it as the threat it is

        • el_bhm@lemm.ee
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          9 days ago

          People still do not call russia a nazi state despite the obvious either.

        • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 days ago

          Yeah, most people don’t realize that both candidates were genocidal fascists. Completely unaware.

            • Nougat@fedia.io
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              9 days ago

              I’ve been calling out this fascism for years. Not sure how that makes me a dick, but okay.

              • alexc@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                Maybe it’s not enough for you to call it out.

                It’s good that you do this, but other people need to learn to recognize it for themselves. I don’t see why images likes this would hurt. The only evil many of these people committed was not thinking for themselves and taking a moral stand. Instead, they got by as best as they could.

                I’m not trying to excuse them, but understand them, and that’s part of the problem right now. The current crop of right-wing idealogs think that nobody understands them, except for people like Donald Trump. That’s why the democrats lost.

                • Nougat@fedia.io
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                  9 days ago

                  People can only learn to recognize fascism if other people point to it and describe it where it exists.

                  But that’s not enough. Please tell me what more I should be doing.

                  • alexc@lemmy.world
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                    9 days ago

                    Ask the people you label as fascists what they are upset about. Listen with empathy and not judgement. When I’ve done this, many are not as far right as they think.

                    It’s not enough to judge people as fascists. Anyone who agrees with you is likely in an echo chamber, and those who disagree with you are in another one. This is what it means to know your enemy

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Because you aren’t in a society made of people, its just you and your decisions here apparently.