IDK, throwing in the mustache man there is a bit dodgy. I completely understand the impetus and have to fight my own sympathetic feelings towards those things, but in the cold light of reality, outside the hokey jokey ironic stuff.... that is some really dangerous, powerful poison that could cause a lot of brutality toward people who won't deserve any of it. Families and kids and shit, you have to keep that in mind. The jokes are meant to make you lose sight of that so you let it in but that's the end point of that meme, you know that, everyone knows that, don't lie to yourself about what it is.
You can do the motte and bailey of 'it's just memes bro', but everything is just memes and that one is really starting to catch on.
I get your point, but also understand that unironic Hitler stans have zero power, and no means of getting power. Given the popular conception of WWII is practically a children's cartoon in its subtlety and is one of the core mythologies of the Regime's legitimacy, it needs to be torn down. I'm not going to do my enemy's work for them.
I don't think you're right that they have zero power anymore. I see that a huge number of people have realised that the Nazis didn't do it 'because they were evil', but are too dumb not to just flip sides once they have that information.
The regime has been crumbling because it's been built on lies. The power of the various anti-regime movements are that they have been exposing the regime for the sham that it is as a secondary effect of sticking to what they think is true. If you start giving a pass to lies that feel nice to you, you lose the advantage and start fighting on the field of artifice and propaganda, where you will be soundly beaten.
It's not just morally abhorrent to let all the Hitler stuff slide, it's tactically stupid too.
Patrick Deneen likes to point out how the grandfather of libertarianism John Stewart Mill only advocated his modern libertine concept of “liberty” only as a means to dismantle traditional norms hindering the achievement of “progress,” but not liberty as an end in itself. Once “progress” had been achieved, he had no problem restricting things like speech again. Crazy that “conservatives” ever quote this guy. https://unherd.com/2023/05/js-mill-and-the-despotism-of-progress/
IDK, throwing in the mustache man there is a bit dodgy. I completely understand the impetus and have to fight my own sympathetic feelings towards those things, but in the cold light of reality, outside the hokey jokey ironic stuff.... that is some really dangerous, powerful poison that could cause a lot of brutality toward people who won't deserve any of it. Families and kids and shit, you have to keep that in mind. The jokes are meant to make you lose sight of that so you let it in but that's the end point of that meme, you know that, everyone knows that, don't lie to yourself about what it is.
You can do the motte and bailey of 'it's just memes bro', but everything is just memes and that one is really starting to catch on.
I get your point, but also understand that unironic Hitler stans have zero power, and no means of getting power. Given the popular conception of WWII is practically a children's cartoon in its subtlety and is one of the core mythologies of the Regime's legitimacy, it needs to be torn down. I'm not going to do my enemy's work for them.
I don't think you're right that they have zero power anymore. I see that a huge number of people have realised that the Nazis didn't do it 'because they were evil', but are too dumb not to just flip sides once they have that information.
The regime has been crumbling because it's been built on lies. The power of the various anti-regime movements are that they have been exposing the regime for the sham that it is as a secondary effect of sticking to what they think is true. If you start giving a pass to lies that feel nice to you, you lose the advantage and start fighting on the field of artifice and propaganda, where you will be soundly beaten.
It's not just morally abhorrent to let all the Hitler stuff slide, it's tactically stupid too.
Excellent article, especially your insight on the utility and necessity of memes.
Patrick Deneen likes to point out how the grandfather of libertarianism John Stewart Mill only advocated his modern libertine concept of “liberty” only as a means to dismantle traditional norms hindering the achievement of “progress,” but not liberty as an end in itself. Once “progress” had been achieved, he had no problem restricting things like speech again. Crazy that “conservatives” ever quote this guy. https://unherd.com/2023/05/js-mill-and-the-despotism-of-progress/