Meh depends on the setting. My partner and I are organizing smaller concerts from time to time. If we are about to book an unknown band sooner or later we have to ask the Nazi question.
It’s not about “getting someone”. The concerts are in clubs that have a zero tolerance. If there’s a Nazi band on the stage shit will hit the fan. This may range from other bands refusing to play in the same stage to people attacking each other.
You get usually two kind of responses:
People are pretty clear in their response: “Of course not” or “Fuck Nazis” are the usual replies here.
Then there are others who get offended or try to discuss what Nazi means. That’s a “yes” in disguise and enough to not book them.
The very premise is “everything is fucked up, trapped in the low equilibrium of the Prisoner’s dilemma where no faction can genuinely rise above because the others will take advantage”. The Imperium of Man, aka Catholic Space Nazis, are part of that. Other parts are the “Torture like your life depends on it, because it does” Dark Elves, the “If I stop fighting and slaughtering, I get a terrible headache” World Eaters, the “we infect people with brainwashing worms so they sabotage planetary defenses before calling our massive murderbug army to devour all life” Tyranids and plenty more pleasantries.
But the players don’t share the values of the faction the pretty plastic pieces they play with represent. Well, most of them. But if you uncritically adopt the “Kill all mutants, human supremacy, fanatical devotion to a single autocrat” mentality of the Imperium…
(Good guys, by some definition, exist, but they’re usually just good when compared to their peers, not to our moralic values. Lobotomised cyborg slaves and casual speciesism are still par for the course even for those good guys.)
Every faction is the bad guys, it’s individuals (or sub groups like the salamanders) within the fiction that get to rise above their faction and be good guys.
Meh depends on the setting. My partner and I are organizing smaller concerts from time to time. If we are about to book an unknown band sooner or later we have to ask the Nazi question.
The setting here feels similar.
what do you look for in their responses?
surely they dont go „oh yeah we are nazis, you got us“
It’s not about “getting someone”. The concerts are in clubs that have a zero tolerance. If there’s a Nazi band on the stage shit will hit the fan. This may range from other bands refusing to play in the same stage to people attacking each other.
You get usually two kind of responses: People are pretty clear in their response: “Of course not” or “Fuck Nazis” are the usual replies here.
Then there are others who get offended or try to discuss what Nazi means. That’s a “yes” in disguise and enough to not book them.
Of course setting, their actions and whatnot matter. It isn’t out of nowhere if there’s some context for it that the recipient also understands.
In 40k where the Imperium are outright fascists, the context is already there
Yes
Isn’t that just roleplay, though? Don’t know much about 40k, but I imagine someone’s got to be the bad guys, right?
The very premise is “everything is fucked up, trapped in the low equilibrium of the Prisoner’s dilemma where no faction can genuinely rise above because the others will take advantage”. The Imperium of Man, aka Catholic Space Nazis, are part of that. Other parts are the “Torture like your life depends on it, because it does” Dark Elves, the “If I stop fighting and slaughtering, I get a terrible headache” World Eaters, the “we infect people with brainwashing worms so they sabotage planetary defenses before calling our massive murderbug army to devour all life” Tyranids and plenty more pleasantries.
But the players don’t share the values of the faction the pretty plastic pieces they play with represent. Well, most of them. But if you uncritically adopt the “Kill all mutants, human supremacy, fanatical devotion to a single autocrat” mentality of the Imperium…
(Good guys, by some definition, exist, but they’re usually just good when compared to their peers, not to our moralic values. Lobotomised cyborg slaves and casual speciesism are still par for the course even for those good guys.)
Every faction is the bad guys, it’s individuals (or sub groups like the salamanders) within the fiction that get to rise above their faction and be good guys.