On Nazis

[ARCHIVE: This was a short explication of a long-standing observation between myself and my peers. I kinda like it, but I'd probably have to put in a lot more references and citations to make it a real article. Also, I am not saying the Nazis weren't evil, just that they are so readily and unquestionably accepted as so.]

Last Wednesday, I was playing the new Wolfenstien for a good number of hours. It's a lot of fun, and a good stress reliever. I play both Allies and Axis, and usually I tend to be Axis, since my chosen player class (Medic) is better suited for defensive work. But for that particular gaming run, I found myself on the side of the Allies the majority of the time. And though I did pretty well (not an l33t m4st3r, but not a newb either), I got myself frustrated sometimes. And when I got particularly emotional, I found myself spewing insults like, "Die! Die, you elitist Aryan fucks!"

So after that I watched The Twilight Zone (the new one, with Forest Whitaker). The premise was that this woman went back in time, and became Adolf Hitler's nanny. She has this one opportunity to kill the child and save the future lives of millions. She spends the entire episode trying to justify to herself killing a baby. In the end, she grabs wittle Adolfie and jumps in the river, drowning herself and the child (apparently, she doesn't know how to swim). The kicker is that the other housekeeper sees her, and instead comes back to the Hitler household with a baby she bought off a homeless Jew on the street. and that's who Adolf Hitler was.

And I thought to myself, "Man, the Nazis were the greatest thing to befall fiction."

Now, hear me out. Current American society is trying to vilify Iraqis as "evil." I mean really, we all know that's what Dubya is trying to do, so he can go forth with "Gulf War II: This Time it's Personal." But even with all that propaganda he's trying to push down our collective throats, different viewpoints are still considered. There's enough journalistic material in magazines, newspapers, and websites that, at the very least, pose the idea that not all Iraqi's are evil, just a very vocal/powerful minority. Which is as it should be. In any conflict, all sides should be presented, no matter which side you're going to choose. And sometimes, as in the present case, this makes people consider the shades of moral gray, when it could be easily (thought wrongly) cast in strictly black and white.

Except Nazis. Think about it. When a story calls for a group of human villains that are undeniably evil, you get Nazis. More creative writers have employed other groups, like a ragtag band of ex-soldiers-turned-mercenaries, or psychotically deranged cults. But the easy way out has always been Nazis. Nazis are universally understood to be inherently bad, except when thought of by other Nazis. This has been tenuously proven by media reports. Consider the medias vilification of games such as Counter-Strike and Soldier of Fortune. These games have been constantly cited by the media as violent games that desensitize children to violence. But Wolfenstien has been less than a footnote in such articles. Why?

Angry Jerry Falwell: "These games our corrupting our nation's youth! Look at this: weapons of mass destruction, blood everywhere, it is unforgivable. How can you condone the massive amounts of death?"
Activision: "Well, you shoot Nazis."
Angry Jerry Falwell: "Oh. So what's the problem?"

Okay, so it's not exactly like that. But just think for a minute. How many people would contest that the Nazi regime was evil? (Except for that one wacko who keeps trying to prove that the holocaust never happened).

[07:57pm] Wed, Dec 11th, 2002
To followup on the previous post, I got this excerpt from an Activision Press release, which illustrates my point rather well (said point being that everybody finds death and destruction to be perfectly acceptable as long as Nazis are the targets).

"For fans of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and new players alike, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory gives gamers an entirely new opportunity to devastate the forces of the Fatherland," said Larry Goldberg, executive vice president, Activision Worldwide Studios.