Obviously, things supporting Nazis should definitely not be allowed, but this is what I mean by non-condemning portrayals: In historical flight simulator games, there is often the option to fly Nazi planes, same with tank and ship simulators. There are scale models of Nazi military vehicles for sale. There are replicas of Nazi uniforms being sold, documentaries on how Nazi vehicles worked, historical simulators where you play as a Nazi soldier etc. These portrayals take more or less a neutral stance to the Nazis, where they’re just trying to represent something related to them without saying whether they’re for or against them.
A lot of people say that Nazis are part of world history and so these politically neutral depictions are okay, some even say they have educational value. But this is why I disagree: One, you don’t have to learn about Nazi military vehicles to learn about the history of the Nazis, so what do you gain from them? Plus, IMO the history of Nazis is best taught in the context that they were terrible, with a focus on the atrocities they committed. I think the “those who do not learn from history” line is irrelevant because do we really need to preserve these details in order to preserve the fact that Nazis should be universally hated?
These portrayals can also attract actual Nazis, even if that’s a small portion of the consumer base. Finally, they have the possibility of desensitizing people to Nazi content so they’re more easily roped into their propaganda if they’re ever exposed to it.
If all non-condemning portrayals of Nazis were “censored,” I honestly wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re already banned in countries like China (someone who knows anything about it please confirm or deny), which has a no tolerance policy on fascist or Nazi ideology.
I’m using Nazis as my example here, but this can apply to any objectively horrible thing in history.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree, and why?
Yeah, agree on not commodifying Nazi paraphernalia
Oh yeah, and there’s also the profit aspect. Selling things related to Nazis, even if it’s not meant to imply you support them, leaves a bad taste in my mouth and seems disrespectful to the victims.
Here’s something I’m conflicted on though, if a game studio, scale model company, TV channel or content creator etc makes media like the ones I mentioned but clearly don’t support the Nazis, should they still be boycotted? What do you think?
If its a condemning portrayal that doesn’t try to humanize them, then they’re doing good work. But tons of games and media do push the “clean wehrmacht” myth so often that that I understand if people are skeptical of any portrayals of them in media.
To be fair, I’m not sure how much of that is denialism as much as not wanting to get into that for what is still a work of fiction. I think having a historical game set in Nazi Germany where you actually take part in the genocide is pushing far beyond any sort of neutral portrayal and would definitely attract people you don’t want to attract.