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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 11:05:53 JST Paul Cantrell

   That kitchen lady SOTU GOP response redubbed in a dalek voice.

   Somebody please do this.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 11:58:10 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Stars Wars and Doctor Who both feature villains transparently based on Nazis, and I’m coming around to the idea that Doctor Who had the more socially useful model: Imperial officers / stormtroopers come off as evil but maybe kind of badass, tough at least, whereas Daleks more accurately portray fascists as stupid and cheap and just gratingly skin-crawlingly annoying.

     The idea that something as obnoxious and ridiculous as a Dalek can also be dangerous and utterly evil is…a useful lesson.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:13:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Realizing as I wrote the previous post:

     Doctor Who is remarkable, unusual among its peers, for its 60 years of near-total non-interest in machismo and militarism. Though the show is often violent, the violence is usually something the baddies do, and always miserable and unfortunate — a failure of some kind, something to mourn. It’s a show where the only things that are ever •badass• are intelligence, courage, and kindness.

     gidi likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jenniferplusplus (jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:22:47 JST Jenniferplusplus

     in reply to

     @inthehands at the same time, doctor who presents individual heroics and techno solutionism as the solution to their fascists. And the daleks, at least, always come from elsewhere. Star wars does manage to avoid both of those traps.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:25:20 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus

     @jenniferplusplus true, true

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     Jenniferplusplus (jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:27:11 JST Jenniferplusplus

     in reply to

     @inthehands I suppose the cybermen are better analogies for the rise of fascism

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:40:28 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus
     • Tiffany

     @jenniferplusplus @Tiffany
     All that notwithstanding, Davros’s crazed monologue about racial purity as peace is right at the top of my list of great anti-fascist moments in fiction.

   • Embed this notice
     Tiffany (tiffany@disabled.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:40:30 JST Tiffany

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus

     @jenniferplusplus @inthehands Especially since the Cybermen arise multiple times in different contexts but always with the same fascist outcome.

   • Embed this notice
     Jenniferplusplus (jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:40:30 JST Jenniferplusplus

     in reply to

     • Tiffany

     @Tiffany @inthehands and the same eugenic origin

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:41:10 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Inken Paper

     @crashglasshouses
     The supposedly hyper-advanced civilization being politically dysfunctional and inept is one of the most accurate parts of the show.

   • Embed this notice
     Inken Paper (crashglasshouses@kolektiva.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:41:11 JST Inken Paper

     in reply to

     @inthehands

     also, you can become the president of Gallifrey by simply storming into Gillifreyan parliament and shouting a lot.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:57:36 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus
     • Tiffany

     @Tiffany @jenniferplusplus
     Dug it up for the viewing enjoyment of the Fediverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUNLK2oN5c4&t=1821s

   • Embed this notice
     Tiffany (tiffany@disabled.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Mar-2024 12:57:37 JST Tiffany

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus
     • Tiffany

     @inthehands @jenniferplusplus @Tiffany Agreed!!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 01:15:46 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Simon Brooke
     • Robert Stainsby

     @robertstainsby @simon_brooke
     I remember the Pertwee years quite clearly. “First the military does something stupid that doesn’t help and pisses off the Doctor” was almost a plot cliché. I remember being annoyed with the writing in the rare moments (Seed of Doom) when the military solution actually helps.

   • Embed this notice
     Robert Stainsby (robertstainsby@aus.social)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 01:15:52 JST Robert Stainsby

     in reply to

     • Simon Brooke

     @simon_brooke @inthehands wow, I’m not sure who this “everyone” who agrees the Pertwee years were the “nadir” of Doctor Who are. I’m critical of the Doctor’s habitual resort to alien genocide throughout the history of the show. It’s their ability to couple this with a self-perception as a person of peace and reason, more than anything else, that marks it as quintessentially British. But for many of us the Pertwee and early Tom Baker years represent the show at its absolute peak. Sarah Jane Smith, just for starters!

   • Embed this notice
     Simon Brooke (simon_brooke@mastodon.scot)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 01:15:53 JST Simon Brooke

     in reply to

     @inthehands this isn't actually true. There was the dreadful Pertwee period where the Doctor was attached to some United Nations military unit, rattling round the place in an ancient car advising on how to annihilate aliens. However, I think everyone is agreed that this was the absolute nadir of the series, and it's fifty years ago.

     https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Doctor

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 08:40:49 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Mark Whybird
     • Jenniferplusplus

     @jenniferplusplus @whybird
     This sort of subtly is why it’s important to have many stories.

   • Embed this notice
     Mark Whybird (whybird@aus.social)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 08:40:51 JST Mark Whybird

     in reply to

     • Jenniferplusplus

     @jenniferplusplus @inthehands Isn’t the deep story of the Daleks that they are devolved humans?

   • Embed this notice
     Jenniferplusplus (jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 08:40:51 JST Jenniferplusplus

     in reply to

     • Mark Whybird

     @whybird @inthehands Maybe, but that it's the "deep story" kind of supports the point. As met on screen, Daleks are always* this threat of a fascist enemy approaching from the outside. Which is fine, I guess. But if your story has a moral lesson to share about fascism, then fascism should probably be something that arises from within.

     *Except in the genesis story that Paul linked excepts from https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/112069381609509251

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:45:38 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Nikola

     @alfa_vuk This is the sort of smug, pedantic, condescending reply guy shit that turns people off of Mastodon.

     You have a point about fascists and design. I’ll bet you can make it in a more constructive way that does not assume conversation is a zero-sum game.

   • Embed this notice
     Nikola (alfa_vuk@metalhead.club)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:45:40 JST Nikola

     in reply to

     @inthehands But fascist iconography is objectively cool. That's the whole point. Fascism is the aestheticization of politics. You insist on toeing the proper liberal line about how fascism/nazism is so obviously and utterly "annoying" and what possible idiot could ever support it? Well, fascism is scary, powerful, and cool-looking. That's why so many supported it, that's why you probably (and I) would have if we lived in Germany at the time. You're revising history.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:46:09 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • 🇹 Ti

     @The_T
     See other replies re UNIT

   • Embed this notice
     🇹 Ti (the_t@glaceon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:46:10 JST 🇹 Ti

     in reply to

     @inthehands while I largely agree with you that it fits this in tone, UNIT feels a bit close to to pro-militarism, doesn't it? Not as bad as most other media, of course, obviously. (And I've only watched through the second Doctor, third Doctor is up on my to-do list soon.)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:50:20 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • 🇹 Ti

     @The_T A perennial problem with Mastodon!

   • Embed this notice
     🇹 Ti (the_t@glaceon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:50:21 JST 🇹 Ti

     in reply to

     @inthehands ah; those replies didn't federate to my instance so I didn't see them until I clicked through. Thanks!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:58:29 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Re the ridiculousness of the Daleks:

     I’m not sure people realize how much the press, especially British and American, mocked Hitler throughout the 20s and even 30s as being idiotic, pathetic, comical — too silly to take seriously. (Look at how P. G. Woodehouse’s Roderick Spode…in a 1938 novel!)

     I’m not a historian, and won’t make a judgement about how much the world regarded the Nazis with fear vs mocking vs attraction, but surely these are all ingredients.

     https://metalhead.club/@alfa_vuk/112083005303505624

   • Embed this notice
     The Corodon (thecorodon@wandering.shop)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 00:14:29 JST The Corodon

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     We keep forgetting and then not seeing it happen again.
     I was just watching a different conversation with someone explaining how Trump purging the GOP would be good, because it made the party less functional going into an election.
     I'm thinking, from your keyboard to God's ears, but the road to fascism is paved with people saying, "Look at these clowns. This latest power grab will only make it easier for us to defeat them."

   • Embed this notice
     Mage Moss (trying it on) (cyrus@zirk.us)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 00:28:09 JST Mage Moss (trying it on)

     in reply to

     @inthehands Right up until the literal moment Trump won, every single pundit was yawning that nobody took such a clown seriously and the election results would prove what a joke his campaign was.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 00:31:03 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Mage Moss (trying it on)

     @Cyrus
     I certainly made some version of this mistake, calling him “unelectable” after he won the nomination.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 00:37:53 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • The Corodon
     • Donald Ball

     @donaldball @thecorodon Yup. Certain leftists were making the same arguments in my mentions throughout his presidency. Everybody left of fascist is prone to this mistake.

   • Embed this notice
     Donald Ball (donaldball@triangletoot.party)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 00:37:55 JST Donald Ball

     in reply to

     • The Corodon

     @thecorodon @inthehands In one online community I used to frequent, some liberals were expressing delight on January 6th, 2021 that Trump and his violent, ridiculous paramilitaries had overplayed their hand, that the decent moderate center would be aghast, and that alt-right politics would be toxic for the foreseeable future.

     Anyway.