We’ve all heard the popular memes, video cause violence, video games cause sexism, or even video games cause autism. But that’s not all. Now, there’s a new heinous societal ill we can blame on video games: fascism!
Yep, we have to blame this new fascist resurgence on something, so why not video games? After all we’re supposedly living under a real fascist regime right now despite the fact that basic democratic checks and balances have prevented Trump from actually doing anything.
A poster in the bathroom of the Nebulous Gaming tournament in NYC went viral on Twitter and shows the natural progression of gamer to Nazi.
So apparently gamers are just nine steps away from not believing the Holocaust happened but wishing it did. Makes sense. After all we know from Salon that Trump is Gamergate and from The Guardian that Gamergate created the fascist alt-right movement (by traveling back in time four years).
This sentiment that gaming causes fascism is nothing new actually. It has long been peddled by the obese Mario-obsessed film critic Moviebob Chipman who routinely implies Call of Duty is some kind of rightwing psy op.
GameIndustry.biz even published a piece last year comparing the creators of Call of Duty to Nazi propagandist filmmakers. Strategy games like Civilization and Star Craft have often been called fascist for giving a player total control of a civilization and its armies. Warhammer 40k fandom was accused of being overrun with fascists by The Mary Sue because of a couple 4chan memes.
Apparently fascism and gaming are as cozy as two peas in a pod.
Sure there’s no actual evidence that a $90 billion industry enjoyed by millions attracts more fascists than other forms of entertainment (imagine how many fascists watch movies!), but that won’t stop the media from associating the two.
Games cause fascism is just too good a meme.
