holy shit. they actually called it "reply guy". seeing the Torment Nexus and copying it for profit is one thing, but seeing a reply guy and being like "I can monetize that" is a whole new type of evil.
@rose Another example of a dystopian idea being taken as a model.
Hey, there was this guy named Adolf in Germany in the 1940s, he got a lot of follows really quickly, huge influencer -- maybe we should see if we can copy that.
@woozle @rose thats the *exact* plot of a German satirical movie "Er ist wieder da" (he's back again) where Hitler turns out to have been alive all the time and returns to Germany in 2015 - he ends up becoming an online influencer - and even when it was being filmed, in some areas the actor in costume was viewed with some admiration rather than anger and disdain (and they would need a special dispensation to film such scenes as it is otherwise an offence to dress up like that)
@econads @woozle @rose It predated Trump and Boris Johnson - both of whom were and still are viewed as clowns/buffoons but still ended up getting considerable power.
I've also seen Nazi symbols used on normal German TV clearly used in a satirical context without problems - but remember also reading about the behind the scenes filming of this movie and how the actor himself who played Hitler was surprised by how he was well received in some areas and not booed etc...
certainly the film wasn't intended to promote Nazis (it wouldn't have been allowed) and going back a few decades neither was Pink Floyd's "The Wall" - but in that case the Hammerskins aesthetics were picked up on and used by Nazis.
There's an old football chant from Millwalll - "nobody likes us, and we don't care" which is very similar to the attitudes of many techbros..
when middle aged football hooligans (still a thing today) get arrested in my area and around London, a fair proportion of them now turn out to be middle class men wit good jobs (worryingly some even work in big companies like British Telecom Openreach division and have access to peoples houses)
@vfrmedia @woozle @rose I mean I hear "the east is full of Nazis" (ironic, with the blanket statement, I feel like some subtleties are being lost) and the fact the AFD still have >20% more in some areas supports what you say..
I just didn't want non Germans to get the wrong idea from a superficial reading of your first comment. I may have been guilty of that too! I may have initially come on too strong, I edited my comment :-)