War Is Awesome

This is one of the best takedowns of war fetishism and American foreign policy I’ve seen recently. It’s a shame more people won’t see it because it’s hidden in a video game review :




posted by greg on October 31, 2007 @ 8:43 pm

6 comments »

  1. Ah Zero Punctuation. The guy has some amazing insights into the American psyche. They cannot pump out enough WWII WAS AWZUM!! games for us. The Nazis really were the ideal bad guys–seriously, the best thing we had going since the duking it out with the King.

    Comment by Jeb — November 1, 2007 @ 11:10 am

  2. Wow. That was amazing.

    Comment by spocko — November 1, 2007 @ 11:38 am

  3. On the other hand, the fact that it’s in a game review means it falls on ears that aren’t accustomed to such dissent.

    It’s funny (or sad) how many commenters at The Escapist responded to this with variations of “please don’t ruin my gaming fun with talk of politics.” These delicate flowers are missing Yahtzee’s point that games like Medal of Honor are already inherently political.

    The fact that we Americans (fuck yeah) believe that you can depict war as glorious and patriotic without getting “political” is a symptom of our truncated political spectrum where both “left” and “right” are expected to be militaristic cheerleaders.

    It’s great that a British-born Australian resident is out there reminding gamers that people in other countries have a different perspective on the United States’ nostalgia for “the good war.”

    Comment by Cris — November 2, 2007 @ 6:38 am

  4. That reminds me, Greg. You should feel a little sad for embedding sans linkification, no?
    http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/11/02/zero-punctuation-links-and-the-trouble-with-exclusive-video

    Comment by Jeb — November 2, 2007 @ 10:08 am

  5. That was beautiful. Fuck Yeah!

    Comment by jerry — November 2, 2007 @ 10:08 am

  6. Considering that the escapist (or videoegg, I suppose) is smart enough to place floating ads right into the video player, I’m surprised they don’t also make the embedded video automatically a link back to their site.

    Comment by Cris — November 2, 2007 @ 6:51 pm

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