Scans_Daily

If you deny her fascistic actions, that's a problem. Stating she is not a fascist when, you know, she really is, that's an issue.

You can like a character, even sympathize with them, and still recognize that their actions are reprehensible.

Let me put this another way. I'm going to assume that the murder, slavery, and "re-education camps" are all things you don't agree with her doing? Similarly, her war of conquest, use of a weapon of mass destruction, threats to use it on a civilian population, similarly beyond the pale.

That you can see why she felt driven to do all those things is good. If you start saying she was justified in doing those things, that's wrong.

I can't speak for other people's statements, I'm not those people, but that's the dividing line for me. Understanding someone's motivations and accepting them as sympathetic as a result is perfectly reasonable. Taking the next step and saying they were justified is not. For some, even calling them sympathetic is wrong because it might encourage other people to accept everything they did as evil.

Fascists have been built up in our society as a tremendous bogeyman. We saw what happened in WW2 and many people assume that only monsters could have done that. The truth, the far more dangerous fact, is that they were people too. They were sympathetic, their lives had problems and joys and all the rest. If you watch the tapes of Hitler flirting with Eva Braun, you won't see the same maniac shouting in front of a crowd that we remember from history class. You'll see a person, not that entirely different from the rest of the people you know.

But the truth is he was a Fascist. So is Kuvira. Liking Kuvira doesn't make YOU a fascist, at least not as far as I'm concerned. Trying to paint her actions as anything BUT fascist, however, starts to cross the line, because it takes actions that are Fascistic and tries to paint them as anything else.

People have enjoyed Star Wars for literal decades, even dressing up as the bad guys without people calling them Fascist. The existence and relative celebrity of the 501st fan group is evidence enough of that. It wasn't until people tried to seriously try to turn the narrative of "rebels = terrorists lol" into serious discussions instead of playful ribbing that people started looking askance at some of the overly Imperial-styled fans.

So, I get where you're coming from, but I think you've chosen a path of action that leads to more conflict and misunderstanding than less. People need to see fascists for what they are, other people who do horrible things for reasons they believe are good. If we only make fictional fascists inhuman monsters, we will fail to see the people embracing fascistic ideals until it is too late and we have repeated the mistakes of the past.