2000ad Prog 2222 - Translated from the original Fascist

[shakalooloo]

Well, first a rather predictable reader's letter from one of those insufferable 'keep politics out of my comics' crowd:



Also, investigating a superhero murder is a detective who is a chimp:



Judge Dredd by Ken Niemand and PJ Holden

No Sláine this week as it turns out artists aren't relentless drawing machines after all, but to fill the pages we have some delightful English countryside sci-fi murder investigations:


Roger Langridge and Brendan McCarthy

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

People who complain about things being too political "now" are often showing that they don't get allegories or subtlety in storytelling.

[owlbrigade1]

Yeah, and if they don't like politics then they really picked the wrong comic. Has 2000AD ever done anything that wasn't political in some way? They are the sort of person who watched Alf Garnet sitcoms and thought he was the hero and not the asshole.

[themajesticmoose]

They're next planning to write to their local pub landlord and express their anger at alochol being on the premises

[stubbleupdate]

You're also not meant to identify with The Pub Landlord, although many people don't get the joke,

[themajesticmoose]

I wonder if that's why the comedian who used to perform the character retired him

Too many people apparently thought that they were meant to nod their heads and go "Finally someone who tells it like it is"

[icon_uk]

I don't think Al Murray has retired him, as recently as 2019 he was still on tour as the character.

[themajesticmoose]

Huh for some reason I thought that he had stopped doing the character

[cainofdreaming]

It's the same people who complain about Rage Against the Machine turning political...

[beyondthefringe]

A talking chimp who is a detective, you say.

Why, someone should make a movie with such a concept.

(Look, DC, if Marvel can make a raccoon and a tree household names, why can't you do the same with Detective Chimp and Rex the Wonder Dog?)

[kamino_neko]

Hmm. Explicitly stating that the Judges are fascistic is new...

[dcbanacek]

It is his pov/narration, so that's how he hears it I guess.

[owlbrigade1]

People kept missing the point when they only implied it, no matter how obvious the implication.

[themajesticmoose]

Not really. Mega City One has always been portrayed as a fascist dystopia.

[cainofdreaming]

With the exception that Judges aren't really a privileged class. They're as much victims of the system as the cits.

[themajesticmoose]

I think that's more of a commentary on the fact that fascism ultimately cannibalises itself.

The Big Finish Doctor Who audio story "Jubilee" summed it up quite nicely. The ultimate endpoint of Fascism is one "winner" who is utterly alone and competely insane because everyone and everything else has been fodder for the deranged and monstrous nature of this kind of "Society"

I normally like happy endings but if the Judge Dredd stories ever end the only logical way for it to do so is with Mega City One and everyone and everything in it turned to ashes and pretty much everyone being dead.

[kamino_neko]

Which is why said explicitly stating that they're fascistic is new, not that depicting them as fascistic is.

[filthysize]

Not for progs that are told from civilian perspective. "America," for example, was explicitly a story where the Judges are the villains: https://judge-dredd.fandom.com/wiki/America

[icon_uk]

"America" is a good example, but the stories where there are elections where actively democractic campaigners always lose to the ultra-authoritatrian judges, and the vote NOT being rigged are somehow just as chilling to me.

For much the same reason that the Patrician of Ankh Morpork continues in power, because, as he says, "They think they want good government and justice for all, ... yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today."

[crinos]

I will always say this:

People who voted for a fucking failed reality TV star to be their President don't get to tell anyone to stay out of politics ever. Not ever again. When you voted for the most unqualified man possible to be the President of the US, you don't get to criticize other people for being in politics.

Of course people saying "Stay out of politics" are usually just making bad faith arguments, because they just want to silence people talking about issues or criticizing their beliefs, and they call it politics because they know most people don't care about politics. What they really mean is "I want anyone who isn't a CIS White Conservative male to sit down, be quiet, and just pretend to not exist so it can be all about me."

To which I say "kindly go fuck yourself sirs."

[themajesticmoose]

Republicans: Celebrities should stay out of politics!

Also Republicans: Vote for a failed meat salesman from a shitty reality tv show with absolutely no political experience (Or the ability to string a sentence together) to be president

[owlbrigade1]

A man who managed to go bankrupt running a casino would obviously be the perfect guy to manage national finances... How do you even go bankrupt running a casino? It is the closest thing there is to a license to print money.

[shadur]

Speaking of things 45's currently being investigated for...

[themajesticmoose]

One of the six times he went bankrupt, if I remember right

[owlbrigade1]

There is a lot of money to be made by going broke, as someone once said.

[icon_uk]

IIRC wasn't there a suggestion that by going into bankruptcy with the casino, the employee pension fund became... accessible to him, or something?

[mastermahan]

Judge Dredd is about a cop who throws people in prison for crimes such as reading comics, possessing sugar, or jaywalking while fleeing a mass shooting. There's even a giant Judge statue which so happens to tower over the Statue of Liberty.

I'm not sure what's worse: people who don't see anything political to this, or people who think this should be model for our world.

[leahandillyana]

I always saw the story as an allegory of a communist state. Because, like, the "crimes" you mentioned were, minus mass shooting (civilians were not allowed guns, and police preferred to use brute force to conserve precious limited stashes of bullets), all things that would land you in jail in 80s Poland. The story is vague enough it can stand-in for any dictatorship. You can easily compare the Judges to Ochrana.

[mastermahan]

That certainly works. Judge Dredd never been a straight 1-to-1 allegory. My favorite example of this is how Robert Booth, the American president who started the Atomic Wars, has gone from looking like Reagan to looking like George W. Bush to looking like Trump.

[owlbrigade1]

In one comic he even threw someone in the cubes for just reporting a crime, because they reported it from the wrong place. But sure, it ain't political.

[deh_tommy]

Man, only really knowing about Judge Dredd from the movies, this is... well, not exactly shocking or surprising, but certainly a bit weird. I always sort of imagined him as like a Robocop sort of figure.

[owlbrigade1]

I always describe the difference between Robocop and Dredd as Robocop seeking to regain his humanity, but Dredd constantly seeking to suppress his. Robocop wants to be Murphy again, but Dredd wants to be The Judge.