* grabs popcorn *

You probably shouldn't. I'm not the type to pretend like fascism isn't everywhere these days.

The only thing that separates your average Steam Fanbois from your typical fascist is that Steam Fanbois aren't typically nationalistic, at least not more so than your typical American.

As an American, you should be well aware of that fact that nearly half of all Americans are fascists or at least have pronounced sympathies towards fascism. And it's been pretty ridiculous ever since 9/11 further legitimized their extreme views.

We are talking about game forums right? XD I love this stuff but since when did this become so serious?

Oh, you are absolutely right. BUT.

BUT. You can't extend the concept of fascism to microcosms like Steam, because there is a STRONG web of tight influences involved in fascism. Cult of personality, "surrounded by enemies and parasites", a heroic narrative (the ubermensch, the heroes of fascist Italy and Greece's Golden Dawn, the kamikaze, etc) and possibly most importantly, misuse of the scientific method to validate bullshit data (this doesn't just come up in Germany's eugenics culture of the 1940s, but everywhere from economic reports to the war effort itself).

These things actually affect PC GAMING AS A WHOLE more than Steam users in particular, and even then it doesn't apply, because, as you said -- there's no nationalism.

And everything I said above, save for the misuse of the scientific method? It all comes back to "volkisch" ideals. "We own this land, you don't belong here, we do, and that makes us better." You NEED the nationalism, or the narrative thread isn't coherent and true fascist thought patterns cannot arise.

As an example -- even if you made Steam users into roid-raging lunatics, I think they'd be more likely to flip out and murder folks over people not liking their favorite game than people not liking Steam. They (outside of a few EXTREME outliers) just aren't invested enough, no matter what you may think.

EDIT: TL;DR, even cardboard cutout people are more complex than you think!

People saying things. It's serious business.

Yeah, the Nazi party was Fascist, but THAT connection was not my intent; I honestly more associate Spain and Italy to it than the Nazis.

The Radical Steam community is a culture that embraces the mentality of "all will be well if you are with me" in support of a 3rd party that provides very little in return. You say that there is no nationalism in the Steam fanboy mentality, but I view Steam as a nation (in the conceptual sense) and the actions expressed fall in line.

We live in a world where currency is more virtual than physical, why can't nationalism be applied to a virtual entity as well?

The culture behind piracy openly identifys itself as Communist, while the "pay what you want" and crowd sourced concepts are clearly based on democracy, and the console wars are built around near nationalistic dedication to one platfor vs another (despite there being nothing preventing people from getting them all, outside of cost).

Because the fascist narrative doesn't rely on things "like" nationalism. Otherwise a monarchy would instantly be fascist in the modern sense (not just LIKE fascism). It's got all the elements, after all.

It relies on NATIONALISM, on "Blut und Boden" ideals. And Blut und Boden is about a PHYSICAL lineage with a long-lived history and a PHYSICAL place. The Japanese emperors had ruled those same islands for thousands of years. Can you even imagine a thousand years? It's like eternity. They "owned" those islands because there was a distinct relationship between "Nihon" and "Japanese archipelago".

That's the seed of fascism, not simple devotion to any ideal. You need to first be made to feel like one of the CHOSEN PEOPLE (i.e., member of restricted group that CANNOT, even if it wanted to, open its membership up. I.e., ancestry). Then you need to tie your CHOSEN PERSONHOOD to the CHOSEN LAND.

And then.... the rest writes itself. What are all these weird assholes doing in YOUR chosen land? They aren't one of the special people! You don't even have to ask. It's written in their ethnicity, in the way they dress, in their accents and deformities. And look how they try to -- sometimes succeed, too! -- dupe your brothers. You can trust no one you don't know as well as yourself. You cannot even trust yourself -- you have seen stronger men than you fall prey to the weaklings.

Contrast Steam. For Steam fanboys -- you're not the enemy until they feel threatened. And they don't ALWAYS feel threatened on all sides, like fascists do (a consequence of their bizarre worldview). They have allies everywhere and they feel that these allies can be trusted. Furthermore, ANYONE can become one of them. All they need is to "see the light". There is no possibility of redemption for a fascist's "untermenschen" -- they were born as animals and they will die as animals.

As a result, curiously, Steam has more in common with bog-standard Evangelical Christianity than the fascism-inspired offshoots of that religion.

no, anyone can be a fascist; the Nazis were the only ones who explicitly stated "these people are they."

the -real- fascists followed a flat "they" which was anyone that did not join the party, the direct idea behind it was "we" need to revitalize "our" nation but taking it back from "they" who have run it into the ground.

basically, the rallying cry of the tea party, regardless of the intent behind its supporters, is fundamentally fascist.

Incorrect. There was always an "innate" element of heroism for the "chosen" people. Some of the "chosen" people could get thrown into the grinder as "political dissidents', but they always called them "corrupted".

This was the case for Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy as much as it was for Hitler's Germany or Hirohito's Japan. It's the case for the modern day Greek political party Golden Dawn.

The Tea Party is INDEED fundamentally fascist, but you're missing the undercurrent of it (implanted by 1950s Cold War propaganda).

Namely: these "liberal" influences are from "outside". There's a reason racism is a recurring theme in Tea Party discourse. There's a reason lots of Tea Party leadership has accounts on Stormfront and the like. There is a reason why they vilify any kind of anti-war movement.

"Other races" (i.e. not blandly white) are their untermenschen. And just as Hitler and Franco's untermenschen, they can't be reasoned with. They are ANIMALS, not men. Their targets "seek to weaken the American people" by "spreading anti-war lies". And why would anti-war lies hurt anything? Look at all that patriotism, and the specific lines it follows. Their "heroes", their ubermenschen and kamikazes -- they're US soldiers.

Now one last thing, because I know it'll come up.

As the racist elements come up in the Tea Party, they get weeded out. That's precisely why its nothing more than a bunch of angry morons, and why it cannot get a grasp on the public imagination yet. THERE IS NO REAL ENEMY FOR IT TO BE THE HERO AGAINST. It can't let the wider audience of the US as a whole in on its internal narrative, because the wider audience doesn't want to hear that trash.

Yet.

Faith is personal, religion is politics.

The core of Communism was an attempt to turn "good christian" morals into a form of government, and IF every member of a Communist state practiced what was preached; it would work.

But if everyone naturally practiced "good christian" morals on the general principle that it is the right thing to do, there wouldn't be a need to preach them.

I really did not have any intention of bringing real governments into this, but no plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy. I was just pointing out that the vocal, proactive members of Steam exhibit fascist behavior in their intolerance for anything that is not conformist with Steam.

I was not trying to associate them with actual fascist governments of infamy past.

I was hoping to see some hilarity involving hardcore Steam fans knocking GOG for selling abandonware, oh well.

To be fair, there's many people on these forums that I'd classify as being worse than a Steam fanboy.

I kinda agree with what you say, but lets not get worse than the Steam fanboys.

If I for any reason try too explain why I try to only have multiplayer based games on Steam and singleplayer based games elsewhere, there's allways someone saying I'm propably trolling.




Dear, GoG, please have mercy on those poor soules that have been misslead by Steam.
:b

That pretty well sums up what I was thinking.

Why can't we all just get along?

What is so wrong with people liking Steam or liking GOG or liking DRM-free or liking Origin or liking all of those things? Why not let people like what they like without getting worked up over it? I like Steam but I can accept people who will never use it or people who insist on DRM-free even though that imposes limitations I wouldn't want for myself. I don't consider them DRM-free fanboys or fascists and I don't understand why they'd view me in that way just because I like what Steam has to offer. It isn't like I go around on a crusade telling people how to live. Speaking of which, this post does kind of do that, doesn't it? So who is acting like a fascist here? Ah, Crosmando - stoking the fire I see. lol