Why are we so fascinated with things that kill people? - Page 2

Lord Merciless · June 25, 2003, 14:11

Nazis were cool because they almost conquered the world with so little to begin with. Their uniforms looked cool, Albert Speer was cool, their goose steps were cool, and they organized nice rallies.

The good guys were pathetic on the otherhand.

Al B. Sure! · June 25, 2003, 14:29

Pekka:

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It is forbidden in schools and other places to do the Heil Hitler stuff.

we did it all the time... but like i said, there was no jews in the school so nobody really cared.

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But when you're young, you see them with cooler equipment and then wonder why are they so bad then?

yeah and let's not forget the under-dog aspect of taking on the massive empires of Britain, the SU, and the US... plus you got things like the German fighter ace of aces shooting down 352 planes (i'm not exaggerating) and you're like damn these nazis were like gods...

it's weird though how the Confederacy is not seen in the same light though as they also were an underdog which fought fanatically and had some of the most brilliant and daring generals... plus their very taboo... and yet, they never get the same interest in the young that the nazis do... i guess the whole enslaving Blacks issue turns people off from them... or maybe they just were a bunch of hicks without shooting using 1820 muskets...

thanks

Al B. Sure! · June 25, 2003, 14:33

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Albert Speer was cool

yeah the man was amazing. he was only in his 30's and 40's during the war and he was designing massive buildings and stadiums, organizing complicated rallies, AND serving as minister of armaments... and thats not even mentioning all the work he did supervising the develop of rockets and german nuclear technology. he was a genius as were many of the other prominent nazis. such a waste of intelligence...

Sava · June 25, 2003, 14:33

guns are kewl! tanks are kewl! German scientists were smart.

nazis are evil ****ers that get ass ****ed in hell!

Japher · June 25, 2003, 14:35

I think deterent for the Confederacy was the lack of big guns (I mean really big guns)... At least to the young crowd

Actually, there are a lot of people who are facinated by the confedrates as well as the union, and the Civil War in general. I think to address that war takes more maturity as it was not the size of the guns that mattered in that war, but the strategies behind it. IMO, the civil war was a lot greater tactical war, yet it was the same blood fest as WWII.

I don't think the slavery issue moves ppl from it, I think it is the fact that it is more gentlemenish... I.e. we don't fight at night or if it is really bad weather, etc... Heck, no of the ppl posting here seem to be detered from the Nazi and their hatred for Jews, so why would the Conf.'s enslaving blacks be an issue (note; it wasn't just the Conf. that had slavery laws at the start of the war)...

Elok · June 25, 2003, 14:38

Dressing in all black doesn't make you cool. Goths dress in black too and I personally think they're ridiculous. Bunch of primped-up depressing neo-hippies.
Vader had total atmosphere going for him. I think the voice of James Earl Jones could make anybody impressive, and the ominous hissing was creepy.
And if we weren't obsessed with things that kill people, what would we be obsessed with? Food?

Cruddy · June 25, 2003, 14:39

I think the obsession is down to male ideas of "cool".

Sex and violence sell. Obviously the older you get the more important the first is.

GePap · June 25, 2003, 14:48

I think Diss is right when he says that males (women do not in general care much about military hardware) are drawn to violence and conflict: it is part of the male psyche, to be aggressive. I am by no means any sort of fighter: I would do almost evrything to avoid a fight personally, but I have always had a facination with warfare and so forth. for males it promises power and glory and all that would in theory come with that.

Then there is, at a certain level, a modern fascination with gadgets: there is a difference between a tank and a sword, qand certainly airplanes and such. They pormise more than just the ability to destroy. You have the thrills of movement, of speed, andof course, power.

As for the Nazi's. They represent a fascination with extremes. The Nazi's went for AWE, both in the sense of awesome, and awfull.

Al B. Sure! · June 25, 2003, 14:59

Japher:

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Heck, no of the ppl posting here seem to be detered from the Nazi and their hatred for Jews, so why would the Conf.'s enslaving blacks be an issue

well i was speaking more from my experiences and maybe it's just living where most the people is black and the Bars and Stars (thats what its called right?) gets far more hatred here than do the swastika.

though whats odd is that the First World War gets absolutely no attention... but i guess that war was basically like a machine where millions of young men went in and came out shredded

Japher · June 25, 2003, 16:35

WWI was faught mainly for political reasons. Yes, while all wars are due to political reasons ppl can find motivation apart from the political ones.

Genocide for WWII
Slavery for The American Civil War

Yet, I find it horrible that black men would not be more interested in the Civil War that is falsly dubbed "the war to end slavery", in the same sense that WWII was not a war to free jews, and the current war in Iraq was not to liberate Iraqis.

What now? Jews should ignore their internment (they don't), Iraqis should forget their torturers (I doubt they will), so blacks should forget fighting their way out of slavery? How sad, yet black ppl still like to rant about all the oppression they are still going through today.

Sorry to rant...

Basically, I would think that a black man would find the Civil War, and the black efforts in it, to be very facinating and worthy of a look. Both on the side of the Confederate and on the side of the Union... Did you know that even during the civil war it took a Union Black Man something like 2 years of service to "earn" his freedom?

Lonestar · June 25, 2003, 18:51

Back on subkect.

The HMS Albion was commissioned last week, the first of a two ship LPD class. It will supplement the Ocean and replace the Fearless.

Cruddy · June 25, 2003, 19:08

About time. Fearless was a floating wreck with a flag.

Lonestar · June 25, 2003, 19:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Cruddy
About time. Fearless was a floating wreck with a flag.

How can you look at this and feel disgusted?

Imran Siddiqui · June 25, 2003, 19:17

Yeah, the Nazis were always considered cool, probably because they were powerful. Kinda like the Empire in Star Wars. After all in a WW2 game, who do most people always play first? Yep... the 'cool' Germans

.

Shi Huangdi · June 25, 2003, 19:33

Growing up in a largely Jewish neighberhood, I was spared from any Nazi BS.

Odin · June 25, 2003, 19:54

I think the reason men are fasinated in millitary weapons is that in hunter-gatherer societies the men were the protectors of the tribe, a like of weapons were ingrained in the male mind by natural selection.

Lefty Scaevola · June 25, 2003, 22:03

"We are we so fascinated with things that kill people? "

Because we wants them, my precious.

Sirotnikov · June 25, 2003, 22:35

Nazis are cool.

Most definitly.

Everyone likes to be an evil maniac with super-cool guns and uniforms.

Black /grey uniforms look so much nicer than the drab green ones, and they fit the image better.

What can one do? The nazis had a whole image thing going on for them. Black colors = fear, death. Red = blood. White = ..erm.. looks good with black and red.

The Allies had: ... drab green. biege. brown. ...yay....

The soviets were also cool: red and gold. Though their drab olive green uniforms, and the uniforms figure and cut, were horrible. They still were cool because they were an empire.

The allies were always just too damn nice and pluralistic to get attention.

Cruddy · June 25, 2003, 22:42

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Originally posted by Lonestar

How can you look at this and feel disgusted?

Because Fearless' engines were so FUBAR it frequently had to sail on its own - a naval ship that sends smoke signals isn't welcome in a fleet.

The "accomodation" usually consisted of 6 people in a cabin designed for 2. If you were really unlucky you got to sleep on a bookshelf.

The fumes inside the embarkation area were so bad that troops frequently passed out before even getting on the landing craft.

Seaworthiness was crap, meaning that in rough seas the inside was coated with vomit.

Need I go on?

Pekka · June 25, 2003, 22:44

Well maybe we can take it a little back and say they appeared cooler than others... Surely there's nothing cool being a nazi. But Wermacht was cooler too. THe officers uniforms were top notch. They really looked like soldiers in them, I mean put Jay Leno in one of those officers uniforms and he'd look good. Only thing that didn't look so good was those salutes. I think they were boring, like they had some kind of illness. It looked pretty retarded to my eyes.

btw, does that make us cool too, since we had some German weapons and same helmets too? YEah, we were like nazis without that screwed up ideology and urge to be crazy.

Lancer · June 25, 2003, 23:00

The Nazis are cool until they're banging on your door at 3 AM...

My favorite warriors are the Israelis, though as people I don't see them as any better or worse than anyone else. Better or worse boils down all the way to the individual.

The Israelis have fought at truly impossible odds and won, again and again. Some of the battles are just unbelievable.

Gotta love em.

Zero · June 25, 2003, 23:10

Actually Confederates are Quite popular. Goto Civil War re-enactment. Confederate sides are filled with enthusiastic re-enacters while north lacks the enthusiasm the south side has (in general)

I had a friend who bought all sorts of Confederate antiques and had big fat confederate flag hanging on his wall.

Nazis are cool cause they look so damn futuristic for their time. They are like what American army is now.. except they werent the biggest force in the world.

oh and one more thing. This is froma quote from a friend that summs up pretty well on why nazis seem so cool.

"Its gotta be the gloves. That black gloves just gives a finsihing touch to the bad ass image". (obviously referring to ranking officers)

Zero · June 25, 2003, 23:18

another fact: Take a killing game and dont change anything except the fact your killing WW2 era german conscripts and nazis.

fun factor soars at least by thousand folds.

and if u can be on the axis side... well.

Pekka · June 25, 2003, 23:33

Yes, even when they appear cooler, they're also the most fun targets! It's fun to shoot them and mumble 'I hate fng nazis...' BLAM BLAM!

Zero · June 25, 2003, 23:37

My favorite german words are from wolfenstein

Such disappointment that RTCW did not have classic lines of "Mein Laemen(?)" and "Shutze" and etc.

Al B. Sure! · June 25, 2003, 23:45

Pekka:

Quote:

Only thing that didn't look so good was those salutes. I think they were boring, like they had some kind of illness. It looked pretty retarded to my eyes.

those salutes (raised right arm stretched out at an angle with a downward palm and the raised palm) were the ancient Roman salutes that the germans adopted. if you ever notice in gladiator movies, the gladiators do the 'nazi' salute when they say, "we who are about to die, salute you," etc. so blame the romans

as an aside, those salutes represent peace. the open palm is a sign that shows you are not carrying a weapon and thus are saluting in peace whereas the alternative clenched fist is the salute of militancy.

Pekka · June 25, 2003, 23:55

Albert Speer, I knew that, except I didn't know it represented peace though. Thanks for educating me. Shaking hands is also old thing representing you have no weapons.

Al B. Sure! · June 26, 2003, 00:08

Pekka:

and also how many catholics pray with their palms out...

Sikander · June 26, 2003, 02:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
why what did you do?

I choked a chicken.

Dis · June 26, 2003, 02:56

yeah I liked the Israeli's as well. Of course they couldn't have done it without great american hardware

But they had/have good pilots (except the one's that shot up an american ship)

Taking on so many countries at once and winning is an impressive feat. In essence they are the underdogs. Ya can't help but root for them.