Look. As a Jewish person, I get why people like snk. It’s an action show. It presents an interesting mystery element, and there’s some fun world-building stuff going on with the military ranks and the 3D gear and the big scary monsters. But a lot of the fun gets sucked out of this show when you realize the titans are like. Literally the Jews. It’s not subtle, guys. In this story, the people who were forced to become titans were treated like they were less than human, herded into ghettos, and
forced to wear embroidered stars on their clothes,
then genetically experimented upon until they became titans. The whole theme of snk focuses on the strong conquering the weak, as per natural selection. Where’s that scene where Mikasa thinks about the bug eating the butterfly or whatever? And the one where Erin says people are dumb to want to live like livestock? Once you understand that the titans are people, you realize all that talk about the natural order is a reference to social Darwinism, a tenant of nazism.
[Nazi radical theorists]…believed the Aryan or Nordic race had evolved to a higher level than other races because of the harsh climatic conditions that influenced natural selection. They also claimed that Darwinism underpinned specific elements of Nazi racial ideology, including racial inequality, the necessity of the racial struggle for existence, and collectivism.
—The Role of Darwinism in Nazi Racial Thought by Richard Weikart
Snk is about these three white kids growing up in a town modeled after a German village, joining the military to conquer the big, ugly, stupid giants (a foreign race) who turned them into prey animals, and reclaiming their rightful place in the world as superior beings. So uh. Yeah.
Here’s another article about snk and facism. Sigh. Just…I hate to tell people “You aren’t allowed to enjoy the thing.” But CHRIST. Snk’s author even named one of the main military heroes after Erwin Rommel, a famous nazi. If you absolutely HAVE to follow this series, don’t give this guy your money. Pirate the shit out of his stuff and don’t fucking promote it at all. Don’t cosplay it. Don’t post fanart. Don’t celebrate it in any way that would make the series look attractive to potential viewers. Just…please.
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