actually all western popular culture did is reduce nazism into an aesthetic for their villains. they never really countered the ideology behind the polished boots and the lines of men in uniform, because doing so would also have to challenge white supremacy (which is a cornerstone of modern american and western european society).
as a result of this:
- the threat of fascism has been played down by depicting nazis as cartoonish villains, and
- the actual ideology behind fascism has survived simply by re-branding (which is what the ‘alt right’ is all about), because we now identify fascism as an aesthetic first and an ideology second.
laughing at nazis does not get rid of nazis.
