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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31624 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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And the reasoning of many people who call Z-Russians "orcs" is the same as yours

The reasoning behind calling Russian soldiers orcs is actually pretty apt as far as analogies go, since the orcs of the Lord of the Rings were based (in individual character and personality) on some of the enlisted he interacted with during his service in WW1 and (on a larger, more general scale) the armies of eastern despots. Admittedly the eastern despots he was being inspired by were far more likely to be called Darius than Vladimir, but it's still a surprisingly apt comparison.

I think "orcs" is better. While orcs are depicted as corrupt subhumans, the main characteristic of orcs is that they are a hostile military led by a conqueror and you have to defeat them to end the war, something that's pretty much true here.

This isn't true: for defeating Mordor and ending the war it was apparently sufficient to throw a certain ring into a certain volcano, and no normal military triumph would have been as effective.

Essentially an assassination attempt on their leader. Hmmm...

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