• penguin_von_doom [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Yeah, but this is more related to culture and the place LOTR stuff takes in it rather than making a link to the Asiatic hordes thrope. This one is exactly the same as if a western lib said "Russians are death eaters and Putin is Voldemort"...

    Eidt: that said "orcs" can definitely be used in a racist context, it frequently is applied like that against Roma people

    • JamesConnolly [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      No it’s not. This is from Ukraine’s defense minster. He knows what he is doing and if he doesn’t, then he should be shot.

      Orcs in LOTR are based on that trope anyway.

      • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yes, he knows what he is doing. LOTR has a particular spot in Eastern European culture, that, as I said, in the West is fulfilled by say Harry Potter.

        Also, I'm afraid orcs are not explicitly based on that thrope, and if anything are more often presented as a classist caricature of British working class. If any racism is present it is not by explicit design of Tolkien.

        • JamesConnolly [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          ok debate nerd. I’m off to go shoot some British soldiers in the face

          :horsepoo-theory:

          Disengaging, don’t reply to me.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Orcs are non-humans who are always evil without exception and, in the text, are killed mercilessly in every situation in which they are encountered. Calling people orcs is explicitly and intentionally dehumanizing. In the statement the guy strips the Russians of their human status as Slavic people and declares them un-human.

      Basic nationalist genocide pep talk.