He's always been the le reddit anti-hero but holy fuck he legitimately becomes a nazi around season 4. Its not like he was forced into working with them like the cartels in the earlier season, he willingly chose to work for nazis, Walter White is by every definition, a nazi. It doesn't matter he killed them at the end, he did that because of a personal vendetta not because they were nazis. He's like one of the nazis who tried to assassinate Hitler, still a nazi. Walter White is a nazi :jesse-wtf:

  • AFineWayToDie [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Not sure if I'd go that far, but I have concerns about anyone who walks away from BB with the impression that WW is anything other that an arrogant, selfish bastard who ruined the lives of his entire family because he was too stubborn to accept any sort of help, out of some twisted interpretation of what it means to "be a man."

    Maybe not a literal Nazi, but an ideal candidate.

    • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]M
      ·
      2 years ago

      The online hate machine against Skyler is especially gross. Like, yah dude she's such an enormous [insert misogynistic slur here] just for disliking her husband being a chronic liar, psychopath and murderer. Any grown-ass adult who sympathizes with Walt that hard is at least fash-adjacent

      • AFineWayToDie [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        My working theory is that the core theme of BB is toxic masculinity. Walter could have had his treatment paid for if he'd just accepted help, but he had to go and BE A MAN because Gus gave him a speech about how "a man provides." Gus is by all these measures a "man," but is also a thoughtless, remorseless killer. And he's gay. Which is fine, but throws a wrench into conventional ideas about being a "real man."

        • GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Walter could have had his treatment paid for if he’d just accepted help

          he had more financial concerns than "paying for his treatment," okay sure he might die with no medical debt but who is going to take care of his wife, son, and infant daughter? his billionaire friend didn't make that offer

      • Waldoz53 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        i saw a tweet once that said the real criminal of the show was skyler white lmao

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

      but I have concerns about anyone who walks away from BB with the impression that WW is anything other that an arrogant, selfish bastard who ruined the lives of his entire family because he was too stubborn to accept any sort of help, out of some twisted interpretation of what it means to “be a man.”

      Come now, that's not a fair judgement

      He ruined far, far more people's lives than in just his own family

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      He also didn’t work for nazis, he hired them.

      :walter-shock: is :cia:

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

      Yep, I like how you pointed out how Walter believes in hierarchy with him at the top. What's consistent about Walter from the very beginning to the very end, is how he's willing to treat people who he thinks are lesser than him.

  • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Chose a literal Nazi as his nom de guerre

    I don't understand where you're getting this idea that Walter White has any connection with Nazis

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yes, the guy who tried to build a nuke for nazi Germany. After the war, he claimed that he actually sabotaged the nuclear program by withholding the idea that Germany, lacking enough heavy water to make a Uranium bomb, could also build a plutonium bomb, but that claim is dubious. Science historians are still going through his journals and arguing back and forth if that's actually true or if he just didn't notice plutonium was a viable route.

        Whether it's true or not, he chose to stay when other scientists like Einstein and Fermi fled the nazis.

        • ElGosso [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Einstein was Jewish and so was Fermi's wife so it's not like they left for ideological reasons

          I mean Einstein might've anyway but I have no idea when he became a socialist, coulda been later

  • HarryLime [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I'm sorry, but is working with a skinhead gang somehow worse than poisoning a small child and bombing a nursing home?

    Edit: Also, like, yeah Jack and his gang have Nazi tattoos and were almost certainly white supremacists, but at the end of the day they're just a particularly vicious gang of criminals. There's no indication that they're motivated by politics or do anything to consciously advance a fascist agenda. IRL, there's a big difference between the Aryan Brotherhood and, for example, the Proud Boys or the 3%ers. They're all scumbags, but the Aryan Brotherhood probably isn't politically dangerous.

      • HarryLime [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        What "Bruh?" They're not the same thing. Criminal gangs and fascist militias or political parties are different kinds of social formations formed for different goals. That's not a moral judgment, it's just a fact.

        • nohaybanda [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It's a distinction without meaning. A gang formed around a white nationalist identity is by definition political, and it's terminal electoralism brain to claim otherwise.

          More to the point, the AB has the same capacity to engage in stochastic terrorism and fascist suppression of vulnerable/marginalized groups anywhere they have a foothold. I don't see how their funding coming from drugs makes a difference. I certainly don't see how a BIPOC or LGBTQ person living in an area where AB are active could or should feel any safer, just cause it's not the Proud Boys or whatever.

          What's more, as material conditions worsen, it will be all too easy for them to take a more active "political" role and get funding from CIA, oligarchs etc. Will you claim they only became Nazi's after then? Sure they had the swastikas, violent induction rituals, organizational structure etc, but they weren't doing politics!

          • HarryLime [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            It’s a distinction without meaning

            It does have a meaning. The Aryan Brotherhood isn't going to be leading the march on Rome or installing the next fuhrer. The Proud Boys or the 3%ers or any number of other groups might actually do that. You know for a fact that that's true, and you know why that's true. You know what the difference between these two different kinds of social formations are, so stop this pointless hectoring please.

      • HarryLime [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        My point isn't to imply that one is somehow "better" than the other.

        • Aliveelectricwire [it/its]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Dude they're both dangerous in different ways. Like do you think the AB stops recruiting when they get out of prison? I know comrades who were firebombed by the AB for "political" reasons. The fascist brownshirts weren't just vets they were also street thugs.

          • HarryLime [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Dude they’re both dangerous in different ways.

            That's my point.

      • jkfjfhkdfgdfb [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        nah

        that kind of danger is to a few people

        political danger is to the world

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    He’s always been the le reddit anti-hero but holy fuck he legitimately becomes a nazi around season 4.

    That didn't, and wouldn't, change :reddit-logo: 's opinion of based drug man one bit.

  • CthulhusIntern [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Season 4? But Todd and the nazis didn't appear until Season 5, or did I forget about something that happened in Season 4?

  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Who else is in the meth business though? Cartels, goobers, and Nazi bikers are the only ones reputationally associated with it in the US. I don't see him being ideologically motivated so much as part of a market where the only other side is Nazis because Jesse represents the goobers. It's like a show about arms dealers. No matter how you situate the main character, most of their interactions will be with some kind of Nazi company.

  • GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    idk about "walter white is a nazi" but I wanna say it really grinds my gears every time Breaking Bad or some other show comes up and people are all "you're a fascist or fasc adjacent if you sympathize with them!!!"

    they're the protagonist, you watch multiple years worth of episodes from their point of view framing their decisions in a way that justifies those decisions one way or another, which you're more likely to do yourself if you find yourself initially sympathizing with the character (which most people probably do, it's called "breaking bad" not "protagonist was a shithead from the start")

    it seems like manipulative gas lighting when the director and showrunners know this only for them and certain viewers to go "aha! gotcha! you're a literal nazi because you wanted them to succeed!"

    I've been thinking about this since watching Barry because yeah Barry's a shithead but I still empathize with him somewhat especially when he's tried to pull himself out of Doing Hitman Shit like twenty fucking times only for Fuches/Hank/whoever to drag him back in and ya know what, I resent being told I'm a fascist for wanting him to succeed