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Interestingly, you can view both Nazism and Soviet Communism through a black/white lens, but they hated one another because the way black and white split were i

Interestingly, you can view both Nazism and Soviet Communism through a black/white lens, but they hated one another because the way black and white split were inverted. This means there’s more than one flavor of black-white - you get a pair of flavors for every dimension along which one can resolve the self vs other contradiction. Communism - white ideology (equality for all) led by a deeply black, self-serving Party and leaders that did things like repeatedly imprison, execute, and starve and both their own party members and the general Soviet population. This sounds like your definition of Orzhov. Nazism - black ideology (serve the German nation and the German people above all others) led by a white (at least according to their own beliefs) leadership. The Nazis killed people they considered non-Germans, but they (largely) didn't kill and betray those they considered their own. The color inversion drove conflict between these neighbors, but both movements were black-white at the core. One illustrative example: Hitler delayed transitioning Germany to a full wartime economy, aiming to spare the population the rigors of a full mobilization. By contrast, early in the war Stalin ordered waves of green conscripts, some without rifles, in mass attacks at the front, with NKVD units right behind tasked with shooting deserters.

naravara 6y ago
I think it's hard to encompass massive ideologies into something like this without seeming reductive. Communism might have rules and be ruthless, but it's also a utopian ideology that motivated heavily by a desire for "freedom" in its anarchist framing. It's just that this state of freedom is deferred (basically indefinitely). There is also a huge element of technocratic management in socialist economics. I would actually categorize it as a Blue/Red ideology with splashes of Black once the tankies show up. These are Grixis colors, but Grixis in magic is predominantly Black with a bit of Blue and Red, while Communists would be predominantly Blue/Red with a splash of Black. Nazism is must more White rather than Blue. It's a preference for order, hierarchy, and purity, which are all classically White. It's also violent and ruthless, which is classically Black. There is also some Green in there because of the emphasis on a belief in primordial racial groups having a "natural" hierarchy. Their idea of nature is completely at odds with how nature actually works, but they think that's how it works. They're pretty close to Abzan (https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Abzan_Houses https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Abzan_Houses) with the general militarism, the xenophobia, and the obsessive focus on lineage.

naravara 6y ago

I think it's hard to encompass massive ideologies into something like this without seeming reductive. Communism might have rules and be ruthless, but it's also a utopian ideology that motivated heavily by a desire for "freedom" in its anarchist framing. It's just that this state of freedom is deferred (basically indefinitely). There is also a huge element of technocratic management in socialist economics. I would actually categorize it as a Blue/Red ideology with splashes of Black once the tankies show up. These are Grixis colors, but Grixis in magic is predominantly Black with a bit of Blue and Red, while Communists would be predominantly Blue/Red with a splash of Black. Nazism is must more White rather than Blue. It's a preference for order, hierarchy, and purity, which are all classically White. It's also violent and ruthless, which is classically Black. There is also some Green in there because of the emphasis on a belief in primordial racial groups having a "natural" hierarchy. Their idea of nature is completely at odds with how nature actually works, but they think that's how it works. They're pretty close to Abzan (https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Abzan_Houses https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Abzan_Houses) with the general militarism, the xenophobia, and the obsessive focus on lineage.