Disney is under fire again. Not because they remade The Little Mermaid into a black character, but because the Lion King is now considered a story of fascist Nazis spreading racism in a non-socialistic society.

According to an article on The Washington Post, written by Dan Hassler-Forest, a Dutch academic who has been delivering achingly PC reviews of Disney films for WaPo since last May, The Lion King “offers us fascist ideology writ large.”

“As we watch the herbivores congregate to bow down before their newborn ruler, “The Lion King” presents a seductive worldview in which absolute power goes unquestioned and the weak and the vulnerable are fundamentally inferior. In other words: “The Lion King” offers us fascist ideology writ large, and there is no obvious way out for the remake,” the article reads.

Hassler-Forest, a white man who promotes far-left ideology, then implied that the lions are white people and the villainous hyenas are black people. He labelled the movie as a racist for of supremacy, even though The Lion King seems pretty diverse showing Simba growing up with his non-lion friends, treating them as his equal.

“With the lions standing in for the ruling class, and the “good” herbivores embodying society’s decent, law-abiding citizens, the hyenas transparently represent the black, brown and disabled bodies that are forcefully excluded from this hierarchical society,” Hassler-Forest wrote.

Simba with his inclusive non-lion friends

Hassler-Forest then went on to say that it is fascism for the movie to have villains and heroes in it, overlooking the fact that most movies have villains and heroes. He also referred to the hyenas, which he labeled as black and brown people, as people living in ghetto-like areas. He ignored the fact the main villain in The Lion King is another lion named Scar.

“Just as fascist leaders constantly pinpoint specific groups to vilify and cast out from their view of a “balanced” society, the film’s heroes are preoccupied with keeping their kingdom free of contamination by undesirable characters, who are consigned to the shadowy ghettolike areas “beyond our borders” — on the wrong side of the tracks. With these elements in place, the film’s plot centers on what happens when the “natural” supremacy of patriarchal rule is interrupted.” Hassler-Forest wrote.

He overlooked the fact that just because you are a certain ethnicity doesn’t mean you live in a certain place or demographic area. By trying to point the finger at The Lion King implying that it is a racist movie, he himself is promoting a racist stereotypical ideology.

Hassler-Forest continued his attack on The Lion king and Disney warning people that just because Disney supports women, people of color, LGBT people and the disabled they are still promoting authoritarian and anti-democratic values.

He then took a moment to mention The Little Mermaid and how he feels there is something sexual about a young teenage girls body. Even though most people don’t watch the Little Mermaid and think of sex.

“It’s tempting therefore to jump on the Disney bandwagon and celebrate the admirable work the company has been doing on this front. And yes, even the most brazenly opportunistic and superficial attempts to improve the way women, people of color, LGBT people and the disabled are made visible in our popular culture make a difference. Representation still matters, and female Jedi knights, black mermaids and Chinese action heroines are undeniable marks of progress. But it’s not enough.

In our increasingly nostalgic culture, we need to recognize that the problem with “The Lion King” isn’t only the ethnicity of its voice actors, just as the misogyny of “The Little Mermaid” can’t be erased by casting a black actress in a role that’s notorious for sexualizing and objectifying a teenage girl’s body . At a deeper level, these films champion authoritarian and anti-democratic values by reproducing a worldview in which power, strength and privilege are genetically determined, and where the weak and vulnerable exist only to serve, support and flatter their masters.” Hassler-Forest wrote.

Hassler-Forest attacked the ethnicity of its voice actors in The Lion King assuming that since a person talked or sounded a certain way then they must be white, or black, promoting another racial stereotype that white people speak proper and black people have bad grammar.

Video list of voice actors in The Lion King:

Video list of voice actors in The Lion King (2019 film)

Hassler-Forest concluded his article by taking a moment to attack people which he labelled as “the far right” with a slew of misinformation.

“At a moment when the far right is on the rise, when we debate whether to call the horrific shelters on our border concentration camps, and when anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes continue to increase, we should ask ourselves what it means to obsessively revisit narratives that celebrate the strong, the beautiful and the powerful, while looking down upon the rebels, the outcasts and the powerless. “The Lion King” is exactly that kind of story, and it will take more than Beyoncé’s regal vocal cords to redeem it for the next generation,” Hassler-Forest wrote.

Not only did Hassler-Forest mention the debunked myth of illegal immigration detention centers being the same as concentration camps, he also started off pointing the finger at “the far right” while mentioning Jewish people. Overlooking the fact that many Democrats, such as Ilhan Omar, are anti-Semitic.

But don’t let Hassler-Forest ruin an innocent cartoon story for you. Just because he is promoting far left ideology doesn’t mean what he says is true.

Story originally published on PCMD News