Fascists don't get things done.

A disturbing trend I see in popular culture is this weird notion of Democracy equals weak and Autocracies, particularly Fascist ones, are strong. This is quite a worrying thing for a member of a free society because I happen to like all these weak, pathetic freedoms. The ability to say what I want, believe what I want, love who I want all the while having some power to decide who calls the shots is dear to me. Also, autocracies commit all sorts of blunders because no one is able to tell them differently due to being in a grave or gulag. The rejection of Einstien's understanding of the atom being 'Jewish science' on the part of the Nazis and the Soviet's embracing of Lamarck over Darwin because it matched their ideology better is well known.

So why is this less of a feature in our fictional societies? Ofttimes they stride the world like the colossi the propaganda of their real-world counterparts depicted them as doing. We see nothing of their shortcomings. Oh, they typically murder their underlings, but you never see their plans go to pieces because those underlings fulfilled some part in the great hierarchy of evil. We never see mass defections because the minions are badly treated, ineptly led\or shot for not advancing fast enough. They never are absent because the troop deployments owe more to political ideology than any actual strategic necessity. We never see useless white elephant projects that exist because they are the brainchild of a favoured minister. Well, maybe we do in Star Wars, the Empire did seem to have a 'style over substance theme' with its hardware. That I suspect is due more to the art teams than anything in the universe itself. They seem to like the walking tanks and ships with guns on only the top side. 

Now, this is in part because we want to see our heroes defeat an actually competent and challenging opponent and not a pack of moustache-twirling buffoons. Also, if one's society is capable with robust structures and institutions then they are far less likely to rely on the exploits of some hero. However, too often I feel we are discrediting free societies and promoting dictatorships just for the sake of cheap heroics and lazy writing.