Epos Daimon, The Antifascist Magic School for Teens

Let’s say you want to teach teenagers about the dangers of toxic communities like the manosphere. You could talk about the politics and history of fascism and explain why the Nazis were evil. You could show them a movie. You could even get them to play a live action role playing game (larp), to give them a really visceral, immersive experience. If you’re gonna do that, you might set it in a magic school, because historically those have been one of the most popular kinds of larps for kids. But there’s a couple of problems here. For one thing, magic schools have a pretty unsavoury association with Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling. For another, most fantasy adventures portray the protagonists as rebels fighting against fascists. That’s great if you want to fight comic book villains, but it doesn’t address the fact that toxic communities are pulling in more and more young people today – people who think they’re the heroes fighting for good, people who are attracted by the sense of belonging…