Won’t someone think of the virtual Nazis?

Being anti-Nazi has typically been a pretty safe bet.

For movies and video games, sweeping an entire demographic of people into archetypal villain roles is fraught with politically incorrect peril. Ask any Aboriginal who rolls his eyes at the portrayal of shirtless, murderous Indians in westerns or an Arab-Canadian who balks at Middle-Eastern terrorists on the silver screen.

But since the fall of Adolf Hitler’s regime, Nazis have been universally regarded as, well, evil. They’ve been fair game as wicked antagonists. Until, apparently, now.

The makers of the Wolfenstein video game series have found themselves embroiled in an internet controversy as they try to tell critics that yes, the main antagonists in their latest release — Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — are Nazis, and yes, that is OK.

Some have taken issue with the new game’s antiNazi stance, and particularly the tag line used in marketing materials: “Make America Nazi-free again.”

That is, of course, a word removed from U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

For the uninitiated, Wolfenstein is a series of games set during and after the Second World War. The plots and objectives change, but mostly centre on shooting, stabbing, blowing up and otherwise obliterating Nazis and things made by Nazis.

The conceit of the latest iteration is that the Nazis won the war, conquered Europe and marched right into Main Street America.

Critics aren’t exactly arguing that the Nazis were nice, decent folks, but they say that in co-opting the president’s tag line, the video game company is quietly equating Trump supporters with Nazis.

Others claimed the game — or at least its marketing — is parroting the aims of the antifa, a loosely affiliated group of mostly communists, socialists and anarchists who aim to stop the advance of white supremacy, sometimes violently.

Is it good to give people in that group tacit justification to attack people who fit an ever-expanding definition of Nazis?

The debate is happening in mostly the dark corners of Twitter, and some of the most vocal critics have since deleted their comments or protected their tweets.

But Bethesda, the makers of Wolfenstein, have waded into the debate with a simple argument: Nazis = bad.

“Wolfenstein has been a decidedly anti-Nazi series since the first release more than 20 years ago. We aren’t going to shy away from what the game is about,” Pete Hines, the studio’s vice-president of marketing and public relations, told GamesIndustry magazine. “We don’t feel it’s a reach for us to say Nazis are bad and un-American, and we’re not worried about being on the right side of history here.”