Fascists love Star Wars. Even though the whole point of Star Wars is that fascists suck, and that the universe would be better without them.
Billionaires love Star Trek. Even though the whole point of Star Trek is that billionaires suck, and that the universe would be better off without them, and that once we get universal basic income and solve SF homelessness, and end the very concept of billionaire, humanity will usher in a real age of technological advancement.
@mekkaokereke They might say that they like Star Wars, Star Trek, The Culture, The Expanse, The Matrix, Robocop, Terminator, The Lord of the Rings, etc.
But they continue to demonstrate that they did not understand those works.
Even when the authors of the works have explained them (per the Wachowskis telling off Elon Musk).
Which makes me wonder if they actually watched or read or listened to them - or paid attention if they did.
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I love the fact that these "geniuses" have so completely embraced mental models and heuristics that they have lost (or maybe never had) the ability to understand nuance, or just other people's perspectives in general.
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I reckon billionaires are very good at filtering out the bits that don't align with their beliefs, that's how they run their companies too.
@brunogirin @michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke Humans are good at that in general. It just so happens that, due to our economical system, those who end up with lots of money and power more often than not do have sociopath tendencies.
Also the education system is broken as rich kids ain't schooled together with everyone else and therefore never develop a healthy character.
@brunogirin @mekkaokereke I still do not get how anyone could read Tolkien and think that he would support anything resembling the politics of JD Vance.
But JD Vance is pleased to pretend so.
@michael_w_busch @brunogirin @mekkaokereke as an American small-r republican, I always found it disappointing that the main political accomplishment in LOTR was restoration of the rightful hereditary monarchy.
@kajord @brunogirin Tolkien was quite deliberately writing a "mythology for England" as opposed to something intended as an endorsement of monarchy (he identified himself as an anarchist, although not a loud one).
People not separating writing a story about something from endorsing it seems relevant to @mekkaokereke 's original point.
@michael_w_busch @brunogirin @mekkaokereke it sure reads like a romantic fable about the restoration of the Good King to me. I ate it up as a kid, but as I get older I am more and more skeptical of the presentation of the idea that someone was born to rule.
@kajord @michael_w_busch @brunogirin @mekkaokereke Given the existence of a Good King, it follows that he should rule, so I'm fine with that aspect of LOTR. But Good Kings don't exist.
@fishidwardrobe @kajord @brunogirin @mekkaokereke
J.R.R. Tolkien, 1943:
"My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy … the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity."
@kajord @michael_w_busch @brunogirin @mekkaokereke There are plenty of examples in Tolkien of rulers descended from the "Good Kings" doing great evil (Fëanor, the Kings of Numenor) or at least mucking things up tremendously (the Kings of Gondor, Denethor).
@kajord @michael_w_busch @brunogirin @mekkaokereke Tolkien and Lewis were contemporaries. They both wrote Christian fables. Tolkien just kept it more subtle than a lion rising from the dead to rule over creation.
@kajord @michael_w_busch @brunogirin @Jon_Kramer i thought Tolkien was writing a christian story too and learning here that he identified as an anarchist is mind blowing. Theism is inherently hierarchical…
@chaspinrad @kajord @michael_w_busch @brunogirin anarchists can be Christians.
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke technologist oligarchs consider the purpose of SF to be the showcased technology because they want the future to be all about them as well as the present. Musk doesn't give a shit about the people who inhabit the future, only how big the statues of himself are going to be.
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke they just watch and think “oooh laser swords! Bad ass!”
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I think it's a difference between engaging with the aesthetics of the work versus the themes of the work?
I mean I love Trek but almost all of its main characters are members of an expansionist military so I can see where that would click for a fascist even as the show keeps saying "your human and/or alien fascism is bad".
@ultranurd @michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke Except it wasn’t supposed to be a military, or at least not like that. The purpose was for exploration, not expansion, for diplomacy and understanding, not colonization. Modern Trek has tended to ignore that, because the idea that such an organization would HAVE to be a tool of violence and oppression makes people (esp Americans) feel better about our own military.
@ultranurd @michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke The idea that people can actually get along and work well together and solve differences of opinion and explore without the plan to strip everywhere they find of resources is revolutionary. That the Federation has the power to do that, but chooses not to, is a damning indictment of the US. We have the power to do that, too. It’s a choice to spend all that money on violence.
@queenofnewyork @ultranurd @michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I tend to believe "modern Trek" is different because Roddenberry is not involved. The suits took over quite a while ago & they are far more interested in what gets advertisers than what advances the original vision.
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke Well they are all against critical theory— CRT most vocally but scratch the surface and they don’t care for any other kind either, it’s all woke-agenda “how dare you tell me how to read and interpret things” liberal brainwashing to them— so at the end of the day, they lack the basic tools for understanding creative works in any medium, in any depth.
When the Wachowskis tell them the Matrix is a trans allegory…they might as well be telling them it’s on the blockchain and tastes good with ranch dressing. “[anything] allegory” is absolutely gibberish to them, “what does that even mean, and why would I care?”
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke I mean we've seen a lot of the same people talking about the Bible like all they did was Google "Bible quote against homosexuality" etc, so I'd believe that