Absolutely beyond parody.

Link

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      kinda reminds me of the latest season of CIA Jim from The Office / Jerk Ryan. one of the common tropes in the Jack Ryan Extended Universe is taking all of America's enemies and, for the purposes of the story conflict, joining them together in a shadowy cabal, whose very existence confounds the typical intelligence analyst that can't see the forest for the trees. enter Jerk Ryan: massive brain haver.

      so Season 3 has the CIA Good Guy worried about "convergence", which is this in-universe theoretical big brain NatSec concept to describe when corrupt intelligence community members lend themselves to The Global Terrorist Network (political violence/extremism) and the Major Drug Trafficking Organization (unlimited cash money) to challenge the Good Countries (Burgerland and Friends). however, what makes this concept in the show distinct from how this actually happens repeatedly in history to further the goals of US interests until it blows back on US civilians, in the show it's as though all of these groups never had anything to do with each other, were not networked together in their development and have only very recently independently found each other. and that they were always bad guys and weren't created by america.

      it makes it much simpler when the imperial project can conflate every moment and place of resistance as part of the same distinctly un-american Big Bad.

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        10 months ago

        all of America's enemies and ... joining them together in a shadowy cabal

        sicko-wistful

        • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          100%. it's that level of childish simplicity.

          also, damn do i miss dumb slapstick in movies. i was watching some keystone cops clips (because i was explaining it as a reference) the other day, and it's still funny after like 100 years: cops being a gang of cowardly, violent clods falling all over themselves causing mayhem wherever they go.

          and somehow more radical and honest than media today.

          • daisy
            ·
            10 months ago

            Keystone cops movies were one reason why the Hays code was rabidly pro-cop.