https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/casper-van-dien-is-loving-the-starship-troopers-renaissance-but-still-finds-it-mind-boggling-how-some-take-it-at-face-value-my-grandfather-fought-against-the-nazis-and-its-not-a-pro-war-filmeverybody-fing-dies/
"So we're trying to be more serious, the satire comes from the viewers' appreciation of how ridiculous the situation is with the war machine. It's funny because 1930's style propaganda to us in 2024 seems like 'how could people fall for this, this is such a joke.' Trust your government and all that kind of thing. Propaganda only works when you're not aware that it's working… we have to be very strong in our community sentiment to be able to shut down those groups that will use this as a way to like push different agendas. We're not about that, our studio and the game stand for being inclusive."
I agree that even if an author claims there is no meaning in a story they wrote, and even if the story itself seems vapid, meaning can indeed be pulled out, or at the very least the story can serve as a data point in a meta analysis of cultural trends of the time, etc....while I agree with this, a ton of people really do just absorb stories at face value cause it's interesting to exist somewhere else for a bit or vicariously experience emotions through characters or just enjoy a series of thrilling events.