• Spike [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    My favourite example of this is when Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman West Wing) didn't realise the "I would vote for Obama 3 times" in Get Out was a joke aimed at shit libs

  • HarryLime [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Hunger Games has imagery of humble and stolid country folk who make their living by their hands being oppressed by fancy and decadent city people. It's arguably coded as somewhat conservative-leaning, at least in terms of American culture war.

    • Sen_Jen [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Well yeah, but also its a series where the working class kill each other for the entertainment of the rich, the villain is literally called capital, the revolution is co-opted by people obsessed with image and optics, and so on

      • HarryLime [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        No, I get that. But I'm saying that a Republican or a conservative can still easily watch Katniss and her friends fighting the evil Capital and be like "that's me!"

      • AcidSmiley [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        revolutionary movements that are meant to be likeable are usually coded in such ambiguous ways, with dog whistles both for radlibs and reactionaries to latch on to. for example, in early seasons of The Expanse, when Belters weren't yet clearly sorted into "Polish or Irish = libertarian and good" and "Latinx or Middle Eastern = racist and bad", they were simultaneously coded as IRA crust punks and redneck truckers, and also all kinds of other stuff, just as easily being read as inusrrectionist leftist or as rebel chuds.

    • Animasta [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Yeah. There's a ton of people who think Hunger Games is some sort of communist dystopia or at least that the whole thing is just broadly "anti-authoritarian".

      • ZZ_SloppyTop [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It’s anti-imperialist it shows a core-periphery extraction and the displays of cruel violence sustaining it, it’s very heavy handed with it

        • CyberMao [it/its]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          It’s so heavy handed and spot on, but I really just wished it didn’t trip at the finish line.

          spoilers

          Coin’s proposal to reinstate the hunger games didn’t make any sense. It was obvious to me that her actions had to be worked backwards from the conclusion. She was always suspect, but we needed to learn why in order to show that performing a revolution just to reinstate the same systems of oppression is wrong. But it wasn’t clear that anyone else was any better or that this death wouldn’t simple destabilize the people further.

          • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago
            cool tips for cool people

            Put stuff between the top : and the bottom : where the ____ line is

            spoiler

            ___<---

            • CyberMao [it/its]
              ·
              3 years ago

              I don’t use the version from the text editor I just type it out. But I accidentally typed “spoilers” instead of “spoiler”. Fixed now. Thank you

    • ZZ_SloppyTop [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      It’s just showing imperialist extraction in a very simple and didactic way for teenagers. It’s true that rich empire core often has material decadence extracted from the periphery through brutal exploitation. The premise of the entire series is rested on the capital being so comically decadent to host a TV reality show where they make poor kids murder each other for fun.

    • LoudMuffin [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      not to mention the only reason the revolution is kicked off is because District North Korea literally has nukes and sends fucking UFOs to support them lmao

  • DasKarlBarx [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Actors in my experience are often some of the most ignorant people around.

    I know quite a few, and so often they come from wealthier families who do well enough to be able to financially back them with rent, food, and acting class money until they make it.

    That also doesn't include those who get where they are at due to familial connections.

  • CyborgMarx [any, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There is nothing more pathetic than a never-trump republican, they're creatures that want the brutality of conservatism but wrapped up in a veneer of civil discourse, aspiring autocrats who want a pat of the head from the type of people who swear they would've voted for Obama three times

    At least dumb motherfuckers like this :frothingfash: have an ethos

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      they’re creatures that want the brutality of conservatism but wrapped up in a veneer of civil discourse

      I thought those were democrats

      • CyborgMarx [any, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Democrats think Justice is brutality, while Conservatives think brutality is Justice, very subtle, kinda like Gork and Mork

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Some of them became democrats, the vast majority of never-trump republicans became freakish Qanon pilled reactionaries like a year after Trump was elected.

        • mao_zedonk [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I thought Q was a Trump thing? Like wasn't it all about him being a m secret hero?

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            yes, that's what I mean. Conservatives who hated Trump all worshiped him a year later. They have no convictions.

  • Theblarglereflargle [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    For all her shit that interview where she says she drinks heavily because she knows some people despise her just for being alive was super fucked up to hear :deeper-sadness: :deeper-sadness:

      • Theblarglereflargle [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah she’s at least open about all this shit. There’s lots of famous republicans but they keep their mouth shut. She at least is open and seems to be getting better.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Almost no Americans take analogy and symbolism in popular media seriously. It's like pulling teeth trying to convince them the X-Men are a hamfisted allegory for minorities or even all the transphobic jokes in Friends are in fact transphobic.

    It doesn't surprise me that the people making the popular media similarly don't see what they're making.

    • LoudMuffin [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      American education is absolutely fucking dogshit, that's why

      I remember sitting in my senior year non AP English class (so where you put the future poors) and 90% of the class could BARELY get through or comprehend the first few chapters of 1984, it was seriously fucking depressing and I don't know if that's indicative of anything but a society scale failure to educate people

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        American education is absolutely fucking dogshit.

        Literacy in the US could be a bit better...

        Literacy in the United States

        According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of adults in the United States have prose literacy below the 6th-grade level.

      • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        my english teacher in high school made us read metamorphosis by kafka and half the class couldnt understand that it wasnt meant to be a funny story about a beetle

          • AcidSmiley [she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            can't comment on how common that is bc english isn't my first language, but German is and Kafka translates just extremely well to English. There's something about his style, his syntax n stuff, that just lends itself well to English translations. Also, Kafka became popular in the anglophone world long before he became popular in German-speaking countries due to his work being discovered and becoming popular post-mortem, when Hitler had just risen to power and Kafka's books were being banned due to him being Jewish and an absurdist author. So Kafka only became popular in postwar Germany, when his work was reintroduced from the English-speaking world, where he's made a massive cultural impact.

          • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Fairly common to read at least a couple. We read Beowulf, journey to the west, tartuffe, and a bunch of greek tragedies like Antigone or oedipus.

          • becauseoftheblood [she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            To be fair most classes are called English and literature or something but yes translated books are very common

    • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I know that this wasn't the main point of your post but it's going to kill me when Disney/MCU does X-Men and completely gut it of anti-racist/anti-homophobic metaphor and instead just make it into another action-comedy.

      Or, or shit, when they keep the allegories but direct them all against state enemies by making all the anti-mutant factions be based out of Russia and China or something.

      MagNATO.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The worst part? When I try to convince people the MCU X-men are using the guise of its former anti-bigotry stances to instead spread imperialism, I'll be accused of reading too far into silly action superhero movies and in fact they have no message beyond cool fight scenes.

  • Quimby [any, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Jennifer Lawrence has always been the physical embodiment of "just vibes"

  • moonlake [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I mean she's probably earning a bazillion dollars from acting so she is one of the few people who should vote republican as opposed to millions of yanks who are voting for the bullies that steal their lunch money every day.

  • Metalorg [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Good news for her, Democrats are Bush republicans now

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This is the thing I keep coming back to. Like, I hear Dems insist "You shouldn't vote for Republicans", but then I'm left with the question "Who else am I supposed to vote for?"

  • Alex_Jones [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I think if I'm adapting a book for film, I'd want my lead actors to be able to understand the message at the very least.