The Yuuzhan Vong story arc in the old Star Wars Expanded Universe wasn't exactly great, and the "nice space vampires" trend-chasing trash that followed was pretty bad, but what a lot of people don't seem to remember, and what I only remembered just now, was that the early villain figure in the Vong arc was some angry Twi'lek lady that was leading what was called the "Diversity Alliance" and was actually an asset of the Vong. Basically, space SJW that wants space diversity is actually a space religious terrorist asset. :sus-torment:
Dune is also super orientalist, i.e., the fremen can’t get anything done until Paul the colonizer helps them. And their belief system has basically been molded by the bene gesserit, meaning that the dark hordes/unwashed masses have no agency and are just playthings of ruling elites, a very lib take on things.
Disagree. This is a very superficial take. Herbert does not just superficially take Middle Eastern aesthetics because he thinks they look cool. He engages meaningfully with Islam and the world around it as he construct his future.
Here's a good article that addresses this idea: https://www.tor.com/2021/10/18/the-muslimness-of-dune-a-close-reading-of-appendix-ii-the-religion-of-dune/
Also, it's not just the fremen who are molded by the Bene Gesserit: the entire galaxy has been shaped by their religious manipulation.
Similarly to my other comment, also when you continue on in the series Paul is shown to be very wrong and is essentially responsible for destroying the Fremen as a culture which is depicted textually as a tragedy and a bad thing.
Yeah, my favorite quote from the book about this is:
Which, considering that due to his Prescience, Paul knew that this would happen, and chose that path anyway. Its some subtext, but Paul only superficially saves the Fremen, which in actually destroying them.
The Museum Fremen of the 4th book is the final nail in the coffin; where the crysknifes are plastic, the Fremen are actors, and outside the cave 'Rakis is a temperate paradise.
That's a good point, the Bene Gesserit manipulated every place just in case they find one of their members stuck there.
Oh yeah, definitely. Very racist in the "but I think ______ is cool, how can I be racist?" kind of way.