Game of Pawns
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The "Game of Pawns: The Glenn Duffie Shriver Story" video dramatizes the incremental steps taken by intelligence officers to recruit Shriver and convince him...

If you're wondering how orientalist this is, the first line begins with "there is an old Chinese proverb" while flute music plays

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I'm 20 seconds into a 28 minute video and I already have like a dozen questions.

    Why is it talking about chess in ancient China? Are they talking about xiang qi? Because it's clearly showing a chess pawn and xiang qi pawns don't look like that. Also, "sometimes you have to sacrifice pawns" isn't a proverb that's just like... the basic rules of chess.

    Oh actually I think they're referencing, "Sacrifice the plum tree to save the peach tree" (sacrifice something low value to save something high value). But that's not really from board games so much as something that could also be applied in a board game. I guess they just decided to strip away all the cultural context and put it into a Western cultural context because racism, but like... why would you show an image of a chess pawn? Doesn't that just really highlight the contradiction?

    Ok I think I've finished processing the first 20 seconds.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ok they just showed a guy playing on a chess board and it was in fact chess and not xiang qi. Whoever made this seems to unironically think that Western chess was a part of ancient Chinese culture :bruh-moment:

      • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Pausing the video at 2:38 so I can get the link and follow his career path :galaxy-brain:

        Please Xi I promise I will write papers I will infiltrate the CIA I promise I won't pussy out at the polygraph please give me a scholarship and forty thousand dollars this whole deal sounds fucking awesome.

        Also I know the difference between chess and xiang qi and even wei qi! I have more intelligence on China than the whole FBI!

        Edit: I just realized, the whole "Sacrificing pawns" thing didn't even come into play in the entire story. The guy was sloppy and got caught. It's not like the Chinese sacrificed him or even cut him loose. All that hackneyed bullshit had no relevance to the plot at all.