We’re communicating instantaneously over a globe spanning computer network. In the early 90s that was not possible for the average joe. It was only in the very tail end of the decade that doing so didn’t require a fair amount of money and/or technical knowledge.
The network provides all of the information in every library on the planet to us instantaneously.
The world is on fire, fascism is on the rise, war is everywhere, prices are out of control, the future looks bleak as fuck, but yeah we have tictok… Woohoo…
I know there is a bit Internet belief that starship troopers is fascist but I’m not convinced.
Everyone is equal, free healthcare and education.They have an entry to vote so admittedly not everyone gets a vote. But absolutely anyone can choose to serve their government and by serving you automatically get a vote. Tbh I think there are arguments for that system. Once you get citizenship the system is completely democratic. They have propaganda but it is total war and which democracy hasn’t had propaganda during total war?
The book goes into it more and the book is a lot more serious and less campy. Verhoeven did try to twist it as much as possible which lost a lot but he still made a really entertaining movie.
Sorry for the late reply. I admit I haven’t read the book and thus can’t comment on it, but the movie is a great commentary on fascism, because it surprises us by making us notice that “Wait a second, I’m rooting for the fascists. How did that happen?!”. The visual messaging is pretty clear with the giant eagles, Hugo Boss leather uniforms and overall militarlism and xenophobia, but it goes much deeper than that.
Everyone gets free healthcare and education, as long as you’re part of ‘us’ instead of them. We’re used to the fascism where ‘us’ is some ethnic or religious group of humans and ‘them’ is all the other humans. In starship troopers however, the fascism gets to fly under the radar by making the entirety of humanity the in-group. The aliens don’t need to be dehumanized because they’re quite clearly not human. Yet they feel fear and are only reacting to the spread of humans into their neighbourhood, while humans are outright shouting for genocide. “The only good bug is a dead bug!”
Remember the glory that was 90’s optimism.
30 years later I thought we would live in a better 90’s.
Instead we live in a really shit future that’s worse than even the 90s.
I saw someone point out on a reply similar nostalgic message: this is basically the plot of The Matrix.
We’re communicating instantaneously over a globe spanning computer network. In the early 90s that was not possible for the average joe. It was only in the very tail end of the decade that doing so didn’t require a fair amount of money and/or technical knowledge.
The network provides all of the information in every library on the planet to us instantaneously.
No offense but I’d gladly not talk to any of you fuckers if it meant all the good shit came back
I hate those kinds of takes to be honest…
The world is on fire, fascism is on the rise, war is everywhere, prices are out of control, the future looks bleak as fuck, but yeah we have tictok… Woohoo…
I don’t disagree, but this context is a bit weird given that starship troopers depicts a rosy vision of the future but with fascism.
I know there is a bit Internet belief that starship troopers is fascist but I’m not convinced.
Everyone is equal, free healthcare and education.They have an entry to vote so admittedly not everyone gets a vote. But absolutely anyone can choose to serve their government and by serving you automatically get a vote. Tbh I think there are arguments for that system. Once you get citizenship the system is completely democratic. They have propaganda but it is total war and which democracy hasn’t had propaganda during total war?
The book goes into it more and the book is a lot more serious and less campy. Verhoeven did try to twist it as much as possible which lost a lot but he still made a really entertaining movie.
Sorry for the late reply. I admit I haven’t read the book and thus can’t comment on it, but the movie is a great commentary on fascism, because it surprises us by making us notice that “Wait a second, I’m rooting for the fascists. How did that happen?!”. The visual messaging is pretty clear with the giant eagles, Hugo Boss leather uniforms and overall militarlism and xenophobia, but it goes much deeper than that.
Everyone gets free healthcare and education, as long as you’re part of ‘us’ instead of them. We’re used to the fascism where ‘us’ is some ethnic or religious group of humans and ‘them’ is all the other humans. In starship troopers however, the fascism gets to fly under the radar by making the entirety of humanity the in-group. The aliens don’t need to be dehumanized because they’re quite clearly not human. Yet they feel fear and are only reacting to the spread of humans into their neighbourhood, while humans are outright shouting for genocide. “The only good bug is a dead bug!”
Wisecrack made a good breakdown of this a while back.