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[-] LennethAegis@fedia.io 120 points 1 month ago

So many villains in fiction are depicted as intelligent, phew, did we ever get that one wrong

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 46 points 1 month ago

If they were intelligent, we wouldn't even figure out they're villains

[-] 1SimpleTailor@startrek.website 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Honestly, its always been anti-intellectualism. Sure not all smart people are good people, but in general empathy is a sign of intelligence, while malice and stupidity go hand in hand.

Edit: There's also the fact that the smart tropey villains also often happen to be wealthy, and as we all know being wealthy means someone is smart/s

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

It may seem like a meme, but Idiocracy did actually nail it. Dumb and aggressive with no attention span.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Idiocracy was less mean-spirited than reality, though. Sure, people were assholes, but they weren't trying to eradicate trans people or immigrants.

[-] Denjin 10 points 1 month ago

Go away, baitin

[-] tibi@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

No they didn't. The president recognized a smart person and put them in charge to fix their problems. Do you see the Trump administration doing that?

[-] ThePantser@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Dr Evil is pretty dumb, he only surrounded himself with intelligent people. Still not an equivalent since DT is hiring idiots.

Fun fact: DT can mean alcohol withdrawal and the symptoms resemble Trump. "Severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as shaking, confusion, and hallucinations."

[-] LennethAegis@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago

Dr. Evil is a parody of a mastermind Bond villain, which is why he was dumb as a subversion of the trope.

[-] ThePantser@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

But you also could say Bond villains were also dumb. They always seemed to make stupid mistakes and allow James to foil them, long monologues that gave him a chance to think.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Dr Evil is pretty dumb, he only surrounded himself with intelligent people

TFW you realize Dr. Evil is wiser than our President Elect.

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[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 79 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Alt: duck soup movie poster, in which a grifter con man fails upward to leading a country, makes a mockery of justice, appoints idiots spying for a foreign government, and ends up in a losing war and destruction.

[-] _stranger_@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago

And it came out in 1933.

Something about history rhyming and all that.

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And some song lyrics from the first music number:

The last man nearly ruined this place,

He didn’t know what to do with it

If you think this country’s bad enough now,

Just wait till I get through with it. /

The country’s taxes must be fixed,

And I know what to do with it.

If you think you’re paying too much now,

Just wait till I get through with it. /

I will not stand for anything

That’s crooked or unfair.

I’m strictly on the up and up,

So everyone beware. /

If anyone’s caught taking graft

And I don’t get my share,

We stand ‘em up against the wall…

And pop goes the weasel!

[-] BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago

I have to watch it again, along with some of the others like coconauts and day at the races

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[-] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 75 points 1 month ago

V for Vendetta seems close though

[-] Donkter@lemmy.world 47 points 1 month ago

I kind of thought this was the joke. Many many dystopian plots are about governments ran by corporations and filled with foreign spies.

[-] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I figured this was just kind of a blurb by someone who just lacks depth in knowledge of these things

[-] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Sarcasm often employs acting as someone who lacks knowledge about something. You can easily identify this when the person describes something unusually specific.

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[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 27 points 1 month ago

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

[-] falidorn@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

This movie is eerily accurate despite being scathing satire. There’s more than a hint of truth in it. More like a mountain.

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[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 22 points 1 month ago

kak·i·sto·cra·cy

noun

Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

Coulrocracy - rule by clowns

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[-] Natanael@slrpnk.net 19 points 1 month ago
[-] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago

Idiocracy was just idiots, not an actively malicious group.

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[-] Gingerlegs@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago
[-] FancyPantsFIRE@lemm.ee 26 points 1 month ago

Gotta drain the swamp to make room for the cesspool.

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[-] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 month ago

Read more Philip K Dick.

[-] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The amount of sexual predators Epstein's closest friend have nominated to position of power is incredible,

[-] fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago

Nobody got this feeling from altered carbon? Immortal, immoral rich, and everyone else struggling to survive. I mean, it's guilty-pleasure watching, but I am not ashamed.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Sure, some did. But in those novels the same individuals were actually pretty smart.

That’s the difference.

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[-] undergroundoverground@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Because they didn't have to imagine it, as its a pretty standard affair.

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[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago

The techbrocalypse is a woefully underexplored dystopian future setting

[-] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Transmetropolitan nails this.

Unfortunately for us as a civilization, the series has aged quite well.

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago
[-] dumbass@leminal.space 8 points 1 month ago

That government had the intelligence to see they needed to listen to someone smarter than them and gave Not Sure the freedom to do it how ever needed, even if it was something as ridiculous as water from the toilet. Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

[-] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Nah a lot worse. President Camacho was a good dude who had his peoples best interests at heart.

[-] whyalone@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

Not even!!!!! Nobody ever imagined such a horrible scenario

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean, you could replace Russian assets with Japanese elves and that's basically Shadowrun. Ignore the fact there are also literal dragons and ancient gods as part of the conspiracy ring; that's just an aesthetic and has no bearing on how they are basically just regular billionaires.

[-] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The last, uhh, 24 years keep reminding me of this line by Yeats:

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity."

[-] Abrinoxus@lemmy.today 9 points 1 month ago

Handmaidens tale comes close tho

Dr Strangelove

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Tom Clancy may yet surprise you

Back to the Future 2 was pretty close

[-] UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Season 4 of Lexx had all that and aliens.

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

There was a Tom Clancy novel, either Sum of All Fears or Red Storm Rising, where the president and cabinet were a bunch of stupid fuckups that kept on making bad decisions taking us closer to World War 3.

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this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
856 points (98.0% liked)

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