Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Sure, some did. But in those novels the same individuals were actually pretty smart.
That’s the difference.
Season 4 of Lexx had all that and aliens.
Wait until you take your first road trip through Ameristan.
The amount of sexual predators Epstein's closest friend have nominated to position of powers is incredible,
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.
And it came out in 1933.
Something about history rhyming and all that.
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!
So many villains in fiction are depicted as intelligent, phew, did we ever get that one wrong
It may seem like a meme, but Idiocracy did actually nail it. Dumb and aggressive with no attention span.
Go away, baitin
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
If they were intelligent, we wouldn't even figure out they're villains
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."
Dr Evil is pretty dumb, he only surrounded himself with intelligent people
TFW you realize Dr. Evil is wiser than our President Elect.
Dr. Evil is a parody of a mastermind Bond villain, which is why he was dumb as a subversion of the trope.
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.
V for Vendetta seems close though
I kind of thought this was the joke. Many many dystopian plots are about governments ran by corporations and filled with foreign spies.
I figured this was just kind of a blurb by someone who just lacks depth in knowledge of these things
Yeah same
kak·i·sto·cra·cy
noun
Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
Stultiocracy works too
Coulrocracy - rule by clowns
Coprorocracy - rule by shit
Dr Strangelove
Idiocracy
Idiocracy was just idiots, not an actively malicious group.
The state is always malicious.
Thats because nobody wants to read trash like that.
Because they didn't have to imagine it, as its a pretty standard affair.
Yup, I could point randomly in Congress (or your government of choice) and have a high chance of picking someone that matches one or more of those descriptions.
Non-fiction.
Drain the swamp tho…
That's a pretty good example of trump's environmental policy.
Gotta drain the swamp to make room for the cesspool.
Can we instead install a drowning pool? It's usage can be for the "elites" and not the peasants this time.
You do not recognize the bodies in the water.
Read more Philip K Dick.
Atlas shrugged? I only read half of it.
I watched all 3 atlas shrugged movies. It basically comes to down to "if I can't have it then no one can"
Sprinkled in with CEOs on the factory floor rolling up their sleeves and stopping an accident. A true work of fiction.
I did a report on that book in high school. I got through maybe 15 pages before losing all willpower. Then I read a bunch of summaries and other reviews. I got an A. I think my teacher hadn't read it either.
Back when I still had right-wing friends, one of them wouldn't shut up about Atlas Shrugged. So I agreed to read the book with him if he promised to read The Jungle afterwards. We both quit before getting through the first chapter. What a crappy book!
The 1000+ pages of Atlas Shrugged are all an excuse for a 48 page Manifesto portrayed as John Galt's speech that occurs in the middle of the book.
If you want to understand what Rand was saying, just skip the book part and go directly to that manifesto. Its still a long slog to get through just that part. The rest of the book is slightly worse than bad teen fanfiction.
Eh, I thought the opposite. I thought John Galt's speech was absolutely skippable since the point had already been thoroughly made by that point.
That said, here's my cliff notes of what I remember from the book:
The whole story could and should have been told in less than half the pages, and probably closer to 250 pages. Fountainhead has the same essential story, but in half the pages and much better storytelling IMO, and Anthem has a very similar message in a 1984-esque world in far fewer pages.
I've read all three, and I recommend them from shortest to longest (i.e. if you like Anthem, you'll probably like Fountainhead, and only read Atlas Shrugged to say you did.
I agree with Ayn Rand on some things (i.e. protectionism is bad), but disagree on a lot of things (almost the entirety of Objectivism). I consider myself a left-leaning libertarian, and I largely reject Ayn Rand's message, especially the one about how charitable giving is bad (I believe in wealth redistribution via UBI or NIT). That said, I think her ideas are instructive, especially when it comes to understanding some of the fringe ultra-conservative groups in the libertarian and libertarian-adjacent movements.
Eh, I thought the opposite. I thought John Galt’s speech was absolutely skippable since the point had already been thoroughly made by that point.
I'm not sure what you're proposing. I'm saying skip the rest of the 1000+ pages and JUST read the 48 page speech if you want to know the point of the book. You seem to be saying, "read the first 500 pages, and then stop reading the book once you get to the speech". I agree with you that the speech is mostly redundant at that point however my method skips right to the point while yours would require the reader to suffer through 500+ pages of cardboard characters with vapid storytelling.
What am I missing from what you are suggesting?
I'm saying, skip the whole book and read Anthem. It makes basically the same point, but it's a short novella and much more enjoyable than Galt's monologue.
I admit I haven't read Fountain Head or Anthem. That still sounds like reading 400+ pages of Rand to get the same point she's trying to get across. If others want some better storytelling surrounding her message, it sounds like yours is the better path. For those that just want to rip the bandaid off, the Galt speech by itself is the shortest path.
For those reading the Galt speech, Elon Musk might be a close contemporary example of Galt. He's a rich industrialist that benefited from other's labor and the society structures that gave him protective laws, safe food/water, an educated workforce, a welcoming to immigrants, and all of the things that let him succeed. As soon as he succeeds he puts all his energy into destroying those structures because he sees himself as the main character and everyone else unworthy of his 'genius'.
How about the TV series Years and Years?
A very underrated show.
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