this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Always amazing when people don't get satire.
My Dad actually thought Starship Troopers was pro-military.
The book is pro military, the movie is a very intentional satire.
So, I have read and been told this many times before. Some times I will rewatch the movie to try and see that narrative. And I'll admit, I'm and idiot. But I can't get past the idea of: Bugs are just icky, no matter the size. Remove at all costs.
The most satire parts are not about fighting the bugs. The "only a dead ... is a good ..." is a classic fascist trope, but it's the parts about disregard of human life and health and the propaganda in the movie that really mock fascism.
Except they aren't bugs in your home, they're isolated to their own planet already.
Plus, consider the justification for the attack;
REALLY?
Consider the amount of maths and physics knowledge for us to get to our own moon. We have to calculate the trajectory of our own moon, the spin of the Earth, gravity, etc.
Now, in the movie, apparently the bugs bombed Earth.
FUCKING HOW. They exist outside our solar system. The level of maths for this is impossible without computers.
Not only have you got all the complications we had for a celestial body which was closest to us, but our sun has its own orbit within the milky way.
The narrative that the bugs attacked Earth first was a false flag. It was almost certainly just a meteor which couldn't be stopped, which gave someone a reason to keep the perpetual motion machine of Fascism alive.
Without a common enemy, Fascism turns inwards.
It's very likely that the Earth military lobbed it toward earth as a pretext for war. The big planet was light years away (across the galaxy? I forget) and there was propaganda extolling the orbital defenses of Earth right before the hit. They had an orbital ring station around the Moon! No way they could miss a rock that big.
The film is so on the nose, that in the end they come out with actual nazi uniforms and child soldiers and people still didn't get it.
Well, the book is... The movie tho, yeah Paul Verhoeven has opinions about fascists. 😂
His commentary on that film is truly one of the better commentary tracks I've ever listened to.
How?
That movie has the subtlety of a brick to the head
Because the dad read the book, and hasn't seen the movie.
The book definitely is pro-military.
Actually, it was the movie lol.
So did The Boys and Helldiver's 2, and yet a substantial population of conservatives took it literally. Now The Boys has to be so blatant, it's not as funny anymore.
Some people are just idiots, just the way it is.
Lmao about the boys. I started watching that and definitely in the first season it wasn’t even subtle, by the 4th season, which apparently is when conservatives got mad (?), it was beating you into submission with the messaging. Like, subtlety was not even in the lexicon, more like bulldozing you.
I stopped watching after season 2 because I couldn't stand the lack of subtlety - despite loving the original comic which is... not subtle at all.
Maybe if they paid more attention in English (and history) class, they wouldn't miss subtext the size of a tractor trailer running into them. But conservatives and STEM bros almost always seem to be on the same page with that shit "No one needs English classes, it's always just like 'hur the curtains are blue' bro."
Science here - a lot of my fellow scientists like the humanities and definitely are not missing the point. At least in the pure sciences, we tend to encourage all education, regardless of field.
Just be aware that STEM encompasses way more people than you're specifically referring to
They see the part that gives them a confirmation bias and willfully ignore the rest of the message.
As the saying goes: Spread the facts on the floor like a fan, and throw away the ones that make you feel bad.
I'd like to know more.
In all seriousness though, I thought it had some aspects of good, which was odd given that it's satirical commentary on fascism. For instance, gender didn't really matter and women were promoted, and while the shower scene was meant to show how fascism castrates the masses (or something like that, iirc), I thought it was a relatively wholesome scene, all things considered.
Potentially some leakage from Heinlein's later works?
A brick to the head...
Good idea.
Put it in a sock first.
I already filled the sock with quarters.
I like the noise when it hits.
I like to use bars of soap personally.
I prefer cans of soup for my family
It's amazing the number of people who do.
It's got Neil Patrick Harris in it how on Earth can it possibly be pro military?
The book was
I know the book was but this sort of people who think that starship troopers is profascism, are also a sort of people that will definitely not be well read.
I can interpret something as pro facist without being a facist. They are not mutually exclusive things