Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.
Post humorous takes on capitalism and the states which prop it up. Memes, shitposting, screenshots of humorous good takes, discussions making fun of some reactionary online, it all works.
This community is anarchist-flavored. Reactionary takes won't be tolerated.
Don't take yourselves too seriously. Serious posts go to !anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Rules
If you post images with text, endeavour to provide the alt-text
If the image is a crosspost from an OP, Provide the source.
Absolutely no right-wing jokes. This includes "Anarcho"-Capitalist concepts.
Absolutely no redfash jokes. This includes anything that props up the capitalist ruling classes pretending to be communists.
No bigotry whatsoever. See instance rules.
This is an anarchist comm. You don't have to be an anarchist to post, but you should at least understand what anarchism actually is. We're not here to educate you.
No shaming people for being anti-electoralism. This should be obvious from the above point but apparently we need to make it obvious to the turbolibs who can't control themselves. You have the rest of lemmy to moralize.
Join the matrix room for some real-time discussion.
We don't know for sure who they sided with. Just because we sided with the resistance, doesn't mean the fascies did. They're dumb about that shit anyway. They thought fight club was complimentary. They thought rage against the machine wasn't political. I'd argue there's a good chance they've misunderstood the assignment with other films too.
All of those stories feature saviors instead of popular uprisings.
Sublimated religion
These movies tell people that someone else will come along and overthrow the tyrant for you. Usually a hot chick in a great outfit.
No. They tell you that someone else will come along and whisk you away on the quest to overthrow the tyrant and issue you a hot chick in a great outfit. How to go about seeking out the rebel underground that's actually doing anything though?
And i really think thats on purpose. Somebody will come and save the day from the evil. Save us from the evil, superman.
I mean.... To be fair, we casually also watch all sorts of stuff in fictional media. Real Life is just.... Not a fantasy?
All experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Much sooth 😔
Oh boy! I'm gonna put a star wars pin on my suit and then act as a state prosecutor to try to lock up someone who defended their home from outside invaders.
No need to lie to yourself
These movies are not exactly subtle about which side is the "good guys" and which side is the "bad guys".
Who do you side with in a much more ambiguous movie like Apocalyspe Now or Sicario?
Or, if you're like most movie watchers, you watched Zero Dark Thirty and sided with the American commandos. You watched The Hurt Locker and sided with the American bomb disposal experts. You watched Argo and sided with the CIA.
I'd guess there are a lot more pro-American movies where the typical audience sides with the Americans than there are anti-fascist movies where the audience sides with antifa. In fact, a lot of people who watched Starship Troopers didn't get that it was an anti-fascist movie at all and took it all at face value siding with the humans against the aliens.
I have not watched any of the movie you listed man, but I will watch them. But sadly I am now aware of whatever subtle messaging they may hold.
Exactly, people are constantly bombarded with pro-imperialist propaganda from the entire MSM spectrum, and no one is immune to propaganda. The media still don't call the genocide in Palestine a genocide, they wrote fuck all about East Timor compared to the similar violence in Cambodia that was committed by the "bad guys", we're inundated with "BuT aT wHaT coST"-style headlines about the designated enemy state du jour. How is anyone supposed to make heads or tails of any of this without spending a significant amount of time actually educating themselves on what is going on and unlearning the years and years of western propaganda they've had to endure?
Try forming a decent opinion while watching star wars with every scene interspersed with talking heads explaining to you exactly why the rebels are terrorists and that the empire is just defending itself. Also you don't get to see any scene from the perspective of the rebels. Did you know the jedi put babies in ovens?
TBF, I was like 14 when Starship Troopers came out and it wasn’t until the hormones wore off that I realized there was a message in that film that wasn’t boobs and bug guts. #teamdizzy
Morpheus explains it to Neo in the movie
You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
I don't know. Part of me thinks even though I don't want to. That a majority of people are just evil, and aligned with evil as part of their own morality. I hope it isn't true. I don't want to believe it's true.
Recent years have largely proven that fear to be accurate.
In my country, the political atmosphere appears divided. The prevailing narrative suggests the ruling party commands 30 percent of public support, with the opposition holding the remaining 70 percent. The reality of the situation is that the ruling establishment has effectively captured the vast majority of that opposition bloc.
Perhaps only 10 percent of the nation's population genuinely desires structural change. When this minority begins to articulate what that change actually entails, the wider populace turns against them. The motivation is deeply rooted in aspirational greed. While only a tiny elite currently enjoys the benefits of the commons, the vast majority simply dream of eventually holding that power to squander those resources themselves.
Rather than framing it as evil (evil is a religious term), it is a profound systemic selfishness. Many individuals are entirely willing to uphold oppressive structures and tolerate the suffering of their neighbours, provided they retain the hope of one day occupying the golden throne.
Real life is not like fiction. If you fuck up in irl you end up dead or in prison
Prim nooo!
Everyone wants to talk a big game. But, most people don't want that fight.
There's a selection bias in effect, on several fronts.
People who want a fight may not actually know who they are fighting or why. Consequently, you get a bunch of idiots and assholes piling into ICE or enlisting in the US military, because they've been pickled on reactionary propaganda and convinced this will liberate them from the Liberal Fascism that Jonah Goldberg told them they were living under.
People who fight and lose aren't around to keep fighting. They end up in prisons or hospitals or broke or dead. You don't see them doing anything to fight actively anymore.
Tons of resistance efforts and opposition organizing goes totally unreported. In part this is a form of government/corporate censorship, shaped by the priorities of reactionary national media. In part, there simply isn't anything "newsworthy" to report. Who is going to tune into the "Minutes of the most recent Food Not Bombs" organizing event? Who is going to subscribe to a newspaper dedicated to covering street-corner protests and the sermons of local church groups and the odd Facebook meetup of twelve enthusiastic but aimless wanna-be activists?
Opposition is expensive and not terribly profitable. Getting a higher profile requires materials and labor. If you don't have them, we don't see you. By contrast, going with the establishment (or the Loyal Opposition) can be both lucrative and status-raising. Easier to be a Megan McArdle or Dana Milbank writing for the Liberal Moderate Sensible Resistance than an Ashton P. Woods or Kat Abughazaleh, running outsider campaigns entirely on local profiles and raw charisma.
In the end, its easy to assume opposition organizations and activists don't exist simply because you're not in a position to see them. It's easy to feel like you're part of an organization that's operating as a lonely last hold out, because you're in a dark forest of misinformation and occluded dissent.
Part of finding like-minded people has to be getting yourself out there to be seen. Going to rallies and mingling with people, going to large public events and keeping your eyes/ears open. Going to fucking Church - I know you're going to say you hate it but I'm sorry, that's where a lot of organizing has always happened in this country and still does. A lot of it just means going out and meeting more people and making more friends.
Shit is happening you can't see. Shit is happening that you'll never know about. That's the nature of any resistance movement. The French Resistance wasn't doing block walks and Pride Parades in the middle of the German Occupation. The NAACP spent a long time organizing in basements before it became a cohesive national group. We've still got a significant portion of our LGBTQ population that has to "come out of the closet", because it's extremely hazardous to your physical, mental, and financial well-being to be queer before you turn 30.
It’s easy to feel like you’re part of an organization that’s operating as a lonely last hold out, because you’re in a dark forest of misinformation and occluded dissent.
Very much this. As was said in Andor:
"Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward."
We see it, there just isn’t a “resistance” to join that plans to do anything remotely close to those movies.
Yeah, that's the point. The resistance in movies is always a very professional, single-minded and effective operation with perfect logistics and a common goal. It's easy to imagine being a part of such an "activist power fantasy" where everything is smooth sailing until the world revolution while getting cheered on all the way.
While IRL activism and organizing is messy and tedious. It's hard to feel like a hero when the political landscape is a confusing mess, there is no clear strategy on what to do next and the group you joined can't agree on when to do the next coffee break.
The main reason is that while there are people who are willing to politically fight for the right thing, there are very few people who are willing to die for the right thing.
Luigi is one of those and even he has affluence.
We need 100+ Luigi's before we see the average person willing to risk their life.
Think about it this way: what would happen right now if Luigi were to die by the state? If he can't usher systematic change, what chance does my life have?
This isn't just online. While I'm not going to openly talk about what forms of resistance my local group has taken on, very few people are willing to do more than what we've been doing and it's frustrating.
Trump and the GOP are literally running the fascism playbook and we only have a few more chapters left until he has the ability to fully dismantle democracy.
Most people in all of those stories just tried to live their lives. The story follows the few that didn't.
In real life, even if there is a resistance, the connection between those that could join/assist and the general populace, is blocked by a constant surveillance and enforcement state. When groups start to form, they're arrested because the act of organizing draws attention to them. Think of all the 'terrorist' groups you know. You know about them, because they organized. Which put a target on them. Which is also what ends most resistance groups.
What I found funnier is that these fictional people armed themselves. They violently opposed their oppressors. But many people are still brainwashed that peaceful protest, or single day protests, will end the oppressions.
You're supposed to make your actions unavoidable to ignore. The oppressors has to consider you a threat to even begin dialogue.
I think there are mainly two reasons for this:
In fiction, you’re simply not personally affected, so you don’t have to face any adversity or negative consequences. It costs nothing to see yourself as part of the revolutionary movement, and you don’t put yourself in danger.
Apparently, many people simply don’t want to admit what monsters their leaders really are, even though it’s actually obvious. This is the result of decades of propaganda, I think: The U.S., for example, has always seen itself as the friendly superpower that brings freedom and democracy to the world. Now that it is obvious even to the biggest idiot that this has always been a lie - since the regime has abandoned the facade - people are looking for other explanations to maintain the worldview they have long held to be true - such as the excuse that the current U.S. president is being controlled by evil forces from other countries (Russia/Israel) and therefore does not represent his own, indeed so righteous, country at all.
I get the sentiment but this is called an appeal to fiction. It really isn't sound logic
This is some 14andThisIsDeep ngl