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XKCD: It's more than a comic

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CTrombley The Good Troper Since: Jan, 2001
The Good Troper
#276: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:14:09 PM

Yes it is. It fails to understand that science fiction is a state of mind. Idiocracy isn't really set in the future. It's set today. It's how were being treated by the media, and how people don't seem to be reacting against it. The breeding thing is not important.

It's a fundamental misunderstanding, exaggerating the least important elements of the film. It's like arguing that Godel's weird platonism disproves his inconsistency theorems. It's disjointed.

Mathematics Is A Language.
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#277: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:32:37 PM

And all that talk about societal decay?

Sex, Drugs, and Rationality
CTrombley The Good Troper Since: Jan, 2001
The Good Troper
#278: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:34:32 PM

Exactly. How it's decayed.

Mathematics Is A Language.
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#279: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:37:38 PM

But people are bitching about how modern society is decaying and being reduced to the LCD. That's your point. The fifth panel is where the main thrust lies, and is just as true in the present as it would be in the film's setting.

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CTrombley The Good Troper Since: Jan, 2001
The Good Troper
#280: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:39:43 PM

Not vague "people" doing wild "bitching".

The film (Mike Judge's) has points about contemporary life that the comic does not contend with.

Mathematics Is A Language.
Noimporta Since: Jan, 2001
#282: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:42:17 PM

But the comic wasn't directed to the points raised by the movie, rather than the people who take said movie too literally.

edited 29th Jun '09 8:42:30 PM by Noimporta

Nyktos (srahc 84) eltit Since: Jan, 2001
(srahc 84) eltit
#283: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:43:15 PM

Idiocracy is only 84 minutes, actually.

The shortness of it always bugged me. Some of the deleted scenes were pretty awesome, why not just have them be in the film since it's below average length anyway?

edited 29th Jun '09 8:44:05 PM by Nyktos

I guess it is.
Zephid Since: Jan, 2001
#284: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:43:34 PM

It's bitter and humorless. He's done humorless and he's done bitter, but not both. Or maybe my memory fails me if he has.

I wrote about a fish turning into the moon.
CTrombley The Good Troper Since: Jan, 2001
The Good Troper
#285: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:45:20 PM

Incomplete dismissal of a film based on it's most superficial elements is not defensible as a critique nor as a form of humor.

I'd like to attack the comic's often painful visual austerity, as opposed to the baroque and hilarious visual gags popping up constantly in Idiocracy, but that would be beating a dead horse.

Mathematics Is A Language.
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#286: Jun 29th 2009 at 8:45:51 PM

Sometimes people need to vent. I know I've needed to scream just this point at people for reasons having nothing to do with the film. I liked it because I identified with it.

Sex, Drugs, and Rationality
BobbyG vigilantly taxonomish from England Since: Jan, 2001
vigilantly taxonomish
#287: Jun 30th 2009 at 1:01:55 AM

I don't believe this was actually an attack on Idiocracy, any more than #16 was an attack on Monty Python.

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WilliamWideWeb (weaving) Since: Jan, 2001
(weaving)
#288: Jun 30th 2009 at 3:24:36 AM

I think Bobby G is probably right here. Either way, this "Oh, everything was better in the past" idea needs to be stabbed. Repeatedly. With whatever would be most painful. Because it needs to die. Painfully.

Yeah, there are things that were better in the past, but on average they're massively outweighed by the things that were worse in the past and will be better in the future.

What's the name of that book that lays bare the lazy thinking of that sort of thing? "Everything Bad is Good for You", right?

edited 30th Jun '09 3:26:01 AM by WilliamWideWeb

SHIKI is dead.
JethroQWalrustitty Since: Jan, 2001
#289: Jun 30th 2009 at 8:10:07 AM

Yeah, I didn't percieve it as an attack on the film itself, but people who take it at face value, and as said, talk about it as if they're completely above it all.

Haven Planescape Hijack Since: Jan, 2001
Planescape Hijack
#290: Jun 30th 2009 at 11:51:17 AM

Yeah, but that's just making a strawman, which: that guy was already a pretty bad example of one before making the leap to eugenics.

I wish it had at least been the black hat in this one, because at least then we'd have violence.

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#292: Jun 30th 2009 at 12:09:08 PM

If that guy is a strawman then I went to high school with a bunch of scarecrows. And encounter a few more every day. They're mostly impervious to logic. A common response is "yeah, but life would be better living on a farm"(sustenance farming).

Sex, Drugs, and Rationality
Mr.Lostman Viceroy from Polk Out forum Since: Jan, 2001
Viceroy
#293: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:05:23 PM

I thought this comic was terrible, though for a change of pace at least he didn't open the week with a ripoff which is almost refreshing. I would like to know why you guys are arguing the merits of this movie because Randall's sure not. The comic has the one guy point out a currently existing trend that Idiocracy pointed out (Idiocracy just happens to takes this to extremes as a social satire.) He's just makes an arbitrary, unprovable claim (much more so than the other person, who by the way, is not forcing opinions on anyone.), gives no room for rebuttal, declares himself winner (all without backing it up), and that "New Theory" line just makes him look like a jackass. A look at the forums tells me Randy made yet another spelling mistake and is in need of an editor.

"But it is still full of delicious, delicious irony." ~Lyanna What irony? Multiple critics can't find the same faults? Well, thanks for that insight. That Manuscript one is especially terrible for ruining its own premise!

The promises of children are worth less than the children themselves.
JethroQWalrustitty Since: Jan, 2001
#294: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:10:08 PM

Do you, like, do anything else on the fourm but bitch about XKCD? You see, a good sign of a Hatedom member is that they refuse to reconsider their opinion, and refuse to change the subject.

edited 30th Jun '09 2:10:35 PM by JethroQWalrustitty

Haven Planescape Hijack Since: Jan, 2001
Planescape Hijack
#295: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:17:32 PM

If that guy is a strawman then I went to high school with a bunch of scarecrows. And encounter a few more every day. They're mostly impervious to logic. A common response is "yeah, but life would be better living on a farm"(sustenance farming).

You really encounter lots of people who transition that easily from talking about a movie to saying "It's obvious, all we need to do is eugenics!"?

Though on further reflection the guy in the hat is pretty straw-man-ish too. "I agree with you and so does reality! Psych! You're a religious zealot! Who no one will ever sex with! Dohohoho!"

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku
Nornagest Since: Jan, 2001
#296: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:30:52 PM

You really encounter lots of people who transition that easily from talking about a movie to saying "It's obvious, all we need to do is eugenics!"?

Not since high school, but I seem to remember theories along the lines of "everything would be better if the stupid people didn't breed!" being pretty popular there.

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#297: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:32:54 PM

I know plenty of people who talk about how the entire society is turning to shit, how we are living in an age of a unique level of decline which deserves to be met with a uniquely high level of (government) action.

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Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#298: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:38:33 PM

I know plenty of people who talk about how the entire society is turning to shit, how we are living in an age of a unique level of decline which deserves to be met with a uniquely high level of (government) action.
The thing is, that's been said before, over and over, throughout history. Each generation thinks that the one that comes after it is going down the toilet.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Nornagest Since: Jan, 2001
#299: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:41:40 PM

I know plenty of people who talk about how the entire society is turning to shit, how we are living in an age of a unique level of decline which deserves to be met with a uniquely high level of (government) action.

I'm pretty sure Cicero bitched about that at some point. What else is new?

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.
Oscredwin Cold. from The Frozen East Since: Jan, 2001
Cold.
#300: Jun 30th 2009 at 2:44:33 PM

That's kinda my point. I think it informs panel 5.

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