Politics in Media - The Good, the Bad, and the Preachy

I would like to point out that 'Italy was incompetent' memes are the residual effect of early wehraboo-ism.

Specifically: The Italians were, indeed, relatively ineffectual in the war around the Mediterranean, but that's because they spent a long time pouring resources into Northern Africa only for said resources to get wasted and misused by Rommel.

And since people in post-WW 2 military circles, including the people who fought and frequently beat him, absolutely venerated Rommel as the perfect military leader and if he said that his failure to hold North Africa was the fault of the Italians, then by golly it must have been the fault of the Italians.

Going back to what Charles said about the Eloi of The Time Machine, I've noticed that in most adaptations they make the eloi unambiguously good even though they are just dumb animals in the novel while making the morlocks into evil monsters despite their intelligence. Considering that the eloi are supposed to resemble humans while morlocks are shaggy ape-men with fangs, it's easy to see why.

Harry Turtledove's Wold War and Southern Victory series both kinda shaft Japan. World War doesn't have any Japanese POV characters, just a Lizard captive who escapes partway through. Though he does have a Chinese POV character, which are even less represented in Western media.

The Southern Victory series has relations with Europe heavily shaping the outcome of the wars in America. Despite Japan's rise and WWII still happening, the entire Pacific Theater is essentially a side show.

The Time Machine was fairly even-handed in its condemnation of society. It didn't favor the rich or the poor. Sure, the rich are portrayed as devolving into helpless livestock. But the poor working class become vicious though intelligent monsters. Neither side comes off looking too good.

Edited by M84 on Sep 23rd 2019 at 9:41:47 PM

Still, many adaptations miss the point and juat make it into good humans vs evil monsters.

@Parable: It's curious to realize that the two of the three Superpowers are the inverse, Imperial Japan and Imperial Germany are the winners of the Second Great War alongside USA (Who obviously is a very different nation).

I actually like the role reversal thing. Britain and Tsarist Russia as the Bad Guys of Alt WW 2.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 23rd 2019 at 9:15:55 AM

That's in part because different adaptations have different themes from the original's socialist theme.

Edited by M84 on Sep 23rd 2019 at 9:50:42 PM

What's really curious is that two of those three are the same country.

Sorry, I meant Imperial Germany. My cellphone is way too used to write about Imperial Japan.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Sep 23rd 2019 at 9:18:36 AM

Kinda?

Italy didnt have the powerhouse of germany and conquering etophia prove to much of effort, also let face it, Itala didnt want war as much as germany.

I will said is also because Mussolini didnt focus so much on race like the germany, in the end he look like your avarage dictator.

Part of the issue is the Time Traveler is also a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance according to Wells himself. The Time Traveler sides with the Eloi because they're humanlike and pretty while the Morlocks terrify him. He also does this well before he even knows the Morlocks are eating them. Wells stated that the Traveler carries some prejudices from his Victorian Time Period like the fact he initially assumes the Eloi are being served by the Morlocks because it was bred into the latter to serve the former as a natural part of their biology.

It takes a bit to come around to the idea that society's roles should so completely reverse. He also never attempts to communicate with them because he's too horrified by their cannibalism to try.

The Traveler kills a Morlock and tries to defend Weena because he can't let go of Innocent equalling Good.

Mind you, the novel is actually extremely nihilistic and I think of it as a case of Getting Crap Past the Radar. Because the human race goes extinct in this world and leaves absolutely nothing behind, explictly shown when he goes past the Morlock Era. HP Lovecraft might have been inspired by him.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 23rd 2019 at 8:05:57 AM

Between that and war of the world....damn wells was very brtual with is aseops, isnt?

The Time Machine ends on a bittersweet note, when the narrator keeps the flowers Weena gave the Traveler. He remarks that they are proof that basic human tenderness will live on even after everything else about us vanishes.

War of the Worlds was clearly Wells working through his own feelings concerning his homeland. And London in particular. There's a reason he has London more or less smashed into rubble by tripods.

He REALLY hated Bromley.

Edited by M84 on Sep 23rd 2019 at 11:21:53 PM

Wells was a socialist progressive in the Victorian Empire.

So, yes, that gave him a lot of the original "sci-fi writer works through his issues via metaphor" anger.

It's ironic that Verne's biggest critique of society with Captain Nemo was completely accidental as he chose Nemo being a Indian Prince more or less as a substitute for a Russian one on the basis of his books selling well in Russia. That and it was a Retcon anyway.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 24th 2019 at 2:00:01 AM

It was a lot more personal for Wells though. He really, really didn't like his hometown.

Very true!

But yes, he's probably the best person for discussing Fantastic Racism alongside the X-men. Because we can observe the long term effects of how the metaphor can be lost or misunderstood or simply forgotten in his books.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 24th 2019 at 2:17:59 AM

So guess what media is so toxic that even Disney doesn't want to own it?

Find out in this interview with Bob Iger!

Walt Disney Co. Chairman/CEO Bob Iger Opens Up In Revealing New York Times Interview

...Twitter. It's Twitter.

Didn't expect to find common ground with Bob Iger today. I've called Twitter a cesspool many times here in OTC.

Edited by M84 on Sep 24th 2019 at 9:13:27 PM

Alas there's not many other places you can sign up for to brand your work for social media as an independent creator.

Earlier this year Iger apparently lambasted social media in general for becoming an echo chamber of hate. He outright said "Hitler would have loved social media".

CNBC: ‘Hitler would have loved social media,’ Disney CEO Bob Iger says in sharp rebuke of tech giants

It's uncanny how much of what he said about social media resonates with me. I've always been wary of social media. I don't even log on to the Facebook account I made on a whim long ago anymore, and I've steered clear of Twitter like the plague.

Edited by M84 on Sep 24th 2019 at 9:25:25 PM

Nah, Hilter would said is jewish media and try to create is own version of twitter...that would suck of course.

No, he'd have had Nazi trolls spread bile all over Twitter.

They already are, but Hitler would have had a state-backed operation in play just like how the Kremlin operates.

Edited by M84 on Sep 24th 2019 at 9:26:09 PM

Social media is communication.

If you remove it then you are saying humans can't communicate.

I dont know, hitler always seen the kind of pretenious douchebag to try is own version of stuff.....hell he was a frustrated artist, the kind of overly pretentious douchebag who do that stuff(until he found politics unfortunaly).

Now Stalin.....yeah, the guy is kicking the dog incarnate.

It's not communication. Social media makes it too easy to form echo chambers. Echo chambers are the opposite of communication. It's cutting yourself off from dissenting opinions and marinating your brain in hate juice among your peers.

Edited by M84 on Sep 24th 2019 at 9:39:10 PM

Hitler would post rants on twitter, get banned, then buy new chips for his cellphone to create new twitter accounts, get banned again and buy new chips in a eternal cycle.