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

You know, I have to complain about that.

You can't have a critique of the modern democratic system while using a sanitized version of the imperial states, that's ludicrous if not idiotic. I can get that one writer can be sick of corruption or inefficiency, but saying that Authoritarianism is the better alternative is not the way to go, specially if you refuse to acknowledge the glaring flaws of said model of government.

It does acknowledge flaws in that system via the previous Imperial aristocracy, but of course therein lies the issue, as Reinhard - the idealized, heroic figure - is the one who overthrows them. Though it's been a while since I've seen it, I think the "sure Reinhard's great, but when he's gone, then what?" issue does get brought up, but ultimately the story ends right on the cusp on having to face that.

I've read summaries that said that the series is basically "The best possible autocrat vs the worst possible democracy".

In a bit of fairness, our sympathetic authocrat isn't treated as pretty much the exception to the rule? With Reinhard being a Benevolent Autocrat because he's basically one of the few persons on his side that have something resembling empathy?

Like, The Empire and it's more conservative factions are treated as extremely shitty, with Reinhard and allies eventually deciding to burn the elite and ennact Up-Down reforms while the Democracy implodes on itself. Or so I read in summaries.

Going by Real Life. We have

1)Replaced for another autocrat. Pray they're just incompetent and not malicious.

2) Civil War TIME! The whole country should be prepared for some nasty break ups.

3) Democratisation. But that would need a lot of previous aparatus and a sucessor leader willing to go for it. Aka. The Franco Route. But as described there, it just sounds out of the question

Edited by KazuyaProta on Nov 30th 2019 at 12:22:32 PM

Apologia for best autocrat is still apologia for autocracy.

In part BECAUSE it shows a super benevolent autocrat. Part of why I made Lucifer's Star was because I wanted to contradict people like Char and Reinhardt in anime by showing that even the most heroic, noble Baron Fel-esque figure serving an evil cause...still serving an evil cause.

It's one long Trauma Conga Line in that series until he realizes that the Archduchy was pure evil and its heroism was a sanitzed propaganda. You can't reform a military dictatorship and Feudal Future. Only destroy it.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 30th 2019 at 9:26:26 AM

I dont know if yoy can destroy it, feudalism wasnt destroyed, it was replaced as outdate(more or less).

I never understand this fasinantion of destroying bad stuff, but then again I have lived all my life in a dictatorship so who the fuck I know.

We love karma. That is why Karma Houdini is such a powerful trope and Karmic Death is a popular one. We love punitative justice, even those who don't likely would express those views as soon someone crosses the line in their view.

That is why we like the idea of destroying what's evil.

Also, while Chavez pretty much started eroding Venezuelan Democracy since day 1...I really didn't considerate it a dictatorship until 2013. Ditto with Evo's Bolivia since 2016 (I legit can't believe he's gone. Imagining a Bolivia without Evo is strange)

Edited by KazuyaProta on Nov 30th 2019 at 12:44:24 PM

Eh, Cassius doesn't get the heroic La Résistance redemption. By the time he has his Heel Realization, The Empire is already fallen.

Reality rarely provides such clean answers.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 30th 2019 at 9:43:22 AM

Which is why many at times kinda get the US "Obsession" with them defeating the nazis, since it get a definite closure, good beat evil by strong of arms and crush them, something barely see in reallity in general.

"What if the guy after Reinhardt is gone is bad." is pretty much the only consistent argument against his galactic conquest. Even he says on his deathbed that if his son - just recently born - is a lousy ruler than they should just get rid of him. Because that's so easy.

Oh, heck no. Reinhardt lets millions of people die for a publicity stunt. His reforms amount to mostly taking land, money, and privileges from the entrenched nobility because he has an undying hatred of them for maintaining the system that allowed the kidnapping of his sister to be the emperor's sex toy. It's not so much a revamping of the system as it is just clearing house and replacing everyone with his own men. Men who also get an inordinate amount of praise from the narration when compared to their alliance counterparts under Yang.

Your #3 suggestion, Democratization, is hinted as a possibility of where the Empire could go after Reinhardt dies. Julian suggests a parliament and a constitution to keep bad rulers in check, but by the end it's totally up in the air.

All this said, probably the most frustrating thing about the portrayal of the FPA is that, author's Imperial bias aside, I can still see everything that went wrong with it happening regardless. In story and in real life. Militant nationalism, self-serving officials, warhawk pandering, a citizenry increasingly disinterested in politics, resource draining forever wars. At no point was I like, "That could never happen!" The groundwork for its defeat are laid down very clearly.

I keep saying myself that I should watch it, but I can't get the will to.watch such a Long Runner without someone else.

In a bold move the company behind the card game UNO has decided to remove Red and Blue to "keep politics out of the game".

Considering the thread topic I think this is relevant

Most of the responces I've seen are "This has to be satire" but it's not,they genuinely think Red and Blue cards are political,somehow

Considering the normal idiocy behind insistences that a game is non-political I find it being unironic to be 100% plausible.

I've always had a suspicion the blue cards were rigged somehow anyway.

Naw, this has to be a joke product. It's just too on the nose.

Though I would say they could stand to make the joke a bit more clear, I'd say it's still a pretty funny one.

Oh, it's pretty clear that it's a joke product. The game is labeled in big letters "UNO Nonpartisan". There's even a Veto Card that can be played when someone starts talking about politics that lets you skip their turn.

Can we have a version that removes the Draw 4 card instead? That's something that every political party could get behind.

I just read our Uno page and it turns out there's a rule about using the Draw 4 card only in a specific circumstance that nobody in my entire life has adhered to.

Heck, apparently Uno is supposed to have a point system, and just being the first one to only have one card left doesn't make you the winner.

Edited by Parable on Dec 1st 2019 at 3:33:52 AM

Uno isn’t magic the gathering. Rules are made up on the spot.

We call those 'House rules'

A Batman image offended China. Its removal has angered fans worldwide

That they projected the protests in Hong Kong onto this image really says a lot about how overly sensitive those social media users are about any perceived criticism of mainland China.

The artist outright claims it was surreal that so many people projected local political protests onto the image, for better or worse.

Edited by M84 on Dec 2nd 2019 at 3:46:30 AM

In a way, it's supposed to evoke all violent young protesters. You don't use that particular pose and weapon to do otherwise. But actually projecting a specific protest on the image is lunacy.

My big question is why anyone pretends the accounts who complained about that image are legitimate real people.

It's almost as if China is massively insecure in its nationhood or something.

Cause they are.

Reminds me of ancient Rome actually - many historians frame their militarism and expansionism as at least partially the result of the city being sacked by the Cisalpine Gauls under Brennus in 400BC, and that humiliation of being "the conquered" spurring them on to always be the conquerors instead. The phrase Vae Victis - "woe to the conquered", meaning that those defeated in battle are entirely at the mercy of their conquerors and should not expect or request leniency - is traditionally attributed to Brennus, and the Romans really seem to have taken that to heart.

China seems to be reacting similarly to the Century of Humiliation, and it's probably going to take a while for them to work it out of their system, judging from historical trends. Just look at how many Brits act like we still have an empire...