this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Many of these story lines in movies and games still work as propaganda that functions "pro corporation":
A lot of the problems and evil is caused by rules of the system that create emergent behavior. E.g. the rules of capitalism create greedy corporations and lobbying to subvert democracy and funding to create and spread ideology to justify all this.
But a good story needs a villain not some abstract concept with complex problems and solutions. So even "politically critical" stories focus on some corrupt politician or senator or rogue government agency. Once they are defeated or unmasked the good newspapers and governments fix the problem. But that is really a fantasy.
This is more prevalent for movies since games mostly have post-apocalypse settings. But it's still a focus on individual evil instead of the soft unfathomable evil of systems and rules creating evil or ineffective institutions.
Abes Oddysey is straight up anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist eco-anarchy.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
What do you mean? Clearly it's a completely apolitical tale about corporate greed both literally and metaphorically cannibalizing the world in pursuit of fleeting and ultimately diminishing profits, leaving nothing behind but bones and waste?
It’s absolutely wild how many movie and game stories in our lifetime have had a villain who’s trying to save the world through imposed means, and the heroes are like, “you kind of have a point, but individual choice is more important”. Which is not dissimilar to what the oil companies’ spin says on how consumer choice is what matters - The wheels of communism must keep turning.
Meanwhile, in The Day The Earth Stood Still, the aliens’ message is “stop this shit, or we’ll stop you”.