this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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[–] Nacktmull 62 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Buenas noches, mein Führer!"

[–] bfg9k 2 points 9 months ago
[–] CitizenKong 42 points 9 months ago (7 children)

That movie might be the only case of an adaptation purposefully doing a severe putdown of the source material.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (27 children)

I read the book just a couple years ago thinking it would be awesome because the book is usually better than the movie, and oh my God. I can't believe someone actually thought that kind of government would be rad.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not sure if Heinlein genuinely thought it would be rad. He did play around with a lot of ideas in his books. Stranger in a Strange Land is totally different and full on hippie communism or whatever you'd call it, which is in a bit of a contrast to Starship Troopers. And then there's the Finnish matriarchy in one of the books. Of course another explanation was that he just radically changed his minds but I dunno.

Interesting stuff, nevertheless and IMO really good book if you like military scifi.

[–] Delphia 5 points 9 months ago

Its a facist utopia, if you're a facist it IS great.

[–] cynar 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I always find it interesting to read stories investigating alternative ideas. I'm generally very left wing in my views. Stories like starship troopers are 1 way of doing it.

The thing is, such a system has some significant advantages. You just need to paper over the cracks. The biggest issue is the requirement for an external enemy. Without one, it would likely turn inwards and destroy itself. In the book's case it's the bugs that provide this. They are also not mindless. You start the book with a terror raid on an ally of the bugs, proving they are capable of interstellar diplomacy. It's designed to "persuade" them to stay out of the war, but they also idly use nuclear weapons on civilian targets.

[–] WaxedWookie 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A "benevolent dictator" funnelling public funds and lives into an offensive war effort to keep the populace unified in hate sounds, and is meant to sound hellish. It's an unnecessary waste of resources and lives that comes at the direct expense of providing for your people.

What are the advantages?

[–] cynar 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Common goals, with a strong unifying purpose for 1. Opportunities for significant advancement. Significant investment into medical care. Strong leadership direction. An extremely egalitarian society. Filtering of those in power.

Just because it's a horrifying setup doesn't mean it doesn't have advantages. It's possible to dissect a large complex idea and extract useful tools from it. It also helps you better see the pitfalls, both to help you make decisions on it, and explain the problems to others.

A couple of examples. The Nazis significantly improved the fitness level of a large chunk of the population. Nazi scientists were also critical in America making it to the moon. The current German autobahn road network is one of the best built in the world.

Just because the source is horrifying doesn't mean everything it is attached to is also horrifying. The catch is separating the 2, or explaining why the cost is not worth the benefit.

And just to clarify. I'm a strong proponent of a robust social safety net. I also think all "natural monopoly" infrastructure should be controlled by a government owned non profit. Capitalism and nationalism should be treated like fire. A fire in a hearth will keep you warm. A fire in a smelter will help make steel. A fire in your bedroom will kill your family. Useful, but controlled and channeled.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I liked the general approach, but my own system designed by the same method plus my, not author's personality would look completely different.

[–] cynar 1 points 9 months ago

Books like this are a "what if" game. The details, and the author's biases will shape it. They are still useful tools however for seeing how things will play out.

[–] Wogi 3 points 9 months ago

The parts of that book that aren't heavy handed philosophy are great. There's some fuckin awesome sci Fi hidden in the book that's pretty much "Atlas shrugged for the military"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

People used to think that a lot.

They still do too, which is concerning.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Like the guy on the pic being Filipino, for example.

I still wouldn't say it's fascist, rather paleo-Republican. Too nostalgic about Athens or the Roman republic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I know I lived under a rock and all, but what is the movie's name?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Starship Troopers. It's great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

It's campy trash that's fun and has some interesting meta background.

[–] menemen 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Oh man. I'd love to watch it for the first time. Enjoy u/[email protected]

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[–] Zehzin 31 points 9 months ago

frantically hides NASA scientists behind a potted ficus

[–] Rakonat 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey man, you got any more of them pixels?

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver 12 points 9 months ago

Sorry, that's all I could afford at the meme market.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

This movie could easily be seen as a world where Germany won WW2, so I think they had to include that part about Japan being bombed to prevent that.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (12 children)

It’s an egalitarian military oligarchy. They know no race or gender, as long as you’re doing your part you can be a citizen too.

I don’t think that fits very well with what Hitler had planned…

[–] kinsnik 22 points 9 months ago (3 children)

it is an in-universe propaganda film in a fascist regime. it is not the nazi fascism, but it is still facism

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

It not being Nazi fascism while still being fascism was sorta their whole point

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's just war propaganda every non fascist country has also done that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Of course it is, I didn’t say otherwise no? Just that it isn’t a race based regime. Any human can be a full member of the apparatus. No herrenrasse here

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

They had to throw in some POC as well.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

under their breath

"And I say kill 'em all!"

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