this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

Back to the Future 2 was pretty close

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

Isn't that Atlas Shrugged?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 20 hours ago

Nobody got this feeling from altered carbon? Immortal, immoral rich, and everyone else struggling to survive. I mean, it's guilty-pleasure watching, but I am not ashamed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

The Man in the High Castle comes close... or at least, makes it clear that it's not as though the Nazis and Japanese occupying America would actually live by the code they dictate for others.

[–] [email protected] 116 points 1 day ago (8 children)

So many villains in fiction are depicted as intelligent, phew, did we ever get that one wrong

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago

If they were intelligent, we wouldn't even figure out they're villains

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It may seem like a meme, but Idiocracy did actually nail it. Dumb and aggressive with no attention span.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

Idiocracy was less mean-spirited than reality, though. Sure, people were assholes, but they weren't trying to eradicate trans people or immigrants.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

No they didn't. The president recognized a smart person and put them in charge to fix their problems. Do you see the Trump administration doing that?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Go away, baitin

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Honestly, its always been anti-intellectualism. Sure not all smart people are good people, but in general empathy is a sign of intelligence, while malice and stupidity go hand in hand.

Edit: There's also the fact that the smart tropey villains also often happen to be wealthy, and as we all know being wealthy means someone is smart/s

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Alt: duck soup movie poster, in which a grifter con man fails upward to leading a country, makes a mockery of justice, appoints idiots spying for a foreign government, and ends up in a losing war and destruction.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And it came out in 1933.

Something about history rhyming and all that.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

And some song lyrics from the first music number:

The last man nearly ruined this place,

He didn’t know what to do with it

If you think this country’s bad enough now,

Just wait till I get through with it. /

The country’s taxes must be fixed,

And I know what to do with it.

If you think you’re paying too much now,

Just wait till I get through with it. /

I will not stand for anything

That’s crooked or unfair.

I’m strictly on the up and up,

So everyone beware. /

If anyone’s caught taking graft

And I don’t get my share,

We stand ‘em up against the wall…

And pop goes the weasel!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have to watch it again, along with some of the others like coconauts and day at the races

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 day ago (1 children)

V for Vendetta seems close though

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I kind of thought this was the joke. Many many dystopian plots are about governments ran by corporations and filled with foreign spies.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean, you could replace Russian assets with Japanese elves and that's basically Shadowrun. Ignore the fact there are also literal dragons and ancient gods as part of the conspiracy ring; that's just an aesthetic and has no bearing on how they are basically just regular billionaires.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

This movie is eerily accurate despite being scathing satire. There’s more than a hint of truth in it. More like a mountain.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

The techbrocalypse is a woefully underexplored dystopian future setting

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Handmaidens tale comes close tho

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

That government had the intelligence to see they needed to listen to someone smarter than them and gave Not Sure the freedom to do it how ever needed, even if it was something as ridiculous as water from the toilet. Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Nah a lot worse. President Camacho was a good dude who had his peoples best interests at heart.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Not even!!!!! Nobody ever imagined such a horrible scenario

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Transmetropolitan nails this.

Unfortunately for us as a civilization, the series has aged quite well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Oh man Transmetropolitan, Judge Dredd, and some other deeply satirical stories like Harrison Bergeron have ended up being closer to reality than even the best attempts at dystopia: Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 (though its critique of what is essentially social media is on point), Minority Report (let's see how AI in law enforcement goes...), Handmaid's Tale...

I save a special spot for 1984 because our technology is spying on us, our governments and billionaires are using the media to manufacture consent, and the lies and danger around us make us not trust each other. 1984 did get pretty close, but 1984 was made with the assumption that our elites are competent and willing to work together and that does not seem to be the case actually. That's our one saving grace and we need to act on it as soon as possible.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (8 children)

kak·i·sto·cra·cy

noun

Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.

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

Coulrocracy - rule by clowns

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The last, uhh, 24 years keep reminding me of this line by Yeats:

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The amount of sexual predators Epstein's closest friend have nominated to position of power is incredible,

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Idiocracy was just idiots, not an actively malicious group.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, some did. But in those novels the same individuals were actually pretty smart.

That’s the difference.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

There was a Tom Clancy novel, either Sum of All Fears or Red Storm Rising, where the president and cabinet were a bunch of stupid fuckups that kept on making bad decisions taking us closer to World War 3.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Read more Philip K Dick.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Gotta drain the swamp to make room for the cesspool.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

And the president elect checks every one of those boxes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm throwing Starship Troopers in the ring

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because they didn't have to imagine it, as its a pretty standard affair.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Tom Clancy may yet surprise you

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