this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2022
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What are some pieces of media where they're clearly trying really hard to avoid saying capitalism is the problem? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago by CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Good Place is one example.

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[–] AnarchoCynicalist@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Jurassic Park. The bad shit is always either caused by profiteering or just clear cost-cutting, and the desire to make more money just always lets everything go to shit.

And yet the movie(s) tries to cut the entire message down to "People shouldn't play God" again and again. As if the research itself was the problem. The series also works hard to rehabilitate the greedy fuck billionaire that caused the shit to go down in the first place iirc.

I'm working on a few years old knowlege here though, I might be a bit off.

[–] furryanarchy@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The author of the book was very religious and the intended message was supposed to be about the god thing. He tried to imagine a somewhat realistic way that the problems he saw with where science was heading would surface, and of course just ended up imagining a problem caused by capitalism, because almost every problem is caused by capitalism.

[–] Steve2@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I remember thinking forever that that message and warning was overblown and then when my sister started doing bio work in her 2nd year undergrad that included gene manipulation of bacteria and fruit flies (like down to editing stuff with a computer to inject later) I definitely felt a brief pang of "my god weve gone too far."

[–] CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

There's that one webcomic where some cavemen make fire, but then the fire spreads too much, and then they're like "we were clearly not meant to make fire, we should not play god".

[–] Circra@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Gotham. Every single problem and every single villain is the direct result of capitalism. As a bonus the unintended meaning of the show is that capitalism's only response to this is brutal violence enacted either through the police or whatever that simply makes things even worse.

[–] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

He's sooooo fuckinnng clooooose.

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Came here to say that. :markkks-juggalo:

[–] chauncey@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The answer is basically any show considered "speaking truth to power" and loved by Elizabeth Warren fans.

I think a more fun exercise might be "what pieces of media inadvertently show that capitalism is the problem?". A go to for me would be Batman. Gotham doesn't have a crime problem, the problem is that they allowed the Wayne family to consolidate all that wealth at the expense of funding social programs.

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

speaking truth to power

I used to really like this phrase until I grew jaded and cynical enough to realize that power isn't threatened by the truth and you really just need to stab power in the eye.

[–] Llituro@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The Good Place was written by the smartest liberals because they started out with a lib approach to moral philosophy and wrote themselves into the corner of "oh shit, there's no ethical consumption under capitalism" and "rehabilitative justice is the only reasonable afterlife".

[–] ReformOrDDRevolution@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

They get so close, especially toward the end when we are introduced to the liberals who run the good place who are completely fucking useless, and how consumption is tied directly to the evils of capitalism. But then instead of "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" being the moral, it becomes "its complicated now, so we need to change the point system so consuming things doesn't count against you" to absolve liberals of the concerns that indentured servants make their treats. Its a version of "imperialism makes GDP go up, so its good actually". I also refuse to believe that anyone but people from the imperial core would end up in the bad place under their current accounting system. Liberals love flattening the difference between them consuming treats and a worker in the global south.

I loved my first watch of the show, but I can never watch it again because they are all insufferable libs.

[–] CanYouFeelItMrKrabs@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

is it worth watching?

[–] Cromalin@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

it's got some pretty good jokes for a sitcom that's so :LIB:. i remember liking the jason bits a lot. there are worse ways to spend your evenings.

[–] crime@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

The characters and premise are fun and the first few seasons where they're accidentally writing their way to :marx-joker: don't have many cringe takes, on account of the materialism. Gets a bit less good in the later seasons but still tolerable if you watched it that far

[–] Soap_Owl@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Altered Carbon. The good guys in the books were communist rebel.

Season one was bout an old money sex traffic ring. Season two changed the rebeld to Christian democrats. After acheiving transhumanism and warching neoliberalism fuck it up, they try to go back to trad life. Gross

[–] newmou@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Are the books worth reading? I don’t want to get to the end and it’s ultimately Lib but that sounds cool

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Yes but the author is a TERF so steal his books

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Does Captain Planet count? I haven't seen it in a long time but I remember them almost literally saying that Exxon are sadistic super-villains destroying the world for money and lulz.

[–] wombat@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Captain Planet was explicitly anti-capitalist really, I don't know how something that based was made in that era

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

"We're going to make a show where the black incarnation of the living earth, a blue twink, and a group of teenagers including indigenous South American boy do terrorism against the oil industry".