I’d like something more extended and literally episodic the way the word looks?

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Elysium; the Matt Damon movie where the rich live on a space station and leave the rest of us to rot.

    I’m not saying it’s what’s going on right this moment, but it’s the end-goal of everything that Musk, Bezos, etc… are doing.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I find the last days of the Qing dynasty China to be somewhat analogous. Institutional rot, rampant corruption, a complete failure to adapt to crises and open hostility to anyone proposing workable solutions or trying to learn from foreign examples. Basically the two voices in government were, “Learn how guns work while completely refusing to understand the scientific principles that allowed them to be developed” and “Learn absolutely nothing.” The “lesser evil” was woefully inadequate, and once the government finally collapsed, both factions that emerged (communists and nationalist) were far more influenced by Western ideas than even the most radical in the Qing government were.

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The Ultra podcast has two seasons and goes in-depth into previous attempts by fascists at taking over the US government.

    Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power.

    When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks.

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Just wanted to re-thank you. On to season two and have already recommended this to two friends. Absolute cracker.

        • khannie@lemmy.world
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          27 days ago

          Just in the last minutes of season 2. Holy cow. It’s such a clear mirroring of today.

          Poor Lester (and Buddy) Hunt :(

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        1 month ago

        It left me disgusted with the US’s long flirtation with fascism yet hopeful that we can overcome it.

        I’d like her to do another season about the business plot.

        • Photuris@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          I don’t know, things going how they’re going, how we’ll manage to defeat fascism and recover without violence, but I hope I’m wrong.

          I talk big on the internet, but I am not ready for violence, and it’s not a road I want us to go down. But options appear to be dwindling, tragically. Without Rule of Law, where do we go from here? Judges can issue rulings, but without enforcement, we have fascism. What then‽

    • quediuspayu@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You wish, that thing actually worked. What we have is a bullshit generator with the confidence of a brother in law.

  • CaptainAmeristan@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Great book and a TV miniseries. An alternative history that has Lindbergh winning the presidency in the 30s and the US government enacting fascism domestically. The book does a great job of portraying the chaos that ensues. The series is also very good.

    The Plot…

  • eightpix@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Take a serious look at the collapse of the Soviet Union, the gutting of the Commonwealth, and the rise of Russia under Yeltsin, then Putin. I’m not sure of any fictionalized works that examine this in any detail, but the aftermath and the new reality is well-described in Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev. Link is a 10 year old review in the Guardian.

    The falls of other empires would also be instructive. There is an excellent podcast/YouTube channel, the Fall of Civilizations(YouTube Link)(Spotify Link). In listening, I found several parallels to the first Trump presidency. I haven’t listened in years.

    A paper-thin skinned hegemon leads a dying empire against his staunch allies. I fed this prompt to ChatGPT and it handed me back Dune by Frank Herbert and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

      • eightpix@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Wow. Hadn’t heard of this one. Power of Nightmares and the Century of Self are among my favourite docs.

    • DoYouNot@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      They found the smartest person in the world and listened to them to fix their problems… Not at all accurate.

      • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        We’re only 20 years after Joe got frozen and he hasn’t been thawed yet. We still have 480 years before things get that bad.

      • yata@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        That is the typical internet response whenever thatg movie is brought up in this context. But that response fails to take into consideration that they only did that after not having done that for hundreds of years until the point where the movie begins.

        • DoYouNot@lemmy.world
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          The movie is about smart people not breeding. The smart people stoped existing. It wasn’t a decision to ignore smart people and listen to dumbasses, there were only dumbasses. The obvious problem with the movie is that it’s about eugenics (which doesn’t work that way), but your take changes the plot to be about something that it isn’t.

      • bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
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        1 month ago

        fascist top-down government that rules without checks and balances stripping away civil rights through exploitation of the vulnerable using fear-of-the-other propaganda and outright lies to further centralize its abusive, selfish control over society while a small dedicated decentralized band of civil rights activists fight the expanding power and influence of the dark side.

        • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com
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          1 month ago

          It’s extremely poignant right now

          The problem I see is that in Star Wars, the goodies win because they appeal to the inherent good in people, their willingness to actually act

          I fear that apathy and learned helplessness have taken root too deeply in the US. People just shrug their shoulders

          I sincerely hope that I’m wrong

          • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 month ago

            Its insane that project 25 isnt taught in schools as the actual destructive blueprint for society, its too dangerous for people to be as ignornat of all this shit as they clearly are. Its suicidal

            • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com
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              1 month ago

              US schools have long been a disaster

              Starting the day by saluting the flag and reciting some shit about it being the greatest country in the world is the behaviour of people being indoctrinated into a cult

              Gotta get 'em young

              Add the twisted version of the history of America taught, and the ignorance of the rest of the world and it’s not surprising that things are in a shit state

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 month ago

            That’s actually a large point that Andor makes, interestingly enough. When Andor is being asked to fight against The Empire he says something along the lines of “it’s better to live and eat, isn’t it?” He is stuck in a mindset of just getting by, like most people are, until he can’t just do that anymore. He has a hatred for The Empire, but he’s too scared at first.

            Andor is, by far, the best Star Wars thing that’s been made (at least season 1, I haven’t seen 2 yet) because it takes its world seriously, unlike the rest of Star Wars. There aren’t these perfect heroes and perfect villains. There are flawed people doing what they need to do, and bureacracies doing their jobs without considering what that actually means. It’s in the Star Wars universe, but it’s taking a realistic look at how The Rebellion could have actually started with regular people making it happen because they couldn’t stand by any longer.

          • Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.com
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            1 month ago

            I mean, isn’t the joke that there are only like 20 people who really do anything that matters in Star Wars? The rest of the trillions of beings in the SW universe are apathetic too.

            That’s also one of the underlying threads in Andor, Luthen is trying to agitate the empire so that they lash out and start really interfering with people’s lives. The more the Empire tries to crush dissent, the more apathetic people they disrupt, and the dissent only grows. That’s where we’re at now, most people’s lives haven’t meaningfully changed yet, but it’s coming.

          • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 month ago

            When you say poignant, do you actually mean “prescient”? Poignant usually means emotional and like tender or tear-jerker kinda

            Like of course its also extremley sad, but I feel like prescient is more appropos for what you’re trying to express

    • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
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      Just started watching that show recently and it’s so amazing I’m surprised Disney allowed it to be made. The parallels to the current state of society are so apparent. In one of the episodes of Season 2 a character says “Why can’t they just leave us alone” and that resonated with me so much

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    1 month ago

    It’s a novel, but “It Can’t Happen Here” follows a scenario where a populist becomes President and removes all opposition.