I’d like something more extended and literally episodic the way the word looks?
It’s a novel, but “It Can’t Happen Here” follows a scenario where a populist becomes President and removes all opposition.
Ever heard of the rise of Nazism in Germany?
The historical precedent is the rise of Nazi Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. You should now be somewhere in the early 1930s.
Nazi Germany was the template, so there can be no answer more right than this that isn’t based on Nazi Germany.
And Canada and Greenland are Poland.
or Poland and Austria
To get spoilers, watch Downfall.
Not a good example, since that shows the happy ending where powerful countries are finally finishing off the fascist regime after years of war and millions of lives lost. That is the amount of effort and determination it took to rid Germany of its fascists.
No such prospects for the American fascist regime. On the contrary the most powerful countries in the world will happily support it, because it undermines Western dominance.
Idiocracy
They found the smartest person in the world and listened to them to fix their problems… Not at all accurate.
Once zoomers can vote and Mr Beast gets elected, things will change.
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Over half of Zoomers can already vote. Gen Z is roughly 1997-2012.
Unfortunately the younger they are the more likely they are to be conservative it seems. More poisoned by the algorithms.
Yeah I’m a zoomer (97) and I’ve been able to vote for a decade lol
Is he that Jesus Christ looking guy who’s really snarky about other YouTubers?
we’re in the “what if they didn’t” timeline…
That is the typical internet response whenever that 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.
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.
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.
Pretty sure we’re speed running that part.
Who knows. We need a movie set in between the time frames we see to tell us.
We’re in the time he was frozen. We have 40 years or so before that part happens.
They also tried to publicly execute him.
You make a convincing argument.
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.
But who will do all the work?
Automation controlled by AI
Idiocracy
Andor
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
Whys that?
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.
Yup, dude even gets disappeared just for being in the wrong street at the wrong time.
Nah that dude was very mexican. Should have tried to not do that.
The Man in the High Castle.
VEEP
Seriously. “Today the secretary of defense with a drinking problem reveals military secrets to a reporter due to a texting error.”
Along the same lines, from the same writer/creator, Armando Iannucci, there’s The Death of Stalin. The absurdity of how the inner circle navigated the politics around Stalin, including after his death, is hilarious but also a good look at how these power dynamics work in an authoritarian, despotic government.
Or also from Iannucci, Avenue 5, which basically is set in the future where all of this political nonsense continues, and is in the background of a comedy about a space cruise ship.
I’ve tried watching veep twice and couldn’t
Game of Thrones.
BrainDead, can recommend.
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.
Leaving off with an ellipsis makes it look like I should click your comment to continue reading.
As intended!
Black mirror. Maybe a ww2 documentary
1984 by George Orwell
Not TV (at least not that I am aware of), but it was the first thing to come to my mind. They made a movie if you prefer but, as always, you’ll get more from the book.
It’s not that long of a book either, and it’s an important part of our culture; for the wrong reasons I’d argue, as surveillance is what “1984” has come to stand for but is a more minor part of the book compared to controlling thought.
There’s a satirical (well, don’t know how long it will be considered that) movie about it… it’s called Idiocracy
It’s a great movie, but the eugenics theme is bullshit. The causes of modern decline have nothing to do with the half-baked idea that idiots will overrun the world through breeding.
Idiots aren’t born in increasing waves, they’re made by chronically underfunding education and flooding the world with propaganda and manipulative social media algorithms.
I don’t think the reason for the setting of the movie was to be taken very serious. It could have been much more realistic in its scenario, but then people would have criticised it for being too “on the nose” or similar, like they did with Don’t look up.
Yeah, I watched it again not too long ago and it really hurts the movie in my opinion. It’s still fairly funny, but I can’t really recommend it.
I would much rather have Camacho as president than Cheeto Benito.
Terry Crews 2028!
I used to think this movie was funny but now it’s just kind of painful because it’s largely true.
Except Camacho was a caring president, in his own way.
He is the most unrealistic part of the film, he had a problem, found the most qualified person to fix it, listened to them (eventually), and then didnt take credit for it.
That applies as far as the dumbing down of the population, but even they didn’t go for fascists as leaders. That’s right, the population of Idiocracy was smarter than what we have now.
Babylon 5.
Rewatched this again a year ago and it has never been more relevent
