The only reason the “nazis weren’t monsters” narrative is still alive and well is because we broadly didn’t show them as humans who made stupid, horrible mistakes from the very beginning. We didn’t drive home the point that your ignorance is still deserving of the harshest of consequences. We are too afraid of offending someone or making someone feel bad for being dumb that we have allowed ignorance to have as much value as virtue.
The only reason we have people being led astray by people like Trump and Kanye and his ilk right now is because we are all so scared to show moral complexity and human vulnerabilities that we painted nazis like cartoon bad-guys. Which some were, sure, just like there are cartoon bad guys right now pushing millions of otherwise normal, if not ignorant, people to support horrible ideas.
Why are we so afraid to show that letting yourself be led into horrible ideas can still earn you a hangman’s noose or whatever the modern equivalent is?
That’s a great example, but Dune as a story was meant to subvert your ideas of heroism. It’s not a story about a common-man who gets swept away in delusions of grandeur and propaganda, the story is about someone who already know for a fact that they were a chosen savior, and how that destiny has a flip-side and how power corrupts and destroys.
I don’t really expect people to “get” that story, it’s subtle and nuanced. If you want to drive the point home about fascism and social manipulation you need nuance without the subtly.
I saw a lot of conservatives praising Dune like a real movie about real heroes and all that BS, while part of me hopes the next movie(s) really drive home Paul as a villain and I want to see the dim fans cry and scream. But I also know it won’t have an impact beyond that. Nobody is going to learn anything from Dune because it’s college-level philosophy about humanity and causality. Where most people are running at a grade-school recess level.
The only reason the “nazis weren’t monsters” narrative is still alive and well is because we broadly didn’t show them as humans who made stupid, horrible mistakes from the very beginning. We didn’t drive home the point that your ignorance is still deserving of the harshest of consequences. We are too afraid of offending someone or making someone feel bad for being dumb that we have allowed ignorance to have as much value as virtue.
The only reason we have people being led astray by people like Trump and Kanye and his ilk right now is because we are all so scared to show moral complexity and human vulnerabilities that we painted nazis like cartoon bad-guys. Which some were, sure, just like there are cartoon bad guys right now pushing millions of otherwise normal, if not ignorant, people to support horrible ideas.
Why are we so afraid to show that letting yourself be led into horrible ideas can still earn you a hangman’s noose or whatever the modern equivalent is?
I get your argument, but take the recent Dune movies. Paul Atreides is meant to be a subtle villain. Most viewers simply never realised that at all.
That’s a great example, but Dune as a story was meant to subvert your ideas of heroism. It’s not a story about a common-man who gets swept away in delusions of grandeur and propaganda, the story is about someone who already know for a fact that they were a chosen savior, and how that destiny has a flip-side and how power corrupts and destroys.
I don’t really expect people to “get” that story, it’s subtle and nuanced. If you want to drive the point home about fascism and social manipulation you need nuance without the subtly.
I saw a lot of conservatives praising Dune like a real movie about real heroes and all that BS, while part of me hopes the next movie(s) really drive home Paul as a villain and I want to see the dim fans cry and scream. But I also know it won’t have an impact beyond that. Nobody is going to learn anything from Dune because it’s college-level philosophy about humanity and causality. Where most people are running at a grade-school recess level.