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Are We Idiocracy Yet?

idiocracy.wtf

231–240 of 582 posts

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#231

Aren't you all proud that anywhere in the world you go there is a fridge with coca cola, so it's a sound and solid investment? Smart people of HN and reddit?

I wonder how long that will last? Can they weather the storm of anti-USA sentiment?

Have they changed their advertising to un-hitch from being a part of the "American Dream"?

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#232

As I got older, I always wondered if everyone thought they were the smart one and everyone else must be the idiocracy. I seem to remember Homer Simpson thinking something to that effect (“Boy, everyone is stupid except me”). I can imagine that happening today, esp politically.

The tricky question is: how do you tell when you're actually right vs just doing the same thing Homer was

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#233
post #123

I attended an audience testing screener for Idiocracy before the film's final edit. I could not believe my eyes and ears, I loved it unlike anything I'd seen before, it was the hardest US culture satire I'd seen up to that point. Then the lights came up and the audience started giving their reviews, in an open mike fashion. They all identified with the "idiots" and were indignant insulted, and angry. I remember makin…

It breaks my heart when I hear people outraged about Onion stories, not because that they fall for them, but because they know they have a hard time telling truth from fiction.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political.

For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exhausting. It was a great headline, but by the time the joke gets its own Wikipedia, it might be time to retire it. You can have a message and point of view, but don't put activism over comedy.

Look at their trending article: Critics Outraged By Flippant School Shooting Plotline In ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’. Where's the joke? There is obviously no school shooting plotline. It's not clever or creative. I guess the joke is school shootings are a thing, and Mario is a popular movie?

It's basically South Parks criticism of Family Guy where they write jokes by having a seal put together random words from popular culture. School shootings + Mario = funny. And this stuff gets clicks because people think they're clever or subversive when it's just lazy and unoriginal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'No_Way_to_Prevent_This%2C'_Sa...

https://theonion.com/critics-outraged-by-flippant-school-sho...

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, but why jump to genetics instead of culture (upbringing)?

Because the film itself implies that the idiocracy is due to stupid people breeding more, a classic tenet of Nazism and eugenics alike

Is Darwin natural selection eugenic? Was the rise of humans from chimps an eugenic like event?

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#235
post #50
post #22

I watched this movie really late. Let's say within the past 2 years or so. After watching it, all I could think was, "This isn't a comedy, it's a tragedy." It felt way too close to home.

Yeah, same. I also felt like this when watching Office Space and Sillicon Valley. Hits too close to home. I know that through comedy you are supposed to get a sense of catharsis and a sort of relief, but to me it was just frustratingly sad. I guess I just take life too seriously.

I know one guy who can't watch Silicon Valley because it triggers him. He had a tech startup himself in the valley back in the day.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They all identified with the "idiots" and were indignant insulted, and angry. That is sort of the point of the movie. It is a satire, but it is also a documentary packaged as a satire and the wrapping paper isn't all that thick.

It's no longer satire it's really a documentary.

It's a utopia at this point.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#237

I attended an audience testing screener for Idiocracy before the film's final edit. I could not believe my eyes and ears, I loved it unlike anything I'd seen before, it was the hardest US culture satire I'd seen up to that point. Then the lights came up and the audience started giving their reviews, in an open mike fashion. They all identified with the "idiots" and were indignant insulted, and angry. I remember makin…

I feel Idiocracy is irresistible bait for 'not like the other girls'-types. Everytime this movie comes up, droves of people mention how they get it, while others don't. It's becoming a trope in itself.

I like money

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i couldn't finish "Don't Look Up", it felt like sitting through a political lecture. all i wanted from a comedy was some laughs.

I couldn't finish "Idiocracy" because the underlying eugenics nonsense made me angry enough not to enjoy the comedy anymore. It made me angry because makes the point that natural selection has become ineffective on humans and thus intelligence declines unironically. There is no joke in that - all jokes build upon the assumption of this being true. If it were true, then decline wouldn't have begun in the 19th or 20th…

Can't remember in details that part of the film. Was it explicitly eugenics? Otherwise it could be seen as not getting the same education, depending on parental situation.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#239
I can't take this seriously - blaming Trump but not Joe Biden, though latter had obvious symptoms of cognitive decline AND many "smart" people claimed otherwise. If you are literally tricked to doubt your own eyes, your natural judgements and being constantly gaslighted to think otherwise - then this should be called out as well. If this does not fullfil the criteria for "Idiocracy", then nothing does.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#240
I always thought the comparison to real life falls a bit flat. In the movie there’s a scene where Camacho has a town hall and the audience yells something about everything bad. Camacho fires his gun in the air for silence and acknowledges things are bad and says he’s going to ask the smartest person in the world to help.

So in this scenario the people are allowed to voice real concerns directly to the president without fear of retribution. The president acknowledges things are bad. He describes a plan, with real actionable steps, to help the situation. And to wrap it all up follows through with it and is genuinely interested in making the country / world a better place. None of these things apply to America’s current situation.

At the core of it, in the movie everyone is dumb but well meaning, while in real life most of the idiots are also malicious. They keep voting for the same thing because it hurts their perceived enemies, not because they think their vote will make the country better.

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