• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
    1·
    16 minutes ago

    I mean, you could replace Russian assets with Japanese elves and that’s basically Shadowrun. Ignore the fact there are also literal dragons and ancient gods as part of the conspiracy ring; that’s just an aesthetic and has no bearing on how they are basically just regular billionaires.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 hours ago

    There was a Tom Clancy novel, either Sum of All Fears or Red Storm Rising, where the president and cabinet were a bunch of stupid fuckups that kept on making bad decisions taking us closer to World War 3.

    • dumbass@leminal.spaceEnglish
      1·
      7 minutes ago

      That government had the intelligence to see they needed to listen to someone smarter than them and gave Not Sure the freedom to do it how ever needed, even if it was something as ridiculous as water from the toilet. Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.

  • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
    7·
    5 hours ago

    The last, uhh, 24 years keep reminding me of this line by Yeats:

    "The best lack all conviction, while the worst

    Are full of passionate intensity."

    • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      9 minutes ago

      Oh man Transmetropolitan, Judge Dredd, and some other deeply satirical stories like Harrison Bergeron have ended up being closer to reality than even the best attempts at dystopia: Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 (though its critique of what is essentially social media is on point), Minority Report (let’s see how AI in law enforcement goes…), Handmaid’s Tale…

      I save a special spot for 1984 because our technology is spying on us, our governments and billionaires are using the media to manufacture consent, and the lies and danger around us make us not trust each other. 1984 did get pretty close, but 1984 was made with the assumption that our elites are competent and willing to work together and that does not seem to be the case actually. That’s our one saving grace and we need to act on it as soon as possible.

    • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
      1·
      4 hours ago

      Neither the Beast nor the Smiler are ignorant, conspiracy theorists, or foreign assets though (grifters and sex criminals, most definitely, I’ll give you that, especially the Smiler, but most of the City’s population seems to fit in those categories too, so in that sense they do represent their electorate).

      They’re both quite competent and intelligent psychopaths.

      Now, if we’re talking about the Republican Party Reservation and its associated TV show, or the vat-grown VP…

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
    68·
    10 hours ago

    Alt: duck soup movie poster, in which a grifter con man fails upward to leading a country, makes a mockery of justice, appoints idiots spying for a foreign government, and ends up in a losing war and destruction.

      • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
        16·
        8 hours ago

        And some song lyrics from the first music number:

        The last man nearly ruined this place,

        He didn’t know what to do with it

        If you think this country’s bad enough now,

        Just wait till I get through with it. /

        The country’s taxes must be fixed,

        And I know what to do with it.

        If you think you’re paying too much now,

        Just wait till I get through with it. /

        I will not stand for anything

        That’s crooked or unfair.

        I’m strictly on the up and up,

        So everyone beware. /

        If anyone’s caught taking graft

        And I don’t get my share,

        We stand ‘em up against the wall…

        And pop goes the weasel!