Covid just made us all realise we know a lot more people than we thought we did who would hide a zombie bite.
More like we know a lot more people that would have zombie bite parties because they "trust their immune system" and simultaneously don't believe in the zombie hoax.
You didn't know that already? The cute to a zombie bite is a bullet to the head and no one wants to be shot.
And yell at you for asking if they have ever been bitten.
This is a great comment
Funny, I was saying this for decades about zombie bites. I was such a downer pessimist. Now after COVID hit my family has rebranded me a realist.
I still can believe the world to rally together when it means to kill something.
The enemy must be simple though. Too complicated or invisible or something and the conspiracy nuts will take over.
You wouldn't be able to see the aliens. The best you would be able to do is get blurry pictures of their ships from telescopes if you're lucky. Conspiracy nuts would do fine.
SomethingSomething else*I thought the same thing. I could see the world banding (mostly) together for a fight, but not to just make life better.
Too complicated or invisible or…
Bing bing bing!
Internal Combustion Engine? Nuclear Bomb? SCIENCE, praise be.
Invisible / long term & murky phenomena? JUST YOUR OPINION, man, I trust Facebook and WhatsApp forwards on this one.
I recently watched Utopia, British show about a super secret group putting naughty stuff in a vaccine.
Their plan hinged on every person being so afraid of a pandemic that everybody takes the vaccine. This was made pre COVID of course, because we now know that would never work.
Sounds like right wing porn.
it's actually a really great conspiracy thriller. I'd fully recommend it. I'm sure right wing weirdos could read too much into it and find a message they agree with, but they do that with everything anyways.
I didn't find it overtly political beyond money = corruption = shady people being able to get away with shady stuff
Yeah I'm sure someone who doesn't think much could definitely watch the show and come away thinking vaccines are dangerous, but that's not the angle it pulls. It relies on there being only one vaccine manufacturer, that everybody takes it, and that nobody outside the scheme actually tests the vaccine.
Of course in the real world multiple companies manufacture the same vaccine and they're tested by numerous organisations, so it falls apart pretty quickly.
Still a good show though.
It's a do cu mentsry, honey
/S
"Right wing" is pretty unhelpful as a description here, do you mean the Brexity types who "don't trust experts" and wouldn't touch a vaccine because Darren's mum's dog's friend's cleaner took one and still got ill, or the stuffy old Tories who just want things to go back to how they used to be and pay less tax on their generational wealth who will do as the government tells them?
If we had a hostile alien invasion, thousands dead in the first wave, footage of the aliens, everything. half the GOP would still be saying it's a hoax, and making it into an anti Liberal/anti LGBTQ rant. Part of them would straight up worship the aliens, a bunch of them would drink bleach.
Aliens are woke
honestly by the time they get the technology to visit planets so far away they'd probably get pretty woke
I wouldn't have believed you a few years ago but that pretty much happened.
The GOP would become the "Human Power Elite" trope in "They Live." Literally I swear to God that was a metaphor for Tim Scott and Herschel Walker. For that matter MTG and Boebert, too.
I happen to really like District 9 for this reason
There's no malicious plot of aliens blowing up shit or invading to colonize: nope, aliens literally just crash-landed on accident and humanity was like "stay the fuck right there, we'll take all your shit until we figure out how to
deal withexploit you"Humanity is always its own worst-enemy
Also, the future of Elysium (also Bloomkamp) looks more and more likely, with the 1 percent fucking off to a luxury space station in orbit and the rest of humanity living in poverty on the destroyed Earth.
Another interesting thing about Elysium is how the AI is programmed to only recognize rich people as humans. Just like rich people think about it.
I am still hoping for a Halo like future, with civil war in space, war against aliens, the threat of a dark and ancient threat and all of that. Or maybe just a Stellaris future with the same but more megastructures
Covid proved to me any libertarian hope/dream I had wouldn't actually work because people would never get together to do the right thing as a group.
People getting together for the common good is just a government, the exact thing libertarians hate.
I think Don't Look Up got it pretty right, a lot of people would be willing to band together, if not the majority of the world. But politicians and billionaires would ruin it for everyone even if it means everyone dies. When the time comes we can still band together, and take down the people we need to
It boiled down to one idiot messing up the entire operation. the story breaks down on the part where he could do that without the government telling him to f--- off. That would never be allo-
oh wait
https://www.amazon.com/Libertarian-Walks-Into-Bear-Liberate-ebook/dp/B083J1FXY8
Here's a plug for a book I've never read. I think you'll like it.
Edit: I bought it.
Review: People are scary. Bears like donuts. Sometimes it's hilarious when those facts combine. Other times, it's terrifying.
Therefore, due to my judging you entirely on one sentence, you will enjoy this book. (That is not an exclusive link. Get it anywhere. I bet your library has an app that can send it to your phone.)
Honestly same both from and outsider and in group way. Libertarians we're willing to do nothing to help or worse risk others lives to virtue signal and statist saw governments fail to do anything meaningful and waffle about the best restrictions to put in place and still thought "but if my guy was in charge".
There were people making actual differences out there, but it almost always a political.
I'm glad mutual aid gained some hype for a little bit at least.
You were smart enough to see that it's really a fetish.
Yeah any ideology that's dependent on nobody prioritizing their self interest over society's best interest isn't going to work.
But that doesn't mean a functional society isn't possible. We're living in one right now. Sure there are a lot of improvements needed, but improvement is possible.
Utopia actually translates to "no place". Only fictional people can achieve a utopia. Real life functional societies with real people are an iterative process. Make improvements, some asshole finds a loophole to exploit, make more improvements to prevent assholes from exploiting the system. Repeat. Do that over and over again, vote in elections over and over again to move society a little closer, inch by inch, a little closer to the ideal, even when the ideal isn't actually possible.
Societies aren't created by intelligent design, they're a product of evolution. But that evolution can be guided by the people that vote. Democracy isn't something that's ideal, it's a grind. You're never going to be living in an ideal society, but if you try you can make the society you live in a little better.
For me it is that book Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. My kids favorite. The ending is natural disasters make the town unlivable so the population flees to a new home and are welcomed with open arms.
Yeah that is so fucking bullshit. You telling me that a nice wealthy population would allow foreigners facing death into their land? They would keep them at sea until they all starved and churches would call them rapefugges.
COVID, when the world partly united to make a cure and a vaccine in quite a record time?
Yep, scifi will need to amend the trope to "united just enough..."
If they had made a cure we wouldn't be living through the biggest wave since it first started, years later, with hundreds if not thousands of people still dying from it daily around the world (never mind the millions left disabled).. 🙄🙄🙄
It's pretty much over for most of the world. Now its more like the reoccurring Flu outbreaks every year.
It has become endemic, like the flu, AFAIK people are not dying en mass and the hospitals are not overwhelmed with covid cases.
Academia and pharmaceutical companies united to develop the vaccine while the shitmunchers were rioting in the streets because epidemiology is confusing
And ut couldn't have possibly been because of your authoritarian reach or anything like that. You were 100% perfect and harmless, and did no wrong whatsoever.
Individual governments and pharmaceutical companies aren't enraptured by the same degree of propaganda as your basic idiot citizen.
Forgot the name, but that movie about tentacled aliens invading earth with like 12 monoliths and a linguist tries to understand them
The way world cooperation is portrayed is kinda reflecting. Not perfect, but somehow realistic
Arrival. Great flick.
tyvm 🫡
Its good for Science Fiction can be aspirational sometimes though.
Classic Star Trek has humans living in an idealistic society meeting some weirdo aliens doing some weirdo alien shit that causes a lot of problems. Then you realize we're more like the aliens than the we are like the idealistic future human society. Our society is alien to to an ideal society.
Then the Enterprise warps off to some other place to do some cool shit somewhere else and the aliens are stuck on their shitty planet because they're a bunch of losers what can't get past their weirdo shit.
The implication is that we could be the cool dudes in a starship constantly doing awesome shit. But instead we're the losers stuck on a planet that the people in the starships laugh at.
So the reason why an ideal future isn't possible is because we can't get past our weirdo loser ideas.
I can now picture Kirk, Spock and Bones having a chuckle about some weirdo aliens that can't advance because they're stuck in the rut of doomerism.
"It's quite illogical that they can't understand they can never achieve anything if they presume failure before they even try."
"Humanity once thought that way a long time ago but we eventually got past it. Anyway, off we go somewhere else to see some other loser aliens doing stupid shit we used to do!"
Quite a take on it!
Meanwhile, homo sapien are effectively half fighting chimp, half sexy loving bonobo.
We get to choose our own path.
Half sexy? I'm offended! I'm 100% sexy bonobo!
Username checks out.
So the reason why an ideal future isn’t possible is because we can’t get past our weirdo loser ideas.
I can now picture Kirk, Spock and Bones having a chuckle about some weirdo aliens that can’t advance because they’re stuck in the rut of doomerism.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was indeed a closet communist who infused his political beliefs into the show. The concept of a peaceful, egalitarian society united under one government, where resources were shared and everyone worked for the betterment of all - this is essentially a communist ideal. In fact, the characters themselves embody different facets of Marxist theory. For instance, Captain Kirk represents the proletariat fighting against oppression while Mr. Spock embodies the need for logic and rational decision-making.
Star Trek's vision of the future was meant to inspire hope and demonstrate what humanity could achieve when freed from the constraints of class and economic systems. In many ways, the show serves as a subtle form of communist propaganda. As you mentioned, each episode often portrayed humans as progressing towards an idealistic future, while the aliens faced various challenges due to their clinging to old ideologies and social structures. This reflects Roddenberry's belief that to truly advance, societies must shed outdated and divisive ideas.
By presenting a world where these barriers are overcome, Star Trek encourages viewers to question their own societal norms and consider how they might work together in a more just and cooperative manner. Although the series was never overtly political, its underlying message clearly illustrates Roddenberry's support for communism, making it a unique piece of entertainment that not only entertains but also educates its audience.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was indeed a closet communist
Citation needed.
Not everyone would unite, but the big governments of the world would at least sit together to form a plan towards a common enemy.
Like how we formed the Allies during WW1.
Your local redneck probably won't, but that doesn't matter.
thats a good point. I bet for an acute existential threat the major powers would nominally ally themselves against it, while still playing politics. So NATO, Russia, China, India, and whomever else would throw their hat in.
We see that if the threat has a long tail though (climate change) that nobody gives a shit.Neon Genesis Evangelion had this as a sub plot. They could only have 2 or 3 EVA's 'battle ready' at any time in one country depending on when in the series you are. I want to say it was pointless politics but... Yeah, right concerns, wrong application.
There are so many stories from WW2 about how Americans didn't unite.
Here's one of my favorites Patriots complained about air crews painting naked ladies on their planes. They were fine with kids getting drafted and sent overseas, but God Forbid they thought about S*X
The reason for that was because America wasn't much affected by WW2 before Pearl Harbor.
A threat to the entire planet would include America, even if they like to pretend they are separate from the rest of the world.
Yeah bullshit like that happened. But that bullshit didn't prevent the allies from accomplishing their objective, did it?
So it proves that bullshit doesn't prevent things from happening. Though I think magnifying minor bullshit problems to the point where people give up on achieving anything may actually prevent things from happening.
…has ruined sci-fi…
No, just ruined the generic good vs evil trope.
There’s a lot of good sci-fi (books/movies/series) out there that has a more nuanced take on humans and society.
OP desperately needs to read The Expanse. 🤦
In the real word: Aliens don't exist.
On Lemmygrad: The Sun deserves it for defecting to the west!
Nice. I'd have used lemmy.ml as my target, they are a bit angrier over there.
Change "the world united to.." to "The US decided the world would..."
There is no way the "united" states makes it a thousand years (climate change allowing).
Even fiction has its limits
The US couldn't even get it's own shit together, let alone make any coherent pronouncements to anyone else
Oxford University wanted to open source it's vaccine. Bill Gates and his foundation "convinced" them to partner solely with Astrazenica.
More like the world unites and then the United States turns it into some pointless political issue.
Remember when Tawanize officials were trying to tell the WHO about their experience and lessons learned and the WHO officials pretended to disconnect because they were being pressured to not let them be acknowledged as a country?
There also was annoying back and forth of "not built here" syndrome between the US and Germany
As they say though, everything is political
I would have turned the movie off if the narrator said, "The people were terrified, remaining six feet apart. And everyone was hoarding toilet paper."
I hate that COVID makes the Star Trek utopia so much less likely. We're living in the mirror universe.
Well it only starts improving after next world war.
mirror universe.
evil timeline
Turns out we were the borg all along
I mean, even in the StarTrek universe humanity got WAYYYYY worse before it got better.
There must have been an evolutionary change, like predisposition for sociopathy and narcissism and authoritarianism got reduced.
People on the Enterprise would point and laugh at an alien society that's stuck in a rut because of Doomerism.
Thinking that cynicism will result in an ideal society is illogical. You can't control how other people think, you can only control how you think. If everyone is is mired in the cynicism of doomerism, would we be in the ideal Star Trek society?
For us in Germany it went pretty smooth. Kurdish Immigrants developed the first and very potent vaccine, the industry went into overdrive and delivered faster than anyone could have imagined, a well know Immunologist became Minister for Health, we received daily updates, none of the major party tried to downplay anything, when a new chancellor was voted to power he mostly continued the policy of his predecessor and when priority lists for vaccination were given out people simple honoured them. After two years 75% were vaccinated.
And trust me, no one drank bleach. Everyone made fun of the stupid Yankees who did.
Fun fact, the sun is already blowing up. Checkmate Aliens!
This is more believable, I think.
Humans require an external threat to unify against. An alien invasion could provide that. Without some great enemy to oppose, I do not think we would come together willingly.
Humans can't even unify against trump. I'm telling you you'll be seeing factions worship them aliens while some will be hiding inside their bunkers isolated from everything
This reminds me of the factions that form in the strategy game Terra Invicta. Some want to kill the aliens, some want to worship them, some want to study them... and my favourite faction, The Initiative, want to use first contact as an opportunity for profit, and they achieve this by sabotaging the other factions and spreading misinformation among the general population.
yeah i think in 2020 everyone got fed up because it wasn't like a tangible, visible threat. it's just invisible, everywhere, all the time. you have to desensitize to some degree to live a semblance of a life.
if there were alien snipers posted up everywhere it's a much different matter
We can most certainly come together willingly, it just depends who has the power.
Ok sure an external threat helps, how about your boss? Most everybody has a boss.
Or healthcare, unaffordable bad healthcare is perhaps the greatest external threat we all face on earth. We can certainly unify around that, it is absolutely in the realm of possibility.
How many times in history the colony was still infighting even under the bootheel. There is no way a united India or a united China or a united South America would have been ruled by the Europeans. They got a billion and homefield the other side has a few hundred guys with muskets.
Alien invasion is probably the only thing that would make (most) humans band together.
When you have giant spiders trying to eat everyone, people will stop caring that their neighbors leaves blew into their yard, or your skin tone is a few shades darker than someone else's.
I think you underestimate the level of hatred some people have for various groups or individuals.
Also it's pretty damned likely that there would be a contingent of people who would insist that we shouldn't fight back because we have it coming, that fighting will make things worse, that the aliens are working for God, or whatever.
I heard there is a Chinese flood narrative where when the people heard that the local god was pissed and going to make a flood they united and started building infrastructure. The result was the god failed to wipe them out.
I don't know... My take is that the stupidity of extremely polarised politics that exists in the US will reach a point where it self destructs within the next 50 years.
In a lot of countries, people listened to the experts. They accepted the lock down. They wore the masks. Almost everyone that didn't have a medical reason not to, got vaccinated.
If you think only the Americans have highly polarized politics and fucked up during COVID, I have a bridge to sell to you…
I don't.
That's why I wrote "in a lot of countries", and not "in all other countries". And, even though the former is a subset of the latter, and thus not technically invalidating the premise of your supposition, it's still a far fetched one.
In a lot of countries they also don't though. Especially fast developing countries that have first world countries pouring tons of money in like Africa.
Gantz last arc did this so well, people just don't give a crap about the truth, misinformation is widespread, and people will listen to whatever propaganda they want.
One of the iffey feelings I have reading three-body series, even though it's a pretty dark series that also highlight the dark side of humanity, is that the world superpowers were somewhat effecticely cooperative. May be if Liu Cixin wrote the book around Covid, it might be quite different.
world superpowers were somewhat effecticely cooperative
In that book the ideologies that divided people certainly existed, but they were not geographical.
You could make similar arguments about covid.
There is nearly a century of Nebula Award winning science fiction that is in the public domain. Hollywood can't say, "they're out of ideas" All they need are screenwriters who aren't idiots.
Or maybe pay the screenwriters to do more than a first draft?
I also used to wonder why writing in TV shows and movies got so bad in the last decade. A lot of things feel like it's just a first draft level of quality. Some information came out last year that indicated that they were indeed filming things off of a first draft. Because the studios didn't want to pay writers beyond making a first draft.
Hopefully that issue has been resolved. Hooray for unions!
American perspective.
The only kind that matters. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Not to worry, we had our fair share of COVID nutjobs in the Netherlands as well. Including a whole political party.
Expeditionary forces is a comedy science fiction in which the nations of the world reluctantly worked together, but only some of the nations, and they're far from friends.
Expeditionary forces
That's the one!
You would really like the Three Body Problem.
Obama said the book had "immense" scope, and that it was "fun to read, partly because my day-to-day problems with Congress seem fairly petty".
I didn't really enjoy that book, it just strained incredulity too much to me, but they did get that part right.
Image Transcription: Twitter Post
Kyle Butcavage Jr, @KyleButcavage
COVID has ruined sci-fi movies shit'll be like, "the year was 3004 and aliens were gonna blow up the sun" and I'm like, "makes sense" but then it goes to "so the world United to..." and I'm like "No the fuck they did not."
Someone tell them what the 'fi' stands for in sci-fi
And then they'll tell you what the sci stands for and keep bitching, and honestly quite rightly so.
It IS a dumb trope that doesn't reflect realiy, and fiction's job is to reflect reality, not to break away from it. Not with human reactions and behavior.
Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it shouldn't be believable. A good story shouldn't make you suspend disbelief to the point that it keeps feeling unrealistic, at least within the world that the author created.
If I write a story about an average Joe who goes back in time to the 1700s, people might be able to accept that premise, but then if I write that, because he's from our time, he knows how to do everything our civilization does, from making and programming a computer to building a jet airplane to landing people on the moon, I think most people would find that too unrealistic to be enjoyable.
Isekai has left the chat.
You are looking for c/HFY and r/HFY.
But I agree, except for the West pretty much every banana republic tries to isolate itself so their dictators can easier rob their subjects riches.
I summed it up in the Short Story Hard WEST
