Dystopian Science Fiction only reinforces the real world Status Quo

[CharlesPhipps]

To this regard I've become somewhat intrigued with the DC rendition of the old War played out by the likes of Superman Red Son, in which the events of the Cold War are rather consistently played out with Lex Luthor as the US president and Superman as the liberal ideal that Soviets have historically espoused since around the time Superman became a thing in the US. If anything Red Son seems like a return to form for the original incarnation of Superman as a historical parallel to early Leninism.

I feel like Red Son is one of the darkest incarnations of Superman actually and the biggest critique of anti-democratic communism (which many Soviet influenced communists embraced, claiming Western democracy was inherently capitalist). The version of Superman established in the book is one that creates his "paradise" via absolute control and suppression of dissent for the greater good.

Superman has never been corrupted by Darkseid and only once by the Joker but is successfully done so by Stalin with the ideals of "you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs." The world established is an ATOMIC HEART (another interesting critique done by ex-communists that APPEARS to be a paradise) utopia with Kryptonian super science but if you don't agree with Superman's world, you end up lobotomized.

Red Son does a great job of also critiquing the USA though as Lex Luthor remains the horrific monster that he always is but manages to be the only person who allows individual freedom versus collectivist ideals. He also creates his own science paradise through authoritarianism. Except, as the richest most powerful man in America, of course he constantly wins every election.

Democracy is almost incidental in the world.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Red Son does a great job of also critiquing the USA though as Lex Luthor remains the horrific monster that he always is but manages to be the only person who allows individual freedom versus collectivist ideals. He also creates his own science paradise through authoritarianism. Except, as the richest most powerful man in America, of course he constantly wins every election.

Democracy is almost incidental in the world.

Well what I was saying was that this is a highly consistent take on real world events as told with ingredients from a universe that typically takes more liberty with its parallels to reality via allegory. Or at the least it takes the inspiration less from established ideals of modernizing society and more from the commonly underlying residual fallout of those ideals from the otherwise modernizing tenets of society.

One post I read on the internet said that the Soviet Union structurally was the closest thing to a Starfleet level of collective effort towards science and technology... The idealistic pursuits of the Soviet regime were no joke, as you can almost argue with Mussolini's Fascism, though not nearly as much.

Superman as an allegory towards the spirit that went into the Soviet regime is a pretty proportionate utilization of piece.

[KuudereKun]

The Soviet Union was a Democracy, that's what Centrist morons don't get.

[CmdrKing]

The fuck it was.

After Stalin there was some token effort to restore the Soviets as democratic bodies but the damage was done and they never became anything more than corrupt administrative hubs skimming their own cream off the top. Fundamentally the climate of fear and purges under Stalin stamped out the sort of people who can function as democratic officials during his reign, and that meant those who held such offices were his personal loyalists or those who kept the heads down and took for themselves what they could get away with. Neither group was terribly interested in much beyond maintaining their own seats of power once Stalin himself was gone, and the scars of that time are clearly visible in modern Russia and the web of conglomerates built off the back of plundering natural resources and soviet surpluses (and later, essential materiel).

One big lesson of the 20th century is that Leninism is poorly suited to historic empires, because the conditions for someone to arise as a new aristocracy are already in place.

[CharlesPhipps]

The Soviet Union was a Democracy, that's what Centrist morons don't get.

In the same way China is, yes.

[KuudereKun]

Staling tried to step down, the Democratically elected Legislature wouldn't let him.

[CharlesPhipps]

Staling tried to step down, the Democratically elected Legislature wouldn't let him.

That comes with a helluva large number of if's, and's, or but's.

Sort of also like, "Yeah, well, Nero started off pretty okay."

Stalin's first attempt at resignation in 1925 was unanimously rejected by a lot of his gang of supporters and when he was quietly making his move against Trotsky (who refused to let him resign) as a compromise candidate. The next two attempts were at 1926 and 1927 but that was the Soviet Union was at its most divided between and Stalin's own party and was nothing more than political theater. Trotsky had been exiled in 1926 and everyone was terrified of him coming back and proceeding to purge the existing party.

A reminder that the Bolshevik purge of 220,000 members took place in 1921 just a few years prior.

He was viewed as the only man who could keep the coalition before and everyone voting at those times were his appointees. The final attempt to resign in 1952 was five months over his death and absolutely just an attempt to test the loyalty of his underlings (who were the same people who would reject him post-mortem and execute Beriah). Molotov was the one begging him to stay because, well, it was just Stalin showing his power over every one.

And the" democratically elected" element of the Soviet Union had already come after a Civil War and purges. Right also before the massive number of purges that Stalin was behind.

We're in full historial revisionism territory here once beyond it.

The "Saddam Hussein was elected with 103% of the vote" territory

[clearspira]

George Orwell was an Anticommunist fraud and Handmaiden's Tale unwittingly plays into TERF rhetoric.

And the Handmaid's Tale absolutely doesn't address trans issues. You also didn't mention the way it treats minorities (basically just killing them all off and ignoring their stories). Now, explain why it' not relevant to the theocratic fascist tendencies of America.

The Handmaid's Tale doesn't address trans issues because trans issues would add nothing to the story that isn't already there. That is not a ''TERF'' POV. That is a statement of fact. It detracts from the central theme of how women have been treated since the dawn of time as baby machines, as sex objects, as domestic slaves.

Transpeople in this society would not be permitted to change sex. Therefore, a transman would still be a handmaiden or a wife regardless of what they thought about it, and a transwoman would still be considered by this society to be a man regardless of what they thought about it. Short of a bit of inner monologue here and there, the effect of their presence on this society is still exactly the same because the only bit of her that anyone cares about (that would be her womb fyi) is still functioning. And the moment it doesn't? They would become an Unwoman and would be shipped off to die alongside the sterile women, the unmarried, feminists, lesbians, nuns, and politically dissident women.

I don't know what people who want transpeople in The Handmaid's Tale actually think would realistically happen within the context of the universe as presented.

[CharlesPhipps]

George Orwell was an Anticommunist fraud and Handmaiden's Tale unwittingly plays into TERF rhetoric.

And the Handmaid's Tale absolutely doesn't address trans issues. You also didn't mention the way it treats minorities (basically just killing them all off and ignoring their stories). Now, explain why it' not relevant to the theocratic fascist tendencies of America.

The Handmaid's Tale doesn't address trans issues because trans issues would add nothing to the story that isn't already there. That is not a ''TERF'' POV. That is a statement of fact. It detracts from the central theme of how women have been treated since the dawn of time as baby machines, as sex objects, as domestic slaves.

Transpeople in this society would not be permitted to change sex. Therefore, a transman would still be a handmaiden or a wife regardless of what they thought about it, and a transwoman would still be considered by this society to be a man regardless of what they thought about it. Short of a bit of inner monologue here and there, the effect of their presence on this society is still exactly the same because the only bit of her that anyone cares about (that would be her womb fyi) is still functioning. And the moment it doesn't? They would become an Unwoman and would be shipped off to die alongside the sterile women, the unmarried, feminists, lesbians, nuns, and politically dissident women.

I don't know what people who want transpeople in The Handmaid's Tale actually think would realistically happen within the context of the universe as presented.

Ah, clearspira, even when we agree we disagree.

[clearspira]

The Soviet Union was a Democracy, that's what Centrist morons don't get.

And Vladimir Putin's approval rating in Russia really is 82% lol.