https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/casper-van-dien-is-loving-the-starship-troopers-renaissance-but-still-finds-it-mind-boggling-how-some-take-it-at-face-value-my-grandfather-fought-against-the-nazis-and-its-not-a-pro-war-filmeverybody-fing-dies/

“So we’re trying to be more serious, the satire comes from the viewers’ appreciation of how ridiculous the situation is with the war machine. It’s funny because 1930’s style propaganda to us in 2024 seems like ‘how could people fall for this, this is such a joke.’ Trust your government and all that kind of thing. Propaganda only works when you’re not aware that it’s working… we have to be very strong in our community sentiment to be able to shut down those groups that will use this as a way to like push different agendas. We’re not about that, our studio and the game stand for being inclusive.”

  • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Hot Take: I think a lot of the really bad “media illiterate” takes you see are totally willful and the person making them is, at least, subconsciously aware it’s bullshit, but it’s bullshit that reinforces their worldview so they’ll spew it nonetheless. As such I don’t think mandatory media literacy classes would have any effect on these dorks, you could explain this shit in painstaking detail to them, and then they’d turn around and keep posting their “hot takes”.

    • bbnh69420 [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      Yes, also true because the media literacy classes already exist and are called high school English. Still doesn’t matter because the kids will post “the curtains were fucking blue” from the back row

  • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    We have mandatory literacy classes, that’s English class but some people are like “omg English class is so dumb! Sometimes a guy just writes a dumb story about turning into a big bug that doesn’t mean anything else!!!”

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      I had someone in a tabletop RPG group say to me with a straight face that critical analysis is stupid. “Sometimes a story is just a story and there’s no other meaning.” Like, as if Dracula is just a story about a guy that bites people and that’s it. Or Animal Farm is just about talking animals.

      I got the impression that she had taken from her literature classes the idea that you have to “find” the “correct” meaning in the text. As in, it’s there and you have to solve it like a puzzle, and there’s only a small set of correct answers. That’s kind of a fundamental misunderstanding of how it all works. You have the text, and any meaning you can explain and defend is there. Many popular texts already have a lot of stuff already written about it, but that doesn’t mean those are the only possible answers. You can easily write an essay that examines Dracula through a feminist lens.

      She really just seemed kind of sad and incurious overall. I think about this a lot. I think a lot of people are like her.

      I don’t really know how to fix this. Probably spending a lot more money on education would help.

      • spacecadet [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        I agree that even if an author claims there is no meaning in a story they wrote, and even if the story itself seems vapid, meaning can indeed be pulled out, or at the very least the story can serve as a data point in a meta analysis of cultural trends of the time, etc…while I agree with this, a ton of people really do just absorb stories at face value cause it’s interesting to exist somewhere else for a bit or vicariously experience emotions through characters or just enjoy a series of thrilling events.

      • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        The way to fix this is by having people read. Not just like… “you, sit down and read the brothers karamazov” because it can be anything other than harboring disdain for the very act of reading itself.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    For the longest time I totally misjudged van Dien. I saw that he was always thrilled to reprise the Rico character in whatever silly spinoffs and thought he was really in to it. I was very happy to find out I’d been totally wrong and unfair to the man.

  • AlicePraxis [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    I wish I liked Starship Troopers more than I actually do, because the idea is great but the execution could have been a lot better. and I like a lot of Verhoeven’s movies

    this Casper guy is way cooler than I would have guessed for a guy who looks like he belongs on a nazi propaganda poster - he was very well-cast in that film

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      this Casper guy is way cooler than I would have guessed for a guy who looks like he belongs on a nazi propaganda poster

      The virgin Starship Troopers literal interpreter versus the Chad Starship Troopers is a satire understander.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    I met Casper van Dien about 10 years ago at a convention. I paid to get DVDs signed but I was last in line so we talked a bit longer than usual. I offhandedly mentioned how I’m surprised some people don’t understand SST is a parody and he agreed and said that he hears really ridiculous shit from people sometimes.

    Good dude. I’m glad he enjoys the role he’s most known for.

  • sir_this_is_a_wendys [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    In 5th grade my music teacher read us the lyrics to Bon Dylan -Blowing in the Wind and told us how stupid they were. He took it very literally. Even in 5th grade I thought he was an idiot.

  • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation

    Watch it, its a lot more on the nose with its criticisms than the first movie.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    we need prision time for creators of misinformation*

    here fixed it, dealing with the root cause and all.

  • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Propaganda only works when you’re not aware that it’s working

    It often works even when you are aware of it, but it reinforces your biases or makes apologetics for your privileged position in society.