This is why it’s important to ask “Why do you love that?” Starship Troopers and Helldivers can be seen as fascist by those who don’t see deeper meaning in things. But both are satire, making fun of the thing by showing how it works and how ridiculous it looks. No one acts like a person, they talk like a movie trailer. Well adjusted folk will understand what they like and be able to elucidate it clearly. Idiots will parrot broad generalities and be unable to explore why they like that stuff (or they realize they are a monster and get defensive about it).
The Starship Troopers movie was self aware - the writer-director combo also worked on Robocop and that is pretty unambiguous about regulatory/corporate capture and malfeasance.
The book however… Heinlein was a weird political mix of right winger who had an open mind about hippies, but he uncritically promoted a militaristic society as a virtue, a permanent junta as a normal thing, and absolutely brushed up to fascism.
Yes, what you described is the point of the meme and subsequent comments. People that like these things without understanding they’re satire are problematic.
If we’re bringing up Fallout, then Warhammer has to be in the mix. *And Starship Troopers/Helldivers while we’re at it.
This is why it’s important to ask “Why do you love that?” Starship Troopers and Helldivers can be seen as fascist by those who don’t see deeper meaning in things. But both are satire, making fun of the thing by showing how it works and how ridiculous it looks. No one acts like a person, they talk like a movie trailer. Well adjusted folk will understand what they like and be able to elucidate it clearly. Idiots will parrot broad generalities and be unable to explore why they like that stuff (or they realize they are a monster and get defensive about it).
The Starship Troopers movie was self aware - the writer-director combo also worked on Robocop and that is pretty unambiguous about regulatory/corporate capture and malfeasance.
The book however… Heinlein was a weird political mix of right winger who had an open mind about hippies, but he uncritically promoted a militaristic society as a virtue, a permanent junta as a normal thing, and absolutely brushed up to fascism.
Yes, what you described is the point of the meme and subsequent comments. People that like these things without understanding they’re satire are problematic.