"This movie isn't wish fulfillment. If it was wish fulfillment, they'd be blowing up Hollywood studios, not a bunch of dumb kids on a show."
It may not be wish fulfillment for you, but it is for the OTHER dumb kids on the internet.
You know, the ones that won't shut up about Idiocracy or Brave New World or etc.
Personally, I feel that political discourse is better than it was even 10 years ago, the only difference being that we have so many different avenues for discourse that we can now SEE all of it.
Accusing the sitting president of being an Anarchist/Communist/Socialist/Nazi is absolutely nothing new, it's just now we have entire cable channels dedicated to it, whereas before we would have only said things like that at the water cooler, or at our local political meetings.
So is there a problem with the amount of privatized news coverage and therefore with the inevitable massive polarization that comes with creating an audience? Yes, and you can demonstrate this rather easily. But has the actual discourse and disposition of politics itself changed much in the last century? Also yes, but I'd say it has indeed gotten better or at least less violent and racist.
The problem with me having these views is that no one will really take me seriously, not within "thinking" circles anyway. My optimism can all be chalked up to youthful inexperience, naivety, or not having read the right books.
The last time it was POPULAR in intellectual circles to say that things are better "now", Leibniz and Spinoza were still alive. And then Candide came out, and soon enough you weren't allowed to call yourself a real intellectual or visionary without ALSO being a constant naysayer or a pessimist.
It may not be wish fulfillment for you, but it is for the OTHER dumb kids on the internet.
You know, the ones that won't shut up about Idiocracy or Brave New World or etc.
Personally, I feel that political discourse is better than it was even 10 years ago, the only difference being that we have so many different avenues for discourse that we can now SEE all of it.
Accusing the sitting president of being an Anarchist/Communist/Socialist/Nazi is absolutely nothing new, it's just now we have entire cable channels dedicated to it, whereas before we would have only said things like that at the water cooler, or at our local political meetings.
So is there a problem with the amount of privatized news coverage and therefore with the inevitable massive polarization that comes with creating an audience? Yes, and you can demonstrate this rather easily. But has the actual discourse and disposition of politics itself changed much in the last century? Also yes, but I'd say it has indeed gotten better or at least less violent and racist.
The problem with me having these views is that no one will really take me seriously, not within "thinking" circles anyway. My optimism can all be chalked up to youthful inexperience, naivety, or not having read the right books.
The last time it was POPULAR in intellectual circles to say that things are better "now", Leibniz and Spinoza were still alive. And then Candide came out, and soon enough you weren't allowed to call yourself a real intellectual or visionary without ALSO being a constant naysayer or a pessimist.