• Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    A friend of mine kept saying this film was dumb because “how could insects send a rock halfway across the galaxy to strike at earth” and no matter how many times I tried to explain to him he just couldn’t grasp that the fascist human government faked the attack and that the bugs are literally no threat to humanity.

    He’s a really good friend and has not a malicious bone e in his body, but he’s also credulous as fuck and falls for the false flag narratives constantly.

    Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh

    • GorGor@startrek.website
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      9 months ago

      Its been a while since I saw the movie, and I think I get it mixed up with the book sometimes. Was there something in the movie itself that even hints that it was a false flag?

      • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        It’s subtle but that’s because it’s echoing Nazi propaganda films about their own false flags.

        The system is far from earth (even if you assume it’s warped there), the bugs have limited interstellar capacity, the asteroid is thrown against all odds straight into the patrol path of a starship. Iirc it’s the ship political officer that says coms are down.

        Buenos Aries is populated by Albert Speer capitalists who are critical of the fascist regime (while benefiting from it). The fash lieutenant is clearly isolated and sad (he’s a retired field offier recommissioned in a collapsing army and he gets the rank of lieutenant ffs, he’s pissed someone off or he’s an incompetent, likely the latter since his unit gets sacrificed.)

        You’ll even note the reporter uses the fascist trick of mimic-ing liberal talking points in front of an audience from the city and guaranteed to be hostile to it.

        • GorGor@startrek.website
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          9 months ago

          The the recommissioned officer who was the teacher was just combining two completely different characters from the book.

          Why do the bugs have limited interstellar capabilities?

          The movie definitely takes some of the fascist ideas from the books and amplifies them effectively. I think Heinlein was really asking a what if in the original book, similar to a lot of his other (also, ‘problematic’) work.

          None of this implies a false flag.

          If they wanted to amp up the fascism they could have used the opening of the book which was nuking the ‘skinnies’ a bug ally.