@prefec2@tofugolem Just because a metaphor/idea can be construed to fit an observable doesn't make it true.
Frankly, OP's original argument was that dystopian fiction is dystopian because people of privilege are treated like the real world underprivileged. In a sense inverting the real-world power dynamic.
@nonlinear@tofugolem I think this is the power of good SciFi - it take real situations, and puts them in a different world, to allow us to actually see the negatives clearly.
Which is why the trope of multi-layer society, defined at birth (or by some obvious indicator), is so common. It is why the colonisation trope - from both sides - is so common.
In distopian fiction books, author may not describe race. So African Americans can see characters as black so it's a crescendo of existing practices.
But once you adapt it to movies you can't occlude race (and gender) anymore. So showing white characters suffering what African Americans know as systemic racism (but not racial, wink wink, we are oppressed equally) is a sort of cultural appropriation of being oppressed.
@Natanox@tofugolem Oh I see, white knight is not a racial trope, but a gendered one.
Oh, to unravel indeed.
Afaik, writers codify tend to gender on books (it's really hard not to) but sometimes they don't codify race, and we tend to assume because movie adaptations just make heroes white by default.
@nonlinear@tofugolem I wouldn't use such a vile intend as baseline expectation. Not just because the way we see others defines how we shape the world around us, but since it's most likely more a matter of conditioning, lack of education and, sometimes, good old bad parenting. It's a similar problem with LGBTIQ* people in media. It just sucks how hard it is to remove all those stima and assumptions from the heads of people, especially in societies as atomized as western ones.
@nonlinear@tofugolem I didn't (want to) say that you intend something, but you expect vile intend from others. Sorry, not an english native speaker.
I know it's nothing new, of course. I just wanted to point out an adjacent issue we're all falling for, which is the baseline expectation of humans being bad. I thought so too for a long time, changed my mind after hearing about the Tongan Castaways as well as that the Stanford Prison Experiment was borked bullshit.
@nonlinear@tofugolem To put it simply, I believe our very own expectations are our worst enemy here. No matter if it comes to black or queer people in media or the believes and intentions of other people. Of course we have to remain vigilant. I just believe we'll only come to peace, especially in a globalized connected world, when we stop seeing others as potential threat (making the definition of an in-group pointless too). And this starts with actively acknowledging that humans are not vile.
@tofugolem@nonlinear Hu, didn't know. 🤔 Neither had english classes as adult nor am an immigrant (not yet though, depending on how bad the political situation in EU is about to get). But I guess it became common speech.
@stephenwhq@tofugolem But that reminds me of what others are are discussing about antiheros... No matter how cautionary is a tale, many people read that whoever in front of the camera is the hero.
@boyle
This is exactly what War of the Worlds was. The Martians represented any colonialist power, and the humans represented the colonized peoples. The only unrealistic part was the ending.
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