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redfiona99Mahoosive spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, Torchwood: Children of Earth and 300. Also, gratuitous use of XKCD comics.
Because I like nothing more than timeliness, here's a reaction post about Avengers: Infinity War.
There something I find worrying about a large part of the general response to Thanos's plan. It's the people who think they're being clever, so much a cut above us ordinary people, when they say it's a good plan. That it wouldn't be too bad if half the population of the world died.
It's a very similar group of people to the ones who were fine with the government's plans in Children of Earth, and were fine with exposing babies to the elements in 300.
These people seem to think that killing off large percentages of people will in some way let them shine, that in that world, people will respect them. There's a strand of fascism that runs through sci-fi/fantasy fans that is frankly disturbing. Because it is fascism, even if it pretends to be geniocracy. It's always people who think they're cleverer than the sheeple (there's an XKCD for that ;) )
Possibly the most interesting case was Torchwood: Children of Earth. In a very brief summary, the aliens wanted a proportion of the UK's children and the UK government were going to give them children, mostly from poor schools.
The number of people who said they were alright with it, because it would get rid of the chavs*, was worrying. I was particularly bad-kind-of amused by one guy who said it, because I knew his school was not any better than mine, and I know full well that mine would have been one of the ones that the government would have had no issue with handing over. The disturbing part was, he was a teacher, and he wasn't the only teacher I knew who held that opinion. Now, admittedly, most of them were physics teachers. I knew too many physicists, and I think it's one of those degrees where the automatic "help, I didn't get a Masters/PhD place" option is teaching. Which mostly leads to poor teaching and disaffected teachers, as far as I can tell. (Most of the teachers I am thinking of washed out of the profession within 5 years.)
Physicists also have this tendency to genio-fascisim. They always seem to think the things that physics prizes are the best things to have ... I wonder why?!
In the case of Thanos, I don't understand why people are saying things like that. Even presuming that they themselves didn't get finger-snapped out of existence, if they exist in a family unit of more than 2, the likelihood of at least one person they love being finger-snapped increases wildly. Because that's the thing with Thanos, who gets got isn't based on anything, it's just pure dumb luck (or unluck), which is how Thanos wants it.
It also presumes that no-one useful to them, be it ambulance driver, firefighter or ICU nurse is going to get snapped-out. I feel they don't understand quite how inter-connected we all are.
It's not just selfishness in the people who think that way, it's a poor understanding of probability, which given what they prize, is probably worse.
~~~~
*international translation - poor white trash/bogans.
Because I like nothing more than timeliness, here's a reaction post about Avengers: Infinity War.
There something I find worrying about a large part of the general response to Thanos's plan. It's the people who think they're being clever, so much a cut above us ordinary people, when they say it's a good plan. That it wouldn't be too bad if half the population of the world died.
It's a very similar group of people to the ones who were fine with the government's plans in Children of Earth, and were fine with exposing babies to the elements in 300.
These people seem to think that killing off large percentages of people will in some way let them shine, that in that world, people will respect them. There's a strand of fascism that runs through sci-fi/fantasy fans that is frankly disturbing. Because it is fascism, even if it pretends to be geniocracy. It's always people who think they're cleverer than the sheeple (there's an XKCD for that ;) )
Possibly the most interesting case was Torchwood: Children of Earth. In a very brief summary, the aliens wanted a proportion of the UK's children and the UK government were going to give them children, mostly from poor schools.
The number of people who said they were alright with it, because it would get rid of the chavs*, was worrying. I was particularly bad-kind-of amused by one guy who said it, because I knew his school was not any better than mine, and I know full well that mine would have been one of the ones that the government would have had no issue with handing over. The disturbing part was, he was a teacher, and he wasn't the only teacher I knew who held that opinion. Now, admittedly, most of them were physics teachers. I knew too many physicists, and I think it's one of those degrees where the automatic "help, I didn't get a Masters/PhD place" option is teaching. Which mostly leads to poor teaching and disaffected teachers, as far as I can tell. (Most of the teachers I am thinking of washed out of the profession within 5 years.)
Physicists also have this tendency to genio-fascisim. They always seem to think the things that physics prizes are the best things to have ... I wonder why?!
In the case of Thanos, I don't understand why people are saying things like that. Even presuming that they themselves didn't get finger-snapped out of existence, if they exist in a family unit of more than 2, the likelihood of at least one person they love being finger-snapped increases wildly. Because that's the thing with Thanos, who gets got isn't based on anything, it's just pure dumb luck (or unluck), which is how Thanos wants it.
It also presumes that no-one useful to them, be it ambulance driver, firefighter or ICU nurse is going to get snapped-out. I feel they don't understand quite how inter-connected we all are.
It's not just selfishness in the people who think that way, it's a poor understanding of probability, which given what they prize, is probably worse.
~~~~
*international translation - poor white trash/bogans.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 01:15 am (UTC)I think it's all kind of indicative of a deep immaturity - a wish that social problems would just go away on their own & be snapped out of existence, rather than wanting to do any kind of difficult thinking to fix or improve them.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-28 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-27 07:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-28 10:21 am (UTC)It does tend to be men, doesn't it. I have no idea why.