Discussion
I’m a big fan of Mike Judge, normally, but the concept that stupid people are out-breeding intelligent people and that this will lead to a planet of idiots is literally Eugenics 101
Edit: you’ll notice (if you haven’t been failed by your education 😊) that I made no mention of shadowy cabals, but that doesn’t magically invalidate my point any more than the fact that movie’s writer made some good cartoons back in the day
No, because that’s a massively false equivalency.
The plot of Idiocracy explicitly accepts the eugenecist premise that ‘genetically stupid’ people breeding will result in a planet of idiots, whereas the Handmaid’s Tale merely demonstrates the result of misogynist policies being implemented by society.
I don’t remember genetics being mentioned in the movie. How do you know it isn’t about something like social inheritance?
My point was more that I’m like 99.9999999% sure that wasn’t the intent. Not everything is a conspiracy.
The purpose of a thing is what it does
I also doubt it was his intent, but “accidentally pro-eugenics” is still “pro-eugenics.”
It’s a funny movie that’s easy to draw comparisons to in terms of how brazenly stupid things have gotten, but it has always bothered me when people call it “prophetic,” as it implicitly accepts some deeply flawed aspects of its premise.
The term “propaganda” was used. That requires intent.
Hundreds of people participated in the production of that film. Maybe thousands. Because it’s a film. It takes a big social collective effort.
I would say that if you have a society that produces a feature length film whose basic premise is deeply eugenic and could plausibly be mistaken for intentionally-produced pro-eugenics propaganda, that you have a society deeply steeped in eugenics as a concept, maybe even moreso than one which would intentionally produce such a film as propaganda.
As someone else said: the purpose of the thing is to do what it does.
Again, I never mentioned any conspiracy. You’re reading things into my comment that aren’t there. His intent has no real bearing on the matter.
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Is a handmaids tale written by a misogynist?