I’d like something more extended and literally episodic the way the word looks?
Elysium; the Matt Damon movie where the rich live on a space station and leave the rest of us to rot.
I’m not saying it’s what’s going on right this moment, but it’s the end-goal of everything that Musk, Bezos, etc… are doing.
Idiocracy
The movie Her. It’s really close and accurate to ChatGPT, but worse.
You wish, that thing actually worked. What we have is a bullshit generator with the confidence of a brother in law.
VEEP
Seriously. “Today the secretary of defense with a drinking problem reveals military secrets to a reporter due to a texting error.”
Game of Thrones.
I find the last days of the Qing dynasty China to be somewhat analogous. Institutional rot, rampant corruption, a complete failure to adapt to crises and open hostility to anyone proposing workable solutions or trying to learn from foreign examples. Basically the two voices in government were, “Learn how guns work while completely refusing to understand the scientific principles that allowed them to be developed” and “Learn absolutely nothing.” The “lesser evil” was woefully inadequate, and once the government finally collapsed, both factions that emerged (communists and nationalist) were far more influenced by Western ideas than even the most radical in the Qing government were.
Babylon Berlin
The historical precedent is the rise of Nazi Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. You should now be somewhere in the early 1930s.
To get spoilers, watch Downfall.
And Canada and Greenland are Poland.
or Poland and Austria
The wave of fascism going throughput Europe in the 19th and 20th century of course.
But the state of the American people is also portrayed well in The Hunger Games (books and movies).
There’s a satirical (well, don’t know how long it will be considered that) movie about it… it’s called Idiocracy
It’s a great movie, but the eugenics theme is bullshit. The causes of modern decline have nothing to do with the half-baked idea that idiots will overrun the world through breeding.
Idiots aren’t born in increasing waves, they’re made by chronically underfunding education and flooding the world with propaganda and manipulative social media algorithms.
That applies as far as the dumbing down of the population, but even they didn’t go for fascists as leaders. That’s right, the population of Idiocracy was smarter than what we have now.
I would much rather have Camacho as president than Cheeto Benito.
Terry Crews 2028!
I used to think this movie was funny but now it’s just kind of painful because it’s largely true.
Except Camacho was a caring president, in his own way.
He is the most unrealistic part of the film, he had a problem, found the most qualified person to fix it, listened to them (eventually), and then didnt take credit for it.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Great book and a TV miniseries. An alternative history that has Lindbergh winning the presidency in the 30s and the US government enacting fascism domestically. The book does a great job of portraying the chaos that ensues. The series is also very good.
Leaving off with an ellipsis makes it look like I should click your comment to continue reading.
I’ve found the expanse to be somewhat loosely analogous, but making the associations is a bit of a stretch I guess.
UN is America, Mars is Israel, Belters are Palestinians or other brown folk.
Or they’re any number of similar analogues.
Spoilers from the last books (post the current end of the show)
! The entire premise of the current leadership is endless unchecked growth
! This mirrors the Laconian goal of superiority through holding onto what’s basically a free infinite energy machine, only it’s not really free, it’s just being stolen from neighboring universes who’s very advanced inhabitants really don’t like that.
! We see the same hubris from the people in charge thinking that just a little more control or a little more power will be enough to save us, when really the answer is to let go and stop trying to control everything
The Twilight Zone (2019), “The Wunderkind”
Synopsis: A down-on-his-luck campaign manager (John Cho) is determined to get a kid (Jacob Tremblay) elected as the next President of the United States.
The Great Dictator
A lot of what he talks about prior to previous insurrections are pretty similar to what’s happening now.
Oh hey, it’s the same host as Behind the Bastards. Thanks for the recommendation!
But, do you know who, allegedly, would never instigate an insurrection?
The wonderful people at BLEEEP. So long as you leave them and their child-hunting island alone they’ll never instigate an insurrection against anyone.
Any sci-fi by Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley Phillip K.Dick, some by Robert Heinlein iirc.
There’s also a couple by Cory Doctorow that fit to the tee.
