Starship Troopers/Is China REALLY So Bad? ;) (split from '25 Federal Election thread)

[Lumber]

Chairman Mao once stated "if 300 million have to die so the other 300 million can eat..."

And stupid people still revere him.

Well, yea, but if the alternative is that all 600 million die, then tug on those boot straps and get to cullin'!

 

[KevinB]

I wouldn't mind learning more about this bit, too. Not a deep dive by any means, but a VERY quick Google-fu led me here ...

Robert Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' & The Cold War | Kirkus Reviews

Andrew Liptak writes about Robert Heinlein and his book 'Starship Troopers', which began the science fiction subgenre of military science fiction.

www.kirkusreviews.com

... suggesting he was anti-anti-nuke because of how USSR 1.0 seemed to be steering it at the time:
View attachment 92445
Haven't found anything yet from his later years denouncing it.

Agreed. Everything I’ve read from and about him suggests he felt the US was losing focus and being subverted. (Wonder what his corpse feels now).

I do know Paul Verhoeven, who did the first and third films (and lived through WW2 bombings of The Hague as a kid), wanted it to be clear that he was aiming for a satirical anti-war narrative, which he said the studio misdirected by marketing it (at least 1.0) as an action flick (highlights mine).

Starship Troopers (film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

View attachment 92446

I think some have missed the difference between the Directors belief’s and the writers…

Also ST1 was a decent movie, 2+ are just tripe.

 

[KevinB]

Well, yea, but if the alternative is that all 600 million die, then tug on those boot straps and get to cullin'!

Sometimes a culture just needs to die off.
Something’s are also worth dying for.

 

[OldSolduer]

Well, yea, but if the alternative is that all 600 million die, then tug on those boot straps and get to cullin'!

Churchill had it right - He hated Communism but he hated Hitler more.

Winston said Bolshevism should be strangled in the cradle. And it should have been.

 

[RangerRay]

I must be the only right-winger who read Starship Troopers and was horrified at the ideological certainty and society depicted in the novel…

 

[Genetk44]

Seems to me the society of SST is an almost perfect match for present-day mainland China.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Except for all the prison camps, casual corruption and genocide against minorities, sure- same place.

Seems to me the society of SST is an almost perfect match for present-day mainland China.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I must be the only right-winger who read Starship Troopers and was horrified at the ideological certainty and society depicted in the novel…

That was a pretty good description of our society in 1918 and 1945, apparently.

Wars of national/global survival have an unseemly impact on democracy.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I must be the only right-winger who read Starship Troopers and was horrified at the ideological certainty and society depicted in the novel…

A product of its time. I'm horrified by the ideological certainty and society depicted in Canada right now, compared with earlier times I experienced.

 

[The Bread Guy]

... ST1 was a decent movie, 2+ are just tripe.

I liked ST1.

ST2 is below par, but WAY better 1) treated like a dark western and 2) listening to the director's commentary (sounds like they're day drinking, complaining about Verhoeven not being involved in the project).

I liked ST3 about as much as (maybe a hair more than) ST1 because it was a LOT more clearly a satire.

 

[FJAG]

I liked ST1.

I liked the book . . . a lot. As a result the film was disappointing because it didn't measure up. And I did get the satire. The boobs were good.

 

[The Bread Guy]

I liked the book . . . a lot. As a result the film was disappointing because it didn't measure up.

I find most movies based on books I like end up like that, too.

 

[Halifax Tar]

I liked the book . . . a lot. As a result the film was disappointing because it didn't measure up. And I did get the satire. The boobs were good.

I'm with you.