Nate Cull
Ok so I think maybe we need to talk about two things coming out of Stranger Things 3:
1) what the HECK Hopper, you did absolutely zero legitimate police work in eight episodes and instead you just straight up got drunk and murdery and assaulted everyone you met, how was that supposed to turn out
2) this fear Americans seem to have about literal entire Russian military complexes, uniforms and all, operating under shopping malls, uh, that's just a little too 'Jade Helm'
Nate Cull
also
3) a whole lot of anti-Communist overtones in this one, what with the whole 'oh no people might be brainwashed and sucked into a giant collectivist monster that subsumes their individuality', which is okay if we were critically examining that myth and its consequences on 80s politics, but, given 1) and 2), I'm no longer sure that this series is actually self-aware enough of just how much of an Ayn-Rand, crypto-fascist propaganda line that was.
Nate Cull
also
2b)
no seriously why were the Russians IN UNIFORM, how did their supply chain work...???? where did they get them drycleaned? what was their escape plan???
3b)
that poor monster, biology DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT, because, bones required for structural support, also, all that exposed viscera squelching over incredibly dirty surfaces, that monster's gonna be immunocompromised and dying of a million viral and bacterial infections within seconds of its birth
Nate Cull
2c)
again, compare with Deus Ex, why this strange American fixation with Literal Uuniformed Enemy Military Bases living and operating literally physically underneath Classic Built Architecture Of Americana
okay it was obviously a symbol of Fear of Communist Subversion/Insurgency during the Cold War, but, why did that fear prosper under Reagan and Daddy Bush, and why did it continue and even accelerate through the 1990s conspiracy-cult, and is still a thing today?
Nate Cull
2c)
again, compare with Deus Ex, why this strange American fixation with Literal Uniformed Enemy Military Bases living and operating literally physically underneath Classic Built Architecture Of Americana
okay it was obviously a symbol of Fear of Communist Subversion/Insurgency during the Cold War, but, why did that fear prosper under Reagan and Daddy Bush, and why did it continue and even accelerate through the 1990s conspiracy-cult, and is still a thing today?
Nate Cull
2d)
We need to seriously address why this fear continues today, because, it's literally killing people
It's why that right-wing guy blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 people. And why that bombing was valorised/mythologised in the X-Files movie three years later.
It's why Texas went nuts over the Jade Helm exercise in 2015.
It's why Pizzagate and QAnon are a thing, which are gonna get people killed.
Nate Cull
2d continued)
See also: Denver Airport conspiracy theories
which, imo, actually have a perfectly rational and sensible explanation which is more than 'nothing to see here': Colorado is the home of NORAD, and the world-ending missile commands which used to be in Cheyenne Mountain are literally based in an airport not too far from Denver: Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterson_Air_Force_Base
so a new Colorado airport probably SHOULD HAVE atomic bunkers in it.
Nate Cull
2e) The series started out well, with commentary about how the 1980s big malls were killing the small-town American Main Street retail (and by extension a metaphor for how Internet shopping is killing the malls)
and it then went into how this was facilitated by politicians who didn't care about the people
and then it went whoop completely pants-on-head far right into well this is obviously the fault of SOCIALISM not Reagan Era Hyper-Capitalism Functioning As Designed.
Nate Cull
And this worries me a lot.
Because it suggests that either the series creators, or the series' creators idea of their audience, can see the destruction of the American economy (including malls) by American capitalism happening right in front of their eyes
and they're just programmed to blame it all, all of the excesses of unregulated capitalism, on what remains of the Left. And demand MORE capitalism.
and that's how we got Trump and that seems to be continuing.
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