The end of the year, and the world isn’t a fair one. We all lost something, and if we were lucky, we got one over on the world too. The give and take seems to be universal, mostly. But if there was such a thing as the ultimate loser of 2024, who or what would that be?
Justin Trudeau? Cenk Uygur? Reddit overall? Maybe MSNBC? Zelensky? Biden? Netanyahu perhaps? What about all the cringy people who use the term “Partner” or “Significant Other” unironically? The Olympics surly has its place in most cringe or biggest loser of the year, but that event is every four years, so it’s a bit special in its failure. What of US companies admitting they need slave labor instead of just paying American’s a wage they can support a family on? That’s pretty bad, let’s not kid ourselves. We went from a world where multinational conglomerates just didn’t want to pay Americans what they’re owed, but now we just can’t remigrate all these aliens back to their home of origin. We just can’t afford it, man. Wild. But we have to think bigger. Better. Or worse rather. The criminal justice system? Surly with the string of back to back embarrassments of persecuting average Americans for J6 (that’s the second Pearl Harbor by the way) or the endless lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit to desperately keep Trump from running an effective campaign, and the Department of Defense dolling out no punishments for all the illegal orders and actions it undertook and signed off on during the coup. Are these the marks of truly great loss for the year? No. Not even Kamala gets this prestigious honor. She may yet get her chance for this coveted award next year when she confirms her loss and Trump’s victory over her in January. I’m not even ready to make a stand and say all women are the biggest losers of the year.
And yet, these are all wonderful candidates for the biggest loser, truly. I wouldn’t even argue with anyone’s top ten list or cringe award ceremony on YouTube. But I have my number one, or biggest loser. The one group that lost most, the most often, and with the most fanfare and butt hurt.
The Media Literacy Crowd
It’s been on rough year for people who enjoy reading movies and TV shows or video games. One might be forgiven for wondering if I’ve made a mistake and not included books in that small list, but it’s just right. Anyone, and everyone, who had a conniption fit this year about people enjoying the film “starship troopers” the wrong way nearly to a ‘man’ have one thing in common: They never read the book it’s based upon.
Yes, yes, they read all about the director’s personal politics and how it’s a skewer on the invasion of Iraq and media fuelled combat war footage propagandizing the public and so on and so forth. Yes, he’s stated many times he’s made the film to lambaste and roast “fascism.” Not that Paul Verhoeven could ever define what that is, but rest assured he’s firmly against it.
Beyond just being a European, and a European trying to critique the American way of life, or more rather his perception of the American way of life, he’s just another author, of a sort. See, he’s in the same boat as Heinlein. The intent of the author is not sacred, except when it’s convenient for some people. But we won’t dive into the hypocrisy here. Not now. We’ve got deeper fish to fry.
“Media literacy anyone?” https://t.co/3VtQsxEZXt pic.twitter.com/X5iwiyGQFn
— CollegeIsBored (@CollegeIsBored) December 18, 2024
(God’s weakest media illiterate soldier)
Understand that in this postmodern wasteland we’re forced into at birth, nothing is sacred. Except for the things that the powers that be said are so. They will never explain to you why or, more importantly, how these things came to be just that they are. We all know the sacred mantras and the evil shadows the system of systems tells us every day, night, and swipe on your feed. It cannot be said aloud, not above a whisper, or they might hear and silence you. But you know what fnords are. You’ve seen them, haven’t you?
So, what’s the fish? I mentioned fish, of course, so here it is: It doesn’t fucking matter what Verhoeven or Heinlein meant. It’s what we take from their body of work. Yes, it’s all very sad, and you can go cry about the death of authorial intent later, but you could go on and actually read the book yourself, you could watch the whole movie and its commentary track. You could hear the message that’s meant to be transmitted from the author to you and to stay and propagate from you to others. But that’s just the surface level reading. You could infer deeper truths and hidden meanings by deeper study. Things the author did not mean, things he definitely did not believe or want to say. These things are self-evident in reality, and it’s exceedingly difficult to hide them even in works of total fiction. Michael Ironside portrayal of a grizzled war veteran in civilian life is so iconic and powerful that it transcends the supposed intent of mocking military service to the state and some vague sense of “fascism.” The ironic words of the fool, Verhoeven, ring truer than his intended use of those words. People know and feel in their bones what is right, just, and good, even if they are fallible and weak creatures. They want something more than is being provided, and the bitter and hollow words of a critic who’s done nothing but whine and squirm all his life are not what’s important here. Irony is the language of slaves anyhow, and we’d all be better off killing that part of ourselves that can’t help but use it.
You could also just read the end of the book and find out Rico isn’t a White Nationalist. He’s Filipino.
It just is what it is
Media can’t be transformed, critiqued, changed, mocked, remixed, or observed and enacted ironically. You must take it for what it is at all times. Otherwise, you’re some sort of rube. Anything written on screen must be taken at face value. If the author of a given work didn’t have the villain whistle to himself (aloud) about how evil he is, how fun it is to be evil, and how sickening the (good) protagonist is (for being good) and how fun it would be to murder him (because he’s the good guy and being bad is fun) how else would we know he’s the antagonist? Don’t even get me started on having antagonists that aren’t villains. Oh, and wouldn’t just be awful if the protagonists were morally grey, or even evil? Perish the thought! Good characters doing bad things for good reasons? Yikes! That’s all just over-complicated and self-conceited writing. You shouldn’t do that. The audience, the modern audience, won’t go for that. They just don’t like that sort of thing. They just wouldn’t get it.
Remember: Anything not state/corporate/media/celebrity/academy reviewed and approved is racist, or bigoted, or evil in some quantifiable and repeatable way. Do you have a license for dat racism? How ’bout a peer reviewed study, eh? No? Didn’t think so. Got a manga talking about the oppression of natives by a foreign power and a collaborating local government? UNO reverse card! Now it’s racism, not anti-imperialism. How do you like that chuds?
I won’t go and list every lost battle these dysgenic freaks fought and lost online this year, but the three major defeats starts with Starship Troopers, intermissioned by Hell Divers, and capstoned by Drama Queen. You can find it all on X (formerly known as Twitter) if you need to dive a little deeper into their woes.
Take it from me, if anyone accuses you of being media-illiterate, they’re telling on themselves as ignorant savages that learned to read accidentally. I would appeal to you all to never let them live this year down, but I have a feeling 2025 won’t be their year either.
Happy 31st.
