So many villains in fiction are depicted as intelligent, phew, did we ever get that one wrong
this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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If they were intelligent, we wouldn't even figure out they're villains
It may seem like a meme, but Idiocracy did actually nail it. Dumb and aggressive with no attention span.
Idiocracy was less mean-spirited than reality, though. Sure, people were assholes, but they weren't trying to eradicate trans people or immigrants.
No they didn't. The president recognized a smart person and put them in charge to fix their problems. Do you see the Trump administration doing that?
Go away, baitin
Honestly, its always been anti-intellectualism. Sure not all smart people are good people, but in general empathy is a sign of intelligence, while malice and stupidity go hand in hand.
Edit: There's also the fact that the smart tropey villains also often happen to be wealthy, and as we all know being wealthy means someone is smart/s
Dr Evil is pretty dumb, he only surrounded himself with intelligent people. Still not an equivalent since DT is hiring idiots.
Fun fact: DT can mean alcohol withdrawal and the symptoms resemble Trump. "Severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms such as shaking, confusion, and hallucinations."
Dr. Evil is a parody of a mastermind Bond villain, which is why he was dumb as a subversion of the trope.
But you also could say Bond villains were also dumb. They always seemed to make stupid mistakes and allow James to foil them, long monologues that gave him a chance to think.
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At this point, I think aliens would do a better job.
Alt: duck soup movie poster, in which a grifter con man fails upward to leading a country, makes a mockery of justice, appoints idiots spying for a foreign government, and ends up in a losing war and destruction.
And it came out in 1933.
Something about history rhyming and all that.
And some song lyrics from the first music number:
The last man nearly ruined this place,
He didn’t know what to do with it
If you think this country’s bad enough now,
Just wait till I get through with it. /
The country’s taxes must be fixed,
And I know what to do with it.
If you think you’re paying too much now,
Just wait till I get through with it. /
I will not stand for anything
That’s crooked or unfair.
I’m strictly on the up and up,
So everyone beware. /
If anyone’s caught taking graft
And I don’t get my share,
We stand ‘em up against the wall…
And pop goes the weasel!
I have to watch it again, along with some of the others like coconauts and day at the races
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V for Vendetta seems close though
I kind of thought this was the joke. Many many dystopian plots are about governments ran by corporations and filled with foreign spies.
I figured this was just kind of a blurb by someone who just lacks depth in knowledge of these things
Sarcasm often employs acting as someone who lacks knowledge about something. You can easily identify this when the person describes something unusually specific.
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Nobody got this feeling from altered carbon? Immortal, immoral rich, and everyone else struggling to survive. I mean, it's guilty-pleasure watching, but I am not ashamed.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
This movie is eerily accurate despite being scathing satire. There’s more than a hint of truth in it. More like a mountain.
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Back to the Future 2 was pretty close
kak·i·sto·cra·cy
noun
Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
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Idiocracy
The amount of sexual predators Epstein's closest friend have nominated to position of power is incredible,
Read more Philip K Dick.
The techbrocalypse is a woefully underexplored dystopian future setting
I mean, you could replace Russian assets with Japanese elves and that's basically Shadowrun. Ignore the fact there are also literal dragons and ancient gods as part of the conspiracy ring; that's just an aesthetic and has no bearing on how they are basically just regular billionaires.
Sure, some did. But in those novels the same individuals were actually pretty smart.
That’s the difference.
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Transmetropolitan nails this.
Unfortunately for us as a civilization, the series has aged quite well.
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Idiocracy?
That government had the intelligence to see they needed to listen to someone smarter than them and gave Not Sure the freedom to do it how ever needed, even if it was something as ridiculous as water from the toilet. Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
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Because they didn't have to imagine it, as its a pretty standard affair.
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Handmaidens tale comes close tho
The last, uhh, 24 years keep reminding me of this line by Yeats:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
The Man in the High Castle comes close... or at least, makes it clear that it's not as though the Nazis and Japanese occupying America would actually live by the code they dictate for others.
Dr Strangelove
Isn't that Atlas Shrugged?
Tom Clancy may yet surprise you
Season 4 of Lexx had all that and aliens.
There was a Tom Clancy novel, either Sum of All Fears or Red Storm Rising, where the president and cabinet were a bunch of stupid fuckups that kept on making bad decisions taking us closer to World War 3.
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