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I think what's even worse about Ready Player One is that everyone seems so bogged down in the minutia of the book of a poorly written 15 year old being in infat

I think what's even worse about Ready Player One is that everyone seems so bogged down in the minutia of the book of a poorly written 15 year old being in infatuated with a young woman without an eating disorder, they miss the whole distopian aspect of a world run by monopolistic corporations and corrupt governments powerless to stop them.

wintermutestwin 5y ago
I was more "bogged down" by the alluring dog whistle of GenX early stage hacker cultural references: 2112, Tomb of Horrors, Atari, Joust, etc. Of course they left most of that out of the pathetic film...
notreallyserio 5y ago
I think it’s because the monopolistic corporation meme has been done to death, so the focus is instead on the mindless “fun” adventure aspect.
- bitwize 5y ago
  Doesn't matter. Monopolistic corporations are one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (alongside the climate, income inequality, and social justice) so we must be constantly reminded of them.
  - advrs 5y ago
    "social justice" ? Explain
    - bitwize 5y ago
      That LGBTQ/BIPOC/etc. are oppressed must be fronted as a theme in media, just like the climate, income disparities, and huge corporations controlling everything.
      - lazyhummingbird 5y ago
        For clarity, which of the following are you saying is a horseman / precondition for dystopia: A) Social injustices and systematic oppression of marginalized groups. B) The cultural and media emphasis on these injustices in attempt to dismantle systematic oppression. I think others are confused whether you are decrying social justice (aka the issues and methods pursued by SJWs and modern progressives) or social injustice (abuses and inequalities in society).
syshum 5y ago
The problem here is the unyielding reality that power corrupts. This is true if this power comes in the form of Government, or Corporations. Society today has self feeding feedback loop that is going to continue to grow where in government regulations are used to phase out small companies in favor of larger companies, as those companies become corrupt or at best at odds with the population, the population demands they be more heavily regulated which then leads to more power and more corruption in both government and corporations. The only real solution to this is less powerful more distributed government, but people largely fail recognize this reality instead focusing on "electing the right" people or party. Power Corrupts, the only way to end corruption is to deny it power.
- coliveira 5y ago
  Government is less powerful nowadays than it has ever been since WW2. I don't think this helped in anything to reduce power of corporations, quite the contrary. Moreover, it is not government that control corporations/rich people, it is the opposite. The fight should be against the source of power, not against their powerless representatives.
  - syshum 5y ago
    >>Government is less powerful nowadays than it has ever been since WW2. I absolutely disagree with this. Under what metric and what government are you referring to. US Federal Government has continually and unabatedly has increased and centralized its power since at least the Great Depression, Taking power from local and State governments transferring it to the Federal Government. Under no metric can one say government in the US is less powerful today. >The fight should be against the source of power, not against their powerless representatives. The Source of government power is it monopoly on the initiation of violence, last I check it was only government with the legal power to steal, plunder, arrest, jail, and even kill people that disobey. I think it is fine the fight against both
    - coliveira 5y ago
      > Under what metric and what government are you referring to. In the metric that matters: who bought the US government. Current US government is bought by corporate interests and does absolutely nothing that goes against big corporate power. This indicates that government is subjugated to the capitalist oligarchy, and the crimes it commits are allowed or supported by the same capitalist oligarchy.
zemo 5y ago
if by everyone you mean the author then I agree

wintermutestwin 5y ago

I was more "bogged down" by the alluring dog whistle of GenX early stage hacker cultural references: 2112, Tomb of Horrors, Atari, Joust, etc. Of course they left most of that out of the pathetic film...

notreallyserio 5y ago

I think it’s because the monopolistic corporation meme has been done to death, so the focus is instead on the mindless “fun” adventure aspect.

bitwize 5y ago
Doesn't matter. Monopolistic corporations are one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (alongside the climate, income inequality, and social justice) so we must be constantly reminded of them.
- advrs 5y ago
  "social justice" ? Explain
  - bitwize 5y ago
    That LGBTQ/BIPOC/etc. are oppressed must be fronted as a theme in media, just like the climate, income disparities, and huge corporations controlling everything.
    - lazyhummingbird 5y ago
      For clarity, which of the following are you saying is a horseman / precondition for dystopia: A) Social injustices and systematic oppression of marginalized groups. B) The cultural and media emphasis on these injustices in attempt to dismantle systematic oppression. I think others are confused whether you are decrying social justice (aka the issues and methods pursued by SJWs and modern progressives) or social injustice (abuses and inequalities in society).

syshum 5y ago

The problem here is the unyielding reality that power corrupts. This is true if this power comes in the form of Government, or Corporations. Society today has self feeding feedback loop that is going to continue to grow where in government regulations are used to phase out small companies in favor of larger companies, as those companies become corrupt or at best at odds with the population, the population demands they be more heavily regulated which then leads to more power and more corruption in both government and corporations. The only real solution to this is less powerful more distributed government, but people largely fail recognize this reality instead focusing on "electing the right" people or party. Power Corrupts, the only way to end corruption is to deny it power.

coliveira 5y ago
Government is less powerful nowadays than it has ever been since WW2. I don't think this helped in anything to reduce power of corporations, quite the contrary. Moreover, it is not government that control corporations/rich people, it is the opposite. The fight should be against the source of power, not against their powerless representatives.
- syshum 5y ago
  >>Government is less powerful nowadays than it has ever been since WW2. I absolutely disagree with this. Under what metric and what government are you referring to. US Federal Government has continually and unabatedly has increased and centralized its power since at least the Great Depression, Taking power from local and State governments transferring it to the Federal Government. Under no metric can one say government in the US is less powerful today. >The fight should be against the source of power, not against their powerless representatives. The Source of government power is it monopoly on the initiation of violence, last I check it was only government with the legal power to steal, plunder, arrest, jail, and even kill people that disobey. I think it is fine the fight against both
  - coliveira 5y ago
    > Under what metric and what government are you referring to. In the metric that matters: who bought the US government. Current US government is bought by corporate interests and does absolutely nothing that goes against big corporate power. This indicates that government is subjugated to the capitalist oligarchy, and the crimes it commits are allowed or supported by the same capitalist oligarchy.

zemo 5y ago

if by everyone you mean the author then I agree