Last season had the 'Climate Change is inevitable and resistance is pointless and unethical' (captain planet analogue goes to tragically kill coal-miners, nobody mentions that having superpowers could easily dismantle fossil fuel infrastructure or at the very least off execs). This most recent episode has omnipotent dinosaurs return to earth and create a post-scarcity Earth, leading to newspaper articles and characters exclaim how bored their life is now that banks, jobs and climate change have been eradicated. The dinosaurs are purposely boring and speak in vague lib 'empathy' language, leading to characters genuinely use the words "Virtue signalling" despite my understanding of virtue signalling being just saying nice words, not backing them up with material conditions.

This show has fun sci-fi concepts and I enjoy the slow de-edgification of Rick, but damn clearly Elon's cameo (in an otherwise perfect episode) was a harbinger of grotesque things to come.

    • Awoo [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      "My life without a job would be boring because I'd have to spend that extra time with my wife and family" - Boomers

      • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        “My life without a job would be boring because I’d have to spend that extra time with my wife and family” - Boomers

        A lot of the "Open Up the Economy" protests were just boomers sick of spending time with their shitty families.

        • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Do these people not realise how disturbing it is that they can't think of anything to do other than their job? We have killed passion and curiosity. It's depressing.

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It’s depressing.

            Which is precisely why they end up raged out psychopaths who fantasize about going out in a blaze of glory via a mass shooting, or actually do carry it out.

            They killed passion and curiosity inside themselves and it destroyed the humanity inside them.

          • Praksis2nd [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            my job makes me incredibly depressed lol. id say i feel worse than when i was a neet stuck at home. but that's probably since its very unforfilling

        • Deadend [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It feels like nothing is done for joy.

          It’s all got to be consumerism or self improvement or side hustle.

          People don’t seem to do art for the fun much. Always an undercurrent of self improvement/ good for you.

          I just want things to have intrinsic fun as the sole reason.

        • D61 [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Me living the "good" version of that old Twilight Zone episode where the bookworm survives the apocolypse. :wtf-am-i-reading:

    • sgtlion [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I mean, no, the show really isn't saying that.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      So are they saying we shouldn’t tackle climate change because it would put people out of jobs and “make our lives boring”?!

      No. They're saying that people with unlimited wish-fulfillmemt powers make for bad television.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Comfortable privileged insufferable bougie fucks jerking off to the idea of "conflict is necessary to make life worth living" while having no meaningful conflict in their own lives except the suffering they inflict on service workers.

  • sgtlion [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Honestly I think this is looking too deeply into what were just necessary plot points to push the story along. Before they pissed off, the dinosaurs were already very popular on Earth, and 'virtue signalling' was hardly used without heaps of irony, followed by Morty pointing out the rational argument to why fighting a utopia is silly. The dinosaurs were deliberately boring, but were hardly presented as 'bad', rather than just 'slightly opposed to Rick's worldview'.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I watched the ep and I agree with you, but also think that the average Rick and Morty fan is going to interpret the ep the way OP does just not negatively.

      • space_comrade [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        There's no way for this not to happen in a show like this though. You can't really force your audience to do enough introspection and analytical thinking to figure out they're not supposed to agree with the main character.

        It's the same as with American Psycho or Fight Club.

        • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Sure, which leads us to the moral responsibilities of the creators.🤷‍♂️ If you're not a good enough storyteller that the story you're trying to tell is going to lead to an opposite interpretation, by the majority of your audience, is it a story you should be telling?

          • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            If you’re not a good enough storyteller that the story you’re trying to tell is going to lead to an opposite interpretation, by the majority of your audience, is it a story you should be telling?

            Then a lot of stories would just never be told. There simply isn't a sufficiently good or sufficiently clear narrative not to get misinterpreted. Starship Troopers could not more obviously be an anti-fascist movie, and professional critics thought the opposite for close to two decades.

            • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Maybe not all stories need to be told. Sad truth is, it's not the artist's intent that makes the impact on the world, it's their art's interpretation by the viewer. Satire that doesn't work is just propaganda for the thing its supposed to be satirizing.

          • space_comrade [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I dunno, maybe, maybe not. I feel like most people I know that watch Rick & Morty have the maturity to understand that Rick is not a good guy, it's just weird online nerds that worship him, and I don't sure those weird online nerds would even watch a show that's more on the nose about its morals.

            • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              and I don’t sure those weird online nerds would even watch a show that’s more on the nose about its morals.

              I mean, I'm on board with those nerds not feeling like there's content out there that supports them. I know I'm sure dealing with not feeling like there's enough content out there calling for the fall of the bourgeoise.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            the moral responsibilities of the creators

            Ugh, no. Everything doesn't have to be spoon fed to a fussy baby-brained audience because otherwise fascists will use it as an excuse to do what they were going to do anyway.

            What are you going to do? Burn every copy of Apocalypse Now because some chud in a uniform can't stop saying "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"?

          • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Sorry, negative capability is inescapable. All good art has it - there's the potential for interpretations and effects beyond the author's own.

            Edit: to give a bit more context, art will always change in historical and material contexts it is viewed in. Great art will always have that negative capability of being more than just a mouthpiece for the author. However, this "excess" beyond the author's intent is never going to be manageable in the way that would allow only politically good art to succeed. Should Roger Waters have not created "The Wall" because fashy fucks think that "actually, shaving my head and becoming a nazi performer is good actually"? Man with a Movie Camera is great Soviet art, but one could also read it as intensely voyeuristic - should we not have made it because sickos might view it in that way?

  • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Do these people think unambition is a human's natural state? Have these people never met... checks notes CHILDREN? You know the kind of people who want to do everything in the world until they reach working age and their soul gets crushed because dreams are contradictory to the needs of the Machine...

    • DragonNest_Aidit [they/them,use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It is also a capitalist mindset that bases all human interaction around consumption. Life is based around getting more things to consume and a good life is when your consumption is increasing at a steady rate. Meanwhile when your consumption is wholly fulfilled that is bad thing because now your consumption is at a plateau; as good as zero basically.

      Same reason why the trope of "character get rich then gets bored" is so popular, despite the fact that it have little basis in reality; the ruling class are never tired of being rich and powerful.

    • ElGosso [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Am I the only person who never wanted to do anything as a child

      • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I'm sorry if that's the case, but you still must have wanted to do something? I'm not necessarily talking about "All kids want to become astronauts and athletes", even just things like basic entertainment like socializing, playing games, reading/watching, drawing or some form of creating... Are things you must have wanted to do in your free time? Of course this all depends on the opportunities we have to do such things.

        Like in a post-scarcity society I feel like something as basic and as look down upon as "wanting to play all the video games ever" is still a neat thing to want to do with your free time.

        • ElGosso [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Nah. No ambition, no creative drive, could take or leave spending time with friends. I liked playing video games but I wasn't, like, driven to do so, it was something fun that filled the time, y'know, it was treats like :matt-jokerfied: would say.

  • mittens [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ricking morty past season two is unwatchable IMO. There's a couple of cool concepts like evil morty, which is immediately stored in the freezer to keep fans invested for like three whole seasons, but it's never funny. Like Roiland burned through the funny concepts already.

  • Soap_Owl [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I forgot hoe much the captain planet one seemed odd to me.

    Like, if nothing else the show creators have anxiety and overthink everything. So it is weird they kill mine workers and not mine owners to stop mining. Liberalism is just too powerful I guess

    • HamManBad [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      To be fair, killing the mine workers to try and stop climate change is something a lib would think of as a radical solution

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I legitimately didn't know there was a new Rick and Morty season until now lmao.

  • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    It points at an interesting question: "What would life be like in utopia? How would people create value?"

    But it makes no attempt to answer that question. The closest it comes to an answer is in the post-credits scene.

    Liked the other episodes this season tho