I liked the protomolecule stuff in the early seasons as it's unveiling an eloborate plot with a shadow government controlled by a corporation. I too am glad they're not doing it so much in this season.
Oh I'm expecting this whole season to be a giant 9/11-war on terror allegory. Mars (soviet union/second world) collapses. The belt, third world, does a terror attack on earth, the literal first world.
The correct projection would be Inaros literally expects the asteroids to make earth compliant but instead earth goes insanely fascist and occupies most of the belt. But then Inaros just ghosts while the occupation goes sour because earth still thinks all the violence and resistance is from Inaros when its really a bunch of belter factions infighting over earths corrupt occupation.
But I don't think the plot will actually that way. I suspect they will make earth leaders into actual heroes and all the earth jingoism will be adored. Meanwhile Inaros' grip on the belt will just crumble on its own (or from holden) because he's not a competent revolutionary (evidence is him being an amazon production).
I'm only a few episodes into the show. The books did a decent job with having the three factions have different cultures/politics. Belters are definitely represented as auth-soc adjacent, but the OPA is a psuedo-fringe terrorist group that's kinda broadening in appeal up to book 5 when more lines start getting drawn. It felt fairly organic instead of this master plan, which I appreciated.
I meant to revisit this but fell asleep. It's obviously not something anyone here would consider socialism, but I do think it is a portrayal of collectivism that's not trying to be utopian or painted as naive. Which is about as good an effort as I expected from a mainstream book.
They are accurately showing how Earthers set up an extraction economy in the Belt, how this is produced by and perpetuates class antagonism, how the OPA is struggling to decolonize. This anti-colonial, class-driven struggle has always been portrayed as a just cause in itself. Where it falls flat isn't the analysis of the status quo. The show is correct in that regard and in agreement with leftist critiques of neo-colonial structures and the problems inherent to late-stage capitalism - such as the need for constant expansion of opressive and coercive systems in the face of a falling rate of profit, Earth struggling with mass unemployment due to automation and how UBI is nothing but a band aid for that etc. These are reasonable and accurate takes.
Where it becomes lib shit is precisely at the point where we ask ourselves what is to be done.
Marco Inaros Faction is clearly set up as a strawman coralling the audience towards the conclusion that too much militance damages just causes. If the millions of civilian casualties and the unsavory character of the manipulative, cruel narcissist Marco Inaros haven't made it clear enough, the point is driven home further by the fact that every episode is full of Inaros supporters saying something racist about Inyalowdas.
The Belters should clearly have stuck to Holden's way of doing things, which is to operate on movie brain, stand back and leave everything to a select group of Great Man and Women who just magically stumble into faithful events that will solve everything without a need for organized revolutionary struggle.
This critique doesn't only apply to The Expanse. It applies to almost all contemporary entertainment and this is almost inevitable as long as we have writers who do not know any revolutionary theory that goes beyond Fight Club or V for Vendetta.
From what I remember from the books they were terrorists and there wasn't really a plan beyond the initial attack
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I liked the protomolecule stuff in the early seasons as it's unveiling an eloborate plot with a shadow government controlled by a corporation. I too am glad they're not doing it so much in this season.
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Oh I'm expecting this whole season to be a giant 9/11-war on terror allegory. Mars (soviet union/second world) collapses. The belt, third world, does a terror attack on earth, the literal first world.
The correct projection would be Inaros literally expects the asteroids to make earth compliant but instead earth goes insanely fascist and occupies most of the belt. But then Inaros just ghosts while the occupation goes sour because earth still thinks all the violence and resistance is from Inaros when its really a bunch of belter factions infighting over earths corrupt occupation.
But I don't think the plot will actually that way. I suspect they will make earth leaders into actual heroes and all the earth jingoism will be adored. Meanwhile Inaros' grip on the belt will just crumble on its own (or from holden) because he's not a competent revolutionary (evidence is him being an amazon production).
I've read the books, and the ending is even more :LIB: than you can imagine
I'm only a few episodes into the show. The books did a decent job with having the three factions have different cultures/politics. Belters are definitely represented as auth-soc adjacent, but the OPA is a psuedo-fringe terrorist group that's kinda broadening in appeal up to book 5 when more lines start getting drawn. It felt fairly organic instead of this master plan, which I appreciated.
Also Marco is a huge piece of shit.
Jesse what the fuck are you talking about
I meant to revisit this but fell asleep. It's obviously not something anyone here would consider socialism, but I do think it is a portrayal of collectivism that's not trying to be utopian or painted as naive. Which is about as good an effort as I expected from a mainstream book.
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From what I get the OPA starts as a bunch of different groups with different tactics and ideologies, that kinda get forced into unification by Marco
They are accurately showing how Earthers set up an extraction economy in the Belt, how this is produced by and perpetuates class antagonism, how the OPA is struggling to decolonize. This anti-colonial, class-driven struggle has always been portrayed as a just cause in itself. Where it falls flat isn't the analysis of the status quo. The show is correct in that regard and in agreement with leftist critiques of neo-colonial structures and the problems inherent to late-stage capitalism - such as the need for constant expansion of opressive and coercive systems in the face of a falling rate of profit, Earth struggling with mass unemployment due to automation and how UBI is nothing but a band aid for that etc. These are reasonable and accurate takes.
Where it becomes lib shit is precisely at the point where we ask ourselves what is to be done.
Marco Inaros Faction is clearly set up as a strawman coralling the audience towards the conclusion that too much militance damages just causes. If the millions of civilian casualties and the unsavory character of the manipulative, cruel narcissist Marco Inaros haven't made it clear enough, the point is driven home further by the fact that every episode is full of Inaros supporters saying something racist about Inyalowdas.
The Belters should clearly have stuck to Holden's way of doing things, which is to operate on movie brain, stand back and leave everything to a select group of Great Man and Women who just magically stumble into faithful events that will solve everything without a need for organized revolutionary struggle.
This critique doesn't only apply to The Expanse. It applies to almost all contemporary entertainment and this is almost inevitable as long as we have writers who do not know any revolutionary theory that goes beyond Fight Club or V for Vendetta.