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.
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.