I know there is a bit Internet belief that starship troopers is fascist but I’m not convinced.
Everyone is equal, free healthcare and education.They have an entry to vote so admittedly not everyone gets a vote. But absolutely anyone can choose to serve their government and by serving you automatically get a vote. Tbh I think there are arguments for that system. Once you get citizenship the system is completely democratic. They have propaganda but it is total war and which democracy hasn’t had propaganda during total war?
The book goes into it more and the book is a lot more serious and less campy. Verhoeven did try to twist it as much as possible which lost a lot but he still made a really entertaining movie.
Sorry for the late reply. I admit I haven’t read the book and thus can’t comment on it, but the movie is a great commentary on fascism, because it surprises us by making us notice that “Wait a second, I’m rooting for the fascists. How did that happen?!”. The visual messaging is pretty clear with the giant eagles, Hugo Boss leather uniforms and overall militarlism and xenophobia, but it goes much deeper than that.
Everyone gets free healthcare and education, as long as you’re part of ‘us’ instead of them. We’re used to the fascism where ‘us’ is some ethnic or religious group of humans and ‘them’ is all the other humans. In starship troopers however, the fascism gets to fly under the radar by making the entirety of humanity the in-group. The aliens don’t need to be dehumanized because they’re quite clearly not human. Yet they feel fear and are only reacting to the spread of humans into their neighbourhood, while humans are outright shouting for genocide. “The only good bug is a dead bug!”
I know there is a bit Internet belief that starship troopers is fascist but I’m not convinced.
Everyone is equal, free healthcare and education.They have an entry to vote so admittedly not everyone gets a vote. But absolutely anyone can choose to serve their government and by serving you automatically get a vote. Tbh I think there are arguments for that system. Once you get citizenship the system is completely democratic. They have propaganda but it is total war and which democracy hasn’t had propaganda during total war?
The book goes into it more and the book is a lot more serious and less campy. Verhoeven did try to twist it as much as possible which lost a lot but he still made a really entertaining movie.
Sorry for the late reply. I admit I haven’t read the book and thus can’t comment on it, but the movie is a great commentary on fascism, because it surprises us by making us notice that “Wait a second, I’m rooting for the fascists. How did that happen?!”. The visual messaging is pretty clear with the giant eagles, Hugo Boss leather uniforms and overall militarlism and xenophobia, but it goes much deeper than that.
Everyone gets free healthcare and education, as long as you’re part of ‘us’ instead of them. We’re used to the fascism where ‘us’ is some ethnic or religious group of humans and ‘them’ is all the other humans. In starship troopers however, the fascism gets to fly under the radar by making the entirety of humanity the in-group. The aliens don’t need to be dehumanized because they’re quite clearly not human. Yet they feel fear and are only reacting to the spread of humans into their neighbourhood, while humans are outright shouting for genocide. “The only good bug is a dead bug!”
Wisecrack made a good breakdown of this a while back.