Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:14:14
American Culture: Not Mediocrity, But Consumerism
- Frank disagrees with the idea that American culture promotes mediocrity.
- He feels that from a young age, Americans are instilled with the belief that hard work is essential for success.
- Rivka agrees, suggesting that American culture’s focus is not on mediocrity but rather on consumerism, obsession with appearance, and other related factors. Transcript: Frank Capello It’s wild and it very self-selecting in the i mean i guess he was like taking an aim at like children’s programming although he did throw whiplash in there, because I find this whole argument Incorrect on its face. I don’t think our American culture promotes mediocrity. If anything, I feel like from age five, I had a beaten into my head that I’m going to have to work very, very hard at every, very, every single stage of my life in order to achieve the things That I need to achieve in order to be a successful, productive human part of this American society. Like, I felt like I knew from a very early age, like, oh, if I drop the ball, I’ll be fucked here. Rivka Rivera Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. It’s not the mediocrity. I think it’s like, it’s not mediocrity. It’s consumerism. Maybe it’s obsession with looks. It’s like all of, but like, that goes back to consumerism or it’s like those kind of things. But it’s not mediocrity. And certainly the solution, like you said, is not like intense abuse from a figure. You know, it’s not turning up the heat. Frank Capello No, it’s no. Rivka Rivera And it’s more things like, again, this is spoken more in depth about on other podcasts, including the Bad Faith one. But like, it’s the fact that, americans are have so much debt on their freaking like how expensive it is to go to school here like all of these other factors health care like
Time 0:35:26
Rogue One Parallels with Modern Warfare
- Will believes “Rogue One” is a commentary on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the Empire representing the U.S. military.
- He points to the Death Star’s destruction of desert people from a safe distance as a parallel to U.S. military actions.
- He also notes the similarity between Chirrut Îmwe’s chant and the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar,” suggesting a deliberate connection between the rebels and those the U.S. fought in Afghanistan.
- Frank Capello agrees and adds that while George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” was meant as a critique of the Vietnam War, “Rogue One” blends that with Nazi Germany influences.
- Will feels the original trilogy was more Nazi-coded but “Rogue One” links it to the U.S. military. Transcript: Will Series. So the other thing I really like about this movie is I cannot be convinced that this movie is not about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Empire is the.S. Military. When I saw this movie and I’m watching the Death Star blowing up desert people from safety and security a million miles away with zero consequences, I was like, oh, they’re saying something Here. Right? When I don’t know if we’re jumping if i’m jumping to the end or anything but jump you can jump around when um uh chiru chirut sorry i’m terrible with names but when chiru is um saying at the Uh end i’m one with the force and the forces with me i’m one with the force with the force with me that’s allah akbara allah akbara Allah Akbar. They were the people that we were fighting in Afghanistan and they made them the hero. You can’t do that in a Hollywood movie without pretending it’s Star Wars. Wow. Frank Capello I love everything that you just laid out. Yeah, this is also my favorite star wars movie uh it’s up there it’s i mean it’s like this or empire but uh i do i i love this movie a lot and i everything you’re saying about specifically About the empire being the united states well we know that because that was george lucas’s original intention with the first star wars it was a you know a pseudo critique on the war in Vietnam. Will It was, but he pulled so many influences for the original movies from Nazi Germany that I’ve always felt it was more Nazi coded than US,
Time 0:37:00
Rogue One: Critique of US Imperialism
- While the original Star Wars drew inspiration from Nazi Germany, ‘Rogue One’ blends those influences with clear parallels to the US military’s actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Death Star’s destruction of desert planets from afar mirrors the US’s remote warfare, with devastating consequences for non-white populations.
- Jedha, a desert planet featuring a predominantly non-white cast, symbolizes Eastern countries targeted by Western imperialism for resource extraction, as highlighted by the kyber crystals. Transcript: Will It was, but he pulled so many influences for the original movies from Nazi Germany that I’ve always felt it was more Nazi coded than US, but this one really merges the two. Frank Capello It totally does. And you saying, especially like the desert, like the hubs of rebellion being based on these desert planets. In this movie, it’s not Tatooine, it’s Jedha, or the city of Jedha, featuring a cast, a primary cast that is pretty much all non white, except for Felicity Jones, really evokes the sense That like you’re saying, these are white Western imperial forces coming to some Eastern country, some non-white country, and using their death machine,
Time 0:41:00
Rebellions Often Lack a Vision for the Future
- Focusing solely on opposing something without a clear vision for the future can be detrimental.
- Often, rebellions get caught up in defining their politics by what they’re against, forgetting to envision solutions.
- Without a plan for after gaining power, the new regime often replicates the old power structures and oppression. Transcript: Rivka Rivera No, thanks for that. That’s, that’s helpful to hear even that I’m that I was feeling right about something that I’m like, that’s I don’t feel like this is going to necessarily go in the right direction. But it’s a great it’s it’s a great thing to view and have critique on because it’s a reminder that like, I think so often we get, and I’ll speak for myself, you can get so caught up in defining Your politics by what you’re against and by the antithesis of. I mean, this is an anti-capitalist podcast, but within that means you have to find, so what is the solution? Is it socialism, Marxism? Like, what does it actually look like? And when the organizing and when the rebellion becomes so, as they have to in this particular case, but like when that all of the organizing is going to just being against something, Then it makes sense, like you said, as soon as they capture it and there’s no plan. And there’s there’s not a sense of like, what do we what’s the new horizon? What do we do when we retain power? It just becomes a new a new version of power and oppression, because that is all that there that is known so if you take it it’s going to replace it in that similar way yeah yeah yeah there’s Frank Capello Going to be a terrible vacuum all over the place that is one of my favorite things about this movie and i remember the first time watching it and being like damn i don’t think i’ve ever seen This in a star wars movie is showing from the rebellion’s perspective the like you said will like how brutalized people end up brutalizing people the moral compromises that the rebellion Is making in
Time 1:13:50
Unsung Heroes of Revolutions
- Revolutions are built upon the efforts of countless individuals at all levels.
- Many participants in these struggles remain unnamed and unrecognized by history.
- ‘Rogue One’ emphasizes this by depicting characters who sacrifice themselves for the cause, foreshadowing a line in ‘A New Hope’ about Bothan spies dying to deliver plans.
- This highlights the importance of acknowledging the integral role every person plays, even those whose sacrifices go unnoticed.
- Every individual contributes to the larger movement. Transcript: Frank Capello Yeah. And I think it’s just, you know, watching it now is just a reminder that these movements, these struggles, these revolutions, whatever you want to call them, are the culmination of Many, many, many, many different people on all different levels organizing and fighting in their own way. And so many of the people who are a part of these struggles are never going to be named, they’re never going to be written down in the annals of history, will never know, you know, whatever Sacrifices that they made.
Time 1:18:15
Nazi Misrepresentation in Media
- Common portrayals of Nazis in Hollywood reduce them to either unintelligent brutes or aloof, weak figures.
- This misrepresents the reality of Nazi soldiers, who were ordinary people motivated by propaganda and fear for their families.
- These soldiers were led to believe that their actions, however horrific, were necessary to protect their loved ones.
- This simplification overlooks the complex psychological manipulation at play and prevents a deeper understanding of the dangers of such propaganda. Transcript: Will It wasn’t an accident. He thought it was funny if the storm troopers had a genetic predisposition to hit their heads. So that means that the storm troopers that they’re fighting in this movie are the same clones that were in the ends of the last trilogy. Now the clones are bred for fighting. They are locked. They eat, sleep, fight. They, their purpose was to kill the Jedi without malice. It was just following an order. Right. And being called a storm trooper that is heavily, heavily Nazi coded. Right. And throughout all of Hollywood, Nazis are always like smarmy, effeminate, for lack of a better word, but just these, uh, just aloof, petite little guys, or they’re giant hulking, Monstrous dudes that just don’t think at all. They just follow orders and they’re terrible and awful. And that’s not what the Nazis were. The Nazis were guys. They were just people. They were people that had been told all their lives that the Jews were going to hurt their kids. So they had to go out there and hurt the Jews first. They wanted their kids to have food on the table. They wanted to go home and have a comfortable place to sleep at night. They were just guys. Fact, the Nazis that were doing the killing early in, um, uh, the Holocaust, they, they couldn’t do it for very long before they started, uh, punching their own tickets because people Aren’t supposed to just murder. We’re not built for that. We are more