Personally, as is often noted, “Idiocracy” is probably tops for current events… but for the farther future, I’d go Blade Runner Universe, most likely… just for the sheer scale of total biosphere degradation and megacorp control. How about you?
Quality land by Marc Uwe Kling. The world is basically ruled by hyper capitalistic cooperations, people are rated by their productivity people don’t buy stuff actively, it’s bought for them by their personal AI when the algorithm thinks they need it.
The plot partly follows the presidential election between an AI powered Robot that tries to act in the interest of humanity versus a populist right wing TV cook that’s a shockingly close prediction of Trump. The other part is about the main character on his mission to refund an item he didn’t actually want.
To this day my favourite dystopian book.
Idiocracy.
The movie was written as a joke, but unfortunately society decided to use it as a road map.
Elysium seems a good candidate.
It’s not a sci-fi dystopia, but I just watched Zootopia again and the plot is harsher in hindsight. The villain is trying to gain power by turning everyone against a minority population and making them fear that minority. To think this came out before Trump’s first presidency.
Well, this isn’t a unique concept. The fact it goes horrible pretty quickly and people keep falling for it is the truly impressive part.
The Running Man novel is set in 2025 and the second movie adaptation just came out. Things aren’t as bad as they are portrayed there. Reality shows aren’t killing people yet. But people are going on exploitative reality shows because they feel desperate for money.
I don’t know, I’m not sure anyone has made a movie about a boring-ass dystopia where the rich plunder everything and the rest of us are too propagandized to care no matter how desperate things get. I’m going for a special mix of Harrison Bergeron, The Day After Tomorrow and The Road ultimately. Oh and Snowcrash , but until we get there I’m sure “The Frog Boil” will be a hit when it does come out.
I dunno but I feel like if we get another year of trump, we will be doing “the running man” competition with immigrants
That’s way to plausible for my liking…
…but can we just fence off Florida for the “Arena”?
I don’t think it’ll be just immigrants.
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”
Visionary Aldous Huxley
Brave New World.
Gonna have to disagree there.
Brave New World was a managed dystopian utopia. We’re in an unmanaged mess. The only thing we have in common is the distractions.
I would say we’re getting dangerously close to the videogame “Freedom Fighters”. Just replace Soviet Union with MAGA and New York with US and we’re already there.
wiki synopsis:
The game is set in an alternate history in which the Soviet Union has invaded and occupied New York City. The player takes the role of Christopher Stone, a plumber turned resistance movement leader, fighting against the invaders in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and on Governors Island.
Elysium - rich people living in space or enclaves; the rest of us in slums with robots and AIs controlling us.
This the one, boss.
I’ve never been able to quite let go of that movie. It’s very on-the-nose but still hits home. So many of us are what we see as the bad guys in the movie; just move it all down to earth and there we are.
I’ve always thought it would be like Tank Girl but the big company is basically a merger of Amazon and Nestle.
Right now: Deus Ex, specifically the Adam Jensen games
in the Near future, best case we get Cyberpunk 2077, worst case we get Horizon Zero dawn’s Faro Plague
Children of men.
Plastics that have accumulated in our bodies are going to have massive impacts on our bodys regular functions. Covid ran rampant causing mental decline and increased weaknesses to milder diseases, leading to further degradation of our body’s regular function. Authoritarianism is deep set into our politics Climate change is forcing more and more people into refugee status. The rich and wealthy continue to violate our planet for their own gain, building themselves bunkers and personal armies to defend themselves from the consequences of their actions.
For me it’s more the general feeling of everything going to shit and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
Our legacy
fades and melts away
'cause tomorrow
may not ever beSo we dance and sing
try to bear the thought
of approaching
the end of our time
Not exactly sci fi, but the TV adaptation of Handmaid’s Tale bears some striking parallels to the current renaissance that extreme right ideologies are currently enjoying. Off the top of my head…
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It shows how quickly and easily street-level enforcement of an authoritarian system can be implemented, and that there is no shortage of people willing to take on that role.
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It shows that the architects of an oppressive system aren’t necessarily “true believers” in such a system, nor are they held to the standards demanded of the average citizen.
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It shows how extremist ideologies bleed beyond the borders of one country and begin to infect others.
You can see examples of all three of these in what’s happening now.
I really don’t want to be living in a Margaret Atwood book.
I agree with you
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