That title could be the entire post, but I guess I'll go on.
I was watching a YouTube video of that lecture about citizenship from Starship Troopers. It's a cool scene in a cool movie. Or so I thought.
Thank GOD some GENIUSES came along into the comments to let everyone know "Umm... actually... umm... you do realize... heh, you do realize, that this movie is a SATIRE, don't you? You RIGHT-WINGERS are so STUPID."
Oh no! I feel so foolish now! The director actually intended to MAKE FUN of military propaganda, and (Human?)Nationalism, and """"""""""fascism"""""""""" in his awesome sci-fi war movie about Humanity battling Giant Alien Bugs? The movie with dramatic television-advertisements pressuring children into military careers isn't A SERIOUS MOVIE? Golly gee, SHUCKS! I sure am DUMB.
The only thing that sucks more than people who think they're smart, are people who think everyone else is dumb. And "Satire-Identifiers" are exactly these people.
Because the director of the Starship Troopers movie actually tried to satirize the book (and failed miserably, which is why everyone loves it), you CANNOT POSSIBLY enjoy the movie, unless you're enjoying it IRONICALLY, as a SCATHING CONDEMNATION of its subject matter. If you enjoy it how a normal human being would, then you just DON'T UNDERSTAND that it's SATIRE, like the 300IQ geniuses who could decipher the tone of the obnoxious "SERVICE GUARANTEES CITIZENSHIP!" commercials. Give me a break.
I won't get into the movie too much. It's awesome. The satire isn't subtle at all. The movie screams at you "I am ridiculous!" And if you feel the need to tell other people that you noticed it, that tells me that you consider it an achievement that you managed it. That's not impressive.
These great satire sages are probably the same people who have to ask if something is satire to begin with. You know these quotes well:
"This has to be satire, right?"
"This can't be serious."
"There's NO WAY someone could be that dumb... right???"
Then once their suspicions are confirmed by someone else--a greater man who doesn't need to be told whether something is satire or not--they can shift comfortably into smug mode, giving no thought to their own inability to confidently determine something's intended meaning.
"LOL, okay good, just making sure. It's crazy that SOME people would actually be so stupid as to AGREE with [the thing being satirized], right???"
Is that all I wanted to say? Yeah, I guess so. I can't stand it, man. This SMUG world.
Satire is not difficult at all to recognize. Good satire, bad satire, it all has "tells". Consider being generous to people before being a pretentious clown.
Oh that reminded me, I wanted to complain about--no, im going to sleep. goodnight.
That's it. Everyone knows the Starship Troopers movie is satire. You're not smart. At all.
Not even a little.