Just finished the third episode. Early comments were that it was a show about a “woke mind virus” or regular Burgerlander anti-communism, but I’m not so sure now.
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Protagonist had her drunk rant about “why are you so special, you think you’re all so great, knowing everything about everyone all the time, the amalgamation of all human knowledge and understanding SO WHAT” etc etc. Paraphrasing obviously.
I’m starting to think that this whole thing might be a big rant from Gilligan about AI. In the sense that it attempts to amalgamate all human knowledge and experience into one giant blob that we all share from together, but at the cost what makes us all unique as human beings.
I could be wrong - it’s still early in the show, but that’s the vibe I get at this point and it definitely strikes the nerve that Gilligan seems to be feeling at the moment.
They did put a “This show was made by humans” disclaimer at the very beginning, after all.
I haven’t watched the third episode yet, but I didn’t get the whole anticommunist vibes at all.
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Carol is loud, domineering, self-centered, especially when juxtaposed against the other non-hivemind people. I thought it was pretty obvious that she is not supposed to be the righteous one when Laxmi asks her if she even asked the hivemind what their experience was like. The Stalin part was kinda the icing on the cake of her caricature of a smug American. After she says that is also when they tell her she killed like a bajillion people.
I don’t think he cares to make a statement in favor of communism, but idk just doesnt feel like propaganda slop to me
Laxmi is obviously not meant to be correct. She brushes away the death of 800 million people, she is aggressive and her entire position relies on what we already know is a total misunderstanding of how this works. Laxmi’s son doesn’t exist as a separate entity from anyone else, and we as the audience know that.
Carol is a domineering, self centered, malcontent, but Laxmi isn’t meant to be the sober alternative.
And if we are to accept the virus’ take on things then it/they correctly points out that Carol wasn’t responsible for the deaths she supposedly caused.
I never said that Laxmi is correct, or that I am certain one way or another about the allegory of the hivemind. This is about Laxmi pointing out that Carol is so wrapped up in her own narrative about the hivemind that she hasn’t even attempted to understand it, which is true even if the hivemind is lying.
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idk just doesnt feel like propaganda slop to me
I agree, I think Gilligan is (hopefully) above that.
What I don’t understand is why it hasn’t occurred to Carol to ask the hivemind if - since they’re so willing to do anything she wants - they’d be willing to assemble a team to find a cure for the virus.
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She is such a deeply incurious person. This shit would have been resolved in a diplomatic way in one episode of Star Trek, but because Carol is part of a primitive civilization (the US) she can’t fathom the idea of greeting strange new life as an equal
The woke mind virus, for that is what it is, cannot peacefully coexist with unaffected humanity. They repeatedly state so. Infecting the remaining humans is a biological imperative, they refuse to not infect her.
Within the text they have stated explicitly that they intend to take away her individuality and she is aware she has no means of stopping it.