bsg + politics

[amezri]

maechi linked to the following articles about Battlestar Galactica and politics: Battlestar Galacticons: A close look at the right's scary affinity for sci-fi foreign policy punditry.

It starts off with this:

National Review's Jonah Goldberg, who writes regularly about Galactica's politics on NRO's group blog, The Corner, also picked up on parallels between the show and the war on terror. Goldberg took particular glee in attacking Galactica's anti-war movement, which he said consisted of "radical peaceniks" and "peace-terrorists" who "are clearly a collection of whack jobs, fifth columnists and idiots." Goldberg also praised several characters for trying to rig a presidential election. "I liked that the good guys wanted to steal the election and, it turns out, they were right to want to," wrote Goldberg. Stolen elections, evil robots, crazed hippies ... what more could a socially inept right-winger want from a show?

And then I love this part:

Fellow Corner writer John Podheretz shared Goldberg's assessment, and chided conservative fans of the show who were still in denial about its sudden leftward drift. "Message to BSG fans on the Right," wrote Podheretz sternly. "You cannot ... come up with some cockamamie explanation whereby it's not about how we Americans are the Cylons and the humans are the 'insurgents' fighting an 'imperialist' power."

The final punch:

The most notable thing about the Galacticons is that even when they aren't directly referencing science fiction, they still sound like total space cadets when discussing American military power. As they understand it, America is an omnipotent level-20 Warmage with 19 Strength and 20 Charisma who can wipe out entire armies of mariliths, gold dragons, and goblinoids with the flick of a wrist.

HA!

Next up, there's this article from the New York Times: In Galactica, It's Politics as Usual. Or Is It? This article is more a summary of events and asks a load of questions rather than really exploring the material, but it's still an interesting read.

So what’s it all about, this fancy "Battlestar"? The short answer is politics, whatever that means: genocide, abortion, torture, the clash of civilizations. In a deft opening move, "Battlestar" defined a race of genocidal creatures who are decidedly other: in this case, robots called Cylons who look all-too-human but are certainly not part of the brotherhood of man. These figures can’t love, or die; in any case, they’re definitely Not Us. Which in some sense is a relief: unlike races and ethnicities in the real world, the Cylons can be deprived of their rights without a second thought. They can be attacked and tormented because they're not even human. Or can they? Sound familiar?

katkel mentioned something at NPR about BSG. I poked around and found it. It's actually a five minute audio piece talking about the appeal of the show. Very interesting. I recommend having a listen if you haven't seen the show yet.