• DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    I’ve said it many times before.

    I have always been a fan of political fiction. There’s no fake President in any satire I’ve ever read that comes close to being as bad as this Trump.

    I include Lex Luthor.

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      You including Luthor made me look up some of the more modern storylines I didn’t read. The planning a false flag attack to make the world like him is probably on the table.

      The time Luthor was president that I remembered was in Red Sun. And of course, that was better. We entered an age of enlightenment.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        I’ve always been a fan of the ‘worst person becomes the hero’ trope.

        See ‘Incorruptible’ comic

        And yes, Red Sun may be the best Superman comic ever written.

    • Hackworth@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      Lex has multiple PhDs, and the only president the US has had with a doctorate was Woodrow Wilson.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        Jimmy Carter was an atomic engineer.

        In 1953, after his father’s death, Carter resigned from the Navy to return to Georgia. However, his nuclear expertise was called upon in 1958 when Canada’s Chalk River nuclear research facility suffered a partial reactor meltdown . The incident caused a power surge that damaged the reactor core and flooded the basement with radioactive water.

        Carter was sent by the U.S. to lead a cleanup team. He and 22 others worked in teams of three, descending into the reactor for only 90-second intervals to avoid lethal radiation exposure. To plan the operation, they built a full-scale replica of the reactor (without nuclear material) on a nearby tennis court. Carter’s leadership under extreme conditions demonstrated his technical competence and composure.

        [cut and pasted]

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        Never read that one.

        otoh, they did start a war with Canada in “Canadian Bacon”

        And a war with Canada is actually smarter than one with Iran.

        Canadians are used to forgiving stupid Americans.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          Canadians are used to forgiving stupid Americans.

          We’ve run out of patience from having to constantly do that.

        • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
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          1 day ago

          President Gentle is a former lounge singer and B movie actor; stupid, naïve, and possibly insane. His Presidency is all based on spectacle, and just a distraction from the evil man really running things. When the real-life guy ran in 2016, my thought was that David Foster Wallace must have based Gentle on his persona.

          Anyway, good reminder, I should watch Canadian Bacon again.

  • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    Baron Harkonnen was an Olympic-level athlete and genius until the ghonnasyphilherplaids got him, and even then, he was still at least smart. Good thing he backed the wrong player(the Emperor), and was distracted enough to not reign-in Raban until it was too late, or his serial-killer ass might have survived the story…

    When Trump falls, the harder questions to answer will be about how he’s lived this long. Absurdist levels of greed and incompetence, elevated by inertia and luck alone.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      was distracted enough to not reign-in Raban until it was too late

      His whole plan was to let Raban be a monstrous asshole and then replace him with Feyd-Rautha who would be slightly less of an asshole so that the people would love him. He wasn’t distracted at all.

      We’ll see if the Trump-Vance arc mirrors this.

      • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
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        21 hours ago

        That’s what I meant though. He was distracted by fawning-over Feyd, and let spice production lag so badly for so long that the Navigators and Emperor had to bring it to his attention.

    • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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      1 day ago

      I haven’t read the book in a few years. iirc the Baron left Paul and Jessica in the desert so he could truthfully say he hadn’t killed them.

      Obviously, the book would have ended a lot sooner if he’d found a workaround, like telling Raban how badly he wanted them dead.

      Trump has lived this long because, up until now, there was no one with the money and determination to kill him. His security is before he was elected wasn’t that professional; at least two of his wives slept with their security men.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      22 hours ago

      what do you know people like Thiel uses blood of young male models to try to prolong his lifepan. and another bryan johnson uses his sons blood to do the same, while performing Pseudoscience experiments and he does look like a vampire.

  • Ech@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Baron Harkonnen being a gay pedophile wasn’t any sort of insight into current or past leaders, it was just Herbert’s own homophobia influencing his work.

      • Ech@lemmy.ca
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        22 hours ago

        Change of heart? In that book he writes that homosexuals are driven to become sadistic rapists.

        • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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          16 hours ago

          I was thinking of the bit in God Emperor of Dune where the Duncan is outraged at seeing the lesbian fish speakers and Moneo chiding him for it.

          It’s a remarkable counter point to his depiction of Baron Harkonnen in Dune.

          • Ech@lemmy.ca
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            13 hours ago

            It’s a remarkable counter point to his depiction of Baron Harkonnen in Dune.

            Not particularly, especially in light of the very scene I mentioned. Homophobes often treat lesbianism differently, either dismissing it or sexualizing it, because they’re usually sexist as well.

            • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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              8 hours ago

              Actually, yeah. That’s a good point.

              Something in the back of my mind way making noise while I was writing that out. Thanks for of pointing it out explicitly.

  • YappyMonotheist@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Hedonistic, sociopathic, inhuman slaver/colonizer acts like a demon? It’s happened before and it will happen again until something fundamentally changes in some cultures’ mindsets.