The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to Jihad

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dardan
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The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to Jihad

Post by dardan »

http://decider.com/2015/12/11/the-radic ... -to-jihad/

Not sure how I should feel about this yet, especially in relation to how I should rate the films. It still is way too heavy on that shitty type of immediate suspense (e.g. robots shooting and missing or the rebels always narrowingly escaping) and I'm not too sure Lucas wrote Star Wars from the perspective of understanding the radicalization process and the greater meaning of stability in regards to safety and prosperity. Then again, all those things I consider to be shitty in those films would make sense within a framing of a narrative as told (or rather twisted) by the rebellion, with especially 'the dark side' (that in reality would be far less menacing) being more understandable. I mean, the trilogy does start with: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." suggesting that so much time has passed at the time of the telling that the details have been replaced with the by now vastly exagerrated heroism and ability of the main characters. If true, then Lucas has trolled millions into rooting for and looking up to evil terrorists.

Thoughts?

Additional interesting links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act ... justified/
http://www.weeklystandard.com/article/2540

lisa-
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by lisa- »

i saw that article a few days ago and the comparison of the title is baity as hell in its attempt to be "topical". nevertheless the destruction of the "deathstar" is clearly mass-murder, perhaps it even constitutes government ("resistance") sponsored terrorism. it's just entertainment but i prefer my entertainment to be genocide-free, thanks.

CosmicMonkey
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by CosmicMonkey »

lisa- wrote:i saw that article a few days ago and the comparison of the title is baity as hell in its attempt to be "topical". nevertheless the destruction of the "deathstar" is clearly mass-murder, perhaps it even constitutes government ("resistance") sponsored terrorism. it's just entertainment but i prefer my entertainment to be genocide-free, thanks.


Ok, I can't really tell if you're being facetious or not, but I'm going to reply as if you're not. First off, the Deathstar was a military base with no civilian population, so it doesn't really fall under most definitions of mass-murder or genocide. Likewise, most conventional definitions of terrorism define it as violence against civilians. While I'm not going to argue whether or not the Rebel Alliance could still be considered a terrorist organization, it's actions in the Yavin system certainly were not. Secondly, the Death Star was a weapon capable of genocide (actual genocide, against civilians) on a far greater scale, that the Empire had already used once before and were planning to use again literally seconds before it was destroyed. Were there conceivably any non-violent ways to stop it? Hunger-strikes? Sit-ins? Yeah right. As a resistance/terrorist/paramilitary group they also likely had very little political or diplomatic influence either, certainly not enough to convince the Empire to stop it's weapon production, because obviously if they had, it wouldn't have been built in the first place.

Pickpocket
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by Pickpocket »

People always try to assign meaning to Star Wars as if it's this really deep and thought provoking movie. It's not. You can watch 15 seconds of George Lucas getting interviewed and conclude that the guy is an idiot. They are just fun blockbusters made for kids that shamelessly ripoff westerns.

My personal favorite interpretation was the genius Melissa Harris-Perry saying that Star Wars is a racist film because Darth Vader isn't black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uikjQnqFu-A

Imagine actually thinking this way. We know that Luke and Leia are his kids. And then you interpret that the film is racist because when Vader becomes good he is now white.

Also, this title seems like a huge spoiler. I'd be more pissed but you can kind of guess that Luke goes evil based on the trailer. I assumed that the robotic hand in the trailer touching R2 was Luke. If that's true, it's perfect because Mark Hamill aged like shit and looks so fucking evil.

On a side note: my favorite picture of Lucas is right after he sold his company and the rights to Star Wars to Disney. I've never seen someone more miserable in my life: Image

That's the face of "what have I done?" :lol:

ShogunRua
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by ShogunRua »

Speaking of awesome Star Wars articles, this one is awesome; http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/12/1 ... s-garbage/

Image

A small sampling of its brilliance;

With Star Wars, liberal Hollywood got it all wrong. They get everything wrong, of course, but this movie franchise really takes the biscuit. They turned the heroes into villains, and the villains into shining beacons of virtue. With a new film on the horizon, I feel duty-bound to warn you about the desperate shortcomings of this particular entertainment phenomenon.

If we’re honest with ourselves, the real wretched hive of scum and villainy is Skywalker Ranch, where George Lucas and his band of morally dissolute bastards created the Star Wars universe, a blight on western civilisation and culture.

Star Wars combines elements from pulp adventure stories, horse operas, adds a dash of Eastern culture, and tosses it all into outer space. Amazingly, Lucas took the worst elements of all those amazing sources. If Lucas were a cook and presented Star Wars to Gordon Ramsay, he would have earned a comment like this: “OH COME ON, IT’S RAW! WHERE’S THE SAUCE???? COME HERE, ALL OF YOU. TASTE THIS!” And then he would have been thrown out of the kitchen.

There’s so much wrong with Star Wars that it deserves a book-length treatise to cover properly. After all, the famous Red Letter Media takedown of The Phantom Menace is longer than the film itself. For that reason I will focus on three of the worst mischaracterisations: the Rebel Alliance as good guys, the tragically misunderstood Jabba the Hutt, and Palpatine’s supposedly evil Empire.

This is going to upset some diehard fans, but who do you trust more? Milo, who always tells you the truth while being witty, charming, handsome and having great hair, or the filmmakers who tried to tell you that Jar Jar Binks is a hero?

THE REBEL ALLIANCE
The Alliance is a ragtag band of fighters from many different cultures bonded together by a hatred of the Empire, fighting an asymmetric war resulting in massive collateral damage and loss of civilian life. They take their lead from mystics hiding in caves and swamps, and want to return the galaxy to a primitive religion that hasn’t changed for 600 years. That’s right nerds: the Rebel Alliance is ISIS.

The Jedi are a typical wishy-washy Mother Gaia-style progressive cult. Their most obvious failing is not using the real Force powers. Force lightning is actually quite humane; it’s like hitting a bad guy with a taser instead of cutting him in half with a lightsabre.

Same thing with force choke: do we really need to shoot a criminal resisting the will of the Emperor? Why not subdue him with a choke–or the term we use in the Sith community, enhanced persuasion techniques? Besides, in the far-flung universe of Star Wars, SJWs have ensured force-sensitive individuals get affirmative consent every 10 seconds while using their powers so there’s really no big deal.

The Jedi are sick bastards. They use the Force to cloud the minds of others. The movies show this being done to stormtroopers, but you just know Luke uses it on dates at the cantina. He probably uses it to get anal. I bet every Jedi has a BDSM dungeon that they use to force-torture unwilling victims. Any time they are told to stop they just wave their hand and say “That isn’t the safe word you are looking for.” Evil and rapey.

You can’t possibly justify zapping someone with lightning as evil at the same time you say controlling their mind is perfectly fine. It should have raised suspicions when Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby dressed up like Jedi masters every year for Halloween following the film’s release. Rape culture is nothing in comparison to toxic hetero-Force culture.

Another crazy thing? The Jedis say control of the Force comes from “midichlorians” in the blood. Hmm. So now it’s a case of bloodline purity. Jesus, these death-eaters should just put on their SS uniforms and be done with it.

As a reminder, the “good guys” behind the Rebel Alliance abduct children from their families and raise them in a cult indoctrination centre to turn them into fanatical soldier priests called Jedi Knights–or, in the words of the mainstream media, “innocent Syrian refugees.”

Pickpocket
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by Pickpocket »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu2VC44eB4Y

You're a racist, sexist and homophobe if you see this movie

Anomaly
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Re: The Radicalization of Luke Skywalker: A Jedi’s Path to J

Post by Anomaly »

All I see are people desperate for attention trying to siphon some attention off a big event.

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