We need new fiction now

Covid just made us all realise we know a lot more people than we thought we did who would hide a zombie bite.

More like we know a lot more people that would have zombie bite parties because they "trust their immune system" and simultaneously don't believe in the zombie hoax.
- Also there are people who will intentionally smear their zombie bite juice on you because ain't nobody gonna trample on their freedom.
- Explains how zombie apocalypse movies happen
- Nadine isn't a zombie, she just likes biting! Don't you dare kink shame her!!!
You didn't know that already? The cute to a zombie bite is a bullet to the head and no one wants to be shot.
And yell at you for asking if they have ever been bitten.
This is a great comment
Funny, I was saying this for decades about zombie bites. I was such a downer pessimist. Now after COVID hit my family has rebranded me a realist.

I still can believe the world to rally together when it means to kill something.

The enemy must be simple though. Too complicated or invisible or something and the conspiracy nuts will take over.

You wouldn't be able to see the aliens. The best you would be able to do is get blurry pictures of their ships from telescopes if you're lucky. Conspiracy nuts would do fine.
- Any civilization able to get to us, would be advanced enough that a carrier task group bombing the uncontacted people of the north sentinel islands would be a fair fight in comparison.
  We would see a blur in our telescopes followed by death or whatever they want to do to us.
I thought the same thing. I could see the world banding (mostly) together for a fight, but not to just make life better.
I still can believe the world to rally together when it means to kill something.
The pandemic was an opportunity for humanity to kill something, at least to the extent that viruses are alive.
- But a pathogen is too complicated to fight and invisible.
- Do viruses bleed?
On that note, I highly recommend checking out The Three Body Problem books. Without going into spoilers, this is a huge part of one of the books.
- I'm halfway through book two and I was thinking the same thing.
Too complicated or invisible or…
Bing bing bing!
Internal Combustion Engine? Nuclear Bomb? SCIENCE, praise be.
Invisible / long term & murky phenomena? JUST YOUR OPINION, man, I trust Facebook and WhatsApp forwards on this one.

I recently watched Utopia, British show about a super secret group putting naughty stuff in a vaccine.

Their plan hinged on every person being so afraid of a pandemic that everybody takes the vaccine. This was made pre COVID of course, because we now know that would never work.

Covid proved to me any libertarian hope/dream I had wouldn't actually work because people would never get together to do the right thing as a group.

People getting together for the common good is just a government, the exact thing libertarians hate.
- No not necessarily since government = force. The hope of libertarians is that they would do it out of a mutual interest in protecting others. The whole do what you want as long as it doesn't impact me. That argument was proven fucked by the actions of the pandemic. That's what I'm talking about.
I think Don't Look Up got it pretty right, a lot of people would be willing to band together, if not the majority of the world. But politicians and billionaires would ruin it for everyone even if it means everyone dies. When the time comes we can still band together, and take down the people we need to
- It boiled down to one idiot messing up the entire operation. the story breaks down on the part where he could do that without the government telling him to f--- off. That would never be allo-
  oh wait
https://www.amazon.com/Libertarian-Walks-Into-Bear-Liberate-ebook/dp/B083J1FXY8
Here's a plug for a book I've never read. I think you'll like it.
You were smart enough to see that it's really a fetish.

I happen to really like District 9 for this reason

There's no malicious plot of aliens blowing up shit or invading to colonize: nope, aliens literally just crash-landed on accident and humanity was like "stay the fuck right there, we'll take all your shit until we figure out how to ~~deal with~~ exploit you"

Humanity is always its own worst-enemy

Also, the future of Elysium (also Bloomkamp) looks more and more likely, with the 1 percent fucking off to a luxury space station in orbit and the rest of humanity living in poverty on the destroyed Earth.
- Another interesting thing about Elysium is how the AI is programmed to only recognize rich people as humans. Just like rich people think about it.
- I am still hoping for a Halo like future, with civil war in space, war against aliens, the threat of a dark and ancient threat and all of that. Or maybe just a Stellaris future with the same but more megastructures

COVID, when the world partly united to make a cure and a vaccine in quite a record time?

Yep, scifi will need to amend the trope to "united just enough..."
If they had made a cure we wouldn't be living through the biggest wave since it first started, years later, with hundreds if not thousands of people still dying from it daily around the world (never mind the millions left disabled).. 🙄🙄🙄
- It has become endemic, like the flu, AFAIK people are not dying en mass and the hospitals are not overwhelmed with covid cases.
- It's pretty much over for most of the world. Now its more like the reoccurring Flu outbreaks every year.
Academia and pharmaceutical companies united to develop the vaccine while the shitmunchers were rioting in the streets because epidemiology is confusing
- And ut couldn't have possibly been because of your authoritarian reach or anything like that. You were 100% perfect and harmless, and did no wrong whatsoever.

Forgot the name, but that movie about tentacled aliens invading earth with like 12 monoliths and a linguist tries to understand them

The way world cooperation is portrayed is kinda reflecting. Not perfect, but somehow realistic

Arrival. Great flick.
- tyvm 🫡

For me it is that book Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. My kids favorite. The ending is natural disasters make the town unlivable so the population flees to a new home and are welcomed with open arms.

Yeah that is so fucking bullshit. You telling me that a nice wealthy population would allow foreigners facing death into their land? They would keep them at sea until they all starved and churches would call them rapefugges.

In the real word: Aliens don't exist.

On Lemmygrad: The Sun deserves it for defecting to the west!

Nice. I'd have used lemmy.ml as my target, they are a bit angrier over there.

Not everyone would unite, but the big governments of the world would at least sit together to form a plan towards a common enemy.

Like how we formed the Allies during WW1.

Your local redneck probably won't, but that doesn't matter.

thats a good point. I bet for an acute existential threat the major powers would nominally ally themselves against it, while still playing politics. So NATO, Russia, China, India, and whomever else would throw their hat in.
We see that if the threat has a long tail though (climate change) that nobody gives a shit.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion had this as a sub plot. They could only have 2 or 3 EVA's 'battle ready' at any time in one country depending on when in the series you are. I want to say it was pointless politics but... Yeah, right concerns, wrong application.
There are so many stories from WW2 about how Americans didn't unite.
Here's one of my favorites Patriots complained about air crews painting naked ladies on their planes. They were fine with kids getting drafted and sent overseas, but God Forbid they thought about S*X

More like the world unites and then the United States turns it into some pointless political issue.

Change "the world united to.." to "The US decided the world would..."

There is no way the "united" states makes it a thousand years (climate change allowing).
- Even fiction has its limits
The US couldn't even get it's own shit together, let alone make any coherent pronouncements to anyone else

…has ruined sci-fi…

No, just ruined the generic good vs evil trope.

There’s a lot of good sci-fi (books/movies/series) out there that has a more nuanced take on humans and society.

OP desperately needs to read The Expanse. 🤦

I would have turned the movie off if the narrator said, "The people were terrified, remaining six feet apart. And everyone was hoarding toilet paper."

This is more believable, I think.

Humans require an external threat to unify against. An alien invasion could provide that. Without some great enemy to oppose, I do not think we would come together willingly.

Humans can't even unify against trump. I'm telling you you'll be seeing factions worship them aliens while some will be hiding inside their bunkers isolated from everything
- This reminds me of the factions that form in the strategy game Terra Invicta. Some want to kill the aliens, some want to worship them, some want to study them... and my favourite faction, The Initiative, want to use first contact as an opportunity for profit, and they achieve this by sabotaging the other factions and spreading misinformation among the general population.
So, who's up for false flagging an alien invasion to get earth away from a dystopian path
- Ozymandias?
yeah i think in 2020 everyone got fed up because it wasn't like a tangible, visible threat. it's just invisible, everywhere, all the time. you have to desensitize to some degree to live a semblance of a life.
if there were alien snipers posted up everywhere it's a much different matter
We can most certainly come together willingly, it just depends who has the power.
Ok sure an external threat helps, how about your boss? Most everybody has a boss.
Or healthcare, unaffordable bad healthcare is perhaps the greatest external threat we all face on earth. We can certainly unify around that, it is absolutely in the realm of possibility.
How many times in history the colony was still infighting even under the bootheel. There is no way a united India or a united China or a united South America would have been ruled by the Europeans. They got a billion and homefield the other side has a few hundred guys with muskets.

Fun fact, the sun is already blowing up. Checkmate Aliens!

I hate that COVID makes the Star Trek utopia so much less likely. We're living in the mirror universe.

Well it only starts improving after next world war.
mirror universe.
evil timeline
Turns out we were the borg all along
For us in Germany it went pretty smooth. Kurdish Immigrants developed the first and very potent vaccine, the industry went into overdrive and delivered faster than anyone could have imagined, a well know Immunologist became Minister for Health, we received daily updates, none of the major party tried to downplay anything, when a new chancellor was voted to power he mostly continued the policy of his predecessor and when priority lists for vaccination were given out people simple honoured them. After two years 75% were vaccinated.
And trust me, no one drank bleach. Everyone made fun of the stupid Yankees who did.

American perspective.

Not to worry, we had our fair share of COVID nutjobs in the Netherlands as well. Including a whole political party.

Alien invasion is probably the only thing that would make (most) humans band together.

When you have giant spiders trying to eat everyone, people will stop caring that their neighbors leaves blew into their yard, or your skin tone is a few shades darker than someone else's.

I think you underestimate the level of hatred some people have for various groups or individuals.
Also it's pretty damned likely that there would be a contingent of people who would insist that we shouldn't fight back because we have it coming, that fighting will make things worse, that the aliens are working for God, or whatever.
Eight legged freaks?
I haven't seen that film in years

I don't know... My take is that the stupidity of extremely polarised politics that exists in the US will reach a point where it self destructs within the next 50 years.

In a lot of countries, people listened to the experts. They accepted the lock down. They wore the masks. Almost everyone that didn't have a medical reason not to, got vaccinated.

If you think only the Americans have highly polarized politics and fucked up during COVID, I have a bridge to sell to you…
- I don't.
  That's why I wrote "in a lot of countries", and not "in all other countries". And, even though the former is a subset of the latter, and thus not technically invalidating the premise of your supposition, it's still a far fetched one.
In a lot of countries they also don't though. Especially fast developing countries that have first world countries pouring tons of money in like Africa.

Its good for Science Fiction can be aspirational sometimes though.

Classic Star Trek has humans living in an idealistic society meeting some weirdo aliens doing some weirdo alien shit that causes a lot of problems. Then you realize we're more like the aliens than the we are like the idealistic future human society. Our society is alien to to an ideal society.

Then the Enterprise warps off to some other place to do some cool shit somewhere else and the aliens are stuck on their shitty planet because they're a bunch of losers what can't get past their weirdo shit.

The implication is that we could be the cool dudes in a starship constantly doing awesome shit. But instead we're the losers stuck on a planet that the people in the starships laugh at.

So the reason why an ideal future isn't possible is because we can't get past our weirdo loser ideas.

I can now picture Kirk, Spock and Bones having a chuckle about some weirdo aliens that can't advance because they're stuck in the rut of doomerism.

"It's quite illogical that they can't understand they can never achieve anything if they presume failure before they even try."

"Humanity once thought that way a long time ago but we eventually got past it. Anyway, off we go somewhere else to see some other loser aliens doing stupid shit we used to do!"

So the reason why an ideal future isn’t possible is because we can’t get past our weirdo loser ideas.
I can now picture Kirk, Spock and Bones having a chuckle about some weirdo aliens that can’t advance because they’re stuck in the rut of doomerism.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was indeed a closet communist who infused his political beliefs into the show. The concept of a peaceful, egalitarian society united under one government, where resources were shared and everyone worked for the betterment of all - this is essentially a communist ideal. In fact, the characters themselves embody different facets of Marxist theory. For instance, Captain Kirk represents the proletariat fighting against oppression while Mr. Spock embodies the need for logic and rational decision-making.
Star Trek's vision of the future was meant to inspire hope and demonstrate what humanity could achieve when freed from the constraints of class and economic systems. In many ways, the show serves as a subtle form of communist propaganda. As you mentioned, each episode often portrayed humans as progressing towards an idealistic future, while the aliens faced various challenges due to their clinging to old ideologies and social structures. This reflects Roddenberry's belief that to truly advance, societies must shed outdated and divisive ideas.
By presenting a world where these barriers are overcome, Star Trek encourages viewers to question their own societal norms and consider how they might work together in a more just and cooperative manner. Although the series was never overtly political, its underlying message clearly illustrates Roddenberry's support for communism, making it a unique piece of entertainment that not only entertains but also educates its audience.
- Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was indeed a closet communist
  Citation needed.
Username checks out.
Quite a take on it!
Meanwhile, homo sapien are effectively half fighting chimp, half sexy loving bonobo.
We get to choose our own path.
- Half sexy? I'm offended! I'm 100% sexy bonobo!

I heard there is a Chinese flood narrative where when the people heard that the local god was pissed and going to make a flood they united and started building infrastructure. The result was the god failed to wipe them out.

That's the same story as Noah but with rugged individualism.
- You mean without?

Gantz last arc did this so well, people just don't give a crap about the truth, misinformation is widespread, and people will listen to whatever propaganda they want.

One of the iffey feelings I have reading three-body series, even though it's a pretty dark series that also highlight the dark side of humanity, is that the world superpowers were somewhat effecticely cooperative. May be if Liu Cixin wrote the book around Covid, it might be quite different.

You would really like the Three Body Problem.

Obama said the book had "immense" scope, and that it was "fun to read, partly because my day-to-day problems with Congress seem fairly petty".
I didn't really enjoy that book, it just strained incredulity too much to me, but they did get that part right.

Expeditionary forces is a comedy science fiction in which the nations of the world reluctantly worked together, but only some of the nations, and they're far from friends.

Expeditionary forces
https://www.goodreads.com/series/185650-expeditionary-force
- That's the one!

There is nearly a century of Nebula Award winning science fiction that is in the public domain. Hollywood can't say, "they're out of ideas" All they need are screenwriters who aren't idiots.

Or maybe pay the screenwriters to do more than a first draft?
I also used to wonder why writing in TV shows and movies got so bad in the last decade. A lot of things feel like it's just a first draft level of quality. Some information came out last year that indicated that they were indeed filming things off of a first draft. Because the studios didn't want to pay writers beyond making a first draft.
Hopefully that issue has been resolved. Hooray for unions!

Image Transcription: Twitter Post

Kyle Butcavage Jr, @KyleButcavage

COVID has ruined sci-fi movies shit'll be like, "the year was 3004 and aliens were gonna blow up the sun" and I'm like, "makes sense" but then it goes to "so the world United to..." and I'm like "No the fuck they did not."

You are looking for c/HFY and r/HFY.

But I agree, except for the West pretty much every banana republic tries to isolate itself so their dictators can easier rob their subjects riches.

I summed it up in the Short Story Hard WEST