London’s Metropolitan Police arrested another 492 people over the weekend after a protest Saturday in Trafalgar Square, as the Starmer government accelerated its crackdown on opposition to the Gaza genocide.
The entirely peaceful protest was held to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action. It was organised by Defend Our Juries and attended by over 1,000 people. Of the arrests, 488 were for holding up signs declaring, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
And then there’s the Americans, for whom literally everything has to be about America in some way or another.
Have you seen their fiction? Even in sci-fi, they’re the center of the fucking universe. Galactic Space Empire HQ, located in NYC/LA/San Francisco of course.
I mean… After the USSR fell, the US was the only major player in space for like 25 years, until China finally started to dabble the last few years.
It’s not necessarily an ego stroke to extrapolate from that point.
But also, the media is targeted at American viewers. Of course they’re going to use familiar cities.
Do you also complain that doctor who, despite being able to travel anywhere in the both the universe AND time, lands in modern day UK so often?
I do find it offensive that every time the Doctor and companions land in the US, everyone is a gun-toting dumbass.
I mean, it’s accurate, but still offensive somehow!
All authors are like that. You write about what you know, that way you save yourself lots of research and mistakes.
As opposed to British fiction where everything os centered around London? George Orwell thought London would be the center of the Anglo-American axis back in 1948 while the British Empire crumbled around him.
What? He called it “Airstrip One”.
Your point being? Do you think Orwell named the UK after a US air force call sign that wouldn’t be coined until after his death? I won’t be lectured on literature by someone who has the media comprehension of a middle schooler.
Well, according to my middle school media comprehension the implication of the name “Airstrip One” is that the island of Great Britain acts as a bulwark against or potential invasion staging post to Eurasia, as it did in the Second World War. London is far from the Imperial Centre in that story, though there is no clear capital of Oceania and Ingsoc. Orwell’s pessimistic view of the UK’s future is as a province of the American Empire.
Similar issue, yes. It’s said that you should write what you know, my point is more that Americans seem incapable of producing fiction where the lower 48 aren’t the nexus of the universe, not that the British weren’t also doing the same thing centuries earlier.
Aliens sure seem to visit London all the god damn time in Dr. Who. People write literature about the places and people they know. Why would an American write a book about aliens visiting Berlin?
Also, how long ago do you think 1948 was? Because it wasn’t “centuries” ago. And the most prominent American sci-fi authors do not have their stories revolve around the US. The Foundation, Dune, Star Wars, and the Expanse were all written by American authors and only one of them has any characters from the USA
1948 was before black people were given equal rights in the US, so as far as I am concerned it should have been centuries ago. Stop dick measuring with the previous garbage empire like their shortcomings somehow excuse your own.
edit:
Was it my support of civil rights or my pointing out how silly it is to compare yourself to a condemnable empire as a defense that made you mad?
I would love to discuss German, Indian, and Chinese sci-fi, but none of it seems to be very popular on the international stage so unfortunately we can’t discuss it. The guy i responded to complained that American media focuses so much on America, while citing only Star Trek, but that’s literally how media is in every country, so i cited British media because that’s what i am familiar with as i am a dual citizen of both countries.
And perhaps associating the racist policies living people grew up with as something that happened centuries ago is why we can’t make much progress today.
Sidenote: shout-out the Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem, a Polish author.
Thanks! I have almost worked through my backlog of sci-fi books and have been looking for something new while i wait the next book in the captives war series to come out
Or maybe it’s using the fucking bri*ish empire as your yardstick for progress?
Where have i tried to use the British Empire to measure social progress? I mentioned an example of English literature where ot is comical to think England would be the nexus of power, which someone then said doesn’t count because it was from “centuries ago”. Now i don’t even know what y’all are trying to yell about, as a thread about the British descent into fascism turned into American literature to whatever the hell you are even talking about at this point
Americans own the world. Everyone else just lives in it.
That might have been true 40 years ago but those times are gone, you just haven’t realised it yet