Post by Micah / Redsky

Ah, interesting. I hated Ender's Game when I read it (more than a decade ago) for the same reasons but now...

feb 22, 2025, 1:33 pm • 1 0 • view

Yep.

feb 22, 2025, 1:08 pm • 0 0 • view

The part how Ender and his friends eagerly pursued to xenocide a sentient species because they had been trained and condition not to believe what they were doing had any real world effects until the rug got pulled out from under them feels too real given how people treat politics as. "Just a game!"

feb 22, 2025, 4:43 am • 63 3 • view

I do not like Orson Scott Card but man he was kind of on the nose about the future.

feb 22, 2025, 2:55 pm • 21 0 • view

Im of the opinion that the oracle of delphi possessed his body when writing those books they are far too inclusive, accepting, and accurate to real life to have come from that man’s jelly brain

feb 22, 2025, 3:25 pm • 31 0 • view

Yeah he's a real piece of work but his books weren't bad

feb 22, 2025, 3:29 pm • 6 0 • view

Enders game was super racist though? What?

feb 22, 2025, 7:08 pm • 0 0 • view

How do you mean? I do think it touched on themes of racism and xenophobia and propaganda’s influence on them but I don’t think it painted them in a good light but I’d genuinely like to hear ur take !

feb 22, 2025, 8:48 pm • 0 0 • view

Ender dropping the n-bomb to prove a point to a black person. Then that stuff about Jewish people being master strategists or the bit about Spanish men having a sense of pride that you could use to goad them into a fight. I remember reading it when someone suggested and being like wtf?

feb 22, 2025, 8:51 pm • 2 0 • view

Lolsob

feb 22, 2025, 4:33 pm • 0 0 • view

LoL same

feb 22, 2025, 3:52 am • 4 0 • view

It is funny how much better that part aged

feb 22, 2025, 4:46 pm • 0 0 • view

All the horrible sci fi is coming true...

feb 22, 2025, 9:07 am • 2 0 • view

Once we get through this part, if we get through it, maybe we can start working on a Star Trek luxury space communism society instead.

feb 22, 2025, 2:57 pm • 1 0 • view

No! Let's do it now. Organize for revolution. #revolutionNothingLess

feb 23, 2025, 1:41 am • 0 0 • view

He also predicted drone swarm warfare Orson Scott Card was a prophet

feb 22, 2025, 11:46 am • 5 0 • view

Same.

feb 22, 2025, 4:12 am • 2 0 • view

Omg I have thought about that multiple times this year

feb 22, 2025, 2:10 am • 32 0 • view

Right?! I just listened to it again, and it seems mildly far fetched, and yet, it’s reality.

feb 22, 2025, 4:43 pm • 0 0 • view

Create an online persona and through it achieve power was like an instruction manual for 2024.

feb 22, 2025, 2:13 am • 33 0 • view

Enders Game...blast from the past when my kids were reading it!

feb 22, 2025, 3:49 am • 1 0 • view

crazy how science fiction writers have the ability to see into the future. It's almost like we should be heeding more of the warnings of history... 🤔

feb 22, 2025, 5:23 am • 3 0 • view

I'd say I seriously doubt species come equipped with a self-destruct button, but we seem to have pressed ours.

feb 22, 2025, 4:34 am • 2 0 • view

I remember the good old days when science fiction was more fiction...

feb 23, 2025, 12:52 am • 1 0 • view

The unrealistic part is that they'd become wildly popular by posting intellectual essays on social philosophy instead of dank meming each other into power. Card was an early adopter of social media and "BBS will save humanity!" is a recurring theme in his 90s work

feb 22, 2025, 4:26 am • 78 0 • view

Same. But i wish it was Peter.

feb 22, 2025, 2:55 am • 6 0 • view

But they jumped the shark by the last book. First book was by far the best. Yes, it reflects the times we live in now with tech savvy children ruling the world.

feb 22, 2025, 7:01 am • 3 0 • view

A few accounts I saw were saying that we, as humans, are much more susceptible to propaganda than any of us figured, and I think they have a good point.

feb 22, 2025, 10:14 am • 7 0 • view

Good that you point it out! Everyone needs to learn about this weakness, and how to deal with it. On the other side of the story, we need to take back control and stop to overwhelming amount of bots, fake news and rampant LLM's churning out new problems at an astonishing rate.

feb 22, 2025, 10:27 am • 4 0 • view

It was actually meant to be a tongue-in-cheek/satirical post about propagandizing anti-propaganda (which I happen to actually agree with), but I'll just be quiet now. But yes, I don't deal with AI much, but am a Software Eng, and LLM/bots are rampant & easy to make elizaos.github.io/eliza/docs/t...

feb 22, 2025, 11:57 am • 2 0 • view

Humans make emotional decisions and rationalize their choices. It's literally how our brains operate.

feb 22, 2025, 2:45 pm • 0 0 • view

Propaganda, sales techniques, and nonverbal communication shortcut that process.

feb 22, 2025, 2:48 pm • 0 0 • view

"this anonymous blogger is so smart, let's make them King of the World"

feb 23, 2025, 12:56 am • 0 0 • view

As the voice of Valentine and Demosthenes, I agree with you. #audiobooks

feb 22, 2025, 10:02 am • 14 0 • view

feb 22, 2025, 7:26 pm • 1 0 • view

I laughed when I heard trump was running in '16. I never thought he would win. I never thought he would win again after the disaster of his first term, but here we are. Maybe the earth is flat?

feb 22, 2025, 5:22 pm • 1 0 • view

The books were excellent

feb 22, 2025, 3:34 am • 4 0 • view

xkcd.com/635/

feb 22, 2025, 2:10 am • 153 5 • view

Ha! I hadn’t seen that one.

feb 22, 2025, 3:34 am • 2 0 • view

Except the Locke and Demostgenes tactic of inventing characters who argue with each other is exactly how Russian disinformation campaigns work

feb 22, 2025, 8:39 am • 60 1 • view

Of course, Orson Scott Card wasn't inventing the idea. He had seen how effective judicious sock puppeting could be on BBSes and the early internet, and was just extrapolating what would happen as they became more universal.

feb 22, 2025, 12:29 pm • 5 1 • view

And how Elon operates, too.

feb 22, 2025, 9:22 am • 27 0 • view

And how American COINTPRO works.

feb 22, 2025, 2:44 pm • 8 0 • view

No it's not.

feb 23, 2025, 6:20 am • 0 0 • view

The CIA disagrees. It's a divide and conquer strategy, and it works spectacularly.

feb 23, 2025, 7:48 pm • 1 0 • view

It was a ruse!

feb 28, 2025, 6:14 pm • 1 0 • view

mar 1, 2025, 2:48 am • 2 0 • view

Came here to post this too. :-)

feb 22, 2025, 3:18 am • 9 0 • view

Well, in Card's defense, this kinda agora-style, "public intellectual discourse combat" was how it used to work. Hamilton/Madison/Jay's Federalist Papers (which I suspect inspired Card at least some 🙂) & then Buckley/Vidal later. It's only recently, in the internet age, such doesn't work anymore.🤷‍♂️

feb 22, 2025, 5:24 am • 13 0 • view

Anyone reckon the odds on Card being a MAGAt or a Muskie?

feb 22, 2025, 8:35 pm • 1 0 • view

Extremely high. He is not a good person.

feb 22, 2025, 8:57 pm • 6 0 • view

Lmao there really is an XKCD for everything

feb 22, 2025, 12:04 pm • 3 0 • view

It definitely shows how precarious everything was and easily influenced. This is one of my favorite sci-fi series.

feb 22, 2025, 4:35 am • 2 0 • view

Didn’t read the book but saw the movie! Amazing, I feel like America is in the last game! It’s real!

feb 22, 2025, 8:32 am • 2 0 • view

I think that a lot. And then I wish it was the Green brothers.

feb 22, 2025, 5:17 am • 2 0 • view

I read that book on a school bus in like 1990 and couldn’t even imagine something like that. Then the world caught up.

feb 22, 2025, 2:12 am • 35 0 • view

It's all a big game to Musk. He's the PC the rest of us are NPCs.

feb 22, 2025, 5:10 pm • 0 0 • view

Same.

feb 22, 2025, 11:58 pm • 3 0 • view

Once, power belonged to kings. Then, to generals. Now? To whoever s**tposts the loudest. Ender’s Game treated it as a subplot—turns out, history was always written by the ones with the best engagement metrics.

feb 22, 2025, 10:34 am • 7 0 • view

... you're right. In many respects we can no longer say, or believe, that Fiction is stranger than Real Life - it's becoming a scary prelude to tomorrow.

feb 22, 2025, 1:17 pm • 1 0 • view

Fiction only looked more interesting than real life in the past because the level of mundane stupidity was filtered through history books and the news. Except for the Joseon imperial historians, bless them and their dedication.

feb 22, 2025, 2:52 pm • 0 0 • view

I think about this a lot. Waaaay ahead of its time.

feb 23, 2025, 1:50 am • 0 0 • view

The only unrealistic part was that the intelligent, moderate persona was the one to become Hegemon

feb 23, 2025, 12:48 am • 0 0 • view

all of the ideas that Orson Scott Card stole from other authors have been great ones!

feb 22, 2025, 2:04 pm • 1 0 • view

Ooooh check out the ender’s shadow series for more on that plot line.

feb 22, 2025, 6:30 pm • 1 0 • view

MY GOD YES I think about this all the time!!!!

feb 23, 2025, 4:07 am • 0 0 • view

Card really fucking called that one.

feb 22, 2025, 5:45 am • 4 0 • view

Ender's Game predicted coming to power through posting on the net. The Sprawl Trilogy predicted that the technology will lead to the rise of the hyper rich, who will become inhuman. The Diamond Age predicted that corporations and the hyper rich will achieve sovereignty.

feb 22, 2025, 11:07 am • 17 0 • view

We are a simulation in a higher dimensional video game, and the players have grown bored.

feb 22, 2025, 2:52 am • 2 0 • view

My favorite book and I’ve never thought about this but you make a really good point lol.

feb 22, 2025, 1:20 pm • 1 0 • view

🤣

feb 22, 2025, 4:49 pm • 0 0 • view

Was thinking exactly this a few days ago

feb 22, 2025, 2:13 am • 6 0 • view

when I first started on FB I used to let my shitposting account's argue with each other because that was the only useful fun bit of anything that I got from those books

feb 22, 2025, 3:30 am • 2 0 • view

Damn, you're right.

feb 22, 2025, 3:08 am • 4 0 • view

Deep cut, but right with you

feb 23, 2025, 12:12 am • 1 0 • view

Orson Scott Card was a White #ChristianNationalist #fascist, and #nazi.

feb 22, 2025, 9:58 am • 7 0 • view

Is he dead?

feb 22, 2025, 11:07 am • 0 0 • view

Not yet...

feb 22, 2025, 1:47 pm • 0 0 • view

Yeah he’s an incredibly fucked up person, who somehow wrote some of the greatest anti-authoritarian, theology-critical science fiction ever written. Weird dichotomy there. It was strange to listen to the post-word on the audiobooks and hear him talk respectfully about the military.

feb 22, 2025, 12:09 pm • 11 0 • view

I always thought it was weird. Like how did such a horrid man write these books that seem so contrary to what he believes irl?? 😅 this situation did emotionally prepare me for the JKR shit show after Harry Potter though 🤪

feb 22, 2025, 12:36 pm • 3 0 • view

He got more into the church as he got older and left his younger rebellious phase. Same thing happened to Anne rice, though we don’t talk about it as much.

feb 22, 2025, 6:32 pm • 2 0 • view

Mormons are really good at being hypocrites. That’s the answer I’ve settled on tbh.

feb 22, 2025, 12:39 pm • 7 0 • view

That’s a fair answer! I can get on that train 😂

feb 22, 2025, 12:39 pm • 3 0 • view

So are conservatives. Hypocrisy is a weapon and they happily use it on themselves because it makes them feel strong. Their feelings of righteousness rest upon a foundation of violence towards those they deem lesser.

feb 22, 2025, 2:50 pm • 2 0 • view

Orson Scott Card also predicted the creation of South Sudan in Shadow of the Giant.

feb 22, 2025, 3:38 am • 3 0 • view

It was also my favorite part of the book

feb 22, 2025, 5:04 am • 2 0 • view

What does "shitpost" mean? Is that even areal word?

feb 22, 2025, 2:38 am • 2 0 • view

Get with the times It's what you just did

feb 22, 2025, 2:44 am • 7 0 • view

I have spent my life think Hitler must have been some kind of evil genius. Turns out he was probably just a dufus.

feb 22, 2025, 3:33 am • 12 0 • view

He was smarter than Trump, but many of us are more savvy than the citizens of Germany in the 1930s. We’ve seen this before and will not roll over and not take the bait about othering marginalized groups.

feb 22, 2025, 4:08 am • 3 0 • view

Being a man (most likely a man) of the people is almost a requirement of authoritarian figures...and that most often means anti-intellectual. Reminds me of that Blazing Saddles scene...

feb 22, 2025, 4:05 am • 1 0 • view

Orson Welles actually sat next to Hitler at a dinner and described him as completely unremarkable and forgettable. faroutmagazine.co.uk/adolf-hitler... They're not geniuses, they're mediocre men who resent the world treating them as such. Musk, Trump, Hegseth, Vance, etc. Empty losers at heart.

feb 22, 2025, 6:27 am • 10 0 • view

Hitler was excellent at fiery rhetoric because he practiced it constantly. He was also at least smart enough to surround himself with competent people.

feb 22, 2025, 2:55 pm • 0 0 • view

At least at first. History shows how it went afterward.

feb 22, 2025, 2:55 pm • 0 0 • view

many people are saying this!

feb 22, 2025, 8:44 am • 4 0 • view

The book was also written before the internet was largely a thing, so he also predicted not only how to gain power from the internet, but also like *the internet itself*. Wild. Too bad he’s such a homophobe, but it prepared me for the JKR moral betrayal 😅

feb 22, 2025, 12:06 pm • 36 0 • view

Film “Idiocracy” beats Enders unfortunately. 🤬

feb 22, 2025, 2:19 am • 6 0 • view

Rewatched it last night. The prescience of Mike Judge can not be understated.

feb 22, 2025, 1:51 pm • 3 0 • view

Who’d thunk that a film about the dumbing down of a civilization—would be an actual historical event? Feel as if another dimension stole my body and switched me to a clusterf*ck world.

feb 23, 2025, 4:58 am • 0 0 • view

I was just thinking about this

feb 22, 2025, 2:28 am • 2 0 • view

I’ve thought about this for years with growing dread

feb 22, 2025, 3:09 am • 3 0 • view

I’ve been thinking about that plotline a LOT lately

feb 23, 2025, 5:20 am • 0 0 • view

Yeah, me too. The lack of ability to communicate among species is what I keep coming back to

apr 14, 2025, 2:08 am • 0 0 • view

Right??

feb 22, 2025, 3:18 am • 4 0 • view

I've thought that as well.

feb 22, 2025, 4:33 am • 2 0 • view

Who knew that all people actually want is someone to tell them how angry they should be about absolute nonsense and bull crap? I want a leader who isn't a walking, talking shit post 🤧

feb 22, 2025, 3:27 pm • 0 0 • view

Shit posting got us into this mess and its gonna get us out

feb 22, 2025, 12:08 pm • 6 0 • view

I’m at Orson Scott Card at a sci-fi convention and sadly he’s an asshole and that just completely ruined my ability to enjoy anything he’s written

feb 22, 2025, 3:07 am • 36 1 • view

He’s still alive? Dang it. Thought he wasn’t and that’s how I justify enjoying his books that I’ve owned forever. Guess I need to wait a bit.

feb 22, 2025, 4:01 am • 6 0 • view

I owned every book he wrote. Then I found out what a horrible person he is and gave the whole set away so others could read them for free and he would not earn any money from it.

feb 22, 2025, 6:02 pm • 2 0 • view

Did the same with Rowling. I have no issue finding out that dead creators were terrible because they no longer profit from me engaging with their work (i.e. Lovecraft)

feb 22, 2025, 6:06 pm • 2 0 • view

She’s so awful. And I bought and read her books when they came out - remember being at a store at midnight. Put those books away for now. Cannot even read them 😡. She’s a broken hateful garbage person.

feb 22, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view

Exactly. The stories are great but no way I’m giving him money. Used books are ok but I generally won’t read or buy while they are living. Mainly because the grossness of the author overshadows the story for me.

feb 22, 2025, 6:09 pm • 2 0 • view

Since I am not trans, my feelings on this may be different, but I do not hate Rowling and I think there is nothing overtly anti-trans in her books. I think overall they are a good influence on children and people should continue to read them, but understand the author is flawed.

feb 22, 2025, 7:03 pm • 0 0 • view

Now, if I were writing those books, which, obviously I didn’t have the genius to do so, I might have included a trans kid who simply used magic to change their body-gender and solved the issue that way. And if a trans kid was reading the books lamenting the absence of trans characters I might offer

feb 22, 2025, 7:03 pm • 0 0 • view

“Transitioned by magic” as the explanation. The trans people in Harry Potter might not be detectable because they have all already had an absolutely perfect transition.

feb 22, 2025, 7:03 pm • 0 0 • view

I don’t know if he’s still alive. Voice to text turned I met into. I’m at. I met him several years ago.

feb 22, 2025, 4:04 am • 1 0 • view

He is, and he's still working on the last few books in the story (with help from another author). He's still an asshole and has some pretty problematic views, but he sure as shit envisioned what the internet could (and would) be like WAY before social media was even a concept of a thing.

feb 22, 2025, 4:32 am • 3 0 • view

The entire Ender series and all the shadow books etc are so good.

feb 22, 2025, 4:39 am • 3 0 • view

The last thing we need is to go from the “god emperor” bs to “Elon the hegemon”

feb 22, 2025, 2:44 am • 11 0 • view

The reason I don't believe that part is because the smarter you are, the less likely you are to understand what regular people react to and follow. Successful populists like Turnip appear to all be half-wits who stumble into power by amplifying the lowest common denominator.

feb 22, 2025, 2:55 am • 6 0 • view

Not if you're also a sociopath

feb 22, 2025, 9:20 am • 0 0 • view

I've never bought Trump being a half-wit. He's anti-intellectual, and most dumb on anything requiring book learning. But the man is insidious...he understands human nature and how to manipulate it.

feb 22, 2025, 4:07 am • 6 0 • view

#feloniousTrump isn’t as dumb as he acts.

feb 22, 2025, 4:46 am • 2 0 • view

The idea that somebody would act as dumb as him on purpose is INSANE. I'm not talking about his speech patterns or choice of simple vocabulary, I'm talking about the absolute nonsense he's constantly spewing. He WISHES he was smart, and ACTS like he knows everything. But he is the opposite.

feb 22, 2025, 8:10 pm • 1 0 • view

I absolutely disagree. He is a typical ignorant Conservative + billions in net worth inherited. The man bankrupted a CASINO. People who act like Turnip or fElon are intelligent do not understand what intelligence looks like. They both have some skill in certain areas, but that's all.

feb 22, 2025, 8:05 pm • 0 0 • view

Please read my response. I agree...book learning he's dumb. What I said is he clearly understands aspects of human nature, and how to manipulate that nature to his own ends. That's clear.

feb 22, 2025, 10:03 pm • 0 0 • view

I know what you said. I disagree! He is a standard conservative moron. But he's rich and powerful. So when he says standard conservative moron shit, it makes standard conservative morons happy. That takes zero intelligence of ANY KIND. As does making vague empty promises.

feb 22, 2025, 10:57 pm • 0 0 • view

At least the Wiggin siblings were intelligent

feb 23, 2025, 12:16 am • 0 0 • view

I think about this part of the book and the associated xkcd comic every time Curtis Yarvin is brought up lmao

feb 22, 2025, 2:14 am • 53 0 • view

Endgame should have included a diagram 👇🏽 to explain the ultimate goal?

feb 22, 2025, 8:55 pm • 3 0 • view

I've said it before: Yarvin, Thiel, and Musk want to be the Hegemon, but none of them are actually as smart as Peter. They think they are, but that's part of the problem.

feb 22, 2025, 6:14 am • 38 0 • view

In retrospect, the entirety of the Enders' series feels like someone explaining fascism as it calcifies around them, and the regret that they cannot help but give into it.

feb 22, 2025, 8:07 am • 6 0 • view

I was an old man when I read the whole series. I too was confused by that part.

feb 22, 2025, 4:13 pm • 1 0 • view

And instead of Peter we got a barely sentient lit bag of crap.

feb 22, 2025, 2:26 am • 24 0 • view

And Peter's a pretty low bar

feb 22, 2025, 3:01 am • 32 0 • view

The other part of the overall novels - typical of Card's work - is the not-so-hidden thread of cruelty, particularly to children. That, too, has become more realistic over time, far more than I would have liked.

feb 22, 2025, 3:30 am • 6 0 • view