I also found it interesting how they had a character from North Korea who escapes to South Korea. She traded the world's most oppressive society for one that oppressed her in a different way.
“A rich man's heaven is a poor man's hell” Gregory Issac sang this over 40 yrs ago. Policies, and the blatant selfishness and greed being lionized today, are only making it worse.
Today? Lol, americans did it since foundation of their culture. They glorified greed and called it "pursuit of happiness". Protestant work ethics in a nutshell. Yet, in their own folklore it shows that they know perfectly that 99% of rich people are selfish bastards at best. And yet they bow down to them, and want to be like them, as if they dont have any morality at all.
BJH's commentary on why Parasite reached across international/language barriers really struck a chord with me: "We all live in the same country called capitalism" means that this concept of exploitation-fueled-consumerism is hardly as foreign to any one culture as we are taught to believe
*Slight spoilers* While this analysis is refreshing, I feel like a lot of people missed the point of the show. Many every day average Americans, probably a missed paycheck from the same situation, were blaming the poor people for their plight. Many were trying to choose the bad guy out of the players instead of, literally the ones who built and rigged the game. Because the players willingly returned anything that happened to them was their fault, as opposed to seeing a society that forces them into making such a difficult choice in the first place as the true evil. An IG post get railed on for eluding to the idea that the rich people could have just given them the money saying that poor people would just “waste it gambling” and didn’t deserve it cause they would just blow it on useless things, without the intrinsic understanding that the whole game itself was a multimillion dollar human populated gambling event invented for the rich to just waste money cause they could. And this idea that the poor people should “work” for the money and earn it even though that meant killing other humans, seemed to be lost on commenters. Yea, I fear that as entertaining as Squid Game was, the brilliant backlash to capitalism was missed by sooooooooo many.
literally!!!! i watched a youtuber talk about this show and she legit (spoilers!!) ragged on freakin gi hoon for 8 minutes because she thought gihun was being super hypocritical by criticizing sang woo for making immoral decisions whereas for il nam she was like wow ok this guy is bad fuck him and just talked about him for 3 minutes and that's all. she said gi hoon made her the maddest and she hated him the most and i'm like ??? your anger seems misdirected?? i mean i know it's her opinion and there are some valid points to make about how the players mirror the way different people in real life approach these decisions to make themselves feel morally superior but to me it felt like the whole point of the show went over her head. so i totally agree with you that people trying to point any of the players except il nam as the "villain" just proves the show's point even more.
Not sure if you read my post. But many people missed the main point of this series. As you've said, those people are one way or another, failures in the capitalist system, which is the life outside of the game. Many of them were pushed to the point they sold out their bodily rights to organ harvesters. We can agree on that part, and not say whether they gamble it away or what not, maybe it was medical bills or bad fortune. But here's the main point of Squid Game. As you've pointed out, it turned out to be a bunch of rich people who sold them this game on their desperateness, right? They fed on their fears, their desperation, and enticed them with an opportunity, one that is repeated throughout as "fair game," "equality," and even "democracy." Yet as the game unfolded, we found out it was anything but fair, equal, or a democracy. When a man was brutally murdered, they did nothing and then we found out they deliberately gave them less food to make them turn on each other in order to "thin the herd of weaklings." The rules of the game is determined by those who created the game and enforced at gunpoint. When they say violence is not allowed, such as in the marble game, then it is not allowed. When they look the other way, such as the night massacre, then it is allowed. They said no one can have an advantage, right? Yet the game creator himself affected the outcome of the game by helping Gi-Hun's team. And when Gganbu lost, he was not killed. How is this fair? And when you examine human history, you see this same pattern everywhere - USSR, China, NK, Venezuela, and now the USA with the rise of Democratic Socialism. Look at what all these people in this video comment are saying already. They are all like the players in this game, they are enticed and bought by political propaganda of socialism that promises fair play, equality, no discrimination, etc... but yet history has repeatedly demonstrated socialism is nothing but a lie that capitalists sell to the desperate in order to make themselves richer. Is Xi Shin Ping a communist/socialist? No, he is a capitalist. Is Kim Jong Un a socialist? No, he is a capitalist. They all use socialist propaganda to benefit themselves, making themselves rich. That is as capitalist as it gets. Right? Is Bernie Sanders a socialist? He owns 4 houses, mansions. Is Biden a socialist? He's rich. Is AOC a socialist? First thing she did when elected was to push a vote to give herself a raise. These people are capitalists. But they sell socialism because socialism sells. Everyone wants to be entitled, be the victim, thinking of what they deserve, like every lawyer commercial I've ever seen in late night, "Call now and we'll get you the money you deserve!" This movie director, created a tv show claiming to demonstrate the evil of capitalism and preaching socialism, yet did no one realized the millions of $$ he made with this series? He's a capitalist. I'm not disagreeing with you on the evils of capitalism. But do you really know what capitalism is? What socialism is? And where the true evil of capitalism lies?
@@jbtfp - Yes. Il Nam and all the game creators are the villains. But ... people missed the point, the game staff/creators and the VIPs are "capitalists" who "sold the players on socialism." What the game is, is socialism, but they were in fact capitalists. THAT is the deception. Kim Jong Un, Xi Shing Ping, Fidel Castro, etc... are capitalists. That is why they're rich while the people suffered. If they were socialists, then their countries would not have a wealth gap and everyone would be equal. This is why people who sell you socialism are deceivers, who are using socialism to make themselves richer. History has repeated this again and again, and it is happening still. Look at USA, the Democrats are selling Democratic Socialism to the working class. Yet none of them realize these Democrat politicians are rich and getting richer, like the VIPs in this series. People who are not economically literate, find themselves like the players in this series, being "used" by the evils of society. Look at the commentators in this thread alone. Each one more outraged, triggered, entitled than the next, hating and blaming upper middle class, yet ignorant of the super rich who put that hate in them. Thanks to Joe Biden's stupid energy plan, i made $40k in profit over oil stocks from January in 1 simple trade. People in this thread and most of American Democrats blame me for making that money and demand I share it with them despite they did not take the risk, did not do the work. Yet I pay more tax, I give to charity, but I am the enemy? But none of them blames Biden for his energy plan that made gas more expensive at the pump and gave me the opportunity to make the $40k. None of them even angry at the Democrats for causing the inflation, instead they are all defending them and preaching their socialist rhetorics and arguing with me who is trying to tell them the truth. THAT is what Squid Game is about.
@@carrickmchwain2296 Ugh, I can’t believe I wasted life force energy on this comment. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard and you have proved my point on just how appallingly many have missed the point of the series.
I find Chelsea’s analysis original. Most of the comment I watched on squid games focused on money lessons and how you should avoid being like these characters. This was a friendly reminder that we might already the people we judge or fear.
The players in this game are not victims. Each one's debt were abnormally large that could only be achieve through illegal means such as gambling, money laundering, embezzlement. This is why it was repeated through the series they were sinners in hell.
I am of this school of thought. Basically my formula in life is... there are often 2 variable to the equation of life: things we can control and things we CAN'T control. In the case of Squid games for example, if one believe that was about evil capitalism, we have the rich evil capitalists enslaving people on one side and the poor victims on the other. IMHO there is little to nothing an individual can do to change systems (say from capitalism to some other system, which unfortunately can also end up being as oppressive if not more, history being my witness). So that part of the equation is kind of fixed, no longer a variable per se, but a given. Somehow. The only side of the equation we have some level of control is OUR side, which unfortunately is not 100% under control as it might also depend on the system (in a segregated system for example, you are born either privileged or underprivileged). Having lived in socialist country with a lot of tribalism and nepotism and now in a somehow capitalist country, I think the individual has more wiggle room in capitalism than in the other forms. Which calls for personal responsibility to make the best of that part of the equation we have more control. To be specific, in the west, coming from a kind of stranger to the system, individuals could stop buying into consumerism and following the Kardashians and live rather simple lives. Hard to understand if you are used to it, but I am surprised at how many people go into debt to buy a 50k car for example on a 30k a year salary when a 10k car could serve the same purpose just fine. In that case, the individual is not only putting themselves further into disadvantage, but they are also fueling the system they pretend to be against (auto industry, insurance, loans, etc). Even if you earn a good salary, it doesn't mean you have to live large. For the last 5 years, I have been making a midle class salary, but I try to keep living a working class life. As a rule of thumb for example, I have vowed to NEVER spend more than my monthly take-home on ANYTHING at once except a house/property and, God forbid, a health emergency. In other words, if I make 100k per year and pay 25k in taxes, my monthly take-home is about 6k. I will cap all expenses, including cars, vacations, wedding, rings, whatnot to 6k. (and by the way I did all of those over the last 4 years - except the whatnot -lols). Disclaimer: I come from poverty and I still do not sleep well at night for fear of being poor once again, some day... hence maybe my frugality, some sort of poverty PTSD).
It's so fascinating about the sense of slight removal it gives to western viewers by being set in Korea, because in the 18th and 19th century, when gothic horror was super popular, almost all the popular gothic novels and stories written by English authors were set in Catholic mainland Europe, often many years in the past. The themes would have been pretty relevant to contemporary readers: women being controlled and abused by tyrannical men, the church hiding corruption and evil in its ranks, lovers being forced apart by cruel old traditions, the government not caring and the aristocracy being selfish... but setting these stories in modern England would had led to either uproar, indignation, and censorship from the church and state, or people simply wouldn't have found them 'believable'. That little removal gave both reader and writer a level of safety: 'what do you mean, it's a critique of our church/king/society? This is a story about medieval Italy! And we ALL know how much better WE are than those sketchy Italians!'
The world doesn’t revolve around the western world. It was set in Korea because it’s by Koreans. So nothing interesting about that fact. the message still transcends regions.
@@Bibirallie of course! I didn't mean to suggest it was made for a western audience or anything, I was just pointing how interesting it is psychologically that a viewer has a slightly different reaction to a story that isn't taking place where they live - not suggesting it was done on purpose in this case
This is why Dracula (the only book ever written) caused quite a stir in its day because it was about modern, civilised, middle and upper class people fighting against a 'primitive' evil that actively followed them to England. The whole story is kind of fixated on how modern the technology and mindsets of the characters were, with new innovations like portable type writers or women...eating food! The Count himself kind of rants about how much better England is and how he needs to master its accent because he can't 'dominate' people that know he's foreign. That last part was said to Jonathan, a man who the story (scandalously) placed in a traditional female role in earlier gothic literature: the virgin escaping the advances of a rich predator in a remote castle -- which is nearly the plot of all 80s horror movies. Plenty of Shakespeare's plays or Gilbert and Sullivan's English language operas from the late-19th are set in other countries...like, arbitrarily. Sometimes they heavily criticise social norms or systems that didn't exist outside of England the way that they were portrayed. I think that you're right to say that some Americans see Squid Game and say quietly in their minds, "Thank God that's not us here," when the themes are international. In fact, the way that I see Americans online gawk at the horrors of the Kpop industry, it's like they think exploitation doesn't happen in Hollywood. Or when they do, it's a targeted scheme against 'pure' America in a culture war, and not the workers, and not...just the conclusion of industrial logic.
@@fruitygarlic3601 I wrote an essay on Jonathan's feminine role in the story when I was a student! It is one of the few gothic stories where the threat actually started on encroach on real-world English shores, but of course England was too smart and modern and tough to fall for Dracula's plots 😛
@@fruitygarlic3601 it’s funny how people see what they want to see, a lot of “Americans” usually think of themselves as the whole world, (America is a continent, not a country) I wonder why would they think Korea is worse? If anything they are copying the United States!
I immediately connected with squid games. I was never motivated greatly by having loads of money. I was always satisfied with a moderate amount that was livable. I left banking to be a teacher for that reason. I hated the bloodsucking culture. I became a teacher to not wealthy and it was hard work but as a single person I still felt it was fine for the time. Although i loved educating children - I became very disillusioned for the future of our kids(but that's another story). When many teachers lost their jobs during Covid- I took a a very manual labor customer service job for minimum wage. I never considered unemployment. It was the most brutal job as far as how we were treated by customers and, worked by the company. More shockingly was seeing my coworkers working full time to the bones and barely making it every month. Dealing with childcare, elderly parents, and sick relatives. I watched a coworker die in poverty because of his medical bills. I saw people lose their jobs because they didn't have reliable transportation and couldn't afford one. I realized that money provides security for these situations but if you're starting out life at that level you don't have many choices. I am lucky. I was able to leave and most of the people I work with liekly couldn't. I'm in graduate school and I'm probably going to get a good stem job after school. I'm still don't know what to do with what I've seen, but squid games brought me back to what I witnessed. I'm not sure what else to say. I don't have answers. I guess I kinda feel like the players
Yeah.. it feels very dystopian and disappointing right now. I just graduated with my BA and have a bunch of student loans to pay plus everything else to survive. I job hunted relentlessly every day for 3 months. I sent in hundreds of job applications. All of the "higher paying" jobs that were around 40k rejected me or ghosted me. So many of the "entry level" positions requiring people to also have a BA wanted people with 5+ years of experience. Well... I just spent 4 years in college so don't have that experience. I just did an interview with a cheap hotel. They said that I was way over qualified but it is mandatory that people who start make $10 an hour. That's about what I made as a teenager in high school working a minimum wage job. It really sucks becuse I literaly have no other choice. Its is so low paying it will barely cover what I need to pay off my student loan payments every month and my other bills. Thankfully my partner has been paying rent every month which is more than 1/2 of his paycheck. With what I will make a month, my whole paycheck k wouldn't even be enough to pay rent. It just feels so disappointing that I just spend so much time effort and money going to college and doing volunteer work for NGO's and I will make the same amount of money as I did as a 16 year old in high school. Edit: I quit that job. And now I am doing mostly volunteer work for an NGO (non-profit) helping refugees.
Sorry to hear that I can give u a few pieces of advice. 1. what is your & parnter major? is it health care/tourism/teaching related? If so you can talk about it with your partner try to move to a different state or different country. For me, I am currently living at Turks and Caicos doing my last year doing my associate degree in early childhood and I am T.A at school to gain experience and when I am done with my degree in May 2022 I still be here for six months while applying to universities in London to study for my bachelor in public health management. But I know when I done I still will come back to my hometown to work in my degree field for a year or 2 before going to my aunt who lives in Atlanta want me to come but I know by watching videos on youtube that yall fresh graduated usually struggle to find a job because of no experience. I feel like if u study any of those things of what I have just stated you should come down to turks and caicos cause our islands need those professions down here. But hey do your research & figure get place online, get the job position before you come down here by applying online then have an interview on zoom the organization will put you on a work permit so u be here legally, and also you will get housing and allowance from the company. but no joke even though the island is very limited on fun places & fast food places this place is more like a training ground for people & then they go like for example; when i was in high school it also still happen to my middle school sister we always get new teachers every year cause they come to work for 1 or 2 years next thing you hear they have a job offer in Canada/UK. Also my older sis who just graduated with a bachelor degree in biochemistry from jamaica uni she come back & got a job offer to work in our local hospital in the laboratory. So if you still don't get your dream job by 2022 just see if you can try going to a different state or country that need your profession really bad and set an account so you can give the loan company the account number so when u put money in the account they get the money for your student loan to be paid off.
When watching Squid Game I actually thought a lot about America. I didn’t associate what happened in the movie with just Korea, I associated with society in general. A lot of dystopian films are popular because it’s the life we live technically.
Thank you Chelsea! So many bad Squid Game hot takes like "maybe the billionaires ARE THE GOOD GUYS?!?!" No Steve! The antagonist of the show was actually the antagonist
That isn't even the worse take. Some right wing commentator firmly believes it is a critique of communism. Communism!? He out right dismissed the director/writer of the show and went on to give his absurd take.
I could watch Chelsea talk about anything - TFD has gone from my "adulting" channel to one of the only channels I can watch anytime and feel comforted, refreshed, and/or informed!!!
i think you're missing the fact that most people consider today's reality a dystopia lool. that's where the term capital dystopia comes from, takes on contemporary society.
@@Rs-rq9fd This stuff used to not bother me much, when I was younger. Now that I'm in my mid-30s, the anxiety absolutely destroys me. Nope, real life is bad enough, thanks! 👍🏻
@@null6955 and you're missing the fact that the dystopia and utopia refer to imagined future societies rather than the actual present, despite being commentaries on today's world
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 and you're missing a world of colloquil use of those words today. People use utopia and dystopia to talk about current social aspects all the time and the context is clear to literally everyone in the room except the dictionary nerds.
I have also noticed a (not dystopian but similar) common theme amongst my favorite shows: ordinary citizens who are so financially desperate they become criminals (Good Girls, Breaking Bad & Ozark).
We're on the verge of hyperinflation and a world that's been in chaos for the last 2 years. Majority of us are struggling financially, so of course our world view is negative. The rich keep getting richer and the middle class and poor are getting poorer
Then stop voting for those who make you poor. How is it working for the US since Biden's election? How is doubling cost of everything working for the working class? Inflation affects the value of the dollar, the cash. But it doesn't affect the value of product. Right? That is why you need more money for the same product, b/c the value didn't change, the cash just became less. So as a stock trader, you know I use cash to buy investment or product, so my earnings are based on product value and not cash. So inflation does not affect me. This is why I get richer, but working class gets weaker. If the government increases my tax rate, then I pay more tax that is in "cash," right? Guess what? That loses value in an inflation, so it loses value before it even reaches the people. But that is if the government even uses it to help the citizens. Instead, they're using it to help illegals, who are not even citizens. The media, the propaganda, etc... are just lies upon lies. You get caught up in it, and you get seduced into some sort of social justice and this oh hate rich people thing, but yet you forget your politicians are richer than you, richer than me, richer than anyone. What is their agenda? You think they care about you? Or they're just out to make themselves richer? When you get it. You'll understand what Squid Game is about.
The class system is an illusion to keep people happy, most don’t ever reach the middle class status, but get to feel above someone else based on small privileges, throughout time the range has been modified to make us think it’s reachable when in reality most people are In fact getting poorer and don’t even realize. I think it’s more accurate to say more people are reaching extreme poverty instead.
Thank you so much for making the content that you do, Chelsea and team. Typically, financial channels/companies pander to those with a large amount of money, but the amount of working class solidarity you guys express through your content is truly so heartwarming and makes me have a bit of hope for the future, and just humanity in general.
One of my few criticisms of squid game is that it kinda pulled it punches in regards to the ending. *spoilers* by having the main character survive/win, it made the audience identify with the 0.0001% that win in rigged games. It kinda perpetuated this "you're the main character so this won't happen to you, and if it does it's your fault" narrative sold in capitalism. I felt similar about the first hunger games (before the sequels). Now I know the main character was scared for life so calling it a win is a shallow interpretation, but that’s what I’m saying. It allows for that. I hope we get a story where the audience surrogate loses, very unfairly. Edit: Just to add some clarity to what i mean - By following a relatively normal narrative trajectory (main character winning) it diluted its own themes. I think it could have been interesting having the winner be someone we had no introduction to. Just out of nowhere, like the many faceless deaths, in a way “bad” storytelling. But then it probably would’ve been criticised for being “unsatisfying”. I guess I just think our need for media to be satisfying as we currently define it, limits it’s critiquing potential.
*by having the main character survive/win, it made the audience identify with the 0.0001% that win in rigged games. It kinda perpetuated this "you're the main character so this won't happen to you, and if it does it's your fault" narrative sold in capitalism.* That sounds more like a failure of storytelling rather than one of intent. Within a narrative that critiques capitalism, the direction should emphasize that winning is not tied to merit or the embodiment of values we ought to be championing. Sometimes people get lucky, more often they have advantages from the start. And usually it's a Pyrrhic victory. I don't believe we ought to strip away the seductive aspects of modern-day capitalism on the off-chance people will misinterpret the message. Stories are not solely meant to be pedagogical vehicles.
I think Liam brings up a good point. I think people may just end up siding with the villain in some way? I saw Thanos rise in popularity following the ending of infinity war.
That an excellent point! How could it have been rewritten differently though? As a writer I really love dystopia, but I’m tired of some of these tropes.
I like how "negative experience score" is misspelled as "negative experience store"...really underscores the point of the video. Seriously though, thank you for making these videos - I find them really interesting even though I don't live in the US and haven't watched most of the shows you reference!
of all the violent things that happened on squid game the most jarring thing for me was episode 2 which was titled 'hell' and it was just the characters living their lives outside of the game ... nothing quite made me shudder as much as that
The movie "Us" tries to say that for every "rich" person, there is a "poor" person. But our world doesn't have such one-to-one correspondence. Our world is a "pyramid" configuration in which few sit at the top above the masses below. For every rich person, there should be a ton of poor people. The underground world in the movie would be very overcrowded.
Anyone else who has not seen The Squid Game, and not planning to? After hearing the premise I did not want to watch it ever, as it hit too close to home. As someone who grew up in a developing country and migrated to a developed one after a very lengthy and painful process, its something I never want to go through again, even on screen. Having experienced money troubles all my life, and only finding some financial stability in my 30s Squid game sounds too close to reality or what could have been for me if I dint escape.
I didnt watch it either, I just cant subject myself to anything similar anymore, life is already challenging I dont want to inflict hurt on myself by watching a show that makes me sad.
I thought it would be sad to watch too Spoilers below I cried when Ali died because I knew he had a wife and child home, it really pained me to see him die. It was depressing to see their lives, but I still watched it anyways
I work as a CNA in a nursing home. It's a brutally hard, sweaty job, and I am constantly exposed to you-know-which virus. As far as being a truly valued worker, you know what happens if I catch covid? Zero compensation for the mandatory minimum of 10 days off once I present as having cleared the virus. Which could take much longer than that. So as far as really valuing health care workers for putting their lives on the line? Yeah .... nope. Not at all.
One thing I like about Chelsea's commentaries is that listening to them is like reading printed articles: they are more literate, the language is more precise, and everything is expressed in crystal clear fashion. Many TH-cam commentators speak extemporaneously with fuzzy language ("I kinda like it, I think...") or colloquially, which is often not a good way to speak about important topics.
Thank you, Chelsea, you made my day. As I didn‘t have time for watching Squidgame, I was wondering what all the fuss was about, and here comes your video, ready with content and brilliant analysis. I love your channel!
Hopefully Squid Game and Parasite will get more Americans to look into the US' intervention in the region and pushing of the capitalist regime that is being critiqued. Also, Chelsea's mention of films about capitalist dystopias reminded me of Mark Fisher's similar critique around the movie The Road. Everyone should read Capitalist Realism.
I love how Chelsea will call out the foolishness and dysfunction in most of the pop culture diets out here. And FYI, we are already living in dystopia.
The squid games resinates with anyone who's over extend in debt to the point where your paycheck is gone before it arrives... It's also sad when we see some of their stories of how they got into such bad debt just trying to survive in the 1st place. Job loss when the factory shuts down, bosses not paying, etc.
I would replace the word “negative” with “honest”. To look at things as they are is perceived to be negative for some reason. People want to stay in a state of blind hope instead of looking at how things actually are.
It should be that household-debt takes into account mortgages too, at least that's the case where I am (which isn't America). With the increase in house price across America, but also an increased appetite in buying houses, it isn't surprising that household-debt-to-GDP ratio has increased. Isolating that particular factor may give a different result. Just something to take note of when thinking about statistical measurements as context and source of derivation matters a lot
@@carrickmchwain2296 Not in the slightest. In Capitalism, basic nessecties (Food, Water, and A home) to survive are turned into commodities. Not everyone can afford the commodities: Even with hard work. So, they must turn to the Squid game to have the chance to survive, because, as I said before: if you don't have money to afford the commodities that are needed for life, you become desperate. Who, if it was about socialism (Where the necessities to life aren't commodities anymore, as they are supplied for no cost.), would ever lead themselves to the possibility to be killed? I, myself, know I would never go to such drastic measures if my basic needs were covered. I don't see your point at all.
what reminded me of america so strongly is that his mom couldn’t afford medical treatment so she just walked out. reminds me of how americans can be caught in a horrible accident and still beg people not to call ambulance because they can’t afford it
Being from a developing country and coming from a background where we were just able to afford a one time meal for 10 after a lot of hard-work I feel grateful for it. We had (still have) one rule ,no matter what happens for day to day survival never take loans & Yeah government gave us foods at subsidized rate so it became a but easier for us.
Saying that the average income of Americans is 67k is misleading. The numbers are skewed by 700 Billionaires, and by counting "household" income instead of individual incomes. Last I read, about 70% of Americans make less than 40k per year. They make even less if you count individual income, instead of "household" income.
Add In Time, Gattaca, V for Vendetta, and The Omega Man to that and you've got yourself a great week of conflicting but hopeful but miserable movies to watch in the evening.
Well said. It sucks that the gears of capitalism are set up so that the poorest in our community is subsidizing all the other people higher up in the pyramid :/pay people a living wage, and also pay a reasonable price for goods and services, or go without
We shouldn’t like or watch these shows at all because they’re trying to make it our future and reality. These dystopian shows and “themes” are their way of “warning” us. It’s called predictive programming
There are tons of video games that have dystopia storytelling as well, such as Fallout, Deus Ex, and tons of post-apocalyptic games. It is a genre that has saturated our pop culture for a long time. Besides wealth inequality, 9/11, housing crisis, covid, natural disasters & climate change all contribute to it as well.
Any 'prominent' civilizations in history that we know of are normally known to us because of their scale and power. Because of this we keep mimicking them, we see them as the one succeeding and doing it right. I wonder how many societies have come and gone that did it differently but by moral standards did it better, by not enslaving/ killing people to achieve their rapid growth. Those are the ones that were destroyed by the ones that were power hungry. When I see the impressive architecture and archeological relics of those 'great' societies I can't help but think of all the slaves it took to build the empire.
This is exactly how I feel about art. It does my head in, because I'm an artist. But I can't help thinking about the concentration of power/resources that it costs in order to make beautiful objects that rich people buy, and whether the joy of creativity and self-expression is truly worth the consumption of those resources.
It's not a "negative outlook" to think that capitalism is ruining the world unless capitalism is also somehow essential to the world. Finding ways to express how much we look forward to a future beyond capitalism is quite the positive outlook, actually! It's just criticism.
For me, the clueless rich loving Parasite harks back to the way the "pop music fans" loved Nirvana's "In Bloom", clueless the song was sort of a veiled comment on the sudden popularity of Nirvana outside the underground scene.
agree your message is important. I live in AU where workers' rights are still a thing, and education is comparatively 'free' so upward mobility is ~ okay. Our current gov are very intent on following US $ policy - beholden to elites & magnates. That is horrific. But what I dislike about Squid Game is the narrative of helplessness & dehumanising violence. This is just the elites saying "the only way out of this is to kill each other" - we need grass roots unity and trust now more than ever. Squid Game doesn't 'speak our pain' as much as distract us from what really is dangerous for the super-rich... our unity.
Can you talk about unemployment paychecks, job paychecks, and how everyone is hiring but there's just not enough people applying? I don't understand the whole situation and would love your insight
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of the jobs I’ve been applying to for almost a month. Despite tailoring my resume to job descriptions and writing cover letters, very few employees get back to you. At this point I feel like I’m throwing my resumes into a void
Chelsea, something upsetting happened to me today. I bought a new cellphone for the 1st time. The only other cellphone I've ever had was given to me in 2019 by a friend whose drawer it had been sitting in for who knows how long. My excitement in my new purchase quickly turned to horror when I saw that my Samsung phone automatically comes with an Amazon app that you can NOT delete, only disable. I try so hard not to take part in the destruction of our democracy and when our country goes down in flames the only place where fire extinguishers will be available will be the one place that has a monopoly.
I’m simple, I see a TFD video, I click like immediately. The only financial content I’ve seen that actually talks about the ethical issues surrounding money
Although, I don’t have this anger towards “the billionaires.” that I see so many young people have. I admire their tenacity and thank God that the billionaires are in the United States which drives our economy. Countries are so jealous of our luck.
I feel that the increasing popularity of these dystopias is exacerbating our negative outlook on life and making us more passive. We need more positive/hopeful narratives. I’m all for a good solarpunk inspired movie or tv series!
Alongside the capitalist nature..watching them do school yard games with the same serous concentration I’ve seen kids have was so freaky... the way many kids feel like they have to succeed in school or basically be seen as a failure or left behind.
I just want to watch those at the tippy top, who push workers to blame the wrong people for financial struggles, burn. The richest are the problems with this world. So if they get to struggle for once, GOOD. Something we need to start looking at is perhaps it’s not the wages that are the problem. Hear me out on this-why are people needing more? Because the cost of housing more than anything else is so fucking sky high, right? And then workers are told to go to their bosses to demand more money to give to the billionaire investors in those “luxury” units. Very often, businesses are also stuck paying rent to the same damned investors. The investors raising rents to absurd levels are making us all believe it’s an issue of low pay when the real issue is that housing is much higher than it should be (speaking as a home-owner, my house’s value has increased so much that I’m personally uncomfortable about it because it wouldn’t be up this much if investors weren’t snapping up properties). Bring down the cost of rents, and the income people already have won’t be so wildly out of line. Look at where all the money it sitting, and that’s where the problem is. It’s really not your mom-and-pop diner or your medium-sized thrift store. The problem is the real estate investors, and they’ve got workers blaming the bosses who have no control over rents. They’ve got the workers working pressuring the wrong people, and when they get the workers to get enough from their bosses, rent goes up again, and the enemy will again be made out to be the bosses. We need to push for a penalty for investors for every month over, say, two, that a rental unit goes vacant (I won’t back nailing people who own one rental property-often those are old people renting the home their kids grew up in to survive their later years, or military families renting their home out while on deployment). If you can’t get someone in within a couple months, you’re probably charging more than is reasonable for an area. Instead, we let them write off vacant months as lost income, literally rewarding them for keeping prices so high.
Good points! In the Netherlands they have strict limits on “speculative “ investing in housing. Plus new builds are required to have varied price points, and they build much smarter in general. If only they’d wise up here.
My grandfather used to say, Idk where he heard it but all empires are built on slavery. Simple law of physics, if you see a huge mound of soil somewhere, elsewhere is a dug up pit. these people influence lives of ordinary people in a bad way. Nestle gobbles up water resources and bottles it to sell the very same people they stole it from. Water is no persons property and no one does anything about it. Yeah eat the rich.
Remember the Illuminati card…that said eat the rich…. We are being played. They want to divide and conquer. The people who are richer than you are going to fall hard.
@@Paul020 considering English is our 3/4th or even 5th language. He must've obviously heard it from someone. Nestle thing is seriously effed up. Apart few scattering posts etc, I haven't seen serious outrage about it.
I am sure if you asked the people in the Roman Coliseum whether they were watching slaves kill each other or Christians being eating a live by lions, they will say, we a rooting for the underdog. This series is even made popular for kids. People want to see blood for entertainment. All the merchandise sells don't scream eat the rich
I also found it interesting how they had a character from North Korea who escapes to South Korea. She traded the world's most oppressive society for one that oppressed her in a different way.
It was really good when she didn't reply on being asked if this is better
@@Greentrees60 That's because Squid Game is a work of fiction. South Korea is heaven compared to North Korea!
It reflects a narrative that is true in South Korea. Many North Koreans face discrimination and have a hard time adapting into South Korean society.
@@16Muslimah Absolutely!
Are you kidding me? Aside from she was from North Korea, her character background was criminal. She's not a victim.
“A rich man's heaven is a poor man's hell” Gregory Issac sang this over 40 yrs ago. Policies, and the blatant selfishness and greed being lionized today, are only making it worse.
Today? Lol, americans did it since foundation of their culture. They glorified greed and called it "pursuit of happiness". Protestant work ethics in a nutshell. Yet, in their own folklore it shows that they know perfectly that 99% of rich people are selfish bastards at best. And yet they bow down to them, and want to be like them, as if they dont have any morality at all.
BJH's commentary on why Parasite reached across international/language barriers really struck a chord with me: "We all live in the same country called capitalism" means that this concept of exploitation-fueled-consumerism is hardly as foreign to any one culture as we are taught to believe
*Slight spoilers* While this analysis is refreshing, I feel like a lot of people missed the point of the show. Many every day average Americans, probably a missed paycheck from the same situation, were blaming the poor people for their plight. Many were trying to choose the bad guy out of the players instead of, literally the ones who built and rigged the game. Because the players willingly returned anything that happened to them was their fault, as opposed to seeing a society that forces them into making such a difficult choice in the first place as the true evil. An IG post get railed on for eluding to the idea that the rich people could have just given them the money saying that poor people would just “waste it gambling” and didn’t deserve it cause they would just blow it on useless things, without the intrinsic understanding that the whole game itself was a multimillion dollar human populated gambling event invented for the rich to just waste money cause they could. And this idea that the poor people should “work” for the money and earn it even though that meant killing other humans, seemed to be lost on commenters. Yea, I fear that as entertaining as Squid Game was, the brilliant backlash to capitalism was missed by sooooooooo many.
literally!!!! i watched a youtuber talk about this show and she legit (spoilers!!) ragged on freakin gi hoon for 8 minutes because she thought gihun was being super hypocritical by criticizing sang woo for making immoral decisions whereas for il nam she was like wow ok this guy is bad fuck him and just talked about him for 3 minutes and that's all. she said gi hoon made her the maddest and she hated him the most and i'm like ??? your anger seems misdirected?? i mean i know it's her opinion and there are some valid points to make about how the players mirror the way different people in real life approach these decisions to make themselves feel morally superior but to me it felt like the whole point of the show went over her head. so i totally agree with you that people trying to point any of the players except il nam as the "villain" just proves the show's point even more.
Not sure if you read my post. But many people missed the main point of this series.
As you've said, those people are one way or another, failures in the capitalist system, which is the life outside of the game. Many of them were pushed to the point they sold out their bodily rights to organ harvesters.
We can agree on that part, and not say whether they gamble it away or what not, maybe it was medical bills or bad fortune. But here's the main point of Squid Game.
As you've pointed out, it turned out to be a bunch of rich people who sold them this game on their desperateness, right? They fed on their fears, their desperation, and enticed them with an opportunity, one that is repeated throughout as "fair game," "equality," and even "democracy."
Yet as the game unfolded, we found out it was anything but fair, equal, or a democracy. When a man was brutally murdered, they did nothing and then we found out they deliberately gave them less food to make them turn on each other in order to "thin the herd of weaklings."
The rules of the game is determined by those who created the game and enforced at gunpoint. When they say violence is not allowed, such as in the marble game, then it is not allowed. When they look the other way, such as the night massacre, then it is allowed. They said no one can have an advantage, right? Yet the game creator himself affected the outcome of the game by helping Gi-Hun's team. And when Gganbu lost, he was not killed. How is this fair?
And when you examine human history, you see this same pattern everywhere - USSR, China, NK, Venezuela, and now the USA with the rise of Democratic Socialism.
Look at what all these people in this video comment are saying already. They are all like the players in this game, they are enticed and bought by political propaganda of socialism that promises fair play, equality, no discrimination, etc... but yet history has repeatedly demonstrated socialism is nothing but a lie that capitalists sell to the desperate in order to make themselves richer.
Is Xi Shin Ping a communist/socialist? No, he is a capitalist. Is Kim Jong Un a socialist? No, he is a capitalist. They all use socialist propaganda to benefit themselves, making themselves rich. That is as capitalist as it gets. Right?
Is Bernie Sanders a socialist? He owns 4 houses, mansions. Is Biden a socialist? He's rich. Is AOC a socialist? First thing she did when elected was to push a vote to give herself a raise. These people are capitalists. But they sell socialism because socialism sells. Everyone wants to be entitled, be the victim, thinking of what they deserve, like every lawyer commercial I've ever seen in late night, "Call now and we'll get you the money you deserve!"
This movie director, created a tv show claiming to demonstrate the evil of capitalism and preaching socialism, yet did no one realized the millions of $$ he made with this series? He's a capitalist.
I'm not disagreeing with you on the evils of capitalism. But do you really know what capitalism is? What socialism is? And where the true evil of capitalism lies?
@@jbtfp - Yes. Il Nam and all the game creators are the villains. But ... people missed the point, the game staff/creators and the VIPs are "capitalists" who "sold the players on socialism."
What the game is, is socialism, but they were in fact capitalists. THAT is the deception.
Kim Jong Un, Xi Shing Ping, Fidel Castro, etc... are capitalists. That is why they're rich while the people suffered. If they were socialists, then their countries would not have a wealth gap and everyone would be equal.
This is why people who sell you socialism are deceivers, who are using socialism to make themselves richer. History has repeated this again and again, and it is happening still. Look at USA, the Democrats are selling Democratic Socialism to the working class. Yet none of them realize these Democrat politicians are rich and getting richer, like the VIPs in this series.
People who are not economically literate, find themselves like the players in this series, being "used" by the evils of society. Look at the commentators in this thread alone. Each one more outraged, triggered, entitled than the next, hating and blaming upper middle class, yet ignorant of the super rich who put that hate in them.
Thanks to Joe Biden's stupid energy plan, i made $40k in profit over oil stocks from January in 1 simple trade. People in this thread and most of American Democrats blame me for making that money and demand I share it with them despite they did not take the risk, did not do the work.
Yet I pay more tax, I give to charity, but I am the enemy? But none of them blames Biden for his energy plan that made gas more expensive at the pump and gave me the opportunity to make the $40k. None of them even angry at the Democrats for causing the inflation, instead they are all defending them and preaching their socialist rhetorics and arguing with me who is trying to tell them the truth.
THAT is what Squid Game is about.
@@carrickmchwain2296 Ugh, I can’t believe I wasted life force energy on this comment. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard and you have proved my point on just how appallingly many have missed the point of the series.
There was one article that said, it wasnt capitalist it was communist. I shit you not.
I find Chelsea’s analysis original. Most of the comment I watched on squid games focused on money lessons and how you should avoid being like these characters. This was a friendly reminder that we might already the people we judge or fear.
The players in this game are not victims. Each one's debt were abnormally large that could only be achieve through illegal means such as gambling, money laundering, embezzlement. This is why it was repeated through the series they were sinners in hell.
@@carrickmchwain2296 So it's impossible to have abnormally large debt any other way? Medical bills? Education?
@@rorythompson2858 ignore them they are in every single post saying all people aren’t victims as if people are not born into poverty.
I am of this school of thought. Basically my formula in life is... there are often 2 variable to the equation of life: things we can control and things we CAN'T control. In the case of Squid games for example, if one believe that was about evil capitalism, we have the rich evil capitalists enslaving people on one side and the poor victims on the other. IMHO there is little to nothing an individual can do to change systems (say from capitalism to some other system, which unfortunately can also end up being as oppressive if not more, history being my witness). So that part of the equation is kind of fixed, no longer a variable per se, but a given. Somehow. The only side of the equation we have some level of control is OUR side, which unfortunately is not 100% under control as it might also depend on the system (in a segregated system for example, you are born either privileged or underprivileged). Having lived in socialist country with a lot of tribalism and nepotism and now in a somehow capitalist country, I think the individual has more wiggle room in capitalism than in the other forms. Which calls for personal responsibility to make the best of that part of the equation we have more control. To be specific, in the west, coming from a kind of stranger to the system, individuals could stop buying into consumerism and following the Kardashians and live rather simple lives. Hard to understand if you are used to it, but I am surprised at how many people go into debt to buy a 50k car for example on a 30k a year salary when a 10k car could serve the same purpose just fine. In that case, the individual is not only putting themselves further into disadvantage, but they are also fueling the system they pretend to be against (auto industry, insurance, loans, etc). Even if you earn a good salary, it doesn't mean you have to live large. For the last 5 years, I have been making a midle class salary, but I try to keep living a working class life. As a rule of thumb for example, I have vowed to NEVER spend more than my monthly take-home on ANYTHING at once except a house/property and, God forbid, a health emergency. In other words, if I make 100k per year and pay 25k in taxes, my monthly take-home is about 6k. I will cap all expenses, including cars, vacations, wedding, rings, whatnot to 6k. (and by the way I did all of those over the last 4 years - except the whatnot -lols).
Disclaimer: I come from poverty and I still do not sleep well at night for fear of being poor once again, some day... hence maybe my frugality, some sort of poverty PTSD).
It's so fascinating about the sense of slight removal it gives to western viewers by being set in Korea, because in the 18th and 19th century, when gothic horror was super popular, almost all the popular gothic novels and stories written by English authors were set in Catholic mainland Europe, often many years in the past. The themes would have been pretty relevant to contemporary readers: women being controlled and abused by tyrannical men, the church hiding corruption and evil in its ranks, lovers being forced apart by cruel old traditions, the government not caring and the aristocracy being selfish... but setting these stories in modern England would had led to either uproar, indignation, and censorship from the church and state, or people simply wouldn't have found them 'believable'. That little removal gave both reader and writer a level of safety: 'what do you mean, it's a critique of our church/king/society? This is a story about medieval Italy! And we ALL know how much better WE are than those sketchy Italians!'
The world doesn’t revolve around the western world. It was set in Korea because it’s by Koreans. So nothing interesting about that fact. the message still transcends regions.
@@Bibirallie of course! I didn't mean to suggest it was made for a western audience or anything, I was just pointing how interesting it is psychologically that a viewer has a slightly different reaction to a story that isn't taking place where they live - not suggesting it was done on purpose in this case
This is why Dracula (the only book ever written) caused quite a stir in its day because it was about modern, civilised, middle and upper class people fighting against a 'primitive' evil that actively followed them to England. The whole story is kind of fixated on how modern the technology and mindsets of the characters were, with new innovations like portable type writers or women...eating food! The Count himself kind of rants about how much better England is and how he needs to master its accent because he can't 'dominate' people that know he's foreign. That last part was said to Jonathan, a man who the story (scandalously) placed in a traditional female role in earlier gothic literature: the virgin escaping the advances of a rich predator in a remote castle -- which is nearly the plot of all 80s horror movies.
Plenty of Shakespeare's plays or Gilbert and Sullivan's English language operas from the late-19th are set in other countries...like, arbitrarily. Sometimes they heavily criticise social norms or systems that didn't exist outside of England the way that they were portrayed.
I think that you're right to say that some Americans see Squid Game and say quietly in their minds, "Thank God that's not us here," when the themes are international. In fact, the way that I see Americans online gawk at the horrors of the Kpop industry, it's like they think exploitation doesn't happen in Hollywood. Or when they do, it's a targeted scheme against 'pure' America in a culture war, and not the workers, and not...just the conclusion of industrial logic.
@@fruitygarlic3601 I wrote an essay on Jonathan's feminine role in the story when I was a student! It is one of the few gothic stories where the threat actually started on encroach on real-world English shores, but of course England was too smart and modern and tough to fall for Dracula's plots 😛
@@fruitygarlic3601 it’s funny how people see what they want to see, a lot of “Americans” usually think of themselves as the whole world, (America is a continent, not a country) I wonder why would they think Korea is worse? If anything they are copying the United States!
I immediately connected with squid games. I was never motivated greatly by having loads of money. I was always satisfied with a moderate amount that was livable. I left banking to be a teacher for that reason. I hated the bloodsucking culture. I became a teacher to not wealthy and it was hard work but as a single person I still felt it was fine for the time. Although i loved educating children - I became very disillusioned for the future of our kids(but that's another story). When many teachers lost their jobs during Covid- I took a a very manual labor customer service job for minimum wage. I never considered unemployment. It was the most brutal job as far as how we were treated by customers and, worked by the company. More shockingly was seeing my coworkers working full time to the bones and barely making it every month. Dealing with childcare, elderly parents, and sick relatives. I watched a coworker die in poverty because of his medical bills. I saw people lose their jobs because they didn't have reliable transportation and couldn't afford one. I realized that money provides security for these situations but if you're starting out life at that level you don't have many choices. I am lucky. I was able to leave and most of the people I work with liekly couldn't. I'm in graduate school and I'm probably going to get a good stem job after school. I'm still don't know what to do with what I've seen, but squid games brought me back to what I witnessed. I'm not sure what else to say. I don't have answers. I guess I kinda feel like the players
Yeah.. it feels very dystopian and disappointing right now. I just graduated with my BA and have a bunch of student loans to pay plus everything else to survive. I job hunted relentlessly every day for 3 months. I sent in hundreds of job applications. All of the "higher paying" jobs that were around 40k rejected me or ghosted me. So many of the "entry level" positions requiring people to also have a BA wanted people with 5+ years of experience. Well... I just spent 4 years in college so don't have that experience. I just did an interview with a cheap hotel. They said that I was way over qualified but it is mandatory that people who start make $10 an hour. That's about what I made as a teenager in high school working a minimum wage job. It really sucks becuse I literaly have no other choice. Its is so low paying it will barely cover what I need to pay off my student loan payments every month and my other bills. Thankfully my partner has been paying rent every month which is more than 1/2 of his paycheck. With what I will make a month, my whole paycheck k wouldn't even be enough to pay rent. It just feels so disappointing that I just spend so much time effort and money going to college and doing volunteer work for NGO's and I will make the same amount of money as I did as a 16 year old in high school.
Edit: I quit that job. And now I am doing mostly volunteer work for an NGO (non-profit) helping refugees.
Sorry to hear that I can give u a few pieces of advice.
1. what is your & parnter major? is it health care/tourism/teaching related?
If so you can talk about it with your partner try to move to a different state or different country.
For me, I am currently living at Turks and Caicos doing my last year doing my associate degree in early childhood and I am T.A at school to gain
experience and when I am done with my degree in May 2022 I still be here for six months while applying to universities in London to study for my bachelor in public health management. But I know when I done I still will come back to my hometown to work in my degree field for a year or 2 before going to my aunt who lives in Atlanta want me to come but I know by watching videos on youtube that yall fresh graduated usually struggle to find a job because of no experience.
I feel like if u study any of those things of what I have just stated you should come down to turks and caicos cause our islands need those professions down here. But hey do your research & figure get place online, get the job position before you come down here by applying online then have an interview on zoom the organization will put you on a work permit so u be here legally, and also you will get housing and allowance from the company.
but no joke even though the island is very limited on fun places & fast food places this place is more like a training ground for people & then they go like for example; when i was in high school it also still happen to my middle school sister we always get new teachers every year cause they come to work for 1 or 2 years next thing you hear they have a job offer in Canada/UK. Also my older sis who just graduated with a bachelor degree in biochemistry from jamaica uni she come back & got a job offer to work in our local hospital in the laboratory.
So if you still don't get your dream job by 2022 just see if you can try going to a different state or country that need your profession really bad and set an account so you can give the loan company the account number so when u put money in the account they get the money for your student loan to be paid off.
4 years studying is experience so apply for the entry level jobs that require it
When watching Squid Game I actually thought a lot about America. I didn’t associate what happened in the movie with just Korea, I associated with society in general. A lot of dystopian films are popular because it’s the life we live technically.
It’s crazy that people can watch squid game and actually think to themselves that this is only Korea’s problem.
worse they think they are the rich people “watching” the game instead of being the players.
Thank you Chelsea! So many bad Squid Game hot takes like "maybe the billionaires ARE THE GOOD GUYS?!?!" No Steve! The antagonist of the show was actually the antagonist
That isn't even the worse take. Some right wing commentator firmly believes it is a critique of communism. Communism!? He out right dismissed the director/writer of the show and went on to give his absurd take.
@@ironpalmmonk1199 good ol' Pim Tool.
@@ironpalmmonk1199 some commentator? You have guys in this comment section pushing that right now! Lmao
I could watch Chelsea talk about anything - TFD has gone from my "adulting" channel to one of the only channels I can watch anytime and feel comforted, refreshed, and/or informed!!!
lol Parasite and Squidgame based on today's reality being called dystopias
i think you're missing the fact that most people consider today's reality a dystopia lool. that's where the term capital dystopia comes from, takes on contemporary society.
💯💯💯💯 I haven’t watch SG because I don’t need reminders of the violence that already happens
@@Rs-rq9fd This stuff used to not bother me much, when I was younger. Now that I'm in my mid-30s, the anxiety absolutely destroys me. Nope, real life is bad enough, thanks! 👍🏻
@@null6955 and you're missing the fact that the dystopia and utopia refer to imagined future societies rather than the actual present, despite being commentaries on today's world
@@noneofyourbusiness4616 and you're missing a world of colloquil use of those words today. People use utopia and dystopia to talk about current social aspects all the time and the context is clear to literally everyone in the room except the dictionary nerds.
I have also noticed a (not dystopian but similar) common theme amongst my favorite shows: ordinary citizens who are so financially desperate they become criminals (Good Girls, Breaking Bad & Ozark).
Good girls is fire. May have something to do with my loins when Manny Montana is on screen, but thats beside the point lol
@@Pomagranite167 check him out in Graceland. It’s only a couple seasons, but a decent show.
Yes! There’s even that recent coupon ring movie that follows that trend.
I loved Ozark, can't wait for season 4, never heard of good girls, is that on Netflix?
Chelsea, your work is amazing. You talk about finances with responsibility and you never sell false promises that we usually see around. Love it!
We're on the verge of hyperinflation and a world that's been in chaos for the last 2 years. Majority of us are struggling financially, so of course our world view is negative. The rich keep getting richer and the middle class and poor are getting poorer
And those sitting comfy keep shoving their rants down our throats.
Then stop voting for those who make you poor. How is it working for the US since Biden's election? How is doubling cost of everything working for the working class?
Inflation affects the value of the dollar, the cash. But it doesn't affect the value of product. Right? That is why you need more money for the same product, b/c the value didn't change, the cash just became less.
So as a stock trader, you know I use cash to buy investment or product, so my earnings are based on product value and not cash. So inflation does not affect me. This is why I get richer, but working class gets weaker.
If the government increases my tax rate, then I pay more tax that is in "cash," right? Guess what? That loses value in an inflation, so it loses value before it even reaches the people. But that is if the government even uses it to help the citizens. Instead, they're using it to help illegals, who are not even citizens.
The media, the propaganda, etc... are just lies upon lies. You get caught up in it, and you get seduced into some sort of social justice and this oh hate rich people thing, but yet you forget your politicians are richer than you, richer than me, richer than anyone. What is their agenda? You think they care about you? Or they're just out to make themselves richer?
When you get it. You'll understand what Squid Game is about.
The class system is an illusion to keep people happy, most don’t ever reach the middle class status, but get to feel above someone else based on small privileges, throughout time the range has been modified to make us think it’s reachable when in reality most people are In fact getting poorer and don’t even realize. I think it’s more accurate to say more people are reaching extreme poverty instead.
@@sfjayhawk5810 I'm sitting comfy
With my parents
Thank you so much for making the content that you do, Chelsea and team. Typically, financial channels/companies pander to those with a large amount of money, but the amount of working class solidarity you guys express through your content is truly so heartwarming and makes me have a bit of hope for the future, and just humanity in general.
TFD kind of panders to those who don’t and making money off of them. 🤷🏽♀️
I'm loving this new content that the Financial Diet is producing about issues with our favorite TV shows!
One of my few criticisms of squid game is that it kinda pulled it punches in regards to the ending. *spoilers* by having the main character survive/win, it made the audience identify with the 0.0001% that win in rigged games. It kinda perpetuated this "you're the main character so this won't happen to you, and if it does it's your fault" narrative sold in capitalism. I felt similar about the first hunger games (before the sequels). Now I know the main character was scared for life so calling it a win is a shallow interpretation, but that’s what I’m saying. It allows for that. I hope we get a story where the audience surrogate loses, very unfairly.
Edit: Just to add some clarity to what i mean - By following a relatively normal narrative trajectory (main character winning) it diluted its own themes.
I think it could have been interesting having the winner be someone we had no introduction to. Just out of nowhere, like the many faceless deaths, in a way “bad” storytelling.
But then it probably would’ve been criticised for being “unsatisfying”. I guess I just think our need for media to be satisfying as we currently define it, limits it’s critiquing potential.
Excellent point and one I'll remember in my own writing.
*by having the main character survive/win, it made the audience identify with the 0.0001% that win in rigged games. It kinda perpetuated this "you're the main character so this won't happen to you, and if it does it's your fault" narrative sold in capitalism.*
That sounds more like a failure of storytelling rather than one of intent. Within a narrative that critiques capitalism, the direction should emphasize that winning is not tied to merit or the embodiment of values we ought to be championing. Sometimes people get lucky, more often they have advantages from the start. And usually it's a Pyrrhic victory. I don't believe we ought to strip away the seductive aspects of modern-day capitalism on the off-chance people will misinterpret the message. Stories are not solely meant to be pedagogical vehicles.
We'll always have Avengers Infinity War
I think Liam brings up a good point. I think people may just end up siding with the villain in some way? I saw Thanos rise in popularity following the ending of infinity war.
That an excellent point! How could it have been rewritten differently though? As a writer I really love dystopia, but I’m tired of some of these tropes.
I like how "negative experience score" is misspelled as "negative experience store"...really underscores the point of the video. Seriously though, thank you for making these videos - I find them really interesting even though I don't live in the US and haven't watched most of the shows you reference!
0:53 agree to disagree on Ted Lasso. Definitely feel-good, but its tackling of mental health is too compelling to turn your brain off!
of all the violent things that happened on squid game the most jarring thing for me was episode 2 which was titled 'hell' and it was just the characters living their lives outside of the game ... nothing quite made me shudder as much as that
The movie "Us" tries to say that for every "rich" person, there is a "poor" person. But our world doesn't have such one-to-one correspondence. Our world is a "pyramid" configuration in which few sit at the top above the masses below. For every rich person, there should be a ton of poor people. The underground world in the movie would be very overcrowded.
Anyone else who has not seen The Squid Game, and not planning to?
After hearing the premise I did not want to watch it ever, as it hit too close to home. As someone who grew up in a developing country and migrated to a developed one after a very lengthy and painful process, its something I never want to go through again, even on screen. Having experienced money troubles all my life, and only finding some financial stability in my 30s Squid game sounds too close to reality or what could have been for me if I dint escape.
I don't watch any dystopian entertainment for this very reason. If I want to watch something dystopian, I would just go watch the news.
@@notthatcreativewithnames exactly.
These are exactly my thoughts. This would be too depressing to watch.
I didnt watch it either, I just cant subject myself to anything similar anymore, life is already challenging I dont want to inflict hurt on myself by watching a show that makes me sad.
I thought it would be sad to watch too
Spoilers below
I cried when Ali died because I knew he had a wife and child home, it really pained me to see him die. It was depressing to see their lives, but I still watched it anyways
We certainly exist during a very unique point in history
What a time to be alive. :)
''We just needed the right Netflix show to express it'' is the darkest, most dystopic sentence you could have ended this video on
I work as a CNA in a nursing home. It's a brutally hard, sweaty job, and I am constantly exposed to you-know-which virus. As far as being a truly valued worker, you know what happens if I catch covid? Zero compensation for the mandatory minimum of 10 days off once I present as having cleared the virus. Which could take much longer than that. So as far as really valuing health care workers for putting their lives on the line? Yeah .... nope. Not at all.
Girl, the SangWoo actor is also a hot puppy in the Kdrama Prison Playbook. It's also on Netflix.
I have enjoyed Chelsea’s commentary on tv shows that have influenced our economic decisions. The Sex and the City analysis was spot on.
One thing I like about Chelsea's commentaries is that listening to them is like reading printed articles: they are more literate, the language is more precise, and everything is expressed in crystal clear fashion. Many TH-cam commentators speak extemporaneously with fuzzy language ("I kinda like it, I think...") or colloquially, which is often not a good way to speak about important topics.
I would also recommend “Help” with Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham. Interesting take on the healthcare system and healthcare workers during a pandemic.
Thank you, Chelsea, you made my day. As I didn‘t have time for watching Squidgame, I was wondering what all the fuss was about, and here comes your video, ready with content and brilliant analysis. I love your channel!
Hopefully Squid Game and Parasite will get more Americans to look into the US' intervention in the region and pushing of the capitalist regime that is being critiqued. Also, Chelsea's mention of films about capitalist dystopias reminded me of Mark Fisher's similar critique around the movie The Road. Everyone should read Capitalist Realism.
I love how Chelsea will call out the foolishness and dysfunction in most of the pop culture diets out here. And FYI, we are already living in dystopia.
Omg how can I forget this channel. It is a gem. Though TFD is now bashing the financially obese . That's a wonderful shift.
The squid games resinates with anyone who's over extend in debt to the point where your paycheck is gone before it arrives... It's also sad when we see some of their stories of how they got into such bad debt just trying to survive in the 1st place. Job loss when the factory shuts down, bosses not paying, etc.
I would replace the word “negative” with “honest”. To look at things as they are is perceived to be negative for some reason. People want to stay in a state of blind hope instead of looking at how things actually are.
Despite being simplistic… and unrealistic many times it was somewhat so relatable at the same time, the reason it really got me
Love how Chrissy Teigen made it into the thumbnail 😌
CT is an awful human.
Forget Sang-woo, give me Train to Busan guy from the train station.
I love that you worked Squid Game into your channel 💕
You should watch Prison Playbook if you love Park Hae-soo. I was also really excited when I first saw Park Hae-soo in Squid Game.
I love TFD's content like this! I love hearing and learning about social issues and economics!
It should be that household-debt takes into account mortgages too, at least that's the case where I am (which isn't America). With the increase in house price across America, but also an increased appetite in buying houses, it isn't surprising that household-debt-to-GDP ratio has increased. Isolating that particular factor may give a different result. Just something to take note of when thinking about statistical measurements as context and source of derivation matters a lot
In the tarot, the *devil* card = addiction & entrapment... but also capitalistic concepts & contracts ●__● Squid Game was awesome
Except Squid Game is about socialism. How can people miss this? Amazing.
@@carrickmchwain2296 hm no?
@@carrickmchwain2296 Not in the slightest. In Capitalism, basic nessecties (Food, Water, and A home) to survive are turned into commodities. Not everyone can afford the commodities: Even with hard work. So, they must turn to the Squid game to have the chance to survive, because, as I said before: if you don't have money to afford the commodities that are needed for life, you become desperate. Who, if it was about socialism (Where the necessities to life aren't commodities anymore, as they are supplied for no cost.), would ever lead themselves to the possibility to be killed? I, myself, know I would never go to such drastic measures if my basic needs were covered. I don't see your point at all.
what reminded me of america so strongly is that his mom couldn’t afford medical treatment so she just walked out. reminds me of how americans can be caught in a horrible accident and still beg people not to call ambulance because they can’t afford it
Chelsea, I love you for making this video. That's real political activism right here.
I always love your team's take on these subjects! I would be very interested in seeing how you all research and write these videos. ❤️
I just have to say I love your channel and how you break down major issues in our culture!
As a student of Sociology, I have to agree with her last statement.
Lmao as a Korean American i can say, I have never heard Korea be thought of as a far of fantasy land. Hahaha jkjkjk 💕💕💕
The economical context isn't just unfair; it's unsustainable. It is both fiscally and environmentally disastrous.
These videos don’t happen often enough! Love TfD
The Platform (on Netflix) is another fantastic commentary -- definitely recommend watching it!
Warning: it has just as much gore as Squid Games.
*Korea took a page from America's capitalist culture and took it to extremes.* 🇰🇷
South Korea's economic system is capitalist too. It just so happens that American can relate to the show. Hmmm I wonder why? lol
This was awesome. Good job TFD
As always, thanks TFD guys for creating this amazing, critical content!
Being from a developing country and coming from a background where we were just able to afford a one time meal for 10 after a lot of hard-work I feel grateful for it.
We had (still have) one rule ,no matter what happens for day to day survival never take loans
& Yeah government gave us foods at subsidized rate so it became a but easier for us.
Saying that the average income of Americans is 67k is misleading. The numbers are skewed by 700 Billionaires, and by counting "household" income instead of individual incomes. Last I read, about 70% of Americans make less than 40k per year. They make even less if you count individual income, instead of "household" income.
Late Capitalist Dystopia = Reality TV
Parasite, Get Out, Squid Game is a solid group.
Add In Time, Gattaca, V for Vendetta, and The Omega Man to that and you've got yourself a great week of conflicting but hopeful but miserable movies to watch in the evening.
Omg John Wyndham is one of my favourite authors.
The Crysalids and Day of the Triffids are books that I regularly read. Am kind of obsessed 🤣
I wonder if the Gallup poll gave an option for "normal was pretty bad and I hope we never go back because that's how we got here".
Thanks Chelsea again, great episode.
What you say about Korea only happens in Seoul, the rest of Korea is normal. If you go to Busan people are not so obsessed with competition
9:08 absolutely incorrect. There is no such implication by definition. This is based on same old Zero-Sum thinking or the "fixed-pie" fallacy.
Loved this explanation Chelsea, thank you very much. Both Squid Game and Parasite are realities unfortunately not dystopias...we have to change that!
Well said. It sucks that the gears of capitalism are set up so that the poorest in our community is subsidizing all the other people higher up in the pyramid :/pay people a living wage, and also pay a reasonable price for goods and services, or go without
We shouldn’t like or watch these shows at all because they’re trying to make it our future and reality. These dystopian shows and “themes” are their way of “warning” us. It’s called predictive programming
Finally! Someone stating Squid Game is a metaphor for how things are playing out in America!!!
Not only America but many countries.
@@Bibirallie I believe it.
Squid game honestly looks like one of the coolest shows of the year. I gotta watch it!
@@yus9495: Carrots are the best? 😕
I honestly didn't like it.
There are tons of video games that have dystopia storytelling as well, such as Fallout, Deus Ex, and tons of post-apocalyptic games. It is a genre that has saturated our pop culture for a long time. Besides wealth inequality, 9/11, housing crisis, covid, natural disasters & climate change all contribute to it as well.
Any 'prominent' civilizations in history that we know of are normally known to us because of their scale and power. Because of this we keep mimicking them, we see them as the one succeeding and doing it right. I wonder how many societies have come and gone that did it differently but by moral standards did it better, by not enslaving/ killing people to achieve their rapid growth. Those are the ones that were destroyed by the ones that were power hungry. When I see the impressive architecture and archeological relics of those 'great' societies I can't help but think of all the slaves it took to build the empire.
This is exactly how I feel about art. It does my head in, because I'm an artist. But I can't help thinking about the concentration of power/resources that it costs in order to make beautiful objects that rich people buy, and whether the joy of creativity and self-expression is truly worth the consumption of those resources.
It's not a "negative outlook" to think that capitalism is ruining the world unless capitalism is also somehow essential to the world. Finding ways to express how much we look forward to a future beyond capitalism is quite the positive outlook, actually! It's just criticism.
This is the best video I’ve seen this year
I dig him too Chelsea 😹, a loooot!
Living for this video!
Also #StopAsianHate 🙌🏻
For me, the clueless rich loving Parasite harks back to the way the "pop music fans" loved Nirvana's "In Bloom", clueless the song was sort of a veiled comment on the sudden popularity of Nirvana outside the underground scene.
but whats a dystopia if not a self-fulfilling prophecy??...
agree your message is important. I live in AU where workers' rights are still a thing, and education is comparatively 'free' so upward mobility is ~ okay. Our current gov are very intent on following US $ policy - beholden to elites & magnates. That is horrific. But what I dislike about Squid Game is the narrative of helplessness & dehumanising violence. This is just the elites saying "the only way out of this is to kill each other" - we need grass roots unity and trust now more than ever. Squid Game doesn't 'speak our pain' as much as distract us from what really is dangerous for the super-rich... our unity.
This was very insightful about SG, thank you.
I suppose Dune is a dystopia too. It's just not as obvious because the main characters are on top.
Kudos for calling out Squid Game’s poor subtitling! And I love the highlights…but what happened with those eyeglasses?!
I don't really watch Netflix shows that preach to the choir. Especially when I'M the choir.
Can you talk about unemployment paychecks, job paychecks, and how everyone is hiring but there's just not enough people applying? I don't understand the whole situation and would love your insight
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of the jobs I’ve been applying to for almost a month. Despite tailoring my resume to job descriptions and writing cover letters, very few employees get back to you. At this point I feel like I’m throwing my resumes into a void
Chelsea, something upsetting happened to me today. I bought a new cellphone for the 1st time. The only other cellphone I've ever had was given to me in 2019 by a friend whose drawer it had been sitting in for who knows how long. My excitement in my new purchase quickly turned to horror when I saw that my Samsung phone automatically comes with an Amazon app that you can NOT delete, only disable. I try so hard not to take part in the destruction of our democracy and when our country goes down in flames the only place where fire extinguishers will be available will be the one place that has a monopoly.
That tweet about the dog poo though...wooow.
I’m simple, I see a TFD video, I click like immediately. The only financial content I’ve seen that actually talks about the ethical issues surrounding money
The question is.... Is it dystopian fiction or a parallel of what's coming? Like the movie outbreak vs COVID? Hmmmmmm? HMMMMMMMMMMMM??
Although, I don’t have this anger towards “the billionaires.” that I see so many young people have. I admire their tenacity and thank God that the billionaires are in the United States which drives our economy.
Countries are so jealous of our luck.
I like it *despite* the capitalist dystopia, that part is just depressing.
Love your shirt! And great video
I feel that the increasing popularity of these dystopias is exacerbating our negative outlook on life and making us more passive. We need more positive/hopeful narratives. I’m all for a good solarpunk inspired movie or tv series!
I love the lowkey fangirling haha
Alongside the capitalist nature..watching them do school yard games with the same serous concentration I’ve seen kids have was so freaky... the way many kids feel like they have to succeed in school or basically be seen as a failure or left behind.
We were warned in the 80s and now its just all becoming reality
Can you please explain this comment? I am extremely interested to know what the warning was and how it was expressed.
I just want to watch those at the tippy top, who push workers to blame the wrong people for financial struggles, burn. The richest are the problems with this world. So if they get to struggle for once, GOOD.
Something we need to start looking at is perhaps it’s not the wages that are the problem. Hear me out on this-why are people needing more? Because the cost of housing more than anything else is so fucking sky high, right? And then workers are told to go to their bosses to demand more money to give to the billionaire investors in those “luxury” units. Very often, businesses are also stuck paying rent to the same damned investors. The investors raising rents to absurd levels are making us all believe it’s an issue of low pay when the real issue is that housing is much higher than it should be (speaking as a home-owner, my house’s value has increased so much that I’m personally uncomfortable about it because it wouldn’t be up this much if investors weren’t snapping up properties). Bring down the cost of rents, and the income people already have won’t be so wildly out of line. Look at where all the money it sitting, and that’s where the problem is. It’s really not your mom-and-pop diner or your medium-sized thrift store. The problem is the real estate investors, and they’ve got workers blaming the bosses who have no control over rents. They’ve got the workers working pressuring the wrong people, and when they get the workers to get enough from their bosses, rent goes up again, and the enemy will again be made out to be the bosses.
We need to push for a penalty for investors for every month over, say, two, that a rental unit goes vacant (I won’t back nailing people who own one rental property-often those are old people renting the home their kids grew up in to survive their later years, or military families renting their home out while on deployment). If you can’t get someone in within a couple months, you’re probably charging more than is reasonable for an area. Instead, we let them write off vacant months as lost income, literally rewarding them for keeping prices so high.
Good points! In the Netherlands they have strict limits on “speculative “ investing in housing. Plus new builds are required to have varied price points, and they build much smarter in general. If only they’d wise up here.
My grandfather used to say, Idk where he heard it but all empires are built on slavery. Simple law of physics, if you see a huge mound of soil somewhere, elsewhere is a dug up pit. these people influence lives of ordinary people in a bad way. Nestle gobbles up water resources and bottles it to sell the very same people they stole it from. Water is no persons property and no one does anything about it. Yeah eat the rich.
Remember the Illuminati card…that said eat the rich…. We are being played. They want to divide and conquer. The people who are richer than you are going to fall hard.
That saying has been around a long time.
Never understood why Nestle is getting away with that.
@@Paul020 considering English is our 3/4th or even 5th language. He must've obviously heard it from someone. Nestle thing is seriously effed up. Apart few scattering posts etc, I haven't seen serious outrage about it.
I am sure if you asked the people in the Roman Coliseum whether they were watching slaves kill each other or Christians being eating a live by lions, they will say, we a rooting for the underdog.
This series is even made popular for kids. People want to see blood for entertainment.
All the merchandise sells don't scream eat the rich
Chelsea I know its not hugely related to the content on TFD but can you please drop your skincare routine? Your skin is so good!