Episode Details

Have you ever been part of a social media thread like this? 

Anyone seen the latest Star Wars?

 Nah. But I hear it stinks. 

 That’s what they’re saying. 

 I’ve seen the trailer. Terrible.

Whole series jumped the shark long ago. 

 Haha yes. Three words. Jar. Jar. Binks. 

 Haven’t and won’t. It will be even more cringeworthy than the last. 

Whose genius idea was it to give the movie to the director of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’?

I don’t understand how anyone in good conscience can even go to a Star Wars movie anymore. The way the Ewoks were exploited in the making of VI was disgusting. And no-one has ever apologised. And the racist way in which Darth Vader is dressed in ‘black’ is just one … (read more)

 I can’t even. #dontseeit

Since they sold out to Disney, it’s been sell out all the way down. 

 Yeah, they are no longer interested in the story arc. It’s only about one thing—profits. #dontseeit

Hey does anyone think we should wait until we see it? 

 You are disgusting. 

Social media parodies are not hard to write. We’ve seen this kind of conversation play itself out multiple times, over multiple subjects, on facebook or twitter or wherever. 

In fact, we could change the subject of the conversation to almost anything and the level of analysis and passion would be approximately the same. 

For example, the news stories that we discuss are as carefully manufactured as any Star Wars movie, and we debate them with about as much real knowledge and insight. It typically starts with a compressed, constructed narrative being presented to us in some form (as a news item or video clip), like this:

* X was promised to happen by the government, 

* But (says earnest reporter) some people say it’s not working, or has disadvantaged them;

* Queue Jim the Battler with tragic story to tell;

* Cut to reporter with ten seconds of selective factoids; 

* Cut to two-sentence grab from government spokesman looking awkward, saying that everything is on track;

* Back to reporter saying, “But try telling that to Jim the Battler”;

* Solemn-looking news anchor sums it up with rueful comment. 

The moral of the story, and what we’re supposed to think, is clear enough: the government is incompetent (as usual) and/or doesn’t care about the battlers (as usual).

All this is as stylised and crafted as any fiction. It may or may not represent the truth of the situation—we have so little to go on that it’s impossible to tell. What exactly did the government promise and in what context? Does Jim the Battler represent a broad trend or an anomaly? Are there other complexities that help explain both the plight of Jim and the broader situation? What alternative forms of action were available for the government? Is this the best that could be retrieved from difficult circumstances?

None of this can be conveyed in a short news story, nor is that the intention. What we get instead is a brief impressionistic narrative, usually based around the available footage, and presented to us as entertainment. 

And then we share it on social media and opinionate profusely about it, making value judgements, impugning motives, and generally joking and quipping and sniding with a kind of cool, gestural indignation. 

Most online discussion of contemporary issues is like this—whether it’s about George Floyd, the European Super League, climate change, the vaccine roll-out, or the latest political scandal. None of us knows much of anything; but this doesn’t stop us responding with our opinion.

And frequently that response is an aesthetic judgement (of what we favour or like), or a tribal reflex (based on what other people like me believe and think). Only in the rarest of instances do we pene