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[pisskop]

Ive been hearing a little about the game 'helldivers ii'.

With all its 'managed democracy' and 'power armor drop soldiers' and it's 'liberate your enemy' stuff it sounds an awful lot like starship troopers the book.  Except more actiony, the book was a little more subtle that I presume the game is

[heydude6]

The book was sincerely advocating for a democratic government where only soldiers were allowed to vote. Helldivers though, is a satire of American post-911 jingoism. It's loosely inspired off of the movie, which itself is only loosely inspired off of the book.

As a result, trying to draw a direct connection from the book to the game is going to lead to a disappointing lack of similarities. I'd say the satire of Helldivers 2 is better than the movies, simply because the thing it's satirizing actually existed in the world in some meaningful way.

[Great Order]

A lot of folks will parrot you need to repaste regularly, I think that's non-sense. In this particular case tho, that computer is older than 10 years right?
Arctic mx the cheapest brand paste is rated for a little less than that, noctua even less, but as per noctua's instructions, you need only monitor your temps after 5 years, and you only need to intervene if you can can notice a differnce (in delta as they call it).

Nope, it had its internals all swapped out in 2021. The case is about that old, but that's easily reusable. I didn't do it myself, I had help (Which is to say, I sat back and did very little) from a friend who does a lot of computer stuff. If anyone got it right, it's him.

I think it's more likely some sort of error, like I said the CPU isn't actually all that hot.

[Grim Portent]

The book was sincerely advocating for a democratic government where only soldiers were allowed to vote. Helldivers though, is a satire of American post-911 jingoism. It's loosely inspired off of the movie, which itself is only loosely inspired off of the book.

As a result, trying to draw a direct connection from the book to the game is going to lead to a disappointing lack of similarities. I'd say the satire of Helldivers 2 is better than the movies, simply because the thing it's satirizing actually existed in the world in some meaningful way.

IIRC in the book it wasn't that only soldiers could vote, but only people who had done a period of service for the nation could vote. I think you could also do work in administration or some third branch if the military side of things didn't appeal or you weren't suited for it. It's also much less cannon-foddery in nature for the military stuff.

[pisskop]

A lot of Rico's angst was about how desensitized he was to society because of his job as a soldier in the most elite gear, how ironically un-dangerous it was to be a power armor user in an active combat zone.  He had a job to do, and it was just a job for him.  A duty, like all the other's he did.  Even his general service was a bit of an inconvenience for him

[Lord Shonus]

IIRC in the book it wasn't that only soldiers could vote, but only people who had done a period of service for the nation could vote. I think you could also do work in administration or some third branch if the military side of things didn't appeal or you weren't suited for it. It's also much less cannon-foddery in nature for the military stuff.

Yes. There's a specific scene that is in both the book and movie that had very different meaning in the book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpX-vtW2f54

In the book the "mobile infantry made me the man I am today" guy had far more extensive injuries, and had extremely crude prosthetics... while working. He had very good artificial limb replacements, but wasn't allowed to wear them on duty because his explicit job was to be a "THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, DON'T JOIN THE MILITARY JUST BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST DIRECT PATH TO A VOTE" warning. People who just wanted the vote were Strongly Encouraged to become a clerk or something instead.

It would also be a mistake to claim that the book was "advocating" that society. Heinlein wrote many books with many fictional societies, all of which were completely and utterly incompatible. Evan accounting for him writing them at different stages of life, it is very unlikely that anyone could sincerly advocate for the libertarian utopia of Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, the highly organized society of Starship Troopers, and whatever-the-hell Beyond This Horizon was.

[Great Order]

From what I gather, guy was more of a libertarian than anything. An ideology with a lot of its own problems, but not an ideology that'd espouse military service for civic rights.

[McTraveller]

Wife's car gets a routine inspection with the oil changes included with her lease.

They found some items that need addressing.

WTF time from the quotes:

replace air filter:  $68
replace front and rear wiper blades: $128

An air filter costs about $15 retail and about 5 minutes of my time to replace.
All 3 wiper blades cost maybe $60 retail, and again, about 5 minutes to replace.

I'm really thankful I grew up in a house where I learned to do basic vehicle maintenance... has saved me tons of money over the years.

No wonder people complain about car dealers...

[scriver]

I've always thought that the societal setup in Starship Troopers seemed like it was supposed to be an "ancient Greece democracy, but what if the future???" thing

[Eric Blank]

Sci fi societies are often parodies or satire of real world societies at the time. I assumed Starship Troopers was satirizing the militant patriotism of the US during the cold war.

[Flying Dice]

The book was sincerely advocating

Was examining ideas. A lot of Heinlein's novels were like this. Stranger in a Strange Land: the effects of organized religion on culture, cults, and free love. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: colonialism, libertarian ideals in extreme environments, polygamy, to some people telling a story from the perspective of a character with an intellectual disability. I Will Fear No Evil: body dysphoria, the privilege of wealth, multiple personalities occupying the same body. Starship Troopers was an examination of self-sacrificing behavior and civic responsibility.

for a democratic government where only soldiers were allowed to vote.

Only people who worked in public service for a set period of time. Soldiering was the profession focused on because Heinlein was interested specifically in self-sacrificing behavior, but it is explicitly laid out that any government work qualifies a person for citizenship, regardless of whether they're a scientist, a pilot, or a janitor. If a person wants citizenship but is totally incapable of any useful work, nasty and annoying work will be created for them to do -- IIRC the example given was counting the hairs on caterpillars by touch -- and so long as they complete their service they can still be a citizen.

Helldivers though, is a satire of American post-911 jingoism. It's loosely inspired off of the movie, which itself is only loosely inspired off of the book.

As a result, trying to draw a direct connection from the book to the game is going to lead to a disappointing lack of similarities. I'd say the satire of Helldivers 2 is better than the movies, simply because the thing it's satirizing actually existed in the world in some meaningful way.

Correct in all regards. Verhoeven was a hack with an agenda who satirized a book that did not exist and openly admitted that he assumed Starship Troopers was pro-fascist propaganda and that he had never read it. It's pure coincidence that he managed to make a pretty funny B-movie. As you say, Helldivers and the sequel are a much funnier take on the topic both because they're produced with more attention to detail and because they're not intrinsically slandering a genuinely interesting book and author by existing.

[Lord Shonus]

Sci fi societies are often parodies or satire of real world societies at the time. I assumed Starship Troopers was satirizing the militant patriotism of the US during the cold war.

The original book (which bears only a passing resemblance to the movie) was basically playing with the idea of "instead of forcing people to vote, what if you only let people vote after they proved they cared". It is Starship Troopers partly because Heinlein was also interested in the then-current debate of conscript vs all-volunteer military, but mostly because Starship Government Clerks would have been a much duller book.

[MaxTheFox]

Heinlein had... weird beliefs (like a lot of sci-fi authors from that era, or any era looks at self) but he wasn't really a fascist.

John Campbell, on the other hand? Outright white supremacist, who vetoed stories where the hero was not a white man, and used aliens as an allegory for his beliefs by always having humans being portrayed as inherently superior. Also adjacent to Scientology.

[Frumple]

Starship Government Clerks would have been a much duller book.

I'unno, maybe not. Depends on where they were clerking, why, regarding what, and so on.

It's not like administrative/etc. fiction can't be exciting; that's the basic conceit behind a lot of legal thrillers at a minimum, and those ain't exactly a placid slice of the literary pie, heh.