{"id":9772,"date":"2016-11-22T08:15:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T16:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=9772"},"modified":"2019-12-24T08:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T16:00:07","slug":"star-wars-without-politics-wouldnt-be-star-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2016\/11\/22\/star-wars-without-politics-wouldnt-be-star-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars Without Politics Wouldn\u2019t Be Star Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:2778,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.themarysue.com\\\/rogue-one-anti-trump-messaging&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250426215032\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.themarysue.com\\\/rogue-one-anti-trump-messaging\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-05 01:15:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 00:40:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 18:23:13&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 19:53:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:04&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2779,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.starwars.com\\\/news\\\/from-world-war-to-star-wars-rise-of-an-empire&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20211124212658\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.starwars.com\\\/news\\\/from-world-war-to-star-wars-rise-of-an-empire&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-05 01:30:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 00:40:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 18:23:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 19:53:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:16:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:16:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2780,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.themarysue.com\\\/nazi-sith-lords&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250912165330\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.themarysue.com\\\/nazi-sith-lords\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-05 01:30:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 00:40:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 18:23:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 19:53:31&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2781,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.calvin.edu\\\/chimes\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/09\\\/the-furiosa-test-developed-from-female-presence-in-mad-max-fury-road&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20170719040357\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.calvin.edu:80\\\/chimes\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/09\\\/the-furiosa-test-developed-from-female-presence-in-mad-max-fury-road\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-05 01:30:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 00:40:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 18:23:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 19:53:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-24 19:17:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Disappointed that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/rogue-one-anti-trump-messaging\/\" title=\"The Mary Sue: Will Rogue One Appeal to Trump Supporters? Probably Not\u2026 Which Poses a Problem for Disney\u2019s Bottom Line\">these two tweets by <em>Star Wars: Rogue One<\/em> writers<\/a> were removed (but not terribly surprised, especially if the deletions were decreed by the Powers Above):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  On November 11, 2016, Rogue One writer Chris Weitz tweeted: &#8220;Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization.&#8221; He later deleted that tweet after receiving lots of complaints from other Twitter users, many of whom asked him to stop &#8220;injecting politics&#8221; into Star Wars. Weitz clarified in one response tweet, &#8220;My apologies. You have a right to enjoy it as you wish; and I don&#8217;t wish to harm my colleagues&#8217; work either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Weitz&#8217; colleague,\u00a0Gary Whitta, had already written his own response to the tweet comparing the Star Wars Empire to white supremacy, which said: &#8220;Opposed by a multicultural group led by brave women.&#8221;\u00a0Whitta&#8217;s tweet has also since been deleted.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have just as much sympathy (to wit: absolutely none) with people whining about &#8220;injecting politics&#8221; into Star Wars as those who did the same with Star Trek (most recently, regarding Bryan Fuller&#8217;s preparation for <em>Star Trek: Discovery<\/em>). Politics are integral to these stories. Even if you try to ignore the parallels between the Empire and the Nazi regime (which were explicit and intentional in both the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starwars.com\/news\/from-world-war-to-star-wars-rise-of-an-empire\" title=\"StarWars.com: FROM WORLD WAR TO STAR WARS: RISE OF AN EMPIRE\">original films<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/nazi-sith-lords\/\" title=\"The Mary Sue: J.J. Abrams Cites the Nazis As Inspiration for The First Order in The Force Awakens\">in <em>The Force Awakens<\/em><\/a>, so attempting to ignore that is rather ridiculous), the Star Wars prequels open with the Trade Federation controlling a blockade around a planet at the bidding of Chancellor Palpatine&#8230;but, no, sorry, that has nothing to do with politics. How silly of me.<\/p>\n<p>All these people really mean is that they don&#8217;t want <em>their<\/em> politics to be called out as the bad guys&#8230;but, c&#8217;mon, if the shoe fits&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>So <em>Rogue One<\/em> has already been passing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calvin.edu\/chimes\/2015\/11\/09\/the-furiosa-test-developed-from-female-presence-in-mad-max-fury-road\/\" title=\"Calvin College Chimes: The Furiosa Test developed from female presence in Mad Max: Fury Road\">Furiosa Test<\/a> (Do people on the internet get mad about it being feminist?), and now Trump supporters might be staying away as well (though, really, the two groups do seem to have a lot of overlap)? I don&#8217;t see much of a downside to that. I&#8217;d certainly be quite happy going to a movie knowing that there&#8217;s a smaller-than-normal chance of being surrounded by those types of people, and given the juggernaut that Star Wars is, I just don&#8217;t see a major impact on their bottom line from this. Win-win for everyone!<\/p>\n<p>Except the Empire, perhaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please note that the Empire is a white supremacist (human) organization. Opposed by a multicultural group led by brave women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042,2037],"tags":[23,14,1400,1574],"class_list":["post-9772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-tv-and-films","tag-film","tag-politics","tag-rogue-one","tag-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}