So in that killer’s mind, wanting someone killed was the morally indefensible crime but actually killing ludicrous numbers of people is not? And he nor anyone else questioned that? 🤔
Bit of context and spoilers -
He was making a statement about social media threats/harassment
The first part - using social media - whoever people vote to be killed, gets killed. Trying to show these actions have consequences. The people voting feel immune to these consequences. They just voted, they didn’t kill anybody.
He goes through 5 rounds of voting, with more votes every time. After each round, the most voted for is killed.
Up to this point he’s exposing people trying to use social media to try and harm people
Eventually he turns it around, and kills everyone who voted
The whole thing kicked off because his friend/romantic interest tried to commit suicide from cyber bullying. He’s pushing that these actions have consequences, even if you hide behind a screen.
The killer himself is a psycho, so the morals aren’t exactly impactful to him. As for anyone else questioning, the definitely do.
Disclaimer - been a while since I watched the episode. It’s pretty good, definitely need some suspension of disbelief (but that’s most episodes)
I get that what he’s trying to do, it’s just his actions are self-defeating. The only reason the behavior on social media has violent consequences is because he’s imposing them; no one else in that story is killing people based on meaningless Facebook polls. They only matter because he makes them matter. He causes the problems he thinks he is solving.
Also he assumes his actions will make people reconsider their choices and change, which they won’t because people for the most part aren’t capable of change. Most people don’t have the ability to do so. Those who do deliberately refuse to because they’re happy the way they are regardless of their true nature’s consequences to other people.
It’s just a stupid gimmicky show pretending to be deep to get views. That’s all.
This is how every episode of Black Mirror is. Just little interesting “what if” scenarios that make you think. In the same way that fairy tales are contrived and unrealistic these are too.
The fact that there’s some discussion going on about it is evidence of that. It’s similar to the “would you press a button for a million dollars but a random person on earth dies” type of question. “Does voting to kill someone mean your responsible for the murder if they’re going to kill someone anyways?”
Behavior on social media can definitely have consequences in real life, even violent. Many shooters vere radicalized by social media groups, for example.
“What if technology was… (wait for it)… just technology, you ape with a gun”
Technology is neither good nor bad, it’s how you use it. The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology… but of course if you blame technology for your own actions, it doesn’t work.
The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology
This is the intent of the vast majority of most science fiction. It doesn’t make Black Mirror’s execution good or insightful. Much of Black Mirror focuses on people “surrendering control” to technology in ways that prove self-destructive or just generally destructive. At their best, many of the stories aren’t really about technology. Technology serves as an aesthetic component, but you could still make the stories work without them. The Orville actually has a better version of Black Mirror’s Season 3, Episode 1 episode “Nosedive.” It actually engages with the underlying themes and ideological basis of a world that operates like that and suggests that the technology isn’t really the problem: it’s how people elect to perceive and judge one another and the ease with which we condemn one another from a distance. It’s not a technological problem, fundamentally, but a cultural one. Technology can facilitate bad behavior or exacerbate negative societal tendencies, but it doesn’t sit at the functional center of them. Because, functionally, it’s just a Salem Witch Trial story with additional technological flavoring on top. This is something that Black Mirror never seems to “get.”
Which is why, and I will stand by this, the best Black Mirror episode is the gay one.
So in that killer’s mind, wanting someone killed was the morally indefensible crime but actually killing ludicrous numbers of people is not? And he nor anyone else questioned that? 🤔
Bit of context and spoilers - He was making a statement about social media threats/harassment
The first part - using social media - whoever people vote to be killed, gets killed. Trying to show these actions have consequences. The people voting feel immune to these consequences. They just voted, they didn’t kill anybody.
He goes through 5 rounds of voting, with more votes every time. After each round, the most voted for is killed.
Up to this point he’s exposing people trying to use social media to try and harm people Eventually he turns it around, and kills everyone who voted
The whole thing kicked off because his friend/romantic interest tried to commit suicide from cyber bullying. He’s pushing that these actions have consequences, even if you hide behind a screen.
The killer himself is a psycho, so the morals aren’t exactly impactful to him. As for anyone else questioning, the definitely do.
Disclaimer - been a while since I watched the episode. It’s pretty good, definitely need some suspension of disbelief (but that’s most episodes)
I get that what he’s trying to do, it’s just his actions are self-defeating. The only reason the behavior on social media has violent consequences is because he’s imposing them; no one else in that story is killing people based on meaningless Facebook polls. They only matter because he makes them matter. He causes the problems he thinks he is solving.
Also he assumes his actions will make people reconsider their choices and change, which they won’t because people for the most part aren’t capable of change. Most people don’t have the ability to do so. Those who do deliberately refuse to because they’re happy the way they are regardless of their true nature’s consequences to other people.
It’s just a stupid gimmicky show pretending to be deep to get views. That’s all.
This is how every episode of Black Mirror is. Just little interesting “what if” scenarios that make you think. In the same way that fairy tales are contrived and unrealistic these are too.
How does this make you think?
The fact that there’s some discussion going on about it is evidence of that. It’s similar to the “would you press a button for a million dollars but a random person on earth dies” type of question. “Does voting to kill someone mean your responsible for the murder if they’re going to kill someone anyways?”
I’m sorry i was just being mean to be mean. I think blackmirror is as thought provoking or interesting as the big bang theory
Bazinga!
Behavior on social media can definitely have consequences in real life, even violent. Many shooters vere radicalized by social media groups, for example.
A fair point. The episode just doesn’t demonstrate it well at all.
Yeah people don’t think too deep about TV shows
That’s their problem, especially with a show like Black Mirror for which the whole point is to make people think
“What if technology was…(wait for it)…bad sometimes.”
So thought provoking. I stand by my opinion that the only good episode of Black Mirror is the gay one.
“What if technology was… (wait for it)… just technology, you ape with a gun”
Technology is neither good nor bad, it’s how you use it. The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology… but of course if you blame technology for your own actions, it doesn’t work.
This is the intent of the vast majority of most science fiction. It doesn’t make Black Mirror’s execution good or insightful. Much of Black Mirror focuses on people “surrendering control” to technology in ways that prove self-destructive or just generally destructive. At their best, many of the stories aren’t really about technology. Technology serves as an aesthetic component, but you could still make the stories work without them. The Orville actually has a better version of Black Mirror’s Season 3, Episode 1 episode “Nosedive.” It actually engages with the underlying themes and ideological basis of a world that operates like that and suggests that the technology isn’t really the problem: it’s how people elect to perceive and judge one another and the ease with which we condemn one another from a distance. It’s not a technological problem, fundamentally, but a cultural one. Technology can facilitate bad behavior or exacerbate negative societal tendencies, but it doesn’t sit at the functional center of them. Because, functionally, it’s just a Salem Witch Trial story with additional technological flavoring on top. This is something that Black Mirror never seems to “get.”
Which is why, and I will stand by this, the best Black Mirror episode is the gay one.
Why the gay one? Are you sure your favorite isn’t the one where miley cirus gets trapped in one of those apple robot dogs from the 2000’s or whatever?
Because the gay one is hella cute and I’m all about that shit.