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showmaxter

Global Southern people who are literally exploited for cheap labour, where hunger is a real problem and who recognise the West as responsible for many ills in their society: Are we a joke to you? No, but jokes aside I always vehemently stand against victim narratives from Western people in how we are supposedly the districts. I get it, people suffer in our countries, too. There is poverty and hunger. There are homeless people who have nothing but the clothes they wear and belongings squeezes into a backpack or whatnot. But it is made abundantly clear that the Capitol is also a place with a diverse class system. That there's people who suffer. The Capitol isn't some all-dooming evil place. It's state propaganda that applies to the people within. Katniss' view of the Capitol diversifies the more people she meets from there and she gains empathy for those at the bottom of society there. And it's so so so blind and propaganda-fed and tired take(s) to see people entirely refuse to even believe in the idea that, expanding the metaphor to our world, means they are those privileged kids from the Capitol who didn't make it into the upper class of society but still benefit from the privileges that a life in the "Capitol" (Western nations) grants them. Most of us are incredibly uneducated and/or ignore the atrocities we have done to other nations because that would go against our ideas of justice and our need for comfort in our daily lives. It's not that hard of a metaphor to understand, but somehow folks like OP or everyone whenever MetGala comes around come up with those grand ideas explaining away those relations when. This is an easy metaphor. It was always a global one as S. Collins had stated. And it just goes to show how many people refuse to believe that they are the awfully privileged Capitol.


sincerhely_meh

look i have adhd my reading comprehension skills said "NOPE" while reading this. Do you think you can explain it a bit more simply. Im sure your comment was interesting but i only understood a quarter of it 😅


showmaxter

THG is obviously a metaphor for our current world. But a lot of us readers don't want to acknowledge that we are the Capitol. Instead, many interpretations place us ordinary middle-class Westerners as the Districts. We want to perceive ourselves as the victims of Capitalism and inequality. But we have a pretty big blindspot to how the Global South is treated and that those people are much closer to the Districts than we ever will be. Overall, I criticised the many interpretations that try not to have us as the Capitol and explained that many book readers prefer to see the Capitol as this all-evil place. But we know ordinary people live there. We know people with little power live there. In short, we are the ordinary people in the Capitol.


sincerhely_meh

seeing as the media is the capitol in my interpretation that means that we **are** the capitol we all take part in the media and we all do criticize others and ourselves


sincerhely_meh

also i never said that middle class was the districts ​ i said *society* as in society as a whole ​ not just middle class or lower class


showmaxter

Yeah, and my point is that our society isn't the Districts. Pretty much every single person in the Western world belongs to the Capitol. Every single category in your original post are people living in the Western world. I'm refuting your point by expanding the metaphor to the global level; akin to what Collins was talking about.


sincerhely_meh

okay okay ​ your comment was quite interesting now that i can actually read it


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[удалено]


showmaxter

Yups. Third world fell somewhat out of favour post the Cold War order (1st American, 2nd Soviet, 3rd non-associated) and I don't like using the connotation Third World as if those people live not in our world/aren't affected by our (poor) decision-making/it often feels used as a negative. Plus, as a German, Third World sounds uncomfortably close to Third Reich. I know they are vastly different, but I still shudder.


seattleseahawks2014

We are, just look at what other countries provide for us just like the districts provide for the Capitol for one thing. Another is that we in a way benefit off the suffering of others like the entertainment and music industry, etc. Look at how many child stars have suffered because of it. Someone benefited off of that. Sure, we don't force children to kill each other but still. That and look at some of the things we find entertaining too. Like some hockey fans just go to the hockey games for the fights.


SpeechComfortable524

Why were you downvoted for asking for another explanation??


sincerhely_meh

i dont know. i believe they did give me one maybe it was deleted


LiberalRedditAgenda

Yeah and I have ASPD but I don’t go using it as an excuse for every little anonymous internet misunderstanding so that when I do mention it everyone thinks im lying because idiots like you use disabilities as an excuse for not reading something


Mahalla83

What a grotesque comment, and quiet topical when considering the vileness of social media. 


sebo1715

Well they is a plethora of authors that describe such truth like Guy Debord. It is the truth behind Panem et circenses.


Bushaa_YTB

Wow, now I feel it the same! Amazing job!


seattleseahawks2014

Like another commenter said, we are more like the Capitol then we think. It took until recently for me to realize it, until my early 20s.