Michael’s answer to “Is this book as racist as Flashback? That made me question my Dan Simmons love and wonder if I wou…” > Likes and Comments

I like futuristic scenarios and dystopias as much as the next person. But when you are so clearly on one side of the issue and are just fear-mongering and slandering whole races and peoples, that’s another thing. And to do it all based on what’s happening now when you clearly have an agenda doesn’t make for a good story, just a wild philosophy run amok. I mean it’s just too hard for me to believe that our economy collapsed because Jeb Bush took over the country and got us into n war on a phony pretext. And that pregnant women would be put into camps and forced to give birth just because republicans don’t seem to care about women’s rights. And that most of the people in the US end up dying because Obamacare gets repealed. And that the keystone pipeline opens and causes irreparable damage to the environment. Then, on top of that, to claim that the republicans are so fearful that they would put all people of color in internment camps? It all seems a little crazy. Not to mention the constant slurs against white people. It’s not that I didn’t believe it could happen, more like I felt that some crazy ideology was trying to be shoved down my throat. But I guess you don’t remember it that way.

I'm very confused. Almost every single person who commented on the book complained about how right wing conservative it was and how the left destroyed America. With Islam defeating the Americans and the Japanese cutting up and owning the separate sections and Obama being blamed by a character in the book. But the book shows different viewpoints about what has happened in this fictional dystopian society so it's fuel for both sides but mostly for conservative hating on liberals as the liberal policies are what is mostly shown to have caused the downfall. But it's a minor part of the book.

I'm not sure you quite understood what you were reading based on your response.

I felt Simmons favored political orientation, as far as I can tell, was more libertarian than conservative. I also have no clue about Christopher means about racism. But I also know liberals--ones who are vocal online anyway--have a strong, emotional reaction to libertarian ideas, especially when it comes to economics.

To me, the strong negative reactions to Flashback seem to support Jonathan's Haidt research, which shows that when it comes to political beliefs, people are morally attached to them, which gives rise to all sorts of defensiveness and bias. And no political orientation is immune from such psychological barriers. We're all in the same boat on this one, unless we make it a conscious goal to question with the same critical mind any political-economic claim.