Overcritical

Ready Player One is one of those movies that's fun and pretty on the surface but leads to some interesting - and even some troubling - ideas about nostalgia and what sort of future we're walking into. My special guest, Aaron Thorpe, joins me for a meandering conversation about what "the good old days" really means for a generation that increasingly feels futureless. Follow Aaron's Work! Aaron's Twitter The Trillbillies Everybody Loves Communism Struggle Session Follow me on social media! My Twitter Podcast Twitter Podcast Instagram Also here's that video I referenced Stranger Things, IT and the Upside Down of Nostalgia by Lindsey Ellis

The original Top Gun is very much a movie of its time, in its presentation...and also its politics. Let's just say I was surprised at how much I disliked Tom Cruise, especially given how modern Cruise movies try so hard to make him extremely likeable. CONTENT WARNING: Talk about sexual assault in the military happens at 12:32 to 18:42 and at 33:10 to 36:30. Follow me on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast Sources: 1) ‘A Poison in the System’: The Epidemic of Military Sexual Assault 2) Legacy of the Tailhook Scandal | Retro Report | The New York Times 3) Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies by David L. Robb Music: Intro Song: Bangarang (Instrumental) by AGROCULTURE Opening Theme by Harold Faltermeyer - Top Gun OST Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins Take My Breath Away by Berlin Serious Dark Ambient Atmosphere by Ashot Danielyan Elevator Music Lofi Background Music For Video by Lesfm

I'm joined today by Elena Ortiz and Sungmanitu of The Red Nation and Red Media to talk about Taylor Sheridan's universe of Western genre movies and TV and the many problems with his writing of indigenous issues, characters, and themes. Plus, the eternal thorn-in-the-side that is Kevin Costner! Check out Red Media! TheRedNation.org Red Media Patreon The Red Nation Twitter Sungmanitu's Twitter Elena's Twitter Follow me on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast

I sit down with Pearson Bolt from Coffee with Comrades to discuss the absolute trip of a show that is Squid Game (2021) and how capitalism can absorb even the most scathing anti-capitalist messages to its own benefit. Spoilers beware! Follow me on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast Follow Pearson and Coffee with Comrades! Twitter: @PearsonBolt and @CoffeewithComrades Instagram: @CoffeewithComrades Website: http://coffeewithcomrades.com/

Karl Marx already predicted NFTs, but did you know he also predicted how Ryan Gosling would play the character of a forever alone android in Blade Runner 2049? Bio-engineered robots are workers too, you know! Sources: 1) Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: Estranged Labour Music: Show Intro Song: BANGARANG by Agroculture 1) 2049 - Blade Runner 2049 OST 2) Sapper's Tree - Blade Runner 2049 OST 3) Flight to LAPD - Blade Runner 2049 OST 4) Signals III by Sabled Sun 5) Elevator Music Lofi Background Music For Videos by Lesfm 6) That's Why We Believe - Blade Runner 2049 OST 7) Memory - Blade Runner 2049 OST 8) Tears in the Rain - Blade Runner 2049 OST

This episode contains full spoilers for The Northman (2022)! Listener beware! The Nordic Mythology Podcast with Mathias Nordvig and Daniel Farrand Dr. Nordvig's academic work Midgardsblot Metal Festival 2022 hyldyr.com Follow me on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Ben Shapiro's tone-deaf school shooter movie deserves a very close look at how it aims to do nothing except appeal to the fantasies of the right-wing gun-toting audience it's clearly marketing towards. Sources: 1) How a Right-Wing Movie Studio Enabled the ‘Harvey Weinstein’ of Indie Film 2) School Shooting Drama ‘Run Hide Fight’, Made In Secret By ‘Night Of The Living Deb’ Director... 3) Did Bonfire Legend Go Too Far by Shooting a Live Deer for Run Hide Fight?

Surprise! The Marvel comic book franchise most closely associated with the military-industrial complex doesn't handle the depiction of anarchy and anarchist characters very well. I was totally expecting Disney Plus and the MCU to handle these ideas with care. **THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE FIRST SEASON OF THE SHOW** Sources: 1) Revolutionary Villains Are Turned Into Monsters so That We Don’t Support Them 2) 'Captain Marvel' Effect? Air Force Academy Sees Most Female Applicants in 5 Years 3) Documents Expose How Hollywood Promotes War on Behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA Music: Intro Song - Bangarang by AGROCULTURE 1) Elevator Music Lofi Background Music For Video by Lesfm 2) VERGNUGUNGSPARK by Gerhard Trede

Hello Kitty meets The Office meets Corporate. Who knew an anime about an adorable red panda would be such a scathing political indictment of the dehumanizing structure of the modern day capitalist workplace? Follow me on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast Sources: 1) Hello Kitty turns 40, draws 25,000 fans to first 'Hello Kitty Con' 2) Why Japan can't shake sexism 3) Gender discrimination comes in many forms for today’s working women 4) The Great Resignation continues, as 44% of workers look for a new job 5) Working From Home, Japan’s Corporate Warriors Rethink Their Priorities

We're finishing out strong here - The Division is perhaps the most problematic of all the Tom Clancy games we've looked at thus far...and that's saying something. We all love a good fascist government agency with no oversight and extra-legal authority! Follow us on social media! Twitter: @TallLeftist and @OvercriticalPod Instagram: @OvercriticalPodcast Facebook: Overcritical Podcast Sources: 1) Everything’s becoming a subscription, and the pandemic is partly to blame 2) Car Buyers Expected to Pay Extra $135 Monthly for Subscriptions: GM 3) What is Rikers Island? 4) Games That You Can't Let Yourself Think About Music: 1) Elevator Music Lofi Background Music For Video by Lesfm 2) Prologue - The Division Original Soundtrack 3) Track 001 - The Division Original Soundtrack 4) Track 009 - The Division Original Soundtrack 5) Track 059 - The Division Original Soundtrack 6) Track 064 - The Division Original Soundtrack 7) Track 108 - The Division Original Soundtrack 8) Rooftops - The Division 2 Original Soundtrack 9) The Beginning is the End - The Division 2 Original Soundtrack 10) Prologue 2 - The Division 2 Original Soundtrack

We're almost done with Clancy! Surprisingly, World War 3 and a flight sim turned out to be some of the least problematic stuff we've looked at so far, so that's saying something. An episode that's short and sweet, just the way I like it. Enjoy! Sources: 1) "Backgrounder on Russian Fuel Air Explosives ("Vacuum Bombs") | Human Rights Watch" Music: 1) Menu 01 - EndWar Original Soundtrack 2) Main 02a - EndWar Original Soundtrack 3) Tense Detective Looped Drone by ZakharValaha 4) Ending Credits - H.A.W.X. Original Soundtrack 5) Artemis Ascendance - H.A.W.X. Original Soundtrack

Guns and explosions give way to sneaky-sneak spy shenanigans in this Tom Clancy franchise. But does the quieter tone mean a more carefully written story? Signs point to "no." Torture is bad, okay, kids? Sources: 1) Monastery Divides Georgia and Azerbaijan 2) A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia in the 1990s 3) Report: U.S. Arms Transfers to Indonesia 1975–1997 World Policy Institute 4) Public Committee Against Torture v. Israel 5) BBC News: Israeli 'torture' methods illegal 6) John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights by David S. Reynolds 7) Grim's Character Design History 8) Death Highway, Revisisted - TIME 9) Hidden Agendas by John Pilger 10) Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp

Based bugs. Sources: 1) Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts 2) Fear of Losing Health Insurance Keeps 1 in 6 in Their Jobs Music: Time of Your Life - A Bug's Life OST

Being an operator isn't quite operator as fuck, it turns out. The Ghost Recon games have a whole host of problems when it comes to promoting U.S. hegemony and intervention. Sources: 1) Shooters: How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers 2) U.S. Army and Ubisoft Join Forces in Unprecedented Agreement to Deploy America's Army Brand Worldwide 3) GDC 2005 Proceeding: Ghost Redux - Production Challenges for Ghost Recon 2 Xbox 4) Ghost Recon 2 Interview, Xbox Addict 5) Ghost Recon 2: Lone Wolf 6) The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the “Skull Mask” Neo-Fascist Network 7) A History of The Punisher Logo Being Used By Police, Military & Politicians Music: 1) Main Theme - Ghost Recon OST 2) Action 1 - Ghost Recon OST 3) Intro Music - Ghost Recon Island Thunder OST 4) Main Theme - Ghost Recon 2 5) Silo by Elsewhere 6) Drums 24 by 1tamara2 7) Let's Do This - GRAW OST 8) Get to the Embassy - GRAW OST 9) Future Soldier - Ghost Recon Future Soldier OST 10) MILSIM EXFIL by John Emmons 11) Drive to Rancho Sabala - Ghost Recon Wildlands OST 12) Music ID 125 - Ghost Recon Wildlands OST

When Tom Clancy had built enough of a name for himself to where he felt he could start slapping that name onto video games, he started what would eventually becoming a multi-million dollar video game franchise that continues to this day, even after his death. But where did this franchise come from? And just how problematic are the Tom Clancy games? Today, we're starting our five part deep-dive into the Tom Clancy video game empire with the one that started it all: Rainbow Six. Sources: 1) Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness by Cameron Kunzelman 2) The Kurds' Democratic Experiment by Carne Ross 3) Tracking the Origins of a State Terror Network: Operation Condor by J. Patrice McSherry 4) Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The American Republics, Volume IV 5) Bush Officials Met With Venezuelans Who Ousted Leader by Christopher Marquis 6) Social Change and Health Policy in Venezuela 7) The Story of Rainbow Six Patriots Music: 1) Track 09 - Rainbow Six Original Soundtrack 2) Ubisoft Logo (2004) Theme (Extended - Full Edit) 3) Track 10 - Rainbow Six Original Soundtrack 4) Samai Bayati (Maqam Bayati) 5) Qué bonita es Venezuela 6) El Trancao 7) MILSIM: EXFIL 8) Hell's Gate - Finding Kan - Rainbow Six Vegas Original Soundtrack 9) In Pursuit of Miguel - Hell's Gate Remix - Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Original Soundtrack

On our first guest episode we brought on Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie on Twitter) to discuss the latest movie about our favorite dark knight: The Batman! Spoilers beware! (also, don't worry, this isn't gonna turn into a Batman-only podcast)

Ever wonder why Bruce Wayne doesn't just use his immense wealth (and not his fists) to fix the problems that keep plaguing Gotham? Well, that might actually turn out to be a bad thing, given the track record of billionaires trying to fix social problems. Sources: 1) World Health Organization Patent Waiver proposal 2) Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe 3) 11 big recent cultural gifts, by Ken Griffin and others in Chicago 4) New Orleans ends its relationship with tech firm Palantir 5) Devastating consequences — professional and personal — for cops who 'rat' about misconduct 6) Batman doesn't like help (lol)

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what it’s like living among the stars? Have you dreamt about exploring the far reaches of outer space? Do you like diving into sci-fi movies or TV shows just to live vicariously through the characters on screen? Have you ever noticed how so, so much fiction media about space-travel, past and present, is just an examination of why capitalism sucks? Sources: 1. The Economics of Star Trek by Rick Webb

In this premiere episode of Overcritical, we're taking a look at the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010). What could possibly go wrong with setting your gamer-bro shoot-em-up in the Vietnam War? (Spoilers: a lot can go wrong) Sources: 1. Georgia Department of Education: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Documents/Social-Studies-US-History-Unit-9-Sample-Unit.pdf 2. Targeting Texas: Social Studies Panel May Include Right-Wing Ideologues: https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/targeting-texas-social-studies-panel-may-include-right-wing-ideologues 3. 2009 TEKS Review by David Barton: https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/Bartoncurrent.pdf 4. Ernesto "Che" Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present) by Douglas Kellner: https://archive.org/details/ernestocheguevar0000kell/page/112 5. Big Business Rules American Agriculture—and Congress Doesn’t Seem to Care: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/big-business-rules-american-agriculture-congress-doesnt-seem-care/ 6. Agrarian Reforms in Cuba by James O'Connor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40401340?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A02e7e38c8867c44db6e3c75e792a2bfc&seq=15#page_scan_tab_contents 7. The U.S. Marines in Vietnam: 1968, the Decisive Year by Jack Shulimson, Leonard Blaisol, Charles R. Smith, David Dawson 8. Tonkin Gulf and the escalation of the Vietnam War by Edwin E. Moise: https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002 9. Military Assistance Command Studies and Observations Group, Joint Chiefs of Staff 10. Tet Offensive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive 11. The Massacre at My Lai by Seymour M. Hersh: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/01/22/coverup 12. Company C: Actions on 16 and 17 March 1968, The Peers Report: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Ccompany.html 13. Agent Orange Still Haunts Vietnam, US, the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401077_4.html