Thread by @AukeHoekstra

How I see #DontLookUp: an unintended self-parody of the makers on their own superficiality and uncritical acceptance of US exceptionalism.

I'm really glad that e.g. the reaction to COVID shows that we are not as dysfunctional as their Hollywood script demands.

A rant 🧵

I understand the moviemakers probably meant to satirise others but I feel they mostly parodied themselves.

The system that captured them and the training they received seems to make it almost impossible for them to engage with hard science in a meaningful way.

And I think Trump is a mad and dangerous enemy of truth but the caricature of him and his followers will only convince them you are smug & stupid. It's an easy way to get cheap laughs but will only polarize the issue further: #nothelping.

I understand some (understandably) frustrated climate scientists might view it as comic relief. But don't be childish.

Do you really think this movie convinced anybody?

And I dare you to explain what constructive new lesson people have learned from watching it.

Although it's absolutely true that the media and politics (especially in the US) are a bit dysfunctional, the robust international reaction to COVID (a problem 100x smaller than a planet killer) shows that their self-imagined stranglehold on the narrative is grandstanding.

They are like the president and her son in the movie: too self obsessed and focussed on what sells to question their own narratives.

So they make another imbecile catastrophe movie - now with laughs! - trivializing the science and the solutions they are unwilling to understand.

Nonetheless it is absolutely true that Hollywood and the media could and should be helping - not hurting - the effort to combat climate change and they could and should be a powerful force for good instead of evil.

I think we don't need another movie telling us we just have months to act and governments are not doing anything and media people are dysfunctional so we're all doomed. It you want to make another lazy disempowering movie like that: just board a Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship.

Here's to hoping that I may see the day a stellar cast like this supports a writer humble enough to actually try & understand the reality this is about. Both the problem (the climate scientists) and the solutions that plenty of other scientists are working on.

And pls don't interview only the loudest and most disappointed climate scientists and dumb them down further. Also interview the nuanced ones and the scientists who wrote IPCC WG3. Then try to do just a smidgeon of justice to what they tell you. And read some science yourself!

I know that nuanced and realistic movies are harder to sell. But maybe it could become a cult film that gave thousands if not millions of young people hope & action perspective. And maybe there are some actors out there who would help out for little money, knowing they did good.

Sorry if I offended well meaning participants or enthusiastic viewers and I understand this is just my perspective.

End rant.

The reactions I'm constantly getting amount to: you defend X who should have done Y.

But what I'm saying is:

Global warming is a complex problem. Not a simple comet.

Improving institutional responses is not achieved by depicting everyone who doesn't agree with you as an idiot.

If global warming is a comet, then it was created by the buying and voting behavior of YOU: the viewer of the movie.

Governments, corporations and media where just the middlemen acting on your behalf.

What are you going to do to improve your (and indirectly their) behavior?

I also agree with @atrembath of the @TheBTI who
wrote it up very well in @Forbes.
ht @mrbig_panda foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/18/don…