This would be a lot easier to get behind if it didn't push things to such extremes. Saying that life has similarities with squid game is one thing, but trying to claim that it is literally exactly the same loses me. It was genuinely difficult for me to continue reading when I got to "the condition of the human person surviving in the real world is different only in the respect that it is worse while masquerading as better".

Funny how quotes such as those come from people that live in enough comfort and luxury to be writing those sorts of meanderings.

Your life isn’t bad. By the standards of the world you’re living in the lap of luxury. I hate this “oh my life is so hard it’s basically squid game” rhetoric from people writing an op Ed in their air conditioned living room on their laptop with a fridge of food 20 feet away. The people who write this have never faced any real hardship, their bar for a bad or hard life is incredibly low.

/r/gatekeeping

That’s not gatekeeping. It’s just being sick of the same “my life is so hard” pieces when it objectively isn’t.

I think the author is correct in how she points out the relatability of the fictional premise. The show is meant to appeal to a wide audience, so not everyone watching it will be at the basest levels of poverty. That doesn't mean they can't relate to the themes of the Squid Game in their own lives. As a viewer of the content, socio-economic standing is irrelevant.

The author also should be cut some slack for being a philosophy student. Her income is irrelevant. Academia and specifically college student work is where I would hope treatises on modern day philosophy would originate.

Squid Game is a spectacle. It may look like a critique of class struggle and exploitation, but it is designed primarily to entertain us. Essentially it puts us the viewers in the same seat as the wealthy patrons in the show. We are invited to watch from a distance, to be entertained by the thrills, the horrors, and the drama. Although I did enjoy watching it, I have to say that the show examines social problems only at a superficial level. Ultimately it’s another entertainment product designed to make money.

But philosophy is about the love of wisdom yet your cognitive dissonance makes you unable to continue researching… that is not philosophy.

Not working hard everyday makes you idle.

And you know the saying? An idle mind is a devil's workshop.

I always wonder what it is any of these folks do to make the world a better place that they think it should be. It’s really easy pointing all out all of the flaws in modern life. But what are they doing to make things better?

If it wanted to be a critique, it should have killed the MC in one of the games and then just ended abruptly. It still would be entertainment, but at least it would deprive the viewer of narrative payoff, just like in the lives of all those who didn't win.

Losers vs losers. No class struggle. Same class trying to obliterate the other while the elite enjoy the spectacle

Yes you are right. We all most probably do if not we would not be talking about philosophy. We'd be sleeping or worrying about other things than philosophy.

Agree

It is no class struggle drama. It’s a class with no hope fighting against each other with the sole aim of making money