dystopian fiction doesn’t work because no matter how much you confront the average person with the flaws in our current system, they still won’t understand that alternative systems are possible or what those would look like, so they either descend into doomerism about it or learn how to turn off their empathy for others

we need fiction with a proactive message - like fiction that juxtaposes two societies, one better than the other - or fiction that shows how to fight for a better world and how/why that works. or hell how about you just show people a society that they would prefer to live in and show them how it’s possible to create that

but you can’t just be like “capitalism bad” because everybody already knows that homeless people and starvation exist

@kasdeya I finally read the Monk and Robot books, and the first one especially, "Psalm for the Wild Built", does actually live up to the hype. It's kinda slice of life + low stakes adventure, in a different society. It is really cool in that it shows a working society where basically they decided to be better hundreds of years ago, and then that's the setting for the book. I think you might like it, it actually felt cozy. (The second one is good too, although a little more heavy on the emotions- not entirely in a bad way though.)

@kasdeya i have this story idea that opens with a journalist going to a rural new england town meeting where they’re going to discuss and vote on shutting down the largest road through the town to through traffic - and discovering that the town and several around it were undergoing quiet revolutions (including public transit) while nobody was looking.

@tryst oohh that concept sounds really cool to explore

@Shivaekul oohh… I might give this a read - thank you for the recommendation! it definitely sounds promising