me watching monsters inc as a kid: how did it take so long for anyone to figure out that human child laughter not only produced energy like screams, but was more effective, and that children aren’t actually dangerous at all?
me watching monsters inc now: monsters incorporated, a multi-billion dollar corporate giant, stood to make extra profits off a scream shortage because low supply with high demand makes it possible to charge a fortune for a necessary commodity and everyone has no choice but to pay the high prices because they can’t go without electricity. Therefore Monsters Inc, as well as any other major powers that may have existed at the start of the era of using scream energy, fabricated the idea that only screams could generate sustainable energy sources in order to create artificial scarcity, because laugh energy was far easier to obtain and far more efficient, and therefore stood to lower the value of energy due to surplus. They also fabricated the idea that human children were toxic, in order to a) make other monsters too afraid to go near them to do research and possibly discover the secret of laugh energy, and b) to make monsters so afraid of going near them that there is a shortage of scarers, making it harder for rival companies to rise up and create competition. Even in the monster world, capitalism is based on lies, greed and cruelty, and even monster companies have no qualms about using and abusing children to maximize profits.
shitty sci fi writers: “they’re aliens so they aren’t politically correct and they say slurs!”
decent sci fi writers: “they’re aliens so they wouldn’t know human slurs in the first place”
good sci fi writers: *kicking the shit out of the shitty sci fi writers*
also “oh the translator is just translating it as a slur” argument…why would the translation software have the slurs in it?
god tier sci fi writers: a human says a slur, the translator says “this is a discriminatory term for humans with darker skin” and the aliens nod and then promptly beat the shit out of the human
