MovieChat Forums > The Purge (2013) Discussion > are the New Founding Fathers left or rig...

are the New Founding Fathers left or right wing?

posted 10 years ago by tommix42
51 replies | jump to latest

what do you guys think? Clearly, they would NOT be very pleasant people. I think most of us would agree that these hypothetical New Founding Fathers would be maniacs. But, would you guess that they are right wing maniacs, or left wing maniacs?

The people on the news keep saying "blessed be" the NFF (new founding fathers), and just the word "blessed" makes me think maybe the writers of the screenplay for this movie want us to think that this crazy new USA is supposed to be Christian somehow, although clearly not a form of Christianity that any of my friends would support. Some people would argue that this implies that the NFF might be right wing, although I don't really think that would necessarily be true.

But, the way they talk about the society sounds sort of like a crazy version of (arguably) left wing social science, mixed with demented pop psychology.

I am going to have to watch this again and think about this stuff more. Does anyone here have any theories about this??

coming back to edit: by the way, I guess I'm trying to figure out what the writers of the movie intended for us to think. I don't think that's necessarily the same thing as agreeing with what might be their basic assumptions, like maybe thinking that Christians would be right wing. Also, it is certainly possible that the writers just didn't think this stuff through very carefully, or they meant for us to think tha the NFF were just CRAZY, and had a philosophy comprised of a mixture of right and left wing crazy ideas.

Who's... laughing... NOW?!? BZZZZZZ (hack hack spurt spurt) HA HA HAAA BZZZZZ HA HA HAAA

[–] J_Howlett1886 10 years ago

Seeing as how the only issue we know their stance on is that all crimes should be legal one day a year, there is no way to tell.

[–] DeclanCochran 10 years ago

Couldn't agree more. I really don't see why people need to politicise everything, it briefly occurred to me in the film whether it was a left or right wing goverment, but then I just immediately thought "actually, this isn't a political film".

I immensely enjoyed it though. Fantastic thriller.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What would you do if I died today?

I'd die tomorrow.

[–] Unicorn-9 10 years ago

Left, obviously. The left love their 'purges', and Mao would encourage violent mobs to roam the country, murdering anyone who opposed him. They were also the biggest supporters of the Eugenics movement, and would love to send kids out to murder the homeless.

And then there are the blue flowers. Clearly the Purge supporters must be Democrats.

[–] GravityCakes 9 years ago

Have you heard of Kristallnacht? (And please don't try to argue that the Nazis were left-wing). Other posters have it right -- the filmmaker tried to complicate any easy "left" or "right" -- in the sense of modern American politics -- interpretation of this new government.

"Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I am talking about the central nervous system!"

[–] liven1812 10 years ago

Anything this stupid is the product of mutant ideologies. The right gets to keep their guns, religion, and remove "societal waste", while the left gets to maintain a smothering government that is immune from the rules and violence the rest of society must deal with.

[–] Gidget 9 years ago

The right gets to keep their guns, religion, and remove "societal waste", while the left gets to maintain a smothering government that is immune from the rules and violence the rest of society must deal with.

BRAVO!!

This whole right/left puke - who's the bad guy here? Boiled down to a straight up short & sweet synopsis. I love it when nobody gets off without some splatter.

Deep down, I'm pretty superficial.

[–] RobSac 10 years ago

I suppose you could find references to both modern left and right wing politics. Two that stood out with me were the exemption of a certain level of government employees from being purge victims, law enforcement, etc. and the radio host scoffing at the liberal caller who complained that the poor would be the real victims of the purge, etc.

Regarding the exemption of law enforcement, Florida's Stand Your Ground law, and similar laws in other states, exempt law enforcement from being the targets of vigilant shooters. This, of course, is sort of weird, and wreaks of controlled chaos. I mean, why shouldn't citizens be able to defend themselves against, say, a rogue cop that was trying to kill them in the same way they would against a civilian who was trying to kill them? If Stand Your Ground is really about constitutional rights and defending one's self, it should cover any potential assailant, civilian or sworn officer.

The police exemption tells me that Stand Your Ground laws are not about constitutional rights and self defense. I mean, come on. You can follow someone around, provoke them to attack you, shoot them...as long as they're not a cop? That is very bizarre. So, clearly, some of our laws have already resulted in somewhat of a societal purge, and I think that's the film's point, although of course the film could have been made much better. lol.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AtheistRevolution 10 years ago

Americans always have to break everything down into the tribal mentality of left/right. Like you don't need any free thought and you need to know what ideology something falls into to automatically switch to hating or liking it.US has become the perfectly example of divide and conquer. Keep the masses fighting over ridiculous things so they can never team up against the elite.

- Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

[–] chilblain-2 10 years ago

It's like professional wrestling. The Republicans AND the Democrats both work for the same corporate paymasters and distract us with the theater of social issues like gay marriage and abortion. The real issues - economic, national "security", foreign policy, privacy,
corporate welfare etc. they pretty much vote on identically. There is really only one political party in the United States.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (64621473) 9 years ago

Oh dear. You must be an American, and not a very worldly one at that, if you think the U.S. is the only government divided by left- and right-wing politics.

[–] cwbellor 10 years ago

"coming back to edit: by the way, I guess I'm trying to figure out what the writers of the movie intended for us to think."

It's kind of a false assumption that filmmakers intend for you to think anything specific. A writer or a director has no responsibility to offer a message. He or she needs to only provide a subject for the audience to think about. The hope of the filmmaker is typically that their film will simply provoke thought and inspire discussion whereupon the viewer draws their own conclusion and opinion.

My conclusion after watching it was this. The annual purge had *created* killers. The preppy kids were not evidence of this as much as the neighbors were. In a society like ours with no purge, that snobby blonde woman would be just another snobby blonde woman. But because killing was sanctioned, she became a killer.

"I like fixerin' people gooood!"
- Papa Jupiter

[–] Moonpix1717 10 years ago

They're mostly right wing like how it is now except more powerful. The religion strongly shown, the right to weapons, and to clean society mostly meaning to kill the poor and homeless you know because they are "lazy colored people", and those laws dont effect the political leaders that have them placed, then yeah these are defiantly right wingers.

[–] Redart27 10 years ago

They're fascists.

http://youtu.be/oHg5SJYRHA0

[–] tommix42 10 years ago

you are probably right. Definitely in that particular neighborhood, those people were clearly homeless-icidal (man, that needs to be a real word), and they showed the dark side of their religion, which would have to be Christianity... but, that doesn't necessarily mean the "New Founding Fathers" were right wing, does it? They could be anything, but the people in this area use the Purge to just eradicate poor people.

The more I think about it, the more this movie reminds me of the old Dead Kennedys song "Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill the Poor."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7wEAz7I&feature=kp

here are the lyrics to that song:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deadkennedys/killthepoor.html

Who's... laughing... NOW?!? BZZZZZZ (hack hack spurt spurt) HA HA HAAA BZZZZZ HA HA HAAA

[–] RiseUpMegalon 10 years ago

More like a distorted modern left-wing view of right-wing.

[–] Moonpix1717 10 years ago

What exactly do you mean?

[–] hathawayj1 10 years ago

Go read huffington post and you will see what he means

[–] The_Mob_Has_Spoken 10 years ago

Obviously right wing. How could someone miss this?

"Ass to ass. Ha ha ha ha. ASS TO ASS!"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

[–] The_Mob_Has_Spoken 10 years ago

By which I mean totalitarian fascists. The Purge in the movie was supposed to be like Rome's Coliseum gladiator combat. It served several purposes, economic and social. Only there are problems with the specific premise of the movie. The exemption of "level 10 and higher" government officials, for example: I didn't see their family listed as exempted, did you? And even though it would be as "unlawful" to kill them during a Purge as it would every other day of the year, both the task itself and getting away with it become considerably easier during The Purge. And since there are no police or fire or emergency services during the burge, if the oh-so-tempting targets of anarchist violence aren't hundreds of feet below ground in a vacuum-sealed foot-thick steel vault with supplied air and water and power, they'd be as good as dead. Which in turn means people would have bona fide panic rooms, not just weak steel curtains that could easily be breached by just about anyone. Ethan Hawke's character's clientele seemed to be upper-middle-class and wealthy people. Wouldn't such people, the smartest and most vulnerable, know better than just steel shutters (which are a good start, true)? Also, consider this, too: they said all crime was legal during The Purge, and the viewer assumes "well murder is legal and what could be worse than that?" But what about economic crimes and robberies? Wouldn't people organize 300-person military-style assaults on Fortune 500 companies to raid their vaults and assassinate the board and take over the whole company, all 100%-legal? When creating this premise, it's as if the filmmakers didn't realize how clever people can be because they themselves have somewhat limited imaginations. There are way more sturdy trucks and breakable walls than there are people to stop it in this world, so wouldn't large-scale looting end companies like Best Buy?

"Ass to ass. Ha ha ha ha. ASS TO ASS!"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

[–] tommix42 10 years ago

I heard they are making a sequel to this. I hope they delve into some of the scenarios you are describing.

Yes, the more I think about this, the clearer it is to me that this would have to be a right wing bunch of psychos running the country. Left wing psychos could be pretty horrible in their own way, but in this movie it must be righties. I just posted something somewhere else in this thread about an old song by the Dead Kennedys, Klll the Poor.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deadkennedys/killthepoor.html

Who's... laughing... NOW?!? BZZZZZZ (hack hack spurt spurt) HA HA HAAA BZZZZZ HA HA HAAA

[–] The_Mob_Has_Spoken 10 years ago

"Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables." Own it.

"Ass to ass. Ha ha ha ha. ASS TO ASS!"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

[–] chilblain-2 10 years ago

Combine "Kill The Poor" with DK's "Riot" and you pretty much have the whole picture.
"Tomorrow you're homeless. Tonight it's a blast."

[–] FCMan 10 years ago

There are way more sturdy trucks and breakable walls than there are people to stop it in this world, so wouldn't large-scale looting end companies like Best Buy?

Actually, the Purge would favor the survival of ONLY large companies like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Small businesses can't afford to protect themselves. Big businesses could afford the fortifications and security forces to protect their stores. Every year's Purge Night would eliminate virtually all the small businesses, creating a big business monopoly. I think the New Founding Fathers are most definitely right wing.

[–] chilblain-2 10 years ago

Excellent point

[–] smitty1941 10 years ago

By which I mean totalitarian fascists.

Please explain this oh-so-old attempt at equating conservatism and fascism. Aside from the issues of gay marriage and abortion (on which, one could argue, conservatives are fascistic), conservatism touts small government and individual liberty...in other words, the exact opposite of fascism. It's the leftists who want to install a nanny state, tax everyone into the poorhouse, and redistribute the money as they see fit.

[–] lizardness 9 years ago

Please explain this oh-so-old attempt at equating conservatism and fascism. Aside from the issues of gay marriage and abortion (on which, one could argue, conservatives are fascistic), conservatism touts small government and individual liberty...in other words, the exact opposite of fascism. It's the leftists who want to install a nanny state, tax everyone into the poorhouse, and redistribute the money as they see fit.

The right preaches hate, lies and bigotry while rationalizing it with illogical thinking.

Hate: Hate the "libtards". Dehumanize them. Take away their identity. Harm the truly needy. Protect the fetus but on help for the child. Insults and villianization of anyone who differs from their tired agenda. Be it those who fight for environmental causes (called tree huggers and other vile names) to those who care for animal rights or rights of the poor. It's social Darwinism.

Lies: They're gonna take our jobs. immigrants are gonna destroy the USA with a pandemic. The president "is a Muslim" with no proof. No, he gay. No, he does cocaine. No, his wife is a transvestite. On and on. Rewriting history (i.e. Reagan was a great president, when he was horrible or Bush was right to invade Iraq because they found old unusable WMD from bygone eras.). Guns save lives (when really most people who own guns end up killing themselves, their family or friends. Very, very few protect anyone.)

Bigotry: Against other races. Xenophobia. Against immigrants. Against those who dare to disagree with them. Against those who have obtained an education. Against those who are individualistic.

The hatred behind the "Conservatives" is the main culprit to what is destroying this country from the inside. dividing us. The liberals are not perfect. They are flawed. I think abortion is genocide. I think that food stamps need to be tightly regulated and families rehabilitated. I also do not believe in corporate welfare. I don't believe that it's right that I pay nearly 30% tax.

This movie touches on a what if scenario. What if the very bat-s&&t crazy white wing fringe went so far as to become the new founding fathers as a reactionary action to what they perceive as injustice the left has done. It's not inconceivable, however, I don't think it would be played out in such an overtly ruthless manner. Stand your ground laws, and armed citizens (everywhere) would be the order of the day. Causes the NRA supports. This movie is hyperbole to get it's point across, regardless if you accept it or not.