ok so after watching Wonka I can definitively state it is entrepreneurial capitalist propaganda which positions our protagonist, the “noble” Willy Wonka, as a revolutionary overthrowing the monopolistic chocolate cabal. Unfortunately, Willy is nothing of the sort. Due to the nature of value and the capitalist mode of production, Willy Wonka MUST exploit his workers to make profit, and if he ran at a loss or just barely breaking even, he would quickly lose to less ethical companies. In a sense, we live in a world where a Willy Wonka cannot exist. This is why we will never have an Everlasting Gobstopper until we achieve communism.

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      I hate this revisionism towards Wonka in the latest movie making him seem benevolent or normal. In the book and the original Gene Wilder adaptation Wonka is very morally ambiguous - basically setting up Saw traps for children in his extremely unsafe factory where his slave race works for him, but at the same time caring a lot about making legitimately good candy for kids and being very creative. He should not be seen as a protagonist or hero really, he’s got to be an enigmatic weirdo and fae-like villain. He needs to be capricious, fickle and vain like the greek gods.