Take a photo of a barcode or cover
kcnicola 's review for:
I loved Stand Still, Stay Silent; for a while, I'd have gone so far as to call it a hyperfixation. As such, when I first learned that it ended, I felt a pang in my chest and a sorrow in my brain. "That...was abrupt," I thought to myself. "What caused this?"
The short answer came as an author's note Sundberg left on the webcomic's website: in 2020, she had converted to Christianity and embarked on an alternative path. What that precise path is, is something which I still have not properly investigated as of the time of my writing this review. And given what I know now—including knowledge of the contents of Lovely People—I'm not sure if I want to.
The simplest way to describe this comic is via one word: propaganda. To be more specific, it is Christian fundamentalist propaganda (with a subtle yet disquieting dosage of COVID-19 fearmongering, which I'll get to shortly). The land's authoritarian government - "Alizongle and World Council" - punishes any harsh criticism and detested actions whatsoever, and this includes one's reading the Bible (despite it being the most-published book in the world? Make it make sense). Really, the entirety of Lovely People reeks of the victim complex held by extremist Christians. There's even a preachy gospel section at the end!
Sundberg, according to the endnotes, claims the concept of the comic was birthed from "the striking similarities between the core concepts of how a Social Credit System works and the ... health passports" that came to media attention after the pandemic began...except there aren't actually that many similarities. While, at its core, it is still an indefensibly dystopic tool for control, the West greatly mischaracterizes China's Social Credit System. As for the "green pass," it simply existed to facilitate intercontinental and incoming travel during the initial height of the virus's spread. Keep that word in mind: facilitate. Not ban. (If anything, I think it should've banned travel. People were, and still are, dying.)
The one plus I can give this comic is its cutesy art, but even that is bogged down by a Christofascist agenda and poor writing. If you have any common sense, do yourself a favor and—I cannot stress this enough—stay the fuck away from this. Please read literally anything else instead of giving your time to such vitriol. You'll thank me later.
The short answer came as an author's note Sundberg left on the webcomic's website: in 2020, she had converted to Christianity and embarked on an alternative path. What that precise path is, is something which I still have not properly investigated as of the time of my writing this review. And given what I know now—including knowledge of the contents of Lovely People—I'm not sure if I want to.
The simplest way to describe this comic is via one word: propaganda. To be more specific, it is Christian fundamentalist propaganda (with a subtle yet disquieting dosage of COVID-19 fearmongering, which I'll get to shortly). The land's authoritarian government - "Alizongle and World Council" - punishes any harsh criticism and detested actions whatsoever, and this includes one's reading the Bible (despite it being the most-published book in the world? Make it make sense). Really, the entirety of Lovely People reeks of the victim complex held by extremist Christians. There's even a preachy gospel section at the end!
Sundberg, according to the endnotes, claims the concept of the comic was birthed from "the striking similarities between the core concepts of how a Social Credit System works and the ... health passports" that came to media attention after the pandemic began...except there aren't actually that many similarities. While, at its core, it is still an indefensibly dystopic tool for control, the West greatly mischaracterizes China's Social Credit System. As for the "green pass," it simply existed to facilitate intercontinental and incoming travel during the initial height of the virus's spread. Keep that word in mind: facilitate. Not ban. (If anything, I think it should've banned travel. People were, and still are, dying.)
The one plus I can give this comic is its cutesy art, but even that is bogged down by a Christofascist agenda and poor writing. If you have any common sense, do yourself a favor and—I cannot stress this enough—stay the fuck away from this. Please read literally anything else instead of giving your time to such vitriol. You'll thank me later.