‘Squid Game’ is not warning against communism.
Squid Game, Netflix’s biggest ever hit, is still proving absurdly popular across the globe, inspiring parodies, memes, fashion trends, and, of course, controversial takes. When it comes to the themes of the show, there isn’t much to debate, considering how staunchly unsubtle the anti-capitalist messaging is; the deadly games are eventually revealed to have been orchestrated by bored billionaires, who find amusement in pitting debt-laden players against one another. Every single player who joins the games is motivated by desperation, drowning in debt under capitalism; at one point, the poverty-stricken protagonist even has a flashback to the time he was savagely beaten by police officers during a labor strike. Creator of the show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, is pretty open about his intentions, revealing that the show was written during a difficult time in his life, when he was financially struggling. He stated: “I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life.” But a number of cultural commentators seem to have taken offense at the message, and have taken to outright denying that those anti-capitalist themes exist in the show, despite the creator’s clarification. In fact, some are even insisting that the show is secretly a pro-capitalist allegory, somehow.
