Internetuser (She/Her)
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Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. Where are your fingers? Seriously. It's a pretty easy question. You should be able to answer it. But how do you know? *Music kicks in* How does anyone know anything?

You might say, well, I know where my fingers are. I'm looking right at them. Or, I can touch them, I can feel them, they're right here and that's good. Your senses are a great way to learn things. In fact, we have way more than the usual five senses we talk about. For instance, your kinesthetic sense, proprioception. This is what the police evaluate during a field sobriety test. It allows you to tell where your fingers and arms and head and legs in your body is all in relation to each other without having to look or touch other things. We have way more than five senses, we have at least twice as many and then some. But they're not perfect.

There are optical illusions, *audio illusion* audio illusions, temperature sensation illusions, even tactile illusions. Can you turn your tongue upside down? If so, perfect. Try this. Run your finger along the outer edge of the tip of your upside down tongue. Your tongue will be able to feel your finger, but in the wrong place. Our brains never needed to develop an understanding of upside down tongue touch. So, when you touch the right side of your tongue when it's flipped over to your left side you perceive a sensation on the opposite side, where your tongue usually is but isn't when it's upside down. It's pretty freaky and cool and a little humbling, because it shows the limits of the accuracy of our senses, the only tools we have to get what's out there in here.

The philosophy of knowledge, the study of knowing, is called epistemology. Plato famously said that the things we know are things that are true, that we believe and that we have justification for believing. those justifications might be irrational or they might be rational, they might be based on proof, but don't get too confident because proven is not a synonym for true. Luckily, there are things that we can know without needing proof, without needing to even leave the house, things that we can know as true by reason alone. These are things that we know a priori. An example would be the statement "all bachelors are unmarried." I don't have to go survey every bachelor on earth to know that that is true. All bachelors are unmarried because that's how we define the word bachelor. Of course, you have to know what the words bachelor and unmarried mean in the first place. Oh, you do? Okay. Perfect. That's great. But how do you know?
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Wonka
From a communist perspective, Willy Wonka's factory and the tour depicted in *"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"* can be interpreted as a critique of capitalist exploitation, class divisions, and the alienation of labor. Here's a detailed analysis:

### 1. **Willy Wonka as the Capitalist Figure**:
Willy Wonka embodies the archetypal capitalist. He owns and controls the means of production—his factory. Despite the whimsical, magical nature of the factory, it's still a business. Wonka reaps the benefits of the labor of others, while maintaining tight control over the factory’s operations. The workers (the Oompa-Loompas) are subjugated to his authority and, despite their labor being essential for the factory's operation, they have no ownership or say in the decision-making processes.

Wonka's decision to close the factory to the outside world and eliminate traditional labor reflects a capitalist desire to control labor fully and avoid accountability or transparency in how production is managed.

### 2. **The Oompa-Loompas as Exploited Workers**:
The Oompa-Loompas, often depicted as cheerful and obedient, can be seen as a stand-in for exploited laborers in the capitalist system. Willy Wonka "saves" them from their homeland, where they lived in poverty, by offering them work in his factory. However, this "savior" narrative echoes colonialist and imperialist themes. He brings them to a foreign land, where they work endlessly in his factory without any real freedom or self-determination.

In exchange for their labor, the Oompa-Loompas are paid not in money, but in cacao beans (their favorite food). This arrangement resembles a form of indentured servitude or even slavery, where their sustenance depends entirely on Wonka’s control. Despite their essential role in maintaining the factory's operations, they do not share in its profits or ownership—an embodiment of Marxist alienation, where workers are detached from the products of their labor and denied access to the fruits of their work.

### 3. **The Factory as a Microcosm of Capitalist Production**:
The factory itself is a surreal, highly stratified environment, representing the fantastical allure of capitalism, which promises wonders but hides the underlying exploitation. The tour can be viewed as a metaphor for how the capitalist system entices people with promises of wealth and success, but ultimately rewards only a select few—those who conform to its rigid expectations.

The children on the tour can be seen as representations of different capitalist archetypes:
- **Augustus Gloop**: Represents gluttonous consumerism and the excesses of capitalism, which encourages overconsumption without regard for consequence.
- **Veruca Salt**: Embodies entitlement and bourgeois greed. Her family's wealth allows her to access privileges (like the factory tour), but her insatiable desire for more mirrors the endless accumulation of capital in capitalist societies.
- **Violet Beauregarde**: Represents capitalist competition and the obsession with personal achievement and individualism. Her downfall comes when her desire for self-advancement goes too far.
- **Mike Teavee**: Symbolizes the effects of media and technology in capitalist societies, where people become disconnected from reality and human interaction, consumed by capitalist entertainment.

Charlie Bucket, meanwhile, is portrayed as a poor but "virtuous" boy who wins the ultimate prize because of his humility and good nature. This aligns with the myth of meritocracy, a key ideological feature of capitalism, which suggests that anyone, no matter how poor, can succeed through hard work and moral purity. In reality, however, Charlie’s success is arbitrary—he only wins because of a chance opportunity, not through any systematic effort or collective struggle to dismantle the structures of oppression.

### 4. **The Golden Ticket and the Illusion of Opportunity**:
The golden ticket system mirrors the lottery-like nature of capitalist success. It creates the illusion that everyone has an equal shot at success, but in practice, only a few actually benefit, and the distribution of tickets reflects existing inequalities. Those like Charlie, who live in poverty, have far less opportunity to win than the wealthy, as seen with Veruca Salt, whose father can afford to buy hundreds of chocolate bars in search of a golden ticket. This reflects how capitalism favors those with existing wealth and resources.

### 5. **The Tour as a Test of Conformity**:
Throughout the tour, the children are tested, and those who fail are punished—albeit in exaggerated, fantastical ways. These "punishments" can be viewed as allegories for how capitalist society disciplines and excludes those who deviate from its norms, whether through greed, overconsumption, or rebellion. Only those who follow the rules of the capitalist system, like Charlie, are rewarded. However, even Charlie’s reward—control over the factory—comes with the expectation that he will continue to uphold the capitalist structure rather than challenge it.

### 6. **Conclusion: The Transition of Power, but No Structural Change**:
At the end of the story, Willy Wonka chooses to hand over the factory to Charlie, a symbolic passing of the torch from one capitalist to the next. While this appears to be a benevolent act, it does nothing to change the underlying system of exploitation within the factory. The Oompa-Loompas remain workers without rights, and Charlie is now positioned to benefit from their labor, much like Wonka before him. The system of production, based on hierarchy and exploitation, remains intact, suggesting that the "rags-to-riches" story doesn’t challenge capitalism but reinforces it.

In essence, the factory tour in *"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"* presents a commentary on capitalist society, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, workers are alienated from the fruits of their labor, and success is framed as a lottery, benefiting the lucky few while the majority are left in conditions of subservience and exploitation.
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PINGAS 8 hours ago 
NO
new world order 9 hours ago 
epic profile
You'll know when the time comes.
Avery 20 Nov @ 7:39pm 
A cis girl that supports trans rights? BASED :3
Internetuser (She/Her) 20 Nov @ 7:24pm 
Not trans myself, but thanks <3
Avery 20 Nov @ 6:59pm 
💙🩷🤍🩷💙