Just to add to this, and to be fair to George, I don’t know what it was like to make commercial movies during the cold war. Seems like they were very careful, especially since the empire was the US in George’s head. They may have had good reason to be as careful with the messaging and symbolism as they were.
I just realized I’d gotten sidetracked and left out part of what I wanted to say, which was to tie it into how satire isn’t something that changes minds so much as it is entertainment and reinforcement for people who already understand and agree with it, and how in that lens Star Wars communicates its point clearly: the Fascist-coded genocidal maniac Empire are obviously intrinsically bad and alluding to several real-world powers, which is clear to anyone who’s the least bit politically literate. But it’s also fun, accessible slop for everyone who’s not, which is most people, and its general themes and style have been further copied by more incoherent and vapid works (including within the Star Wars franchise itself) to the point that people don’t really think about it beyond a sort of “the Sith/Empire wears the designated villain sign, the Jedi/Republic/Rebels wear the designated good guy sign, and which one you stan is a silly aesthetic sportsball choice of strawberry or blue-raspberry flavored lightsaber shaped gummies” level.
Just to add to this, and to be fair to George, I don’t know what it was like to make commercial movies during the cold war. Seems like they were very careful, especially since the empire was the US in George’s head. They may have had good reason to be as careful with the messaging and symbolism as they were.
I just realized I’d gotten sidetracked and left out part of what I wanted to say, which was to tie it into how satire isn’t something that changes minds so much as it is entertainment and reinforcement for people who already understand and agree with it, and how in that lens Star Wars communicates its point clearly: the Fascist-coded genocidal maniac Empire are obviously intrinsically bad and alluding to several real-world powers, which is clear to anyone who’s the least bit politically literate. But it’s also fun, accessible slop for everyone who’s not, which is most people, and its general themes and style have been further copied by more incoherent and vapid works (including within the Star Wars franchise itself) to the point that people don’t really think about it beyond a sort of “the Sith/Empire wears the designated villain sign, the Jedi/Republic/Rebels wear the designated good guy sign, and which one you stan is a silly aesthetic sportsball choice of strawberry or blue-raspberry flavored lightsaber shaped gummies” level.