Starship Stormpoopers

[Tales from Tanelorn]

I have been reading the debate over Heinlein's Starship Troopers book.
I have not read the book and only half watched the movie.
I didnt even give it a second thought until Mike mentioned Heinlien's book encouraged Xenophobia.

When I half saw the movie I assumed that it was some kind of parody
of the way that the politics of war and military often seem to work
and therefore I thought it was if anything harmless or even illustrative
of repulsive war propaganda, warning of xenophobia etc.

So I dug a bit deeper and saw a large amounts of critiscm on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers
Yet the guy even won a hugo for the work!

So my question is this, how can we know when we are or are not being
duped and the writer is or is not using some kind of device to demonstrate
when something is immoral/racist/sexist/antisemtic/xenophobic and when instead they are promoting these views.
There must be signs, but I think I miss them, perhaps I assume too easily that people have the best of intentions
and similar views to myself.