Paul Verhoeven is great at satire that goes over people’s heads. Same with Robocop, which is a hyper violent satire on American police militarization, privatization, corporate corruption and a complete lack of government oversight.
It drives me up the wall how easily people just ignore Verhoevens satire. The ST:E discord is filled with people who think it’s an advertisement for fascism. Or those other people that think Heinlein had a great political philosophy.
I saw Starship Troopers shortly after it came out. Other than knowing his name and that he was a well known sci-fi author, I wasn’t familiar with Heinlein so I assumed he was a satirist. I picked up one of his other books and read half of it thinking I just wasn’t getting it before I suddenly realized “oh shit, this guy is being sincere.”