Finally! I've been saying for years "The largest propaganda machine in the world is Hollywood." People usually just roll their eyes.
Probably because your take is old as fuck and people know, dude. You're not special.
US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
91–100 of 232 posts
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.
Why is that hilarious. The alternative would be a nation that's not behind it's troops. The us would likely not be a super power. US citizens greatly benefit off the super power status. Seems like the military is acting in the citizens best interest.
This is the type of logic that leads to mandatory military parades, the banning of religion as a distraction and "Dear Leader"-style propaganda and mythology. If the military would like to do something in my benefit I request they stop destabilizing the world and causing death for profit instead of glorifying and normalizing it through state-sponsored propaganda.
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.
Why is that hilarious. The alternative would be a nation that's not behind it's troops. The us would likely not be a super power. US citizens greatly benefit off the super power status. Seems like the military is acting in the citizens best interest.
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Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#94This is an absurd situation, having a military minder that tells you what you can and can't say in a production. It is hard to avoid some kind of interference if you want to borrow military equipment though. There is always some standard that you want to uphold that is probably higher than what is allowed by the first amendment. The solution is to not allow the military to lend any assistance to movie productions. Fr…
> The solution is to not allow the military to lend any assistance to movie productions. Frankly, it's not their job anyways. This is the only way to avoid the kind of influence described in the article.
Unfortunately this 'solution' doesnt facilitate the foreign effect from distributing these films abroad to spread positive american sentiment and further the goals of the US govt and Hollywood and corporations (product placment for starters, mindshare, etc), so it is 'inferior'..
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#95Finally! I've been saying for years "The largest propaganda machine in the world is Hollywood." People usually just roll their eyes.
The America of "Snow Crash" has as its primary exports software and culture, via Hollywood. It seems to continue to be an apropos prediction.
No it's not. Software is not even in the top ten of US exports
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never watched west wing, how did it seem like propoganda, and what message did it send?
I'm not the person you're replying to but one thing I've seen pointed out [1] is that it portrays a largely unelected whitehouse staff where everyone is selfless, good, hard-working, quick-witted, reveres the constitution, always ultimately putting the country's interests before their own, always taking the moral choice and turning out to be right. There's nothing that makes you question the way the country is run, o…
Also the endless monologues where the speaker is just so correct that no one can dare question what they are saying and the target of the monologue is left speechless with just how wrong they were.
Same thing happened with The Newsroom, it's a Sorkin trademark. Although the heavy-handedness was relaxed with season two.
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.
Why is that hilarious. The alternative would be a nation that's not behind it's troops. The us would likely not be a super power. US citizens greatly benefit off the super power status. Seems like the military is acting in the citizens best interest.
What a scary statement.
First: you make a false dichotomy: one can be behind troops without a hagiographic approach to discussing the military (or any subject). In fact the best way to support troopers is to keep them out of harm's way. Consider WWII in Europe: Eisenhower set the invasion a year later than the other allies wanted in order to manage the supply chain better (supporting the troops) and to make sure the real bleeding of the enemy was done by non-US troops. In terms of materiel and logistics, the US won the war in Europe; in terms of fighting, the Russians unquestioningly did. Excellent call by the US if you ask me.
Second: there are other means of being a superpower than military might (which is only one tool in the toolbox....and as history has shown, usually not the right one). If you don't criticize the military, how can you reasonably discuss tradeoffs between military intervention / negotiation / economic hegemony / ignoring the issue?
And I know it's just an HN comment, but the phrase "the military is acting in the citizens best interest" is worrisome on its face: the military should be under civilian control and thus acting in the interests the citizens have specified. The military is the organization that should act in its own interests the least since it has the weapons.
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#98I wonder about Conspiracy Theory and the CIA's Project MKUltra. Did the CIA manipulate it? Or somehow not have the opportunity?
I would think such things are OK because if people saw it in a fictional movie that doesn't say "based on true events" at the beginning they may be inclined to believe it didn't really happen.
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#99So in exchange for production support, DOD and IC reserve the right to back out if certain topics are broached, or if they’re represented in a way they don’t approve of. The movies and tv shows come to them, and they’re subsequently influenced as part of the deal. Am I reading this correctly? They’ve really tried to make it scary but I’m left feeling “well, yeah I guess that makes sense, sucks tho I guess”...
"The CIA even sabotaged a planned series of documentaries about their predecessor, the OSS, by having assets at CBS develop a rival production to muscle the smaller studio out of the market. Once this was achieved, the Agency pulled the plug on the CBS series too, ensuring that the activities of the OSS remained safe from public scrutiny."
That stood out to me as well, but not in a positive way. Their sole example of the sort of proactive scheming and weaving I was expecting from our spooks, and it happened in the 40s/50s? Again it sounds scary on the face of it, but I'm just not quite feeling it.
Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And I'm pretty sure that advertising in sports is common sense. There are two sorts of advertising. One is recruitment ("join the army, blow shit up, have fun") targeted at potential employees. The other is a broad-based effort to change public perception in the interests of the advertising organization. "Honor our troops" is an example of this, in the effort of sustaining the military-industrial complex (term coin…
How originally do you mean? In Henry James's novel The Ambassadors (1903), a character speaks of going into advertising "Advertising scientifically worked presented itself thus as the great new force."
Consider Bernay's book "Propaganda"
(BTW Bernays was Freud's nephew).