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Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

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Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#121

Post by 34679 »

>The film also notes that the United States has laws against propagandizing the U.S. public, which might make such a disclosure a confession of a crime. I would add that since 1976, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has required that “Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.”

That changed in 2013:

>The U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm has begun the "unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption," John Hudson of Foreign Policy reported on Sunday.

>The content arrives with the enactment of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R- Texas) and Rep. Adam Smith (D- Wash.), which was inserted into the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

>The reform effectively nullifies the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which was amended in 1985 specifically to prohibit U.S. organizations from using information "to influence public opinion in the United States."

>The new law enables U.S. government programming such as Voice of America (VoA) — an outlet created in 1942 to promote a positive understanding of the U.S. abroad — t0 broadcast directly to domestic audiences for the first time.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-domestic-propaganda-offic...

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#122

Post by throwaway4good »

anovikov wrote: post #44
camillomiller wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try asking most people about the Vietnam War, then visit Vietnam, especially the war museum in Saigon. Then pay a visit to the Landmine museum outside of Siam Reap, in Cambodia, to learn about Nixon's secret war that carpeted the border between Cambodia and Vietnam with bombs and landmines without anyone knowing. That's a trip that would make you rethink America big time. It absolutely did for me. As an Italian, I wa…

What was bad about it? The idea was to make overland transport through Cambodian territory (which U.S. did not want to outright invade) to supply Vietcong as difficult as possible. Vietnam war may have been brutal, and eventually lost, but it disincentivised everyone else in the Southeast Asia from turning to Communism, so in the end it was a net benefit for the free world.

You are getting downvoted but if you wrote something similar about the Korean war, you would probably be supported.

There is a strange perspective around all the US-led wars; all of them were/are good and justified except some how the Vietnam war ...

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#123

Post by icare_1er »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #61
cm2187 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Hollywood is lot less subtle now at trying to push political propaganda than it was ever then, except that wokeism is the theme of the day. In some instances it has completely taken over the plot, like in the last season of Fargo, to the point of becoming some sort of unwatcheable catechism.

> I think Hollywood is lot less subtle now at trying to push political propaganda I think the past efforts were pretty blatant. I think we just know more about how they operate and so it becomes easier to see. > wokeism Would love to know what this means.

It's the name of a fairly recent kind of cult, more or less related to the left, and trying to influence a lot of the political/corporate/cultural world.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#124

Post by crate_barre »

foldr wrote: post #89
vintermann wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like this? https://twitter.com/raytheontech/status/880497266255175685?l... It's not that there's something wrong with gay rights, or any other specific social cause powerful organizations adopt. It's just that it's a very cheap way to win a positive image for things that ... would have trouble getting a positive image if focus was on their core business.

It's possible to be not totally cynical about this stuff. The CEO of Raytheon might very well genuinely support gay rights. After all, many people do. Also, I don't really see the connection between this tweet and Holywood.

Eh.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/yemen-us-made...

Raytheon lobbies for Mideast arm sales. In the hierarchy of shit they need to be ethical on, LGBTQ rights is not really top of the list. It’s nice though, nonetheless.

No connection to Hollywood of course, Raytheon would love nothing more than war never being mentioned. The more they can sell outside of the US and not have anyone know it’s causing genocide in places like Yemen, the better.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#125

Post by throwaway4good »

mhh__ wrote: post #68
camillomiller wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try asking most people about the Vietnam War, then visit Vietnam, especially the war museum in Saigon. Then pay a visit to the Landmine museum outside of Siam Reap, in Cambodia, to learn about Nixon's secret war that carpeted the border between Cambodia and Vietnam with bombs and landmines without anyone knowing. That's a trip that would make you rethink America big time. It absolutely did for me. As an Italian, I wa…

"Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for st…

Why just Henry Kissenger? Do you really think this boils down to a single person?

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#126

Post by bambax »

prmoustache wrote: post #20

I cringe every time I hear the US president being described as the leader of the free world, as if there were 2 specific sides and USA were leading it and as if USA was an advocate for freedom.

"Freedom" in American parlance is like "Truth" in Roman Catholic lingo.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#127

Post by nsonha »

camillomiller wrote: post #25
Barrin92 wrote: post #14

one graphic that stuck with me, that I saw a few years ago is this one ( https://imgur.com/svsB0Ub ) (question being: which nation, according to you, contributed most to the defeat of Germany?" Being German and having Russian relatives the perspective on the war on the continent has always been interesting to me. The sheer scale and brutality of the Eastern front, the war crimes and death (The Soviet Union lost more…

Try asking most people about the Vietnam War, then visit Vietnam, especially the war museum in Saigon. Then pay a visit to the Landmine museum outside of Siam Reap, in Cambodia, to learn about Nixon's secret war that carpeted the border between Cambodia and Vietnam with bombs and landmines without anyone knowing. That's a trip that would make you rethink America big time. It absolutely did for me. As an Italian, I wa…

I heard the Peace Museum in Hiroshima is quite a trip too.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#128

Post by foldr »

crate_barre wrote: post #124
foldr wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to be not totally cynical about this stuff. The CEO of Raytheon might very well genuinely support gay rights. After all, many people do. Also, I don't really see the connection between this tweet and Holywood.

Eh. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/yemen-us-made... Raytheon lobbies for Mideast arm sales. In the hierarchy of shit they need to be ethical on, LGBTQ rights is not really top of the list. It’s nice though, nonetheless. No connection to Hollywood of course, Raytheon would love nothing more than war never being mentioned. The more they can sell outside of the US and not have anyone know it’s causing ge…

You're going off on a tangent here. By all means criticise Raytheon for the bad things they do. But why criticise their CEO for making a tweet supportive of gay rights? No evidence has been presented that the tweet is not sincere. HN all too often seems prone to spinning complex and sometimes borderline conspiratorial narratives around LGBTQ rights advocacy.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#129

Post by teawrecks »

goodpoint wrote: post #106
PaulAJ wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up until 1990 that was a reasonable approximation to the truth. The USA certainly had its issues, but in a comparison between the USA and the USSR there was no question about who the relatively good guys were. Since the USSR collapsed, and especially since 9/11, things have gotten a lot murkier.

> but in a comparison between the USA and the USSR That's a false dichotomy if I ever seen one.

It's literally a dichotomy by definition. If I say "in a comparison between chocolate and vanilla" I'm literally comparing those two specific flavors. To tell me it's a false dichotomy is silly.

Re: Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

#130

Post by windsignaling »

say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #108

China is using movies to propagandize against the U.S. now. What used to be Rambo vs Russia is now Chinese Rambo vs U.S. Let that thought sink in.

China has always done this and it is always comically obvious.

The propaganda coming from the US against the Chinese is more subtle and convincing. It's scary not only because of how good it is, but because people here don't even realize they are being manipulated.

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