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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

#301
post #39

Once this was pointed out, I can't unsee it. It's kind of ruined movies that involves the military or military equipment for me, since it can be really obvious when creators toe the line for the military. When I see military equipment my gut reaction is to anticipate the other shoe dropping, and to look for shoehorned hero worship or some good-versus-evil plot point.

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 just watched Don't Look Up on Netflix and the propaganda was so thick it actually made the whole movie painful to watch. I suppose it's naive to think that old movies are propaganda-free. But I find myself missing the narratives I grew up with. The new ones are whiny, cynical and uninspiring. At least the old ones inspired me towards positive things.

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

#302

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Sure. But I don't run around daily acting like I have a moral high ground and constantly baiting people. I took your bait, and I'm the bad guy? Okay bud. Maybe try not being so angry about stuff that literally doesn't matter. You're constantly enraged on here. I'm not here often and if I can tie your screen name to rage inducing you're doing something horribly wrong with your life.

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

#303
post #216

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While that's true, the fundamental missions in space that we are likely to fly are basically all about science and engineering. Even (I speculate) the classified ones. Satellites provide either telecommunications or fundamental information about our world or the universe in which it sits. That information is not going to be inherently military -- it's the purposes that it is put to that may be. On the other have, eve…

> It is an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of humanity that armies are required to exist. Is it really unavoidable? I'll play the naïve part here and say that the military is an extension of humanity's tribal nature. The entire concept of countries and borders is rooted in our deep desire to belong to a specific tribe, be defensive of other members of our tribe, and offensive towards other tribes that might want to…

Game theory suggests the optimal strategy is to be either a "provokable nice guy" or a "Genghis Khan":

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_war_game

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

#304

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For all the feigning of ignorance, 'woke' is well entrenched in in mainstream language now. It would definitely have made it to one of those "word of the year" things within the past few years if it wasn't for wokeism. Urban dictionary can help you out if you really don't know https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=woke Pretending to be bravely battling fascism and tyranny on behalf of the oppressed while ce…

I asked because whenever I hear about someone complaining of “wokeism” they’re complaining about things that I think are good. Giving black actors roles in areas normally dominated by white actors? That’s awesome! But whenever this happens loads of people online will claim that is “wokeism”. Representation for gay, lesbian, queer, and trans people in media? Wow that’s great! Many complain this is “wokeism”. Recognizi…

> Recognizing that trans women are women and trans men are men? 100% that’s the bare minimum and I am happy to see it.

If women are a group historically discriminated against by virtue of their sex (female, different physicality, different reproductive role) rather than by their gender (feminine, caring, pretty, submissive, domestic, …) then is the fusing of sex and gender truly progressive? Is it medically, scientifically or philosophically true to assert TWAW, or is it a well-intentioned social fiction?

Like you, I believe there’s much to be commended in “woke” (including the full acceptance of people who wish to live as if they were the other sex, or of no sex) but I think the mechanism (identity politics, intersectionality) and the philosophy (postmodernist) are unhelpful and irrational.

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

#305
post #295

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> That billions of equipment and resources provided by the woke cabala? Hundreds of millions are spent worldwide on endowments for universities to push this specific agenda. So, yes, I wouldn't find it surprising if the movie makers are sponsored, too. Now, it's clear why US army would want a positive optics. But who's to benefit from, say, Tajiks internalizing the "oppression scale"?

What exactly does this woke agenda push, if I may ask?

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

#306

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White supremacy is the belief that white people and whiteness should hold power over black and brown people. No one in my social circles uses “wokeness” at all, certainly never seriously. It always seems like people upset at “wokeness” are actually just upset that people producing popular media support very simple concepts of diversity. Like when black actors get representation in media previously dominated by white…

> Like when black actors get representation in media previously dominated by white people, to me that is just a good thing, but I see reports that many think this is “wokeness”, which they think is bad. In the 90s Will Smith starred in Independence Day, and absolutely no one complained (as far as I know) because Will Smith is awesome and he deserved the role. See also Blade from the same era. People get upset when it…

> People get upset when it's clear that a person has been chosen for a role/position just because of their skin colour/gender/sexuality

Could you prove to us in some way that these actors are chosen because of their skin colour/gender/sexuality, and not because of their skills?

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

#307

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There might have been some improvements in this area but I still haven't seen any (male) IT guy in a movie who is not portrayed as some kind of weirdo and relegated to the side. Even female nerds are at the very best assisting the hero. TV lawyers and doctors however get to hold jargon-filled monologues and be in lead roles. /rant

Now imagine House M.D. rehashed to a brilliant but callous software guru trying to diagnose various misbehaviours/misuse of tech all around town. I'm not sure if that's a promising pitch or straight up garbage!

I never watched Mr. Roboto, but that sounds like what I heard it was about... I think the issue may be social status, software gurus aren't viewed the way doctors or lawyers are. They're paid well, but they aren't respected the same way for some reason.

It's probably also an issue of writing - walking the line between realism and cool isn't easy, doubly so if the writers aren't themselves technical people. People are still referencing Mcguyver, but nobody's had the hubris to try and reboot that classic.

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

#308

I suspect something similar is going on with all the cop/crime shows that show the "hero" cops completely disregard the law and due process. This always happens in situations where all the viewers completely agree that it is justified, e.g. a clear bad/evil guy (we already know he did it) and a small child that has to be saved from a prison... I think this is essentially suposed to make us conceive law enforcement as…

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

#309
post #118

This method of propaganda was described by Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent already in 1988: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Chomsky is very good! It does not matter if you agree with his political stance or not, the fact based argumentation mixed with political rhetoric is a masterpiece of cerebral political writing, and a very good snapshot of some aspects of modern US history.

Manufacturing Consent makes a really good argument that the news media are complicit in propaganda. It's very dry reading, and repetitive; loads of examples to prove their point.

John Pilger: ""The BBC is and has long been the most refined propaganda service in the world".

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

#310

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Eh, I'd say the Holocaust makes a good argument in favour of it genuinely being a good vs evil thing. I mean, that certainly wasn't the only (or even main) motivation, but come on. The actual myth is that the West is/was systematically engaged on the good side in good vs evil conflicts, when in reality WWII was more of an exception in that regard.

The "West" was ... not exactly on one side of WWII. It had, after all, factions on all sides of WWII. It is not the "West" as a whole that tells that myth.

Exactly, the biggest “bad guys” nations are now the core west nations: Germany, Japan, Italy. While their victims China, Russia and others are villified. It’s about manufacturing consent and dehumanizing others so that the moronic public is more in favor of killing innocent civilians.
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