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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

#341
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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

I don't know anymore.

In some circles / historically it is used to denote liberal/progressive agenda. It's sometimes (often?) meant to be negative/slur, just like some people will use "Socialist!!!" believing it a derogatory term.

However, increasingly it's used as generic term in various conspiracy circles - "Wake up to the truth!" transmogrified to "Woke!". So Woke will be claimed by those who understand the truth about Illuminati/Freemasons/Rothchilds/Vaccines/5G/EM/Israel/etcetcetc.

So between whatever original use there may have been designed, vs today's actual usage on the interwebs, I don't personally find it a useful nomenclature that I can interpret on its own with any degree of confidence. 90% of the time I find it in short rambling sentences of the format of either "Their pushing their fascist woke agenda!!!" or "be woke, don't be sheeple". I generally don't find the term used in any discussion that ends up being in any way productive or enlightening.

(note also my experience that, anybody using it, in any of the above and myriad other senses/terms, will strongly believe their is the only obvious correct usage and resent the notion that there's lack of clarity)

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoting from Wikipedia: “ Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is an English adjective meaning 'alert to racial prejudice and discrimination' that originated in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for left-wing ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of wh…

That Wikipedia definition is one part only of what the woke movement is. There are not just "alert". They are actively trying to censor, burn books (Tintin in some Canadian school), remove statues, etc. They invent words, have weird ceremonies, etc... (cf. the university of Evergrande), which are indeed the signs of a cult. And by the way, any cult of group of thoughts, will define themselves as "we are for the good…

In the case of removing civil war statues most of the ones being removed were erected long after the civil war ended, and were erected in opposition to rising pressure for civil rights for black people. See [1] and [2].

What's the case for not removing them?

[1] https://www.history.com/news/how-the-u-s-got-so-many-confede...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880/confederate-statues...

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

#343
Well, it is not just the Pentagon and CIA, the NRA also has its share in damage, albiet internally to America itself, by eulogising and then infilterating the gun culture into the USA. The American movies have played a big part in internal damage to America itself.

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

#344
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.

What defines propaganda? The government manipulating people, often without reveling the source, is propaganda. A privately made movie with a point of view is not. You may not agree with the movie's perspective, but that certainly doesn't make it propaganda.

What movies are you thinking of?

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

#345
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"Woke" is simply the left's word for what the right calls 'Redpilled'. In both subcultures it means 'a recognition of some fundamental truth that does not bring joy'. Done well, it can be a vehicle for criticising one's own culture in a constructive way. Done poorly, it can be a vehicle for oikophobia and gatekeeping, a means of distinguishing oneself from the naively patriotic proletariate.

> "Woke" is simply the left's word

I see it used much more on the right, such as in the comment that started this subthread.

EDIT: But otherwise, I think that's an excellent definition.

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

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Mr. Robot is less House M.D. and more Paper Trail, only with a definite protagonist and a whole lot of mental issues. At least as far as first season (of Mr.Robot) is concerned.

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

#347
post #121

>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 o…

However, that act didn't seem to have an effect in publishing media like: Top Gun movies and the America's Army videogame. Not sure how the VoA programming looks like (sounds like I guess) but I don't think outlets for government promotion were lacking even before the act was overturned

During the Cold War, the US government, via the United States Information Agency (USIA)[0] delivered all sorts of propaganda to our ideological adversaries, in particular communist countries. They usually tried to reach the average person and thus skew opinion in our (America's) favor.

I got a glimpse of some of this because I was an exchange student in the 80's, in a program sponsored by Congress and considered relevant to said Cold War. It was pretty interesting! Plenty of eagles and big cars and class mobility, but also a lot of stuff about freedom of thought and expression.

I remember at the time being quite miffed that they were not allowed to intentionally expose US citizens to any of this propaganda -- US expats were not even allowed to use the America-sponsored libraries abroad -- because it seemed like keeping it open would encourage the government to send a message that, broadly speaking, Americans agreed with.

Now that I'm older, I'm not sure. I think maybe it was better for them to have a freer hand in propagandizing, without having to argue about every point in a domestic context. Nowadays, however, it's hard to imagine that secrecy working at all so it's just as well they gave up.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Information_Agen...

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

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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…

> For all the feigning of ignorance, 'woke' is well entrenched in in mainstream language now.

I can't speak for the other person, but the term is so loaded that it's lost meaning, and it seems important to define your meaning if we are going to talk about it. I agree that it's a bit disingenous to just ask for a definition rather than say, 'that term is so loaded; what do you mean by it?'

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

#349
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>>What exactly does this woke agenda push, if I may ask? I don't know anymore. In some circles / historically it is used to denote liberal/progressive agenda. It's sometimes (often?) meant to be negative/slur, just like some people will use "Socialist!!!" believing it a derogatory term. However, increasingly it's used as generic term in various conspiracy circles - "Wake up to the truth!" transmogrified to "Woke!". S…

I don't have anything to add to this, but you elaborately replied to me so I think you also deserve a reply - I agree with your comment 100%.

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

#350
post #60

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…

The reality is far more horrific. The Japanese were preparing to surrender to the Soviets, but the US couldn't have the Soviets take credit for winning the war on both fronts so they dropped a couple of nukes on Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_War

That’s about as facile as the Pollyanna view that America nuked Japan reluctantly and purely out of necessity.

The reality is that it was a complicated decision and there were many factors that went into it and many subsequent interpretations of the history on all sides.

This Twitter thread provides an interesting overview of some of the historiography: https://twitter.com/wc_quinn/status/1458891500344029189

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