Live data from Hacker News

Pentagon and CIA shaped thousands of Hollywood movies into effective propaganda

worldbeyondwar.org

491–500 of 577 posts

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

#491
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical moat-and-bailey pro-woke argument. Can you list any media (mainstream news, or Hollywood) that are promoting sex-negative or trans exclusive views? There is no discussion or dissenting views allowed for most “woke” people.

Fox News in the US. I agree mostly with your point that the film industry and the majority of print and cable news falls in line with progressive/leftist/"woke" talking points, but Fox is an absolutely massive propaganda vehicle with dozens of millions of daily viewers. They regularly promote trans-exclusive views.

I'd say Fox exists as a reaction against the left-leaning bias of media. If audiences want anti-woke content all day (or conspiracy theories, or commie-stomping superagents, or...) I don't think a business that chases ratings and profits by giving it to them is fairly described as propaganda. Entertainment is commonly centered on the fears of its audience.

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

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

“Woke” has quickly gone the way of “liberal” and become an insult. It was a stupid word anyway so I don’t mind if it just goes away.

I pity people who use "woke" as an insult.

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

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> you might be racist Please stop this. Every instance of someone referencing something that originated from a culture other than their own is not "appropriation" or "racism".

They're not talking about mere referencing, though. The problem is one of intentional redefinition in an attempt to counteract a movement. And indeed, the motivation for doing so is often racism.

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

#494
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems strange to me, too. Red Pilled is used in contexts where someone starts seeing the hidden truth the elites want to hide from them etc. Woke in my experience is more used to describe progressive people and their opinions, without having anything to do with some hidden secrets or other such things.

The hidden secret is the life - the oppressive discrimination - many minorities, especially black persons, have been experiencing for generations, without most white people being aware of it. When you take that red pill, when you are open to the facts, it is shocking what has been happening right under our noses. You can't unsee it. A simple suggestion: Just talk about it with people who are black; if you don't know…

I first read it as in “stay woke”, a reminder that your survival depends on seeing through people’s bullshit.

And the most harmful bullshit is that racism is a personal failing rather than a system working as designed; designed by people who will not peacefully let it go.

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

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?'

The loaded (freighted) content of the word "woke" is exactly why it has the weight it does in conversation. Similar to a curse word.

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

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually only seen it used on the right, nearly always by friends or family who constantly read the news, always in a derogatory sense. Was it common on the left at some point?

Yes, it originated there, though I guess it didn't last very long. It's a common rhetorical tactic used by partisans on the right - use the other side's own terminology to describe it, always with a tone of disgust, and repeat it until the sound of it becomes grating. "Social Justice Warrior" was similarly exclusively used by people describing their own political convictions when I first encountered the term.

I'd say both sides make the other side's terminology into epithets. But mostly only the left seems to take it personally and stop using the word. Meanwhile the right will continue to embrace being labelled by what the left treats as epithets. Maybe it has something to do with individualism which is a sort of rebellious mindset on the right.

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

#497
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you are talking about the reactionaries' use of the word That's a fair point, yeah. > When you take that red pill, when you are open to the facts, it is shocking what has been happening right under our noses I think the problem there for me personally is, that "being red-pilled" was kinda adopted by the right wing, so I would never label myself red-pilled when I learn what kinds of things black people exper…

My first encounter of the red/blue pill dichotomy was the first Matrix film. With social media like reddit, this idea spawned via memesis and certain communities began imitating their interpretations of what it meant for them. For example, the contrasts between r/theredpill and r/thebluepill and all the other subs it may have spawned as well, eg: r/mgtow. Richard Dawkin's wrote a fantastic book called The Selfish Gen…

Redpill in the conservative context so often involves replacement theory.

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

#498
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that is absolutely right. Even Greece had it's anti-communist junta which massacred students. It's never clear cut, but on the _average_ I do think the pro-USSR side was less-free.

I would agree that for the (majority parts of) populations of the main countries that is likely the case. I certainly am happy to have grown up in Western not Eastern Germany. That said things get murkier beyond that quite quickly. I'm not sure I would have preferred to grow up as a black teenager in e.g. Baltimore over being a teenager in Eastern Germany and I certainly would have preferred to grow up in Estonia in…

And you would almost certainly prefer to be a black teenager in Baltimore or a Guatemalan over a Ukrainian under the USSR.

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

#499
post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were targetting cities that were occupied by hundred thousands of civilians. USA never had any qualms about targetting civilians. Foreigners don't have any rights.

You are correct. Just like the US was targeting military installations in Moscow, etc that had millions of civilians and USSR was targeting US cities that had millions of civilians. I'm just saying that it was not actually something that people "found out" after the cold war and it wasn't specific to the Baltic nations nor the US or USSR. All nuclear capable superpowers had set potential targets which would have kill…

Not just Moscow. Also Warsaw. And Cracow. And so many other cities in countries that believed US is an ally in their struggle, who'll be aiming to liberate them from USSR. Not turn their most beutiful cities into cinders.

https://futureoflife.org/background/us-nuclear-targets/

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

#500
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so war propaganda is illegal but what changed in 2013? Did the laws change or did we just stop caring to enforce them?

U.S. legalization of propaganda lead to an industrial-scale "grassroots PR" industry for use by any buyer in the "nudge" market, including a sizable subset of the global Fortune 500. This industry has since been active in online venues with meaningful audiences, http://www.techsoc.com/grassroots.html & https://twitter.com/evoleadership/status/761959456624082944 2010 paper made a case for Smith-Mundt act changes, http…

AKA "We're going to need to practice on someone."

>allow the military IO operator an avenue for developing proficiency in the release of “precision guided messages” to foreign audiences.

Post reply on HN