Current Events > Why do people complain about tv/movies being "political now"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

They've always had some sort of agenda behind them, I can't think of an era where there wasn't any propaganda in entertainment.

Because it upsets them when a piece of media preaches something they disagree with or does something to cast views they hold in a bad light

Because being remotely decent is offensive to Republicans now

nope it was biden and da liberal media! They RUINED STAR WARS, FAMOUSLY APOLITICAL PRIOR TO NOW!!

The Epic of Gilgamesh is furry propaganda

Politics is more polarizing now than it was before so people react harder.

But I also think people might have reacted like they do now if we had the platforms to enable it back then. We see so much more from people, the crazy guy on the street is now in your pocket.

Because seeing more than 2 minority/female/LGBT characters on the screen makes them feel uncomfortable, so they have to blame it on some "woke" political agenda to mask their subconscious bigotry

Because they are making it super obvious with the propaganda that people who watch shows for escapism can't anymore so they don't. It's also a sign that the writing is much worse now a days if they can't hide it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/7/AAdlC_AADUJT.jpg

UhHunnitKay posted...

They've always had some sort of agenda behind them, I can't think of an era where there wasn't any propaganda in entertainment.

There are plenty of individual movies, shows and games where there's no moral, no lesson, no point of view that the creators are trying to push, and it's just mindless fun. You can find these works in every era, I'm sure.

Sure, maybe there was never any era which was completely void of propaganda, but that doesn't mean that these individual works never existed.

There are indeed plenty of works that have no agenda behind them.
Some people like this, and detest the works that do have an agenda behind them. This is what they are complaining about.

"everything is political!"
No.

Back in the 40s and 50s, Hollywood was a very closed system where the studios had basically absolute power to micromanage stars' careers, public personas, etc. and those execs tended to be fairly conservative, as bosses desperately trying to break labor uprisings tend to be.
It was very much something they started grousing about as that broke down in the 50s and especially 60s. (Reagan, who as president of the Screen Actors Guild was a huge fan of the old system and also an informant to the FBI on "communist activities". These were usually carried out by people who opposed Reagan or the studio bosses, coincidentally. He was part of the bleeding edge of that particular saw, it seems).

"Political" simply means inclusiveness, and Republicans can't stand that

Maninstagnate posted...

Because they are making it super obvious with the propaganda that people who watch shows for escapism can't anymore so they don't. It's also a sign that the writing is much worse now a days if they can't hide it.

I'm sorry you can't pretend like you're on Tatooine because...you were reminded that black people exist.....? Not sure I follow your logic

It really depends on the tv show/movie. Or how natural it develops.

OrangeWizard posted...

There are plenty of individual movies, shows and games where there's no moral, no lesson, no point of view that the creators are trying to push, and it's just mindless fun.

Like what? What piece of entertainment with an actual story is completely devoid of morals, lessons or a particular point of view?

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Like what?

I don't think there's much of a message behind Sharknado 2, but I'm not a geologist.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Like what?

Minecraft
Tons of anime

Media has always had political crap. I thinkbits mostly just things are so divisive now that everything triggers everyone anymore.

They are complaining because they notice it.

itachi15243 posted...

Minecraft

Let's consider things with no actual plot or narrative to be exempt from this. The whole point of Minecraft is that the story is entirely made up by the person who's playing the game.

Maninstagnate posted...

Because they are making it super obvious with the propaganda that people who watch shows for escapism can't anymore so they don't. It's also a sign that the writing is much worse now a days if they can't hide it.

Boo hoo. Butt hurt straight white guy, I presume?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/9/AAADpjAADNCB.jpg

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Like what?

I refuse to give examples, because I'm sure somebody will be quick to do mental gymnastics and fabricate a political narrative out of thin air about anything I could name.

For example, not even Pong is safe: https://press.invincible.ink/game-pile-pong/

DrizztLink posted...

I don't think there's much of a message behind Sharknado 2, but I'm not a geologist.

Haven't seen it so I can't comment on that

OrangeWizard posted...

I refuse to give examples, because I'm sure somebody will be quick to do mental gymnastics and fabricate a political narrative out of thin air about anything I could name.

Sounds like a cop-out response to me. You are pre-dismissing any counterargument against your claims before you've even provided any supporting evidence for your point lol

OrangeWizard posted...

For example, not even Pong is safe: https://press.invincible.ink/game-pile-pong/

Well that's just silly. But only because Pong doesn't have an actual narrative. You can't exactly do a thorough literary analysis on something that has no story.

Because they're closet reactionaries. They're the modern version of the people who used to write strongly worded letters to magazines about them advocating race mixing or something like that. We just have social media now so we hear all of them every time the though crosses their mind, and we have an entire media ecosystem and political party devoted to stoking and validating these grievances.

Maninstagnate posted...

Because they are making it super obvious with the propaganda that people who watch shows for escapism can't anymore so they don't. It's also a sign that the writing is much worse now a days if they can't hide it.

Legit glad this "propaganda" upsets you

Doom_Art posted...

Because it upsets them when a piece of media preaches something they disagree with or does something to cast views they hold in a bad light

This is literally all it is. And maybe they had not paid enough attention before to realise it was all around them.

DrizztLink posted...

I don't think there's much of a message behind Sharknado 2, but I'm not a geologist.

Isnt the premise of sharknado implicitly climate change

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

Well that's just silly. But only because Pong doesn't have an actual narrative. You can't exactly do a thorough literary analysis on something that has no story.

And yet, someone did just that and wrote a whole article about the politics of Pong, proving my point. If it can be done for Pong, it can be done for everything else.

That's why I'm not listing examples.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/star-trek-starship-enterprise-democrat-woke-david-marcus

Will_VIIII posted...

Legit glad this "propaganda" upsets you

Did I ever say "It upsets me" in my post? Why do Star Wars fans like the original trilogy the most? Also why people always trash remakes when they are announced? Got to be something they are doing wrong these days.

OrangeWizard posted...

And yet, someone did just that and wrote a whole article about the politics of Pong, proving my point. If it can be done for Pong, it can be done for everything else.

That's why I'm not listing examples.

This is what we call a "bad faith argument". You've already dismissed any counterarguments I could potentially make before I've made them lol

You probably shouldn't make any claims that you're unwilling to have challenged.

OudeGeuze posted...

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/star-trek-starship-enterprise-democrat-woke-david-marcus

I don't...

Star Trek was created by a guy who thought everyone would be a socialist atheist vegan by the 22nd century. The first season literally had half-black, half-white aliens who were prejudiced against half-white, half-black aliens. The show had the first interracial kiss on television. It's been liberal for literally more than half a century.

These are the people who saw Star Trek as a kid and thought, "Wow. Cool spaceship."

<___<

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

This is what we call a "bad faith argument". You've already dismissed any counterarguments I could potentially make before I've made them lol

I'm not dismissing arguments, I'm refusing to get into any arguments in the first place.

At most I can say that there are some shows, movies, and games that I think are apolitical. If you disagree, that's fine, and I'm not going to argue about whether or not Pong or anything else really has some deeper political meaning that I overlooked, because I think that would be stupid.

Maninstagnate posted...

Did I ever say "It upsets me" in my comments? Why do Star Wars fans like the original trilogy the most ? Also why people always trash remakes when they are announced? Got to be something they are doing wrong these days.

What a strange post to make in the context of this argument. For starters, none of what you mentioned has anything to do with the amount of "propaganda" contained within the story.

It's also bizarre to bring up Star Wars when even the Original Trilogy is not subtle at all about its political leanings.

OrangeWizard posted...

I'm not dismissing arguments, I'm refusing to get into any arguments in the first place.

At most I can say that there are some shows, movies, and games that I think are apolitical. If you disagree, that's fine, and I'm not going to argue about whether or not Pong or anything else really has some deeper political meaning that I overlooked.

That's fair

Because those people are idiots. Since what they consider "political" has been a part of media since media was invented.

FortuneCookie posted...

I don't...

Star Trek was created by a guy who thought everyone would be a socialist atheist vegan by the 22nd century. The first season literally had half-black, half-white aliens who were prejudiced against half-white, half-black aliens. The show had the first interracial kiss on television. It's been liberal for literally more than half a century.

These are the people who saw Star Trek as a kid and thought, "Wow. Cool spaceship."

<___<

I think that's part of the problem along with just having a problem with the message is when people are kids the themes go over their head.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427640310160687131/983857676561825812/unknown.png

Maninstagnate posted...

Did I ever say "It upsets me" in my post? Why do Star Wars fans like the original trilogy the most? Also why people always trash remakes when they are announced? Got to be something they are doing wrong these days.

Your choice of words, especially regarding "escapism" tells us just how triggered you are.

And good. If you're bothered by it you're the kind of person who needs to reevaluate their life.

Non-political Cinema:

Zorns Lemma by Hollis Frampton (1970)

13 Lakes by James Benning (2004)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/0/AAIG1JAADUJ-.jpg

Maninstagnate posted...

Did I ever say "It upsets me" in my post? Why do Star Wars fans like the original trilogy the most? Also why people always trash remakes when they are announced? Got to be something they are doing wrong these days.

You think most people dislike remakes because of politics?

If your politics gets in the way of being a good story, or narrative. It's no longer a Book, a TV show or a Movie, it's Propaganda. Pure and simple.

A good author, can hide politics (sometimes not even their own) so deep in the narrative that you'll be cheering for the mass murderer, to be the alive at end of the book. And happy when they do.

A bad author can't even write a paragraph before you can hear them lecturing you through the writing.

TheGoldenEel posted...

Isnt the premise of sharknado implicitly climate change

Yup. That was a terrible example by that guy.

UhHunnitKay posted...

Yup. That was a terrible example by that guy.

Jesus, I'm sorry my blatant shitpost wasn't up to standards.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/6/AABUaRAADUKO.jpg
Is this better? I'm still not a geologist.

I would assume on part ignorance and one part context as there are ways to have a political message blend well into the narrative and another to have it be a clusterfuck

DrizztLink posted...

Jesus, I'm sorry my blatant shitpost wasn't up to standards.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/6/AABUaRAADUKO.jpg
Is this better? I'm still not a geologist.

I should add that to my watch list lol

I like to say old stuff isn't political then dismiss the poorly aged politics with "or was a different time," personally.