Current Events > what are some examples of terrible media literacy you have seen

(+) Yeah! (+)

we all know how conservatives failed to grasp what rage against the machine was about

but what are some others

i once saw some one claim robocop is pro captalism

Ive heard the police shootout scene in Terminator 1 was popular with anti-authority youth at the time, despite obviously not intended to have that effect.

Every shipping fandom to ever exist

A user here tried to argue Star Wars isnt popular.

Starship Troopers being pro-fascist.

Thompson posted...

Starship Troopers being pro-fascist.

film or book?

Starship Troopers being pro-fascist.

lol this was the first thing i wanted to go find an example of

Homelander being the hero.

AceMos posted...

film or book?

AFAIK the book is anti-war rather than anti or pro-fascist.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Every shipping fandom to ever exist

Ehh, that's goofy elseworld shit. It's people banging action figures together to make them kiss, which is harmless enough.

But there is like a shipping critical mass point in fandom where it becomes holy fucking war and derails the entire fanbase. Sherlock, for one - that got so bad that fans were convinced that there was a secret final episode that would explain why the last season sucked and pair up Sherlock and Watson. Supernatural had it pretty bad too with the end of the show not canonising destiel, even if the meltdown was top tier internet entertainment.

I like Doctor Who on its own merits. I also got involved in shipping for the first time in ages for that show during the most recent run. There's a healthy balance between fandom and canon, but there has to be a separation. When people don't drive that wedge and make the shipping a core aspect of their personality, that's where I begin to agree with what you're saying. Those guys are nutjobs.

MrMallard posted...

I like Doctor Who on its own merits. I also got involved in shipping for the first time in ages for that show during the most recent run.

13 x yaz i take it (only note worthy ship from the recent run)

TC

21 Jump Street being funny

Reagan using "Born in the USA" in his campaign, completely misunderstanding the message of the song

AceMos posted...

13 x yaz i take it (only note worthy ship from the recent run)

Yeah ngl. I wrote fanfic for it back in like 2018 too, I was an early adopter.

Still enjoyed the show on its own merits. Shame the run was as rocky as it was, it felt like they had trouble writing for four characters at once so they had to neglect one character an episode. Then they introduced Dan, didn't flesh him out and shunted him out before the final special. For every Demons of the Punjab or Spyfall, there was an Orphan 55.

MrMallard posted...

Yeah ngl. I wrote fanfic for it back in like 2018 too, I was an early adopter.

Still enjoyed the show on its own merits. Shame the run was as rocky as it was, it felt like they had trouble writing for four characters at once so they had to neglect one character an episode. Then they introduced Dan, didn't flesh him out and shunted him out before the final special. For every Demons of the Punjab or Spyfall, there was an Orphan 55.

*nod* over all i enjoyed 13s run but it was rocky very clearly production issues

jodie NAILED it as the doctor thoe

I feel really damn stupid now as an adult but as a not-so-bright kid I thought Ali G: In Da House was genuine, rather than a parody. I had no idea who Sasha Baron Cohen was.

Homelander being the hero, for sure

*Holds up flame shield*

People putting Joel on a heroes pedestal in The Last of Us.

spikethedevil posted...

*Holds up flame shield*

People putting Joel on a heroes pedestal in The Last of Us.

god yes seriously ive not even played the games and even i understand he is no hero

The Red Skull's speech in a Captain America comic mirroring a typical right wing speech being seen as legitimizing their extremism.

there is a weird prevailing idea in a lot of places nowadays that a character dying means that they were pointless, a bad character, blah blah blah blah. like some of the greatest characters in fiction havent died at the end of their arcs

ultimate_reaver posted...

there is a weird prevailing idea in a lot of places nowadays that a character dying means that they were pointless, a bad character, blah blah blah blah. like some of the greatest characters in fiction havent died at the end of their arcs

its all about execution and alot of examples have always been bad

basically any surface level take on 40k
the imperium are the good guys
slaanesh is the god of sex
taking 40k seriously at all

Nearly any "X did nothing wrong" conversation.

AceMos posted...

its all about execution and alot of examples have always been bad

i dont know what "a lot of examples have always been bad" means but its a really dumb idea and tvtropes really fucked up a lot of peoples brains

Skylar being a terrible wife in Breaking Bad
Pam being a bad girlfriend to Roy in The Office. Roy was a verbally and mentally abusive jerk who would probably turn out to be violent too.

Watchman infamously.

No, The Comedian and Rorschach aren't badass, they're crazy broken people.

People not understanding the Punisher.

GranAures did nothing wrong

Some girl in a cringe compilation I saw said that Shrek was about how men take everything from women just like how Shrek took Fionas beauty from her

Batman being the hero ever. Seriously, the bad guys get weapons to deal with him, and when Bats isn't doing anything, same crooks used their weapons on the police. Not to mention he's exactly 100% mentally or emotionally sound himself, if you think about it, the death of his parents is kinda his fault

V for Vendetta

Walt White as the "good guy" in Breaking Bad

Harmless, but dumb: "Did you notice this sneaky Easter egg where [very obvious piece of plot-relevant material was on screen, the poster just didn't notice it the first time they watched because they were also watching TikToks and playing a video game]?"

Very, very, very bad: "Increased by %" vs "increased to %"

Zack Snyder playing Rorschach completely straight as "the only sane man" and as a "we live in a society" edgelord, whereas in the original comic, he's a misogynistic, deranged homeless man whose Objectivist worldview is completely detached from reality, and the only other characters he gets along with are a human doormat and a literal rapist, whom he places on a pedestal and happens to have more respect for than someone whose only crime is prostituting or using drugs.

A bunch of people reading the "I am the one who knocks" scene as Walt finally becoming a badass, rather than a clear sign that Walt is scared shitless, feels emasculated and is trying to overcompensate through violence and by yelling at his wife in a display of toxic masculinity.

People unironically wanting to be Tyler Durden.

In general, people not realizing that there's a difference between a character endorsing a certain action or belief and the writer endorsing a certain action or belief. Mostly happens when you have a flawed protagonist and people assume we're supposed to agree with them just because they're the character we follow. But it also happens a lot with characters who are clearly meant to be villains, but have enough sympathetic qualities that you can be fooled into thinking they're right.

Book banning. What a bunch of ignorant pearl-clutching pussies.

That dumb nonsense with pokemon being satanic. Those kindsa people think everything is satanic.

Videogames make children violent. Umm no. The kid either has temper issues, possibly has serious problems at home or school, or has lax parents who don't give a shit what they do. People have grown up with violent books, music, and media for years and haven't been any more or less violent then any other child.

Joker and Harley being relationship goals, even though it's blatantly based on abuse and codependence.

semi related to my topic but

a problem in general with writing that can happen is some times you CAN give a message you did not mean to

you could give a team of progressive writers actors directors and still stumble into a rather messed up right wing message sometimes things just go wrong in the writing process you dont think of the implications

this is why its a good idea to have a 3rd party look over your story

Whenever people say a creator is bad because characters in their work have bad viewpoints.

AceMos posted...

semi related to my topic but

a problem in general with writing that can happen is some times you CAN give a message you did not mean to

you could give a team of progressive writers actors directors and still stumble into a rather messed up right wing message sometimes things just go wrong in the writing process you dont think of the implications

this is why its a good idea to have a 3rd party look over your story

Doctor Who did it with an episode that comes off as a massive anti abortion message.

spikethedevil posted...

Doctor Who did it with an episode that comes off as a massive anti abortion message.

thats what i was thinking of actually

another good example is one of the worst comics of all time

avengers number 200 no one involved knows how the fuck it came out how it did but its message is uh YIKES

Right wingers and cops co-opting the Punisher will never not be funny

Ivynn posted...

Watchman infamously.

No, The Comedian and Rorschach aren't badass, they're crazy broken people.

The problem there is that most people's exposure to Watchmen is through a film made by someone that fundamentally misunderstood the story, it's no surprise that people's wires got crossed there.

codey posted...

The problem there is that most people's exposure to Watchmen is through a film made by someone that fundamentally misunderstood the story, it's no surprise that people's wires got crossed there.

watchmen has sold millions of copies for its comic id not say most peopls exposure is the film when so many have read the comic

ppl just misunderstand the character in the comic

AceMos posted...

watchmen has sold millions of copies for its comic id not say most peopls exposure is the film when so many have read the comic

ppl just misunderstand the character in the comic

I know it's a hugely successful GN,but that doesn't change the fact that if you ask the majority of people that know of it if they've seen the movie or read the comics, most are going to say they saw the movie.

The character in the comic is pretty fucking vile too, there's not a lot of comic fans that are attracted him to like the movie version does

AceMos posted...

semi related to my topic but

a problem in general with writing that can happen is some times you CAN give a message you did not mean to

you could give a team of progressive writers actors directors and still stumble into a rather messed up right wing message sometimes things just go wrong in the writing process you dont think of the implications

this is why its a good idea to have a 3rd party look over your story

i think people should be free to create the art they want to without fear of retaliation because of possibly misconstrued political statements where none may have existed in the first place

i had an adjunct professor in an east asian art history class that was one of many expat chinese artists that had fled the country during a purge of art

an oft given example of an artist that had been arrested was one that painted a landscape of mao standing on a cliff side overlooking china

when it was painted, it was considered to be a masterpiece, perfectly capturing mao as this great man who cared for all of china

then years later, a critic decided it was actually depicting mao as this aloof and uncaring man that considered himself above the people of china

so they had the artist put in a prison camp til he died

Euripides posted...

Walt White as the "good guy" in Breaking Bad

God, the other day I saw a YouTube short setting a Walter White speech to that "how do I say goodbye" song. It really threw me off for some reason.

Potential spoilers:

https://youtube.com/shorts/fzOudJDmG_4?feature=share

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