How to Become More Aware About Politics in Media?

[Ken]

This is the first time that I am talking about politics on this forum. I wrote about my political views twice on my blog, including last month. This is because politics is something that I do not know much of. I brought Noam Chomsky's "Who Rules The World" on Amazon at the end of 2016 in order to understand the current political situation, but as of right now I have not finished it. I am Apolitical, although at one point this man named Mike Cernovich almost convinces me to become a member of the Alt-Right. Ever since Donald Trump was elected President, politics have become much more vitriolic than ever before. It's everywhere. I hear it in my house, I see it on the internet, I hear it in my college etc. It's in the media I consume. Movies, comic books etc.

There was a thread on here called "Opinions on The Last Jedi?". That thread discussed the movie "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", and all of the reaction to it on here was negative. I was the only person on that thread who gave the movie a positive review. I took that as a sign that I needed to reevaluate my beliefs and actively watch the content of the media I consume. Many complaints about "The Last Jedi" on here have mentioned that it had a political agenda to it, specifically a feminist agenda. And recently, there has been this thing going on in media called "diversity", where characters who were originally white get changed to become either a person of color or a female. This happens a lot in Superhero movies, TV shows, and comic books. As well as other types of comic book to TV adaptations, such as Riverdale. I understand why this thing exists: Because the most iconic superheroes were created in a time where every main character was white, straight and male. The reaction to "diversity" has also been vitriolic. Another battleground for liberals and conservatives to duke it out in.

But here's the thing: I am a writer. I want to be a writer who does write these things: movies, TV shows, comic books, etc. So: How do I know if something has a political agenda to it? Which male characters are portrayed in a positive light these days? Knowing what I know, how would I approach writing stories from this point on? How do I learn more about politics to the point where I can make a decision about it?

I know that Hector wants to be a writer of fantasy/sci-fi and erotica, and he is the definition of politically incorrect. I would love to see how he would approach this.

 

[Kilyan]

Ken,

First thing to do would be to familiarise yourself the different schools of political thought. The big three are conservatism, liberism and socialism. From this you can get a better idea of where anybody aspousing a certain belief or idea might be coming from. You mentioned Chomsky? He’s a great writer with a more socialist leaning ( technically anarchist ) some others you may wish to check:

Conservatism = Edmund Burke
Liberalism= John Locke
Socialism= Karl Marx

They should give you a general idea of different peoples political mindset . Maybe combine this alongside some study on those ideologies definitions. With that in mind you can ask questions about intent ”what is this person trying to tell me” for instance. Reading a lot of material from smart people you dont agree with is useful because you will start to feel yourself being swayed - so read the crap you thinks idiotic.This helps a lot with overcoming stubborness and stupid domga. Furthermore you more truly know what you believe.At the end of the day its all about power amd influence,so always bear that in mind.
Hope this helps someway.
Kilyan

 

[Mr.Rob]

This turned out a bit longer than I hoped but perhaps this may help you better delineate the social political culture we happen to find ourselves in. I feel this is a pretty unbiased take on it but note that I do lean conservative right. I'm sure there are some loose arguments here and others will disagree on a few things but this is just my take on what I see.
--------------------------------------------------
In modern western mainstream media there is a big push for inclusion, perceived equality, and "fairness". Things such a feminism (women want same rights/opportunities as men), LGBT+ movement (gay people want the same respect as straight people and not be treated like outcasts or looked down on), racial diversity inclusion (minorities have been historically oppressed and we should now treat minorities with respect and they should be given equal opportunities etc.), and the "Disney Dream" (every child is a special unique individual with unlimited potential to make any of their most imaginative dreams come true).

Basically we want everyone to be a big happy family in the world and forget about the "dark past" of oppression and mistreatment towards women, racial minorities, queers, and basically anyone that isn't a white male. This is where "political correctness" comes in. Where as in the past you could call Asians "chinks" and slap the ass of your bosses secretary now you can't do that publicly without being ostracized and socially shamed. Politically we collectively want equality, fairness, and respect amongst all and that is considered the "correct" way to behave --> hence politically correct.

Sounds nice right? Let's just all hold hands and be one big happy globally united world where everyone's treated with full respect and fairness as everyone else, and on top of that everyone's dreams get to come true and everyone gets a perfect wife/husband, with a perfect dream job, and a perfect childhood, and all the consumer materialism they could hope for, and has perfect health until they retire, and so on and so on.

Sounds awesome. Who doesn't want equality or fairness? Who doesn't want to believe they are unique and special and that all their dreams will come true? What kind of selfish uncaring prick would want otherwise?

The only problem is that the world and its inhabitants are much more complicated than that, and with regards to the "Disney Dream" well its just not reality... otherwise you'd be in heaven where everything is already perfect.

You could boil it down to liberal leftists are idealistic ("we can't deport illegal immigrants they won't have a home to stay in!") and conservative rights are more realistic ("we need to build a wall to ensure we don't have immigrants coming in illegally and hurting our nations people").

So since our society collectively (collectively being greater than 50.01%) values inclusion, equality, and respect for all the mainstream media caters to these values and puts them into all the content it produces including books, movies, commercials, and radio programming. If the media didn't cater to these values they'd be going against what the majority of society (the +50.01%) values and all these media content producing companies would make less money. So these companies go make the politically correct content and the collective society consumes it which then further reinforces the politically correct values even stronger and it turns into a feedback loop.

Now there's nothing wrong with these values of inclusion, equality, and fair respect for all except that for every action in life there are both positive and negative consequences. In striving for perfect inclusion and equality the unintended consequence is a reduction in the freedom of other people (freedom of speech and behavior, i.e. freedom for political incorrectness). In striving for fairness and respect among all, natural imbalances occur between those who are more talented/beautiful/skilled and resentment is a byproduct (true respect must be earned). In believing the "Disney Dream" the consequence people find is that life doesn't actually just go there way because there special (i.e. guys wife cheats on him, he gets fired from his job, or he gets a disease and is disabled), and perhaps come to realize maybe your not special or unique until you earn it.

In my opinion there is certainly merit to the idealistic PC values of the left that need to be drastically and realistically toned down to account for how life actually works. So in an ideal society you'd have minorities that would have the freedom to pursue their ambitions without being regularly harassed but also realize that there are biological/cultural differences that need to be accounted for and that respect/fairness needs to be earned and some people are just going to have to work harder than others to get it and not delegate responsibility for their life to the government or the media. Lastly I think we'd be much better off as a culture with the belief that your just another nameless grain of sand in a beach of 7.4 billion grains of sand, people are just commodities, and if you really work on yourself you can become distinguished among your domain of the world and make yourself unique.

-Rob

 

[Ken]

I've been having cognitive dissonance recently. It all started when I read the reactions to The Last Jedi on here and saw that everyone hated the movie because it had a political and feminist agenda. I have been reviewing movies on my blog for over a year now, and the movies that I see in theaters have a political agenda to them. Sometimes, they also have a feminist agenda to them. And the thing is, so did a bunch of shows that I had been watching (The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Agents of SHIELD), at least until I stopped watching them during the latest television season due to my decision to reduce the amount of time I spend watching TV.

I mean, I do get the complaints about how The Last Jedi had weak and stupid men. I felt that way about Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man Homecoming. And the thing is, Spider-Man is my favorite superhero of all time. In the future, I want to write movies/TV shows similar to the ones mentioned, but for the moment I want to try my luck becoming a novelist. Much easier to write about characters you created than try to play in a universe that has been created by a lot of other people, but I am going off topic

So, how do I balance the desire to writing stories that are aimed at mainstream audiences who value diversity and political correctness, and writing stories that have strong male character? Again, would love to see what Hector thinks about this shit, since he also wants to be a writer for fiction.

 

[Chase]

Ken-

So, how do I balance the desire to writing stories that are aimed at mainstream audiences who value diversity and political correctness, and writing stories that have strong male character?

The strategy in general, if you wanted to hit both angles, would be "write apolitical with strong male leads to build a base. Then write a social justice story to get accolades." e.g., the first six Star Wars movies were mostly apolitical, and all featured strong male leads. This built Star Wars an enormous following. Subsequent installments then went social justice to get the accolades and broaden the audience.

Guillermo del Toro is another example of this. Pan's Labyrinth is political (anti-Francoist/pro-Maquis), but other films of his after and before this are distinctly apolitical (if there was anything political in Cronos or Hellboy, I must've missed it). Then he made The Shape of Water, an up-to-the-eyeballs-with-it social justice flick, and the Academy gave him Best Picture and Director.

In fiction writing, the publication houses and awards are social justice-dominated as well. The World Fantasy Award, for instance, was an award modeled after H.P. Lovecraft and based in Lovecraft's hometown. In 2014 it caved to social justice warrior pressure to remove Lovecraft's image from the bust, due to Lovecraft's use of terms that weren't racist in his time but became verboten later.

As a general rule, if you write solid fiction that has a strong male lead but is apolitical, progressive reviewers will enjoy it and rate it well, and just include some criticism about the lack of strong female characters or the need for more diversity or progressive themes. They will not get up in arms unless the piece is actively anti-social justice. However, they always, almost without exception, reserve their highest praise for those pieces that elevate one of their member groups, or throw rocks at one of their enemy groups. It's just group mentality; attack their enemies and everything about your piece looks better. Sing praise for their members and everything about your piece looks better. Everyone loves people more who are on his side.

I would add a note, of course, to avoid selling out just for fame or publicity. Try not to write things you don't believe. Fame fades; and at the end of the day, all you've got left are your works. Produce stuff you're proud of - if your values don't line up with the establishment, just stick to universal human values and keep the politics out of it. No one will argue with you about well-written works that appeal to universal human experiences.

Chase

 

[Ken]

Thanks for the advice Chase. You put it very eloquently. It showed me a few things that I did not know before. Gave me a new insight on things.