TV and the movies push a Liberal agenda, with the creative minds behind popular entertainment deliberately maneuvering to influence public opinion. Blatant propaganda in the service of a bankrupt ideology.
Author Ben Shapiro claims to have the smoking gun. Taped interviews of some of the most influential and prominent names in entertainment, all of whom openly admit their bias, bigotry, and hatred of any political philosophy which opposes their own.
I know what you guys are doing right now. You are all shrugging your shoulders, blearily blinking at the screen, waiting for me to say something that you don’t already know. Or, at least, to say it in a clever and witty fashion.
Sorry to disappoint.
I would like to leave you with one final thought, though. This is yet again an example of Liberals babbling away about Soviet levels of groupthink without the whisper of unease. How could anyone with even half a brain believe that engaging in a massive mind control exercise is the least bit acceptable? And yet these movers and shakers in the entertainment industry are perfectly comfortable in discussing something that would literally have them advocating murder if anyone on the Right started to do it.
I think the people with Leftist political convictions need to get out more.
when the GD GOP asswipes (TM) stop appearing on the MSM, then I will know they “get it”. any GOP candidate/incumbent that goes on an MSM show, is not going to be someone a conservative will like (in office). it’s telling that SP no longer helps the MSM get viewers…
The tv/film industries are comprised mainly of *public companies*, and the executives of those companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. How far can they go In using corporate resources__which are not THEIR resources__to promote their personal political beliefs?
I think it would be hard for a shareholder lawsuit on these grounds to succed, but maybe in egregious cases not impossIble.
And my wife wonders why I can’t stand popular media. Don’t remember the last time I went to a movie theater. We don’t have cable or satellite either. I don’t miss a thing.
I quit watching television news years ago.
The same leftist bias can be seen in the movies of the 30s. Movies are about feelings and so is leftist groupthink. The exceptions are the people who made the best movies like John Ford and Howard Hawks.
Now, there are few who even make entertaining movies, like Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood. Much of the Hollywood crowd does not know how to make a movie that sells well and is well liked by the public. They were staggered at the success of Forrest Gump. Yet they continue to make unwatchable films like “Thin Red Line. I saw that with my son and daughter-in-law. I was sitting there thinking the film was awful when I realized that the people who were getting up and leaving, were not coming back. The theater was emptying.
We left too. Of course, it was nominated for an academy award. They make these unwatchable Iraq war movies that lose money but they don’t seem to understand. Somebody gives them money and I wonder why but having just read “The Big Short,” I realize that most people who handle money have no idea what they are doing. If they knew we would never have had the financial crisis.
this period of our history has put the lie to much of capitalistic theory. you would think the people with big stakes in the continued profitability of their enterprises would never harm said enterprises, but yet they do. just look at the NY times, or any other large media holding; worth just a fraction of their peak value thanks to propagandising for liberal causes and politicians. actors continue to mouth off and kill their box office appeal.
They don’t always get it. For years the left thought that “All in the Family” was a major triumph. Everybody I have ever talked to about it thought Archie was right.
Roy Lofquist,
Back during the height of its popularity there was a scholarly study of the effect of “All in the Family” on viewers attitudes. The study showed that most viewers empathized with Archy and Edeth and that the show reinforced the beliefs that it was supposed to undermine. Norman Lear, the producer of the show and founder of the far-left People for the American Way, read the study but changed nothing.
The moral: Money talks.
There are at least two factors driving the politization of media.
(1) Media creators can be classified as articulate-intellectuals and Leftism arises from articulate-intellectuals. It is their natural political belief because it grows out of their experiences and history.
(2) We are increasingly creating entire sub-cultures built around professions. These subcultures are increasingly creating their own insular world views. People begin to enter these subcultures in their early teens and their entire education is usually dominated by the subculture. It is very easy for an individual to have virtually no contact substantial contact with anyone outside the subculture. When you talk about a subculture like entertainment, which completely dominates entire enclaves, the effect of the insularity is even more extreme.
So, basically, you have an a bunch of people brainlessly following their own natural inclination and then wrapping themselves inside a cocooning eco-chamber. It is no wonder they can’t really relate to the rest of us.
Shannon,
Agreed about the subculture thing. There is, however, a palliative – unemployment and bankruptcy. Tends to get one’s attention. You may be tempted to downplay its impact by noting the U3 is only 9%, not “really” affecting that many people. But it does not affect only the unemployed. Their family and friends and acquaintances are emotionally and sometimes financially stressed. They tend to lift up their heads and start sniffin’ the air – just like Old Smoky.
Roy
As someone who dislikes ideology but aligns left, I find this completely unremarkable. Certain professions attract certain skill sets and types of people. Radical right cinematographers are about as likely as radical left army officers. They may exist, but they’re not common.
This is a worldwide phenomenon. People who can truly recast reality from a different perspective tend, unsurprisingly, to tangle with the the forces of convention and authority. Consider, for example, the cinema of any closed society – Jiri Mendel v. the Czech government springs to mind. Or, to take a more recent example, the iconoclastic Abbas Kiarostami and the conservative Iranian government. Or Jafar Panahi. Or Rasoulof. The odd thing is that for those of us who love film, some of the finest, most innovative cinema in the world comes out of such tensions. Someone temperamentally inclined to defend the status quo is probably less likely to be a creative innovator – but may be perfectly suited to West Point or its Iranian equivalent. There’s a place for everyone in the world.
To Shannon’s point, the points of view we’re constantly exposed to in the workplace tend to color our own, at least to the extent they influence our definition of what “normal” is. So there’s further social pressure in addition to the self-sorting. What I can’t understand is why anyone is upset about it, especially conservatives. At least in America, Hollywood is driven by mass appetites. If the masses love ’em some lefty creatives and that annoys you – well, go spend your dollars trying to increase the box office take of Atlas Shrugged. It could do with the help.
Seaninsf, that’s just self serving tosh. Once the left gains control of a profession they essentially black list conservatives so that none but those like themselves may enter. Then when the profession is revealed to be 95% liberal they hold their hands up and say conservatives just don’t want to do X or aren’t good at Y.
Why don’t you try replacing “conservatives” with Blacks or Women in your post and see what it sounds like? Maybe it will open a window for you.
Mr. Black beat me to it.
One of the things that I find amazing is the all-encompassing blind spot Liberals have when it comes to promoting their own prejudices. If they perceive, correctly or not, that a media outlet is promoting a Conservative agenda, then that particular business is evil and must be destroyed! (A prime example is how Fox News has even the White House all a-twitter.)
This isn’t because Liberals credit the notion that their political ideology would sink like a stone in popular culture if not propped up by makers of fantasy and gatekeepers of information. Oh, no! They instead insist that it is a disservice to the truth to present the facts while colored by a Right-leaning political bias. The great unwashed are too easily swayed by such efforts to make public opinion, you see.
But when confronted by their own efforts to cram Liberal thought into the empty heads of John Q. Public? Eye rolls and hand waves all around. Just proof that Liberals are more enlightened, creative, and brave. Cost of doing business if you want a thriving entertainment industry, you see. Besides, Conservatives are simply not capable of producing entertainment that people want to pay to see.
The indisputable fact that they have a lock on the industry, and that they openly admit to blackballing Conservative artists and auteurs, has nothing to do with it! It is all the fault of those untalented Conservatives!
once the left gain control of an industry, that industry turns to shit. talent is no longer required (or permitted) as political loyalty trumps all. this allows mediocrities to thrive, re-inforcing the whole process.
We are approaching a critical juncture in our social life. The disdain and open hostility that many of the elites hold for ordinary citizens and their beliefs are more and more openly expressed.
The media’s estrangement from the common religious feelings of the populace, or the viciously hostile reaction to the tea party movement, have brought into clear focus the yawning chasm between the opinion makers, and the people upon whom they are attempting to inculcate opinions.
The media directors, the social/cultural elites, the inbred political class, and the detached members of academia have lost any moorings they may have had at one time tethering them to our common cultural heritage.
In many ways, those attachments were abandoned rather than lost, rejected rather than simply mislaid.
The recent confrontations in Wisconsin are merely a prelude to the inevitable conflict which must occur when two such irreconciliable visions of society inhabit the same land.
There is little hope that these differences can be resolved by discussion and dialogue. We are in an era reminiscent of the 1850’s or 1930’s.
There was a somewhat similar sentiment in the late 70s with people buying freeze dried food and thinking about living “off the grid.” Things are much worse now although the signs are not as obvious. No 18% interest on a car loan or 21% mortgage interest rates. It will be interesting to se how many people “get it.” If enough of them do, Obama will crash. If not…
Mr. Black said:
>Seaninsf, that’s just self serving tosh. Once the left gains control of a profession they essentially black list conservatives so that none but those like themselves may enter. Then when the profession is revealed to be 95% liberal they hold their hands up and say conservatives just don’t want to do X or aren’t good at Y.
Do you have any evidence for this? In my experience studio executives care only about making money – to the exclusion of art, good taste and everything else.
Also, you didn’t address my earlier point. If you’re correct, then there must be a worldwide leftist conspiracy extending back to the birth of cinema to oppress conservatives. I suppose such a conspiracy is possible, but I think the explanation that certain professions attract certain personalities is simpler, fits the facts better, and has both explanatory and predictive power.
>Why don’t you try replacing “conservatives” with Blacks or Women in your post and see what it sounds like? Maybe it will open a window for you.
I tried that. Although the whole conservative-victimhood-civil-rights-for-white-people thing is fun and all that, please don’t tell me you’re going to go on a hungerstrike to support those beleaguered Hollywood conservatives. Consider an affirmative action program instead.
yes, studio heads care about making money that’s why they keep making money losing anti-truth-war movies. i am guessing you know exactly 0 studio heads. pretentious is as pretentious does.
>Although the whole conservative-victimhood-civil-rights-for-white-people thing is fun and all that…
This is meant to be humorous leftwing snark I take it. Let’s try something though.
>Although the whole black-victimhood-civil-rights-for-colored-people thing is fun and all that…
Wow, you can almost taste the bigotry.
Except when it’s against your political enemies though right? Some kinds of people just don’t deserve equal treatment.
Seaninsf, the evidence you’re asking for is RIGHT THERE IN THE POST.
And regarding your point about cinema against the status quo, the problem with that analysis is that the stuck-in-’68 people who are now entrenched in the media, in academia, and in government are still “rebelling” against what was the status quo 50 years ago, when in fact they represent the status quo now.
When Mr. Black states that studio executives black list Conservatives attempting to enter the entertainment industry, Seaninsf asks …
“Do you have any evidence for this?”
As pointed out by Mike in the comment above, the evidence is right in my original post. Right from the very mouths of those studio executives that Seaninsf claims wouldn’t be interested in black listing anyone because they are only interested in the bottom line!
Seaninsf has more to say, though …
“If you’re correct, then there must be a worldwide leftist conspiracy extending back to the birth of cinema to oppress conservatives. I suppose such a conspiracy is possible, but I think the explanation that certain professions attract certain personalities is simpler, fits the facts better, and has both explanatory and predictive power”
This is a fallacious argument. The evidence, based on the very words of the people involved, is that individuals in the present-day entertainment industry deliberately block the careers of Conservatives. No “conspiracy” is needed, and it needn’t have been going on for many decades before reaching the present deplorable circumstances.
Tell me, Seaninsf, do you even bother to read the posts here before taking a contrary position?
Maybe you should start.