Pretty much, see the endless amount of idiots who unironically see themselves as the antagonist and think it’s a good thing.
(Trump’s kids unfavorably comparing the Left to the Resistance in the newer Star Wars films which very blatantly had the First Order be a stand-in for America’s Alt Right and Kylo Ren a warning about toxic masculinity, now that’s something I’ll never forget)
the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
And even then I have to remind people that saying “Idiocracy is a documentary!” that they’re being too optimistic.
We are NOT in a fully-automated sex-positive polygamous future with leadership that acknowledges society’s problems and places its best and brightest towards a solution, one where free speech is so alive you can even name your restaurant “Buttfuckers” and no one’s even slightly offended, one where even the least educated people in our society can get good quality high-paying jobs in everything from the arts to medical, one where sex work is no longer demonized and is considered so valid a profession that you can get your ass rimmed at Starbucks while waiting for your coffee.
And I don’t understand why people think we have it anywhere near that good.
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.
Ellen DeGeneres saw Trump watching Finding Dory and tried to explain that the movie was about how it was wrong to separate families.
Trump loved it and had a viewing party at the White House.
ICE illegally separated families at the border, kicked parents back to Mexico, and adopted the kids into white families… And those were the lucky ones, the unlucky ones died in a concentration camp composed solely of children where the teenagers were expected to take care of the kids who were in turn expected to take care of the toddlers.
Trump and his wife Melania showed up with the latter literally wearing a shirt that read “I don’t really care, do you?”
You cannot appeal to the conscience of someone who doesn’t have one, no matter how good your movie is or what it’s about.
And the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach.
Pretty much, see the endless amount of idiots who unironically see themselves as the antagonist and think it’s a good thing.
(Trump’s kids unfavorably comparing the Left to the Resistance in the newer Star Wars films which very blatantly had the First Order be a stand-in for America’s Alt Right and Kylo Ren a warning about toxic masculinity, now that’s something I’ll never forget)
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
And even then I have to remind people that saying “Idiocracy is a documentary!” that they’re being too optimistic.
We are NOT in a fully-automated sex-positive polygamous future with leadership that acknowledges society’s problems and places its best and brightest towards a solution, one where free speech is so alive you can even name your restaurant “Buttfuckers” and no one’s even slightly offended, one where even the least educated people in our society can get good quality high-paying jobs in everything from the arts to medical, one where sex work is no longer demonized and is considered so valid a profession that you can get your ass rimmed at Starbucks while waiting for your coffee.
And I don’t understand why people think we have it anywhere near that good.
My brother-in-law explicitly thought that the movie was commentary on “the liberal media.”
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.
Ellen DeGeneres saw Trump watching Finding Dory and tried to explain that the movie was about how it was wrong to separate families.
Trump loved it and had a viewing party at the White House.
ICE illegally separated families at the border, kicked parents back to Mexico, and adopted the kids into white families… And those were the lucky ones, the unlucky ones died in a concentration camp composed solely of children where the teenagers were expected to take care of the kids who were in turn expected to take care of the toddlers.
Trump and his wife Melania showed up with the latter literally wearing a shirt that read “I don’t really care, do you?”
You cannot appeal to the conscience of someone who doesn’t have one, no matter how good your movie is or what it’s about.