Friends, y'all need to understand that this is exactly why movies and music don't do a great job of radicalizing or politically educating people who aren't already moving left. First, most media is reactionary and actively pushes the other side (cop shows, military movies, spy movies, superhero movies, etc). Second, think about how many people saw Parasite or Children of Men and walked away without understanding the criticism of class and capital in it. The reality of living under 24/7 propaganda means you need the point explicitly spelled out to you and connected to your immediate life or else its too easy to ignore.
Alternative explanation (warning, doomer): people understand that explicit criticisms of capitalism are sincere, and for most "apolitical" people, pointing out exactly how everything is fucked up is tedious because it's so obvious. No one outside the Beltway and the boardrooms still believes the current system is progressing towards some kind of End of History as such. It's just there's currently no solution that they can take seriously. Nihilistic humor isn't "ironic," for most it's a sincere expression of resignation.
When irony becomes indistinguishable from sincerity it becomes post-irony. It has become mighty prevalent in the 21st century due to the rise of autism which makes it harder to distinguish between irony and sincerity. When someone says "I guess I'll just die" when complaining about unaffordable medical, housing, retirement, and living costs, the statement itself is true but the person saying it does not say it in earnest. It's gallows humor, not nihilism. Nihilism completely forgoes humor which is what irony is, a nihilist would say "I want to die" when faced with the sane situation.
Talk to people outside left circles. Theyre not even aware that there could be an alternative. Capitalism is the background assumption. Communism is so outside the pale that they don't even consider it. They, by default, think of market solutions when asked about how we should fix some problem. It's hard to overstate how dominant this ideology is. Even if someone is not neoliberal or anti big multi national corporations, they still aren't leftists.
Although I think certain pieces of media helped radicalize me(DS9, MGS, and Code Geass), they only worked because they were introducing me to concepts such as violent extremism being okay if used for good reasons, or exactly how backwards the world we live in is. Without the other things in life, they would have been just noise or may even have been part of a rightward shift.
God that anime was good. Like, it wasn't Marxist or anything but it was genuinely fucking revolutionary like nothing else. I remember it being compared to Death Note all the fucking time. Kira was just a reactionary 4chan troll compared to our based revolutionary stick boi.
I love how the first opening is one of the best OPs ever, and all the rest are unlistenable. One of the most interesting differences between Light and Lelouch is that Light is only able to stay ahead of the police because he has an untraceable supernatural power that takes him out of the line of fire completely, and he constantly gets help from his girlfriend or tricks his dad into telling him something. Lelouch has one ability that doesn't even even the playing field because several of his enemies also have geass, and it can be traced to him and he has to get close to his target to use it, and he is fighting almost 3/4 of the world simultaneously. So, Lelouch is actually the genius strategist while Light would have achieved nothing without constant supernatural aid. Also obviously Lelouch was based and ending colonialism and imperialism while Light was trying to become the ubercop.
I saw code geass when I was your average young lib and it was just entertainment for me, unfortunately. Watching it now I'm like "how did I miss these themes" but clearly I did. Most of my friends saw it too but none took anything political away from it. I remember watching Parasite with some lib friends and thinking it would at least get through to them for a minute but they all (despite being your average worker) identified with the rich owners while occasionally feeling sympathy for the poor family during the flooding scenes.
When I first watched it I realised that Lelouch was right, revolution was essential even though it would be bloody. Watching it a second time I have no idea how I ever thought Suzaku had a point. He is just the epitome of liberalism. "I need to kill people for fascists to show that killing is wrong."
Friends, y'all need to understand that this is exactly why movies and music don't do a great job of radicalizing or politically educating people who aren't already moving left. First, most media is reactionary and actively pushes the other side (cop shows, military movies, spy movies, superhero movies, etc). Second, think about how many people saw Parasite or Children of Men and walked away without understanding the criticism of class and capital in it. The reality of living under 24/7 propaganda means you need the point explicitly spelled out to you and connected to your immediate life or else its too easy to ignore.
A great example of this is the segment in bo burnham's special talking about the function of capital
That's one instance where it is explicitly spelled out, and people still think it's a joke
Alternative explanation (warning, doomer): people understand that explicit criticisms of capitalism are sincere, and for most "apolitical" people, pointing out exactly how everything is fucked up is tedious because it's so obvious. No one outside the Beltway and the boardrooms still believes the current system is progressing towards some kind of End of History as such. It's just there's currently no solution that they can take seriously. Nihilistic humor isn't "ironic," for most it's a sincere expression of resignation.
When irony becomes indistinguishable from sincerity it becomes post-irony. It has become mighty prevalent in the 21st century due to the rise of autism which makes it harder to distinguish between irony and sincerity. When someone says "I guess I'll just die" when complaining about unaffordable medical, housing, retirement, and living costs, the statement itself is true but the person saying it does not say it in earnest. It's gallows humor, not nihilism. Nihilism completely forgoes humor which is what irony is, a nihilist would say "I want to die" when faced with the sane situation.
post irony is when you post ironically
Talk to people outside left circles. Theyre not even aware that there could be an alternative. Capitalism is the background assumption. Communism is so outside the pale that they don't even consider it. They, by default, think of market solutions when asked about how we should fix some problem. It's hard to overstate how dominant this ideology is. Even if someone is not neoliberal or anti big multi national corporations, they still aren't leftists.
whats this? link?
https://youtu.be/oDQXFNWuZj8
It hurts to see people missing the point this much 🙃
Yup :( :doomer:
Although I think certain pieces of media helped radicalize me(DS9, MGS, and Code Geass), they only worked because they were introducing me to concepts such as violent extremism being okay if used for good reasons, or exactly how backwards the world we live in is. Without the other things in life, they would have been just noise or may even have been part of a rightward shift.
JIBUN WO
God that anime was good. Like, it wasn't Marxist or anything but it was genuinely fucking revolutionary like nothing else. I remember it being compared to Death Note all the fucking time. Kira was just a reactionary 4chan troll compared to our based revolutionary stick boi.
I love how the first opening is one of the best OPs ever, and all the rest are unlistenable. One of the most interesting differences between Light and Lelouch is that Light is only able to stay ahead of the police because he has an untraceable supernatural power that takes him out of the line of fire completely, and he constantly gets help from his girlfriend or tricks his dad into telling him something. Lelouch has one ability that doesn't even even the playing field because several of his enemies also have geass, and it can be traced to him and he has to get close to his target to use it, and he is fighting almost 3/4 of the world simultaneously. So, Lelouch is actually the genius strategist while Light would have achieved nothing without constant supernatural aid. Also obviously Lelouch was based and ending colonialism and imperialism while Light was trying to become the ubercop.
I saw code geass when I was your average young lib and it was just entertainment for me, unfortunately. Watching it now I'm like "how did I miss these themes" but clearly I did. Most of my friends saw it too but none took anything political away from it. I remember watching Parasite with some lib friends and thinking it would at least get through to them for a minute but they all (despite being your average worker) identified with the rich owners while occasionally feeling sympathy for the poor family during the flooding scenes.
When I first watched it I realised that Lelouch was right, revolution was essential even though it would be bloody. Watching it a second time I have no idea how I ever thought Suzaku had a point. He is just the epitome of liberalism. "I need to kill people for fascists to show that killing is wrong."