yes absolutely, all media is psychological warfare.
become numb to guns, death, and suffering - because we want those things to be more common in reality.
identify with the toxic white man inflicting violence - because thats who we want to be in charge of society.
pay attention to this horrible thing - because shocking audiences is how we get the most engagement and ad revenue.
become obsessed with our IP, integrate it into your very personality - because we want to own your mind and your culture as well as your body.
become mentally ill from your exposure to these constant, vicarious-yet-more-detailed-than-reality traumas - because we want you easier to manipulate.
absolute best case scenario is that an artist is trying to process their own traumas and share that result with others - but this will absolutely be taken advantage of by marketers and producers.
never forget the constant reactionary bourgeois government meddling in media in the USA, the cultural exporter to the world, the most propagandized people on the planet - they wouldn't put so much effort into media control for nothing.
turning your brain off for 'easy entertainment' is what the marketers want, you MUST engage with ALL media in a critical manner or you might as well ask the propagandists what to think. this doesn't mean never engaging with any media or disliking everything for 'not being leftist enough', just be aware of the material conditions and social forces involved in the creation of any media. it is literally all designed, often by literal scientists and psychologists in the case of large budget corporate media campaigns or products, to influence your behavior or thoughts, and you need to be aware of that to control your own mind's development.
for example, i'm super into mecha models - but i acknowledge, and wouldn't get irate at someone pointing out, that most related media is just an advertisement, that every model is just an advertisement for more mecha models and accessories in some sense, that creating a profitable product was the primary motivation behind all of this with any artistic merit or genuine writing being entirely secondary, essentially used as bait for our attention. i still enjoy mech models and mech media, but i am careful not to let it influence me in a political or philosophical way - i simply don't think the writers and designers are qualified or encouraged to handle such things with rigor and nuance in the context of a toy advertisement for weebs. I mean is Gundam really saying that 'war is bad'? because there are literal space nazis that killed most of earth's population that need to be stopped, as much as that might suck for those who are tasked with stopping them. it reads to me almost like an unintentionally glamorous depiction of the tragedy of a conscripted ww2 japanese Zero pilot, about how they have to deal with the end of their childhood to adapt to the harsh realities of War and Politics. its getting children psychologically ready to deal with war, while glamorizing and anthropomorphizing the concept of military technology. to me it reads more as 'War is Hell, and You Better Be Ready, Kids' than 'War is Bad', and thats the just the secondary message behind 'Buy More Gunpla' which is the real purpose of the shows.
yes absolutely, all media is psychological warfare.
become numb to guns, death, and suffering - because we want those things to be more common in reality.
identify with the toxic white man inflicting violence - because thats who we want to be in charge of society.
pay attention to this horrible thing - because shocking audiences is how we get the most engagement and ad revenue.
become obsessed with our IP, integrate it into your very personality - because we want to own your mind and your culture as well as your body.
become mentally ill from your exposure to these constant, vicarious-yet-more-detailed-than-reality traumas - because we want you easier to manipulate.
absolute best case scenario is that an artist is trying to process their own traumas and share that result with others - but this will absolutely be taken advantage of by marketers and producers.
never forget the constant reactionary bourgeois government meddling in media in the USA, the cultural exporter to the world, the most propagandized people on the planet - they wouldn't put so much effort into media control for nothing.
turning your brain off for 'easy entertainment' is what the marketers want, you MUST engage with ALL media in a critical manner or you might as well ask the propagandists what to think. this doesn't mean never engaging with any media or disliking everything for 'not being leftist enough', just be aware of the material conditions and social forces involved in the creation of any media. it is literally all designed, often by literal scientists and psychologists in the case of large budget corporate media campaigns or products, to influence your behavior or thoughts, and you need to be aware of that to control your own mind's development.
for example, i'm super into mecha models - but i acknowledge, and wouldn't get irate at someone pointing out, that most related media is just an advertisement, that every model is just an advertisement for more mecha models and accessories in some sense, that creating a profitable product was the primary motivation behind all of this with any artistic merit or genuine writing being entirely secondary, essentially used as bait for our attention. i still enjoy mech models and mech media, but i am careful not to let it influence me in a political or philosophical way - i simply don't think the writers and designers are qualified or encouraged to handle such things with rigor and nuance in the context of a toy advertisement for weebs. I mean is Gundam really saying that 'war is bad'? because there are literal space nazis that killed most of earth's population that need to be stopped, as much as that might suck for those who are tasked with stopping them. it reads to me almost like an unintentionally glamorous depiction of the tragedy of a conscripted ww2 japanese Zero pilot, about how they have to deal with the end of their childhood to adapt to the harsh realities of War and Politics. its getting children psychologically ready to deal with war, while glamorizing and anthropomorphizing the concept of military technology. to me it reads more as 'War is Hell, and You Better Be Ready, Kids' than 'War is Bad', and thats the just the secondary message behind 'Buy More Gunpla' which is the real purpose of the shows.