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1. Tinker ☀️ (tinker@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 02:13:01 JST Tinker ☀️

   I remember studying Soviet propaganda in college.

   I was always so amazed at how obvious it was. Wondering how people could sit through it.

   But looking at my own country's propaganda gives me insight into this.

   The wonderfully brilliant manipulation tactic is this:

   1. Take a legitimate concern and build the story from that.
   2. Take the ideal outcome (from the perspective of those in who want to maintain power / the creators of the propaganda) and make the hero advocate for that.
   3. Take honest and good efforts by those not in power to address the legitimate concern, strawman them, and make them the villain.

   One such corpus of propaganda is the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

   • All the heroes are superhuman cops or vigilantes enforcing the status quo through violence.
   • All the villains are trying to address societal concerns... but the realistic approach in the real world is twisted in these fictions to where their approach always includes genocide, violence, changing the current oppression to another oppressor of their choice, and other strawmen caricatures.

   The propaganda messages conveyed are:

   • The status quo and your current oppressors are here to stay and are the best you can hope for
   • Fear and distrust any attempt to fix the current problems
   • The only way to change is through violence (this is conveyed as bad)
   • If anyone tries to change, they'll be stopped with violence (this is conveyed as good)
   • The only people that can participate in the world (either fixing problems or maintaining systems of control) are superhuman demigods. The powerful. The rich. - Never you. Never the normal person trying to improve their and their neighbors' lives.

   Pop Culture Detective recently release a video essay on this very thing. Watch it below.

   Pop Culture Detective's "Marvel's Defenders of The Status Quo"

   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LpitmEnaYeU

   .______
   #solarpunk #mututalAid #fiction

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 02:12:52 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @tinker I wouldn't say *all* the MCU villains, but many. Which probably makes their role as propaganda more effective by muddying the waters.

     Also I'm reminded of another YouTube video on this topic which at the end quips "call me a generic MCU villain, because I hate Tony Stark!" (The capitalist makes enemies, who knew?)

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 02:28:25 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @tinker From this angle I find Thor Ragnorok the most interesting, in that an indigenous director found space within the franchise (a desire for a Thor soft-reboot) to ask the massive western audience to confront their colonialist history... The villain of that represented said colonialist history of their depiction of the Norse gods.

     In terms of storytelling craft, I think the MCU is also a good negative example of how vital extras are to creating compelling superhero films...

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 02:54:39 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @tinker I do also have to recommend checking out The Red Panda Adventures for an alternative. I love those stories! It is set during The Great Depression and WWII.

     I find it interesting that art funded by capitalists may depict evil capitalists but never seems to suggest that all capitalists are bad. Without that funding there may still be a lack of imagination for alternatives but given the topic of capitalists they seem to consistently and explicitly state "all capitalists".

   • Tinker ☀️ (tinker@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 02:54:42 JST Tinker ☀️

     in reply to

     • Adrian Cochrane

     @alcinnz - Compelling ideas. I appreciate you mentioning them. I haven't seen Thor Ragnorok. I'll check it out with this in mind.

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 06:06:58 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     • mynameisformyfriends

     @quixotal @tinker @r000t@infosec.exchange Interesting that the traditionally-working class hero under Tony Stark's mentorship gets his mentors enemies...

   • mynameisformyfriends (quixotal@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 06:07:07 JST mynameisformyfriends

     in reply to

     • r000t

     @tinker @r000t this is kind of the point of the original post. The Spider-Man with Michael Keaton is all about an everyman that makes a living cleaning up the Avengers mess. Then gov comes in and takes advantage of him, leading to him suddenly losing his mind and becoming the “bad guy”. I really dislike these movies, but they’re pretty insidious with their messaging.

   • r000t@infosec.exchange's status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 06:07:15 JST r000t

     in reply to

     @tinker Nobody ever talks about all the cleanup that happens after the big battle.

   • Tinker ☀️ (tinker@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 16-Dec-2022 06:07:16 JST Tinker ☀️

     in reply to

     One other core of the message in the MCU and other similar forms of propaganda is more insidious...

     • The ability to dream of better worlds and the ability to dream of ways to achieve those better worlds... is severally constrained, limited, badgered, and distorted away.

     None of the stories in the MCU allow for greater thought, greater ideas, than violence and abuse and trauma with only one outcome... the maintaining of the current oppressive status quo.

     This is probably the greatest goal of propaganda... don't just produce lies and bullshit for people to think. CONSTRAIN the ability of people to think outside of the narrow confines presented by the propaganda.

     By limiting the words and the scenarios presented as choice... any outcome within the narrow selection of choices is ideal to the oppressor.

     This is why I love solarpunk and hopepunk and similar speculative fiction.

     We are creating our own narratives, our own languages, and therefore, our own possibilities and choices.

     ._____
     #solarpunk #hopepunk #mutualAid