I’ve been kvetching about the sad state of entertainment for some time, so of course when this post showed up on my news feed, it caught my eye.
The lack of original thought in our arts and culture would make anyone think the western world is truly in decline. The movie industry no longer invests in such frivolous things as plot, script, and original ideas.
…Modern movies reek of cronyism, group thought, and investment in profitable ideas rather than original ones. The movies are created to garner the most income with the least amount of investment, targeting the unthinking masses to maximize profits. Popularity trumps quality.
In this dichotomy, political leanings often play a role.
Yeah, no kidding.
Those are the two forces dominating Tinseltown, (and the publishing industry, etc.), but the priority is reversed from what is suggested by the article.
The political agenda is supreme to the entertainment gatekeepers. Of course they’d prefer to make colossal profits while brainwashing you; but they’ll lose money to herd you into the approved groupthink corral when that’s what it takes.
But calling out the mass media svengalis on their propaganda with chapter and verse is something I won’t spend the energy to do in this post. You’re either aware of it; you deny it/whine that there’s not enough of it; or you only recognize little tinges of “liberal bias” now and then. (The latter group has been partially absorbed into the hive already, becoming less and less aware of the conditioning as they are conditioned.) It’s doubtful there’s anything I could write in a blog post to reverse 20+ years of cognitive manipulation undergone by the last two groups.
It is amusing to consider the multiple personality disorder of the entertainment industry: the corporate beancounter completely devoid of original thought and the arrogant Marxist artfag who pretends to have a monopoly on original thought.
During the red state/blue state meme of 2004, one of the aforementioned arrogant Marxist artfags crowed on national TV about how all the creative genius in the nation was concentrated in the major population centers represented as the blue splotches on the political map. She had in mind, primarily, the Left Coast and the Rotten Apple.
All that creative genius and original thought in Homowood, Commiefornia must be why they can’t produce anything but remakes, adaptations of old TV shows or video games, and oppressively formulaic romantic comedies.
Even when they mine their material from the comic books, with thousands of plots to plagiarize from, they keep rebooting the same old origin tales. Take away Kryptonite and those “creative geniuses” couldn’t pool enough imagination between them to conceive a single story idea for Superman.
I enjoyed the first couple Expendables flicks as much as the next guy. But when you think about it, it’s pretty sad that such movies stand out in a given year for drawing men to theaters without the coercion of a wife or girlfriend.
The solution is simple; demote both those megalomaniac hive minds (the Marxists and beancounters) from their gatekeeper position. Allow some cognitive variety. Allow some entertainment that offends…even when it offends (insert the Victim Class of the Month here) and tips over their sacred cows.
You know–offend somebody besides your favorite scapegoats in Flyover Country/the Bible Belt. You’ve already stacked up enough offense against them to last a few lifetimes.
I agree with most of your assessments in your post. You are over-looking the fact that mass media provides work for many people and thus must cater to lower common denominators and be produced to be profitable. If Americans as a whole read at an 8th grade level (LA Times) then you can’t be too intellectual with your product; that’s why sports programming is so prevalent today, simple broadcasts for simple viewers/consumers.
Going off tangent here, I’ve wondered why some of the very good writers of the Manosphere don’t get together and make a short film to “offend” the mainstream and put focus on many of the issues facing men today.
Films now are ridiculously easier to finance and produce. Every joker out there with a copy of Final Cut Pro fancies himself a Cinema Editor. It’d be a cinch for a couple of the bigger blogs to front the $$$ for a short film and then travel the festival circuit to get it some buzz.
That would have potential to offend the SJWs and pinkshirts everywhere. What makes it cost-prohibitive for me, more than money, is the time investment.
BTW there are a couple manosphere mavens out there posting videos on Youtube, but I don’t think it’s what you have in mind. (It’s the same old motion-selfies of some guy spouting off opinions to the camera.)
Copy that, I watch several of the Manosphere offerings on YouTube, thanks.
To your point about the time investment. I see it as a potential win-win for the principles involved. Think of all the potential blog material of the film makers traveling the festival circuit, the process of making and editing the film, the road stories, the random encounters, the various location experiences, running Game at a film festival. I see it as a treasure trove of experiences begging to be scribed. Am I wrong?
You’re not wrong in theory. Have you run into many of the types of women who attend film festivals, though? Rabid feminazis and not nearly enough SMV to make them worth the game it would take.
Not pissing on your idea, though. It’s a double-edged sword that would give some men opportunity to swallow the red pill, and would give serious butthurt to the self-appointed cultural commisars.
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