What is this social purpose? Westerners want to believe that other places are worse off, exactly how Americans and Canadians perennially flatter themselves by attacking each others’ decaying health-care systems, or how a divorcee might fantasize that their ex-lover’s blooming love-life is secretly miserable. This kind of “crab mentality” is actually a sophisticated coping mechanism suitable for an environment in which no other course of action seems viable

People {in the global north} aren’t “falling” for atrocity propaganda; they’re eagerly seeking it out, like a soothing balm.

We should also wonder how our appreciation of the sophistication and totality of the propaganda apparatus and its ongoing repression squares with the peculiar kind of “critical” media that does make it to wide circulation, usually to universal praise from both the mainstream and the counter-cultural “left.” Women getting constantly raped and murdered in film is deemed a protest against the patriarchy. Black people getting mauled by dogs, the most horrific traumas in their history ritualistically re-enacted in high-definition — this is an assault on white supremacy. Disaster movies insist that the end of the world is inevitable, that we are all complicit in ecological devastation for not doing our part recycling cans — this is environmental critique. Triumphant, handsome, charismatic, “alpha” men climb to the top of their respective empires of crime in highest-budget four-season shows and are awarded the highest accolades in their profession — this passes for an indictment of capitalism.

[12] Eileen Jones insightfully observes, about David Fincher’s Gone Girl:

Even as I watched it and shuddered with revulsion, I had to admit it — Fincher’s got our number. He’s figured out how to regularly wow contemporary audiences, to present us with the appalling truth of how despicable we are in a way that never really strikes home,

This license to feel despondent and yet always superior comes in many forms.

Do I have to be that guy again to post this?

https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

I think it’s the other way around. We’re traumatized as a society and media reflects that. I have long said that we’ve been stuck in a grimdark period of media. It started when 9/11 broke the modern western mindset. For the past quarter century media has been about trying to cope with that trauma through gritty dystopian settings with amoral shades of gray characterizations.

Completely dismantled was the hubris that the western world was an untouchable safe haven fortress from the worn torn dark savage lands of the world. We had defeated the nazis. We had won the Cold War. Europe was uniting more than ever. America was the sole superpower. We were the protagonists at the end of the story.

The shock and awe of witnessing a western city crumble to smouldering rubble on replayed every television set on every channel for years to come. That was traumatic. That kind of thing was only supposed to happen through a grainy analog camera thousands of miles away reported by a special correspondent on behalf of CNN broadcast through your living room cable TV. Suddenly it was happening in cities too close for comfort anymore. What happened to our happy ending?

In the wake of 9/11 the news media became obsessed with the 24/7 constant panic news cycle. There was a terrorist around every corner lurking behind the bushes ready to savage your family. That raised the bar to a level we’ve never returned below since.

Fictional media stopped writing happy stories. The western nations went into more wars of bloodlust against vaguely brown people. If they look suspect then carpet bomb them before they get to us first. Round up as many as we can and let our finest young military men and women torture them. Who we really are came to light. We are savages too.

The story telling came to reflect that. Characters weren’t the idealistic superheroes anymore. They became flawed protagonists. They don’t swoop in and save the day while teaching the primitive villagers a moral lesson and everybody claps. They do the things only villains used to do. They do things that make your stomach turn. Because sometimes that needs to done. That’s the cope we’ve been living with.

The public discourse has never really talked about all this. I mean for all the pride about being self aware and more attuned to mental health there are still some topics too taboo. It’s as if proverbially the public conscious has been secretly curled up in the corner of a padded room wearing a strait jacket quietly self soothing rocking back and forth repeatedly whispering, ‘it’s gonna be okay’. We’ve not been okay. We just lock that part of us away in a deep dark corner of the collective conscious.

Space sci-fi shows are a barometer for the cultural zeitgeist. We used to have the Roddenberry vision of Star Trek. Sci-fi shows were mostly inspired by that. Then things pivot into the grimdark era. We got shows like Battlestar Galactica. Then the Kelvin timeline Trek movies. Then the prime timeline Trek shows came back all dark and gritty. Nobody writes happy stories anymore. A campy show like Stargate could not be made in this era. Kids these days would cringe to death because all they’ve known is the adrenaline pumping trauma content.

Of course we cannot have this discussion without mentioning the most important show which is 24. That was basically revenge porn for 9/11. It was so popular because it was an outlet to satiate the desire to maim brown people.

The trauma and cope continues to evolve to this day. Now western society is realizing the rest of the world continued to developed and progress instead of being the primitive tin hut dwelling people that we were so sure we were inherently superior to. This is an absolutely unacceptable state of affairs. So the trauma response seems to be evolving into temper tantrums of some sort.

Not only are have we been coping with the fact that we’re not the protagonists of the world. We have also had to reckon more than ever with our own domestic issues not just foreign affairs. And so the moral center of media is currently fixed on shocking traumatic content. It’s how we cope. How we tell ourselves it’s okay.

I have a really low tolerance for media that depicts people being shitty to each other. There’s enough of that in real life, and I don’t agree that it’s necessary to prove a point in your show/movie. It’s a bummer that so much media is like that

A show like King of the Hill or Bob’s Burgers that depicts people as people and shows realistic everyday struggles is about the limit for me. A movie like The Banshees of Inisherin, where the violence is the point, I just can’t watch.

For the kinds of points that The Wind that Shakes the Barley and other films want to make, I prefer reading a book. The visual medium is too intense for graphic depictions of violence and general shittery.

This is all my own experience and perspective, I don’t want to generalize into other people. I’m pretty sure I’m some flavor of neurodivergent

I will maintain that minors should not be exploited on film, and if that means there are no depictions of minors in film, then perfect. Allowing children to be cast on TV, leading to the rise of “children’s programming” where all the cast are themselves children is grossly exploitative.

To answer your question, based on my above experience, I’ve thought about it a lot, and I’m still not sure. I do think that there is a possibility for deliberately traumatic content to be made, and the arguments co-opted from the more “well meaning” traumatizing media can be used to lend that media credibility it otherwise wouldn’t have.

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.

Can you be more specific? Maybe say what inspired this question?

I think most people are extremely numb. Maybe emotionally just to get through the day, maybe as a result of the constant barrage of stimulation we get online. So media portrays things that are horrific and shocking because it’s the only thing that makes anyone feel anything.

I can’t tolerate it personally. I have to skip out on a lot of media that is popular these days because it’s just too brutal for me. But I am probably an outlier for neurodivergent reasons (mirror-pain synesthesia, high affective empathy).

This question made me.think of Manhunt by Gretchen Felker Martin. Idk what else this could be about, I feel like most popular stuff these days is very filed down. Odd question, but fits my habit of reading really weird shit. Also thought of Fluids by May Leitz.

no. i think a lot of art is trying to change people, which can have much the same result.

100% A traumatized populace is easier to alienate and therefore manage and for an added bonus you can sell things to try to ease the painful void left by various traumas which are really just bandage patches.

News media or fictional media?

I think a lot of it is trying to incite fear and stress so you’ll be more susceptible to ads telling you to fix vague problems with product. And if the fear and stress required to out-fear and out-stress competing ad placement vectors is enough to traumatize you, then, well, that’s not really their intent, but they still don’t mind doing that.