dChan
Anonymous ID: 354d37 Oct. 8, 2023, 2:19 p.m. No.19695097   🗄️.is đź”—kun

What does it mean if the military has the financial power to say what version of history gets made?

 

“the military’s approval process … isn’t about making movies more authentic, it’s about creating positive images; it’s about making the military look better than it really is; it’s about making the military more attractive to potential recruits, taxpayers, and Congress.”

 

You can see the point. The most popular movies on the planet currently are those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, produced by Marvel Studios, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2009. Disney has a long, long history of working with the Pentagon, stretching back to public information and training cartoons as well as insignia produced during World War II…

 

And if your view of the military is generally positive — as it is for most Americans — does this still count as propaganda?

 

In his foreword to Robb’s book, Jonathan Turley, a public interest law professor at George Washington University Law School, notes that “propaganda denotes a certain product; a packaged news account or film developed by a government or an organization to shape opinion … yet this is not traditional propaganda since the military does not generate the product itself and does not compel others to produce it. Rather, it achieves the same result through indirect influence; securing tailored historical accounts by withholding important resources.”

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF THE MILITARY HAS THE FINANCIAL POWER TO SAY WHAT VERSION OF HISTORY GETS MADE?

It’s that “tailored historical accounts” part that troubles me, at least in principle. For many people, movies are their most direct access point to the tales of war and heroism and history; think about World War II, and the images that spring to your mind are almost certainly culled from films. In the future, when those involved have passed away and our cultural relationship to truth has only gotten more corrupted, how will we access the truth about the ethically murky wars of the past several decades? Even if we know the facts and the films differ, will we care?

 

https://www.vox.com/23141487/top-gun-maverick-us-military-hollywood-oscar-winner-best-sound