US Authoritarianism

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Hello, I am researching American crimes against humanity. . This space so far has been most strongly for memes, and that's fine.

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Born in the USA Was a Protest Song (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A lot of quintessentially American things are anti-American

"Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen in general, "Rambo," Mark Twain, "Monopoly," MTV, et cetera

The arc goes:

US system is bullshit
Someone points it out in an artistic work
People love it and the thing they made gets popular
System goes "hey we love that you're buying this please do it more" and promotes it under a guise of it not being directed squarely at them, with some skillful edits
Thing gets even more popular with more exposure, in its edited (backwards) form, to the point that the original is often semi-forgotten

Being against the bullshit is an American trait. Unfortunately, the bullshit has become more powerful than the against, hence all these problems we have now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Rambo: First Blood was a critique of a system that has failed its war veterans. The sequels abandoned all that 70s new-cinema moral ambiguity, making Rambo into a Reagan-era anticommunist superhero, a sort of James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

The same goes for Karate Kid...

I loved how it portreyed Miyagi as a sad man who lost wife and child to the internment camps, while he was serving the US and his medal is a bitter reminder of that fact.

In Cobra Kai is was "War Medal fuck yeah ! Miyagi best veteran, we must protect the patriotic legacy !"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s a studies thing. Conservatives are unable to grasp irony or sarcasm. It’s one of the reasons Steven Colbert stopped his show. The people he was mocking were holding his character up as someone to aspire to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

What?! I didn't know that

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Never underestimate the ability of fascist and conservatives to misread media and to try to appropriate shit critiquing them into somehow something that glorifies them.

Mel Brooks got it right when he mocked nazis in ways that made them look so ridicules that they couldn't appropriate his stuff for their purposes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

That's probably because he fought in WW2, so he knows a thing or two about them.