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this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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We kind of are? Although, it is mostly at the same level the US has been. Mainstream movies aren't going to have things that will anger significant markets. Similarly, a decent number of the long living live service games have "china" versions that do stuff like get rid of skeletons and so forth.
It is obviously speculation, but a LOT of what went wrong with Rise of Skywalker has strong hints of being about the Chinese market.
Which... again, kind of mirrors how the US and its holy concepts are treated. Take a look at mainstream action movies from basically the 70s to the 10s. The enemy might be a rogue general or CIA operative but you'll have a heroic US soldier/marine around to counter that out and show that the vast majority of the military are good people (and we still see the impact of that with people trying to reconcile the US military waiting to see how Jan 6 would shake out...). Same with how Democracy is good and amazing and only ever fails because of outright fraud rather than gerrymandering and stupidity/bigotry.
Just... the main difference is that you can still watch a movie about a squad of US Marines raping and murdering their way through a warzone in the US. Whereas that gets outright banned in China and can lead to a visit to the reeducation camps if the creator lives in China.
I'm not entirely clear on where you're drawing the line here but American cinema has a rich history of promoting mistrust in the U.S. Government. Eagle Eye, Three Days of the Condor, All the President's Men, Dr. Strangelove, and the Watchmen, all were mainstream movies produced in that 70s to 10s time period. Some or all of those depict institutionalized corruption on a level you'd probably not ever see coming from China.
I don't think it is even a conscious effort most of the time. But it very much pervades US media. And a lot of it even boils down to the actual military propaganda like NCIS or Bradley Cooper's The A-Team. It is the idea that we are Americans and we are exceptional and we truly value individualism and everyone should praise the NCOs who are going to fight the good fight and make sure they never do anything bad no matter what the evil officers tell them... so make sure to shoot that kid your Sergeant is telling you to because that fucker totally has it coming.
Mostly I am just trying to point out that we are already adjusting "global" media to placate major demogrpahics. The main difference, like I said, being that pissing off the US Government means republicans won't watch your movie. Pissing off the CCP means you need to be careful any time you are flying in the Eastern hemisphere.
The crucial point is CIA op. The CIA had an oilfield contingency plan. That's the organization, not just one corrupt individual. Definitely borders on institutional.
"He also states the cover-up was not only intended to camouflage the CREEP involvement, but also to hide "covert operations" involving "the entire U.S. intelligence community", including the CIA and FBI."
Sounds pretty institutional to me when two whole organizations are involved in corruption.
Okay, then institutionalized stupidity.
Oh come on, the Government had collateral damage galore in Vietnam. And the killing of war protesters. All institutionally orchestrated.
The NSA is an institution and they blew up those civilian targets. Nobody stopped that. That's what triggered everything else.
But this is my main point here:
Yes, China is creating censorship of the worst form imaginable. And it is affecting what we Americans are able to see on cinema. All the downvoters on here see nothing wrong with this picture?
And "Vietnam was bad" is a fight the US had long since lost. It is very acceptable to say "things were bad" then and it has increasingly become one of those "See, we don't fall for propaganda. Look how much we learned from the last time we entered a conflict we didn't understand with goals that weren't well articulated and rules of engagement that were the worst of all worlds". And if it isn't obvious: am I talking about Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq, Afghanistan, or (Erastil protect us) Israel?
Yeah.
Again, this IS how the US does propaganda. We like to pretend we are all unique individuals with maximum agency because FREEDOM. And that is how we somehow decided that "a few bad apples" doesn't ruin the bunch. And pretty much the basis for all the actual direct funded propaganda. Parts of the institutions are bad but the boots on the ground are heroes so you better fucking thank Chet Hanks for his service if you want some salmon.
And... again, you are kind of falling for it hook line and sinker. Don't worry, I also didn't realize how pervasive this was and even pointed out that stuff like the Call of Duty games were "shockingly not 'rah rah america' because the bad guys are US generals". It really was the Bradley Cooper A-Team (which... I actually really liked) that made it obvious that... that is the point. The generals might make you do horrible stuff so you shouldn't feel bad if you rape and murder a family because you can't tell the difference between one set of brown people and another. But the men in the foxhole next to you and the NCOs who relay those orders are all good and heroic people who are just doing their best".
And once you realize that is the formula? It becomes REALLY obvious how much media is "propaganda" whether it is directly funded by the US military or just people emulating the folk tales they grew up on.
And it is VERY important to understand that. In the same way it is important to understand that not all pro-China spin is "And we only avoided war because general sexy china guy believed Amy Adams and chose to not escalate" or "China was kind enough to give a rocket to Childish Gambino and Boromir because they truly believe in science and humanity" and a lot of it really is the kind of stuff we saw in Rise of Skywalker.
Because, yes, I am sure at least a few of those stories are outright thought crimes as far as the CCP is concerned. But a lot of it is going to just be a case of, to use an American term, someone not thanking the troops before a set or being overly critical of the brave men and women of the mujaheddin. It won't get someone outright banned, but it does lead to the discourse of "Well, they just get too political" which hurts the bottom line in other ways. It is just... because the CCP, "hurts the bottom line" really means "gets your whole event investigated by the CCP".