Oh come on, the Government had collateral damage galore in Vietnam. And the killing of war protesters. All institutionally orchestrated.

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?

But the institution is bad

Yeah.

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.

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".