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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   27516 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 6, 2023

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Of course there is a big difference here - modern progressive censorship and propaganda is not(at least not directly state-based) it emerges from a self organizing space of intellectuals who are very close to each other ideologically, but this is not very important to me personally if the outcome in the media that we consume is the same.

I think it makes a world of a difference. Contrary to common belief, Netflix, Disney and Marvel is not an exhaustive list of the cultural palette available in the western world. While it is true that the big productions cater to the wokes, you have also access to countless hours of movies which were made in the last century and are not particularly woke by modern standards. It is not like TNG is blacklisted because it does not have enough openly gay characters. Even in recent and big productions, I think that there are quite a few which are not terribly filled with woke ideas. I don't think there was a very high concentration of gay characters or racial justice themes in either "The Man in the High Castle" or "Game of Thrones". I don't think either got Cancelled over not being on message enough.

Personally, I can deal with some catering to the wokes just fine. Season one of "The Last of Us" had this rather sentimental gay couple episode, but I don't think I would have liked it better if it was a straight couple. "American Gods" had that "Vulcan's town of cracy gun nuts" episode, which basically hit you over the head with their political message, but whatever.

For award-winning SF&F literature, I think nowadays you earn points by being good and by being woke. The implication there is that among award winners, there could be a negative statistical correlation between being woke and being good. All else being equal, I would thus rather read the book whose Wikipedia "critical reception" section does not mention it being praised for racial justice or LGBT themes in the first sentence, even though I have enjoyed stories with non-binary main characters before.

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