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Also in Good Will Hunting, when Will (Matt Damon) delivers a scathing job rejection to the NSA. 1997. The War on Terror has a lot to answer for. https://youtu
by BryantD 7mo ago
Also in Good Will Hunting, when Will (Matt Damon) delivers a scathing job rejection to the NSA.
1997. The War on Terror has a lot to answer for.
https://youtu.be/tH0bTpwQL7U https://youtu.be/tH0bTpwQL7U
- hax0ron3 7mo agoThe late 90s were full of media that questioned reality and authority - like X-Files, The Matrix, Dark City, all sorts of websites about conspiracy theories and UFOs, etc. The zeitgeist was full of speculation about hidden truths. The cultural mood was defiant and sardonic. There was rap, rap-rock, Beavis and Butthead, Fight Club, Office Space... One of the most popular pro wrestlers in the world played a character who beat up his boss and gave him the middle finger. Then after 9/11 it kinda seemed like suddenly the TV shows were all about cops and soldiers. Admittedly, my memories might be somewhat deceiving me. But I do feel that the mood suddenly shifted, much more than the actual damage done to America by the attack should have justified.
- komali2 7mo agoNo, you're right, and I distinctly remember the conspiracy theorists and counter culture thinkers immediately circling around "this is going to be used to restrict our freedom." And of course they were absolutely right. I also remember it was the worse possible cultural faux paux to indicate you thought invading foreign nations wasn't a good response to 9/11. I mean go look at the votes for invasion of Iraq, damn near 2/3 of both the house and Senate in favor. Every radio blaring patriotic songs, every school doing patriotic projects, every brown kid living in hell. It sucked, bad.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- the_af 7mo agoYou're right. And the military in movies used to be depicted as inflexible, stubborn, paranoid, incompetent, and usually either "the bad guys" or authorities that impeded the progress of the main characters. (With exceptions; I'm not forgetting about Top Gun). Then there was a sudden switch, with the military shown with cool gadgets, airplanes, tech, heroics, and generally being glorified. The transition must have happened before the first Transformers, but it was in full swing by then. Were one of a conspiratorial mind, one would guess massive amounts of money were spent in changing this image.
- sodality2 7mo agoNo conspiracy necessary. The CIA bought the rights to the 1954 film Animal Farm, modified the ending to fit propagandist ends, and it went undiscovered for four decades. The original Top Gun was intended to recover the image of the US Navy after the Vietnam War. Etc etc etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment...
- DANmode 7mo agoSo, no conspiracy theory necessary.
- wartywhoa23 7mo agoIt's all straight up conspiracy practice since long, to much cheerful bleating how it isn't.
- iammjm 7mo agoPlease lets also not forget computer games. Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, oh what a glorious thing to be an american soldier...
- Imustaskforhelp 7mo ago> No conspiracy necessary. The CIA bought the rights to the 1954 film Animal Farm, modified the ending to fit propagandist ends, yea, I remember reading the book and then watching the movie and it had differences iirc, its available on youtube for free and I remember some comments talking about the different ending. IIRC, in the movie, the animals finally kick the pigs out and everything. It was a good ending. but in the book, there was not a good ending, the humans and the pigs were celebrating together and then ended up fighting in between each other > Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. This is the last paragraph I found from the book (had to download it via archive.org to find the last para) So am I correct or is there more to the story?
- godelski 7mo ago> Beavis and Butthead, ... Office Space Mike Judge still does. Serendipitously there's a show called Silicon Valley... I also enjoyed the more recent Common Side Effects. But you even see it in King of the Hill and it's hard to miss in Idiocracy.
- donkyrf 7mo agoThe late 90s were also a time of Law & Order, The West Wing, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan. And today is a time of Andor and Succession....
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- ethbr1 7mo agoTo be fair, West Wing, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan all have very strong counter-authority veins.
- jedberg 7mo agoGen-X was making the popular new art at the time. It was a strong reflection of the feelings of our generation. We were (maybe still are?) known for not liking authority.
- nytesky 7mo agoReality Bites captures the zeitgeist well. I think the money craze that came with dot.com, War on Terror spending, housing bubble, really flipped people into money at all costs.
- pjmlp 7mo agoAs Gen-Xer I fully agree, I don't get the way things are with obedience, the rediculous situation that American families can lose their kids by having them playing alone in the garden, how everyone sells out for money (Punk would not happen today), the always smile and say no negatives at work being rediculous false (this one really drives me crazy),....
- dhosek 7mo agoAnd yet Gen X is the demographic that fell hardest for Trump.
- pjmlp 7mo agoWas it? I am not on US. If anything it is all about boomers, gen z and rednecks on YT and TikTok when going over MAGA and Project 2025 videos. As far as I am aware, the people that didn't gave a damm to elections and ignored their right to vote, are the main reason.
- bdangubic 7mo agothis isn’t true either, 2024 election saw the highest number of people voting - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States...
- DANmode 7mo agoThe release date of the show 24 is fun.
- snozolli 7mo agoMy pet theory is that NYPD Blue and 24 paved the way in the American public mind for authoritarianism via the "good guys bending the rules and using violence because they know this guy did it" theme.
- InitialLastName 7mo agoCSI and Law and Order as well contributed to the perception that the majority of police officers spend their time diligently and righteously investigating real crimes (usually resulting in finding the culprit) instead of spending their days watching traffic in pursuit of pretextual traffic stops, and solving less than 50% of violent crime cases.
- bad_haircut72 7mo agoEver heard of Dirty Harry? This is a very old trope.
- ChoGGi 7mo agoWhat is Nov 6 2001?
- vintermann 7mo agoI was absolutely disgusted by stuff like 24 and zero dark thirty when it came out. "If you cut the throat of the terrorist's son he'll break down and tell you where the bomb is" - they expected the audience to treat that as plausible narrative, and a lot of them clearly did. A lot of the war propaganda from back then is also depressingly similar to what gets pumped out now: you can't argue with success, you don't want to be on the losers' side do you?
- Phemist 7mo agoSimilarly in the pilot episode of Designated Survivor. "Let's nuke Teheran" was seen as a valid, and brilliant, tactical move in order to get negotiations with Iran to go Kiefer Sutherland's way.
- Rzor 7mo agoTo give 24 some credit, it showed some Americans as complicit in the terrorism or corruption in the story. ZDT also touched on how torture wasn't as effective as assumed. I agree that the broader themes often feel biased/propagandized, framing the anti-hero, who's basically acting as a proxy for the government, as justified at almost any cost.
- BLKNSLVR 7mo agoAdd The Thirteenth Floor and eXistenZ to the initial list of movies.
- ChoGGi 7mo ago> Then after 9/11 it kinda seemed like suddenly the TV shows were all about cops and soldiers. There were some rare exceptions like Veep