this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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US Authoritarianism

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Born in the USA Was a Protest Song (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago by alphanerd4@lemmy.world to c/usauthoritarianism@lemmy.world
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[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 77 points 3 months ago (7 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.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 82 points 3 months ago (3 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.

[–] Ashiette@lemmy.world 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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 !"

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 21 points 3 months ago

Then in the remakes, they replaced him with Mr. Han (as in Han Chinese), for the same reason why superhero films have scenes set in Shenzhen: because if you don’t angle for a piece of the Chinese market, you’re failing in your fiduciary duty to your shareholders.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago

Rambo was a masterpiece. The sequels were fanatic patriotism porn.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

James Bond for people who are suspicious of subtlety.

😘👌

[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago (3 children)

This Land is Your Land is also not the patriotic song people think it is. At least, not in the way people think it is.

[–] dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me; Sign was painted, it said private property; But on the back side it didn't say nothing; This land was made for you and me.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

This land is my land
This land ain't your land
I got a shotgun
And you ain't got one

If you don't get off
I'll blow your head off
This land was made for only me

[–] VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This land was made for you and me 🎶🎵🎶 (terms and conditions apply)

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

I don't think Woody Guthrie cared about the copyright. You go ahead and play that song as much as you want. :-)

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 14 points 3 months ago

Americans criticizing America is not anti-American.

[–] captainWhatsHisName@lemm.ee 14 points 3 months ago

I noticed that a large number of children’s shows, especially Christmas shows, are about evil corporations trying to take over and ruin something or pollute the world. These shows are then shown by evil media corporations which show commercials by other evil corporations.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

What happens is the first part of the artistic work is setting up the propaganda and lies that the protagonist is raised into, which the conservatives love and see as validating.

Then the conservatives either stop reading or otherwise fail to see the part of the tale where the hero gets abandoned and harmed by those he thought he was working with/for.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

MTV?

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not really “anti American” but not completely establishment friendly. They had Rock the Vote, Beavis and Butthead, Monty Python including the nudity, Jon Stewart got his start there, they had Liquid TV and weird nonsense on the air, at a time when most TV was pure Tom Brokaw and all why bombing Iranians is cool all the time.

Compared to now, it looks super establishment friendly, but for the landscape of television at the time it was pretty anarchistic. Now it is the narrative of course. 😕

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

To MTV's credit, they also did a lot to normalize homosexuality with The Real World.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I thought Monopoly was originally British.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

I don't think so, it's based off of Ocean City, NJ...