Boot is quintessential conspiracy of American elite. 'No matter how often or how badly you are wrong, you will always have a place in the Washington Post/NYT, as you will never hold us accountable but ever prop up our eternal failure.'
It is like failure feeding on itself becoming epic. Hubris, by another word. And it is both glorious and horrifying to behold.
And absolutely, some of us will thrive in their absence.
There are two options that have yet to be mentioned in detail.
1) The Ukrainians can simply surrender. Then, Russia can take them and carry out justice.
2) The Ukrainians can tell the West to suck off and attempt to use diplomacy. They had a treaty about to be signed, but Brandon in DC told them not to sign that contract.
There's one more thing they're doing, that contributes to their failure as propagandists:
They're being didactic in entertainment media, and that never succeeds since didactics is anathema to entertainment and vice versa. We don't go to school to be entertained, and we don't go to the cinema to be taught anything.
Entertainment-stories always have plot holes if analysed, for the simplest of reasons: you cannot account for every possible interpretation of a scene, so even if 99% of the audience is onboard with The Republic in Star Wars being the good guys (or the lesser evil), the 1% will point out that said Good Guys not only know about slavery - inherited even! - being rampant on planets just a short hop and skip away from Trantor, I mean Coruscant, but that they are letting it go on, that they have no police and no courts and that corporations are allowed to have their own armies and fleets and are letting a religious order based on eugenics-as-magic be judge, jury and executioners.
Which wasn't the intended image at all, of course, and which isn't all that obvious or necessary when watching the prequels - yet here we are.
When we're teaching, we needn't worry about plotholes since we're not telling stories (or shouldn't, but given your previous post...), not even in history since we can simply present known facts in order of acceptance, probability and so on and have a debate about it and also show the progression of a subject as such while doing it.
But when we try to teach while entertaining, we fail. An audience that needs telling "Slavery is bad, m'kay?" won't respond with a change of heart being told so, especially not when they themselves have sought out something to be entertained by.
And of course, the more condescending, preachy and self-righteous and iconoclast we are when doing our didactic entertaintment, the greater the averse reaction from the audience.
Remember, it's still within living memory in many european nations that going to church once per week was mandatory by law, and I'm no older than membership in the state church was compularoy upon birth, and to leave it you had to be 18 and ask to be let out.
That didactic, one-way-or-no-way, rub your face in it-attitude has done more than anything to kill off not just christianity but organised religion too for most people - and I think what you're seeing in the US right now with the culture war, "Dismal Disney", and so on is the start of the same development.
The litmus test might be the Disney earnings call on the 8th this month, maybe - stakeholders and shareowners might be down with the DEI, but not to the tune of de facto losing billions of dollars on the deal and killing said franchise as part of it. If you're interested in more insightful commentary on that whole freak show, I recommend WDW Pro and Valliant Renegade on Youtube - they have covered this for a long time and have inside source to boot.
In the case of Max Boot, his column, his income, his influence, and his friendships all rest on his taking a point of view that, as you point out, is incoherent on examination.
However, It will take an enormous increase in those who read critically to make columns like his no longer popular. I'd welcome that change, and you're doing your part to help bring it about.
Thanks for the Veblen link to my post, although ultimately it will have to be the public who will determine whether shoddy culture and shoddy writing continue.
Your stuff is great, happy to link. I’m still amazed at the draw the neocons still have even here on Substack. There are a lot of nostalgic Boomer Republicans out there pining for the glory days of Reagan. The Bulwark should sell merch; they probably do come to think of it.
If people really cared about ending the pointless slaughter in Ukraine, they’d be longing out early & often that exactly ZERO authority exists in the Constitution for the federal government to redistribute American tax dollars overseas. At root, foreign aid is unconstitutional and illegal; as in violation of the “Supreme Law of the Land.”
We can write all day long about Boot, Nuland, etc., but until we force the recognition of foreign aid not being among the limited powers of the federal government, we will continue it, no matter that cost.
At first I thought your comparison between fanbaiting and our current political regime was a bit of a stretch, but you actually made a good point.
"They got ahold of a thriving IP, turned it into generic but still off-putting sludge through a combination of a poor and reductive understanding of market forces and a genuine contempt for the core audience, and now are squirming with rage that no one is showing up for their big project."
This is the quote that really made it clear to me how right you are. Though a bit of a cheeky simplification, it's amazing how this is essentially the history of the U.S. for the past 80 years.
Matrix 4 is severely underrated and misunderstood. It is brilliantly insightful and artistic and just like the previous entries talks about reality in such an incredibly straightforward way that people don't see what is right in front of them. Like the prior sequels it isn't what people expected so they criticize it, but it was made by great artists so of course it wasn't something you expect. It is very pro-humanity and thus on our side. It speaks to you plainly things you may not have been able to put in plain language yourself.
Why must this be oh so complicated? Can’t it just be that movie writers suck? And so does the tool known as Max Boot? Or maybe, in the case of Stars Wars, Marvel, LoTR, they made movies of the best material and now have to work with the dreck? Seems like overthinking.
Also, I would call Max Boot a human dildo in a fedora, but that would imply that he was capable of giving pleasure to a woman.
Boot is quintessential conspiracy of American elite. 'No matter how often or how badly you are wrong, you will always have a place in the Washington Post/NYT, as you will never hold us accountable but ever prop up our eternal failure.'
It is like failure feeding on itself becoming epic. Hubris, by another word. And it is both glorious and horrifying to behold.
And absolutely, some of us will thrive in their absence.
The same crew that stumbled into WWI and slaughtered millions of young men. They never improve.
There are two options that have yet to be mentioned in detail.
1) The Ukrainians can simply surrender. Then, Russia can take them and carry out justice.
2) The Ukrainians can tell the West to suck off and attempt to use diplomacy. They had a treaty about to be signed, but Brandon in DC told them not to sign that contract.
They'll have to get rid of Zelensky and the rabid neo-nazis first tough. Zelensky will be easy to remove, the others not as easy.
There's one more thing they're doing, that contributes to their failure as propagandists:
They're being didactic in entertainment media, and that never succeeds since didactics is anathema to entertainment and vice versa. We don't go to school to be entertained, and we don't go to the cinema to be taught anything.
Entertainment-stories always have plot holes if analysed, for the simplest of reasons: you cannot account for every possible interpretation of a scene, so even if 99% of the audience is onboard with The Republic in Star Wars being the good guys (or the lesser evil), the 1% will point out that said Good Guys not only know about slavery - inherited even! - being rampant on planets just a short hop and skip away from Trantor, I mean Coruscant, but that they are letting it go on, that they have no police and no courts and that corporations are allowed to have their own armies and fleets and are letting a religious order based on eugenics-as-magic be judge, jury and executioners.
Which wasn't the intended image at all, of course, and which isn't all that obvious or necessary when watching the prequels - yet here we are.
When we're teaching, we needn't worry about plotholes since we're not telling stories (or shouldn't, but given your previous post...), not even in history since we can simply present known facts in order of acceptance, probability and so on and have a debate about it and also show the progression of a subject as such while doing it.
But when we try to teach while entertaining, we fail. An audience that needs telling "Slavery is bad, m'kay?" won't respond with a change of heart being told so, especially not when they themselves have sought out something to be entertained by.
And of course, the more condescending, preachy and self-righteous and iconoclast we are when doing our didactic entertaintment, the greater the averse reaction from the audience.
Remember, it's still within living memory in many european nations that going to church once per week was mandatory by law, and I'm no older than membership in the state church was compularoy upon birth, and to leave it you had to be 18 and ask to be let out.
That didactic, one-way-or-no-way, rub your face in it-attitude has done more than anything to kill off not just christianity but organised religion too for most people - and I think what you're seeing in the US right now with the culture war, "Dismal Disney", and so on is the start of the same development.
The litmus test might be the Disney earnings call on the 8th this month, maybe - stakeholders and shareowners might be down with the DEI, but not to the tune of de facto losing billions of dollars on the deal and killing said franchise as part of it. If you're interested in more insightful commentary on that whole freak show, I recommend WDW Pro and Valliant Renegade on Youtube - they have covered this for a long time and have inside source to boot.
Modern writers and filmmakers seem to have decided that the message is the medium, and the results speak for themselves.
It's a very far cry from "Romanum eunt domus" which probably is the only example of a succesful combination of didactics and being entertaining.
Well that and perhaps the sex-ed scene in "Meaning of Life".
Aren’t they just overwhelmed with contempt for their audiences because they write lie after lie and everyone keeps lapping it up?
I don’t know that they lap it up. It seems to be more the subject of ridicule at this point.
They're overwhelmed with contempt for themselves they just don't know it.
That reminds me about what Anonymous Conservative said about nasolabial lines. You might be onto something.
In the case of Max Boot, his column, his income, his influence, and his friendships all rest on his taking a point of view that, as you point out, is incoherent on examination.
However, It will take an enormous increase in those who read critically to make columns like his no longer popular. I'd welcome that change, and you're doing your part to help bring it about.
Thanks for the Veblen link to my post, although ultimately it will have to be the public who will determine whether shoddy culture and shoddy writing continue.
Your stuff is great, happy to link. I’m still amazed at the draw the neocons still have even here on Substack. There are a lot of nostalgic Boomer Republicans out there pining for the glory days of Reagan. The Bulwark should sell merch; they probably do come to think of it.
"Spartacus (1960) was basically an advertisement for gay communism, but people still liked it."
As always, I am grateful for your work, but if liking SPARTACUS is wrong I don't want to be right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hB1-T_YTwI
You are not incorrect about the gay subtext though.
I didn't say it was wrong, just so gay that it had not only a subtext, but a domtext as well.
Some people like snails, others prefer oysters…. Meh.
I luv me some Kubrick at the helm of a stirring Hero’s Journey.
If people really cared about ending the pointless slaughter in Ukraine, they’d be longing out early & often that exactly ZERO authority exists in the Constitution for the federal government to redistribute American tax dollars overseas. At root, foreign aid is unconstitutional and illegal; as in violation of the “Supreme Law of the Land.”
We can write all day long about Boot, Nuland, etc., but until we force the recognition of foreign aid not being among the limited powers of the federal government, we will continue it, no matter that cost.
“…pointing out…”
At first I thought your comparison between fanbaiting and our current political regime was a bit of a stretch, but you actually made a good point.
"They got ahold of a thriving IP, turned it into generic but still off-putting sludge through a combination of a poor and reductive understanding of market forces and a genuine contempt for the core audience, and now are squirming with rage that no one is showing up for their big project."
This is the quote that really made it clear to me how right you are. Though a bit of a cheeky simplification, it's amazing how this is essentially the history of the U.S. for the past 80 years.
That Wired review is trying extremely hard to pretend it's not about a shitty movie.
Matrix 4 is severely underrated and misunderstood. It is brilliantly insightful and artistic and just like the previous entries talks about reality in such an incredibly straightforward way that people don't see what is right in front of them. Like the prior sequels it isn't what people expected so they criticize it, but it was made by great artists so of course it wasn't something you expect. It is very pro-humanity and thus on our side. It speaks to you plainly things you may not have been able to put in plain language yourself.
Sharp
Film watcher: An ignorant, lazy slob that prefers other peoples' interpretations of creative writers over their own.
A film: Modern art psy-op designed to replace introspection and personal creative pursuits.
I love it. My only quibble is to remove "art" and just call films psy ops. Movies are inherently inartistic.
Art is in fart...everyone pops off😆
Why must this be oh so complicated? Can’t it just be that movie writers suck? And so does the tool known as Max Boot? Or maybe, in the case of Stars Wars, Marvel, LoTR, they made movies of the best material and now have to work with the dreck? Seems like overthinking.
They don't want to tell you a story you like; they demand you like the story they tell.
That's the problem.
All they had to do was tell the story that was already written.
There are plenty of good writers around. They don't want good writers though. The producers wreck everything.