How Hollywood has influenced the perception of Politics with the use of Propaganda

Unfortunately, in this day and age, you can't simply enjoy what you used to without having an agenda or viewpoint either forcefully or sneakily forced upon you. Over the past few years, people have started to see these subtle (or not so subtle) attempts to influence via film and broadcast. More and more as the idea of political correctness and inclusiveness has been brought to the forefront of the Western World, the more we’ve seen our entertainment latch onto it.

For arguments sake, let's talk about things from an American political perspective, the battle of the Liberal Left and the Conservative Right. It pains me to speak of things in such a bipartisan way, but that seems to be the easiest way to make my points as well as give you,  the reader a frame of reference.

Hollywood didn't used to be this way. In the 1950-60’s Hollywood executives were by and large conservative. Early creators were always liberal. They tended to be Jewish Socialists from New York. The battle between these two groups resulted in a relatively non partisan kind of television. There were flashes of Liberalism that shone through, but for the most part it was sort of down the middle. By the early 1960’s and the death of John F. Kennedy, Hollywood's liberal creators gained a larger stride. There seemed to be a key shift in liberal thinking in America when Kennedy died, shifting from a hopeful liberalism, the future is great etc to a very pessimistic liberalism, America is a bad place and must be fundamentally changed. At the same time in TV, the executives were beginning to become more liberal, being replaced by a new breed of advertising agency executives who sprung themselves from New york. They were young, urban, hip, they were liberal. Everybody was now pulling in the same direction, the creators and the executives I mean. They did have one problem in terms of liberalism on television. In 1965, America was a very conservative country. How could the programming be left when the country was right? They came up with a scam. The TV creators don't care about you. It's not that nice of a statement, but it serves its purpose. Their not interested in you. They are interested in the advertisers. That's how they get their money. When you turn on your TV, you're not paying for it. You're not paying the creators of the shows. The advertisers are. THe only reasons audiences are important in the market is because advertisers use those number to determine how many people are seeing their message. It tells them ‘Here's how many people are watching the show, here's how much you should pay for those sets of eyeballs’

That's not all they do. They say that certain elements of the Tv audience are more important than other elements of the audience. Not all eyes are equal. That's why you see all the noise about the 18-34 or 18-49 crowd. If you think about that, it makes absolutely no sense. Why should the 18-49 age range be the targets of advertisers. The fact is that people who are 50 and above are mainly the people with savings, disposable income and are retiring. Well, maybe a few years ago.

The leading network in America is CBS. CITATION HERE - It's the most popular station with over 50’s. Seeing something a little strange? This is above that supposed ‘sweet spot’ Why do they lie to the advertisers? Originally speaking, there were three main networks, - ABC, CBS and NBC. In the late 1960s, ABC only had affiliates in the major urban areas. They were getting thrashed by CBS which had affiliates everywhere. It was having all of the top shows with Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. CITATION Not exactly liberal or urban type shows. ABC wondered how to make money. We’ll scam the advertisers and tell them that their own viewers were more important than anyone else's viewers. What is by and large the most liberal age group in the country? 18-34 / 18-49 That's why they lie about the ‘market’ demanding the liberalism. This shuts down conservatives. Everyone who has critiqued TV before has said TV is liberal. The left replies ‘Oh yeah? People want it, just change the channel!’ Well, the same people control it? They’re also not marketing toward conservatives, they're not urban or young and thus not what they're looking for.

Liberalism comes through your TV on virtually every show you can watch. A favourite author of mine, Ben Shapiro, a conservative Jewish journalist decided to actually interview the people who make these networks work. He ‘decided to get the story from the horse's mouth’

Despite being openly conservative since 16 and having a nationally syndicated column on conservatism since he was 17 meaning that at the time there were 10 years worth of records concerning his politics. The unfortunate fact about liberals however, is they stereotype quite regularly, especially on race and ethnicity. It was no surprise that they figured he was liberal when he emailed them. His surname being Shapiro and his  Harvard Law School background was seemingly all the evidence they needed to consider believe that he was as left leaning as they are. He told them that he was looking at the changes in social messaging from Dick Van Dyke to Sex in the City. All the people that he interviewed wanted to be interviewed because they were the biggest names in tv. Ego seems to kill.

What he found was stunning. A community that is not only proud of its liberalism but also believes deeply that what they're doing is right. They’re openly discriminatory, and they are happy to use their power to proselytize (fancy word huh) for liberalism. They twist the market as previously explained to achieve their own ends. To begin, he spoke with a gentlemen called Leonard Goldberg. He happens to be a political independent, he's the producer of Blue Bloods on CBS, Charlie's Angels and a member of the board at CBS. Hes also Aaron Spelling's old partner. Aaron Spelling made probably half of the TV shows from the 70’s and 80’s. Goldberg summed it all up with regards to Hollywood's Politics.

“I don't know about the content being pushed but in terms of the thought about various matters, socially, political it's 100% dominant, and anyone who denies it is kidding. - I can say that as an independant, there's no question - “ - He replied to the question ‘Is there a certain political agenda being unfairly pushed by one side?’

So the question is, why is hollywood so liberal. The answer is obvious, for the most part, they despise conservatives. They live in an echo chamber. It's so cloistered that everyone feels that they're expressing fact and not opinion and if you disagree, it's because you're factually incorrect. Take for example Susan Harris. She's the creator of a couple of the most famous shows to ever be broadcast, Soap and Golden Girls. Here's what she had to say about conservatives across America.

‘There's a large section of this country, seems to be getting smaller at least, you know, we put Obama in office, and so people I think are getting a little bit smarter, but there are a lot of people who really have medieval minds. In all sorts of ways. Who aren't open to anything new. Aren't open to anything reasonable, think science is a matter of belief and you know, that's who you're dealing with.’

She mentions that she couldn't write for ‘that audience’ Well, that's exactly the audience she's speaking to. The studies I mentioned before about age and viewership of specific networks show that those are in fact the people she's speaking to, those people that she supposedly can't write for are in fact the people who are watching her shows. Why is there this giant disconnect between the creators of TV and the people who watch TV. The people who create television, the same folks who say that Imperialism is the worst form of evil in the universe are in fact themselves, the greatest cultural imperialists in modern history. Sometimes it's unconscious, because they think they're reflecting real life America when in actual fact they're changing it in most cases. The truth is that TV reflects the lives of people in Hollywood, and transforms those watching. You can see this across the world in fact, people mimicking or acting like people they see on a show. People will dress like a certain person, often ask themselves what would this person do in this situation and become what is essentially friends with this character, especially after spending so much time with/watching them on the screen.

Something else worthy of mention is the way that a lot of Actors and Actresses in Hollywood seem to have to take the world by storm and let everyone know how they think and what they feel is right. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to stop people voicing their opinions, absolutely not. What I am saying is, is that people didn't used to watch the Golden Globes or the Oscars to hear about politics or everyone's thoughts on Donald Trump. That's not why any of them are there. They are there to celebrate. I’ve lost track of how many celebrities take it upon themselves to use their status and platform to ‘educate’ anyone watching. Perhaps its the entire room of like minded individuals that makes them do it, maybe its the national broadcast of the event, whatever it is people dont like it. Just this year, according to the Hollywood reporter "TV Ratings: Oscars Drop To 32.9M Viewers, Telecast Takes A Bigger Hit With Younger Set". The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Mar. 2017, talk about how ratings and the viewership of things as big as the Oscars is down. Down by quite a lot as well. This to me shows that the American people (the ENTIRE audience to these sorts of shows) isnt too happy about being lectured to when trying to enjoy themselves. I resonate with them as well, I wouldnt want to tune into my favourite show if the main character took a break from what they were doing to tell me off for how I feel politcally, personally I think the two should remain separate, but its clear that isnt a possibility.

Its not just the lecturing or the need to speak ones mind, its how the rest of the media and those who seemingly dont like to think for themselves latch onto it and shower it in unnecessary praise. Lets take Meryl Streep recent acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. I kid you not when I say she has been called the ‘bravest actress in decades’ and ‘The Iron Lady of Acting’ by people on Twitter and news articles alike. "Meryl Streep’S Evocative Speech Hitting Out At Trump Gets People Lauding Her On Twitter". The Indian Express. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Mar. 2017. You can read it there, people ‘lauding her’ for her defiance. Give me a break. I remember thinking as a child how brave people who stormed the beaches of Normandy were, how brave you had to be to run into a burning building, but this? It makes me sad to think that its now brave to stand up in a room of like minded people and lash out at those you all dislike as much as one another. Its incredibly courageous and certainly not vain or ego boosting in the slightest.

I think Id be less inclined to be so emotional about this topic if it were coming from someone else, a different group of people perhaps. I mentioned earlier that the actual fact most of the is that people standing up and making these speeches really do believe they are dong whats best for America or the people of the world. They seemingly don't step back and see the affect they are making or what their voices or actions are doing. Its started to trickle down from just the occasional speech or pat on the back moment for standing for a specific cause and actually started to seep into people's everyday lives, not to mention other forms of entertainment. You cant go on facebook nowadays without being bombarded by an endless cycle of ‘Im doing my part’ or ‘Look at how accepting I am’ The sad part is, people like myself get it. We understand what it is to be tolerant and accepting of viewpoints, but its starting to get a little much. The cycle can be quite vicious actually. You can be minding your own business, get accosted by some self righteous individual intent on either having an argument or simply proving that they’re better than you. Its taken a few years of this for people to start realising and for patience to be wearing thin. Not two days ago I read an article and saw a video on how using the politically correct term ‘Special Needs’ is now offensive and should be outlawed. Having read this, sure, I can do that, no problem. Im a reasonable guy. But when I watch the video of a woman with down syndrome sort of trying to play off the ‘offensive’ nature of the statement with some visual comedy, it makes me feel as if she's attacking me. The tone used is quite aggressive, and reading a lot of the comments it's clear people dont like it. Falling back on the left vs right ideology, the left really likes to make people feel guilty, even when most aren't to blame.

My overall point with this is that I personally feel it's all unnecessary. I don't need to be told how to think, I dont need to be called nasty for simply defending myself and above all I really don't like the way that everyone has to be holier than thou. There are actual problems in this world that need addressing, things that would benefit tenfold from a little attention. Please stop saying how difficult life is, especially coming from the Western Society. Please stop bashing all that your ancestors and relatives worked so hard to achieve and build and most of all. Be considerate. Dont assume things about people and dont go preaching to masses. For the sake of the world, dont go making things worse than they already are.