Thread by @RodericDay

The fact that Americans

1) keep insisting art/entertainment should be spared political treatment,

2) react with endless whining if anyone dares challenge this directive,

suggests to me that it is a domain where capitalist hegemony is fragile and vulnerable.

Contrary to what a lot of "leave media alone, all that matters is your fleshy presence in the streets" people argue, revolutionaries like Lenin and Mao have historically treated art *extremely* seriously, as propaganda.
redsails.org/mao-on-literat…

The idea that one can *uncritically* consume a White Supremacist Capitalist fantasy like "Breaking Bad" without it having any significant impact on their politics seems incorrect to me.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1304463727425728513

One doesn't need to become a pop-ascetic and absolutely abstain from big budget propaganda fare, but it would be good if people unleashed their critical senses from gripes like "you're reading too much into it" and "that's cherry picking."

https://mobile.twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1287425903103029248

>You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us.

This applies to socialism.
lithub.com/men-explain-lo…

Things don't just "become popular."

They're foisted on us by dedicated advertisers that attempt to both "meet people where they're at" (market research) and "lead people to conclusions" (influencing).

People often imply that we should restrict serious political treatment for movies that are *trying* to be political, like "Parasite" or "Moonlight", but I think "brainless" escapist blockbusters and kids movies are the best targets.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1337453806485975040

@Eileen15Jones' review of "The Dark Knight Rises" should be mandatory reading in terms of the potential of critical writing.

Especially for how much it challenges the nonsense idea that critique is the realm of "no fun allowed":
exiledonline.com/the-dark-knigh…

Laziness is actually where we can find a lot of insight—as it's when we're lazy, or at least where we think it is not essential to focus our attention for the sake of work, that we tend to defer to the implicit shared attitudes or beliefs about the world to do the lifting for us.

(If you're reading this DB, you're very missed!)

And it's not a matter of necessarily starting from scratch either.

We don't need to throw all of our past enjoyed media in the bin, and try to reinvent ourselves as new people.

We can remix and script-doctor:

https://mobile.twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1354781635401707523

I have many favourite big budget western productions:

Black Sails, Spartacus, True Blood, The Croogs, The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

And I know *why* I like them. My "escapism" doesn't lead me to negate and repress my politics. It's much more relaxing this way.

I also try to seek out and support writers and artists who are trying to create new positive media—with money.

And I do try to boycott garbage, both by not giving producers money and by "not letting people enjoy things," if I get a chance.

A "wokescold", if you will.