Reports today indicate that Hollywood is planning to work pro- ObamaCare storylines into upcoming TV and Movie scripts (Associated Press; Nov. 5, 2013). A private endowment of one half million dollars will assure that Hollywood producers are fully informed of the ‘benefits’ of Obama’s massive program.
“We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know its fiction, they tend to believe the factual stuff is actually factual,” says Martin Kaplan, the Southern California Norman Lear Center spokesman. The Center received the grant from the California Endowment, a private fund dedicated to helping Obama roll out his signature legislation. Does this sound a little Orwellian? We learned from the Nazis that using visual media to propagandize vulnerable youth was effective, and it is no secret that Hollywood promotes Democratic programs, but since when did society codify such blatant brainwashing? “The public typically gets as much, if not more, information about current events from favorite TV programs as from mainstream news outlets,” Kaplan said. “People learn from these shows.” With the success of phony news shows like John Stewart and Bill Maher disseminating hard left dogma, why not go all out and blitz the entire TV schedule with similar disinformation? Oh, I’m sorry. In case you missed it, they already are! In a similar vein, in a story about California prison inmates becoming desensitized to prisoner maltreatment, columnist Steven Greenhut (Union Tribune/Politics Nov .5) points to theories that ‘people’s moral sensibilities become dimmed” after guards repeatedly abused mentally challenged prisoners by spraying them with pepper spray. The guards were actually following rules verbatim, without thinking about the fact that many, if not all, of these particular prisoners could not mentally assimilate their directions. “The common characteristic…is that ordinary people within their own normal professional and administrative roles can engage in acts of evil without being aware that they are doing anything wrong” noted Guy Adams who along with Danny Balfour wrote ‘Unmasking Administrative Evil.’ The thinking is that at some point people who repeatedly perform ingrained but marginally acceptable behavior, doing what in their mind is simply following well-intentioned, official directions, will literally become unable to discern right from wrong. This is similar to cases of military operatives who later are found to have committed atrocities but whom at the time, were completely numb to their abhorrent behavior and what effect it was having. In defense of the Hollywood Elite, it is easy to see how they think they are performing a civic duty, intending only to ‘inform’ the populace about the many ‘benefits’ of participating in the new healthcare program. Little does it occur to them that filtering information, purposely warping innocent entertainment narratives into calculated, self-serving propaganda, might actually be subjugating viewers who have no other intentions but to be entertained. |
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