How Virtue Signaling Killed Hollywood

let's go Hollywood Backstage and see this unique and fascinating place called Hollywood I take responsibility virtue signaling the favorite pastime of celebrities everywhere right up there with P didy parties or cucking out to the Chinese government virtue signaling has been a regular practice in Hollywood for the majority of its history but there's a 247 display of it in all its glorious cringe thanks to social media opening an app at any minute brings with it the threat of a celebrity carrying about the most important thing ever of the day it extends beyond their personal accounts when their careers are riding on towing a Studio's political line when promoting a film it's a downward spiral for an industry that still hasn't recovered from the pandemic last year's $8.9 billion total is lower than 20 years ago 2004 saw a $9.1 billion domestic tally and 1.3 billion tickets sold versus last year's 829 million tickets with the quality of Hollywood's productions being the worst in recent memory and competition for people's attention at an all-time high hearing a celebrity spouting about their moral superiority whether it's a self-aggrandizing choice or as a forced Studio proxy is the last thing most people want to hear and it's contributed to Hollywood's decline in box office and cultural perception issues plaguing Hollywood aren't new but they evolve and eventually become too big to ignore Studios have made a number of stupid decisions contributing to their own demise from going Allin on streaming services that generate little profit that shun theaters in the process to shoving their stars in front of cameras like hostages as they read a virtue drip PR Ransom letter and that ranges from John Cena to Bob chapek who is the head of the biggest media conglomerate in the world it insults people's intelligence and reinforces the perception that Hollywood consists of hollow vacuous and outof touch celebrities ready to finger wag their way through the next media cycle ultimately fueling audience apathy when Studios aren't having actors embarrass themselves on behalf of the company a person in position of power like Disney's Bob Iger is fully capable of doing that himself after pseudo retiring from his position as CEO he was reinstated after Bob chapek short-lived but turbulent time as head of the company following iger's initial departure chek's time was marked by downward profits and internal political battles but his time was so brief that any issues in profitability were because of systems put in place by Iger well before Chek took over so he took the fall and Iger stepped back in to fix mistakes he himself started when Iger succumbed to Social and stakeholder pressure and allowed identity politics to take precedent in the company's media Productions over actual entertainment propaganda if you will the companies faced accusations of bowing to Dei and ESG requirements forced by Major stakeholders gee I can't imagine why you have to force behaviors and at Black Rock we are forcing behaviors it's only like 80% of companies participate in it and over 150 Fortune 500 companies published ESG reports but in an election year and those becoming culturally dirty sounding acronyms Iger and Disney are shying away from it all after winning the battle for their board against Nelson pelts an activist investor who was sick of iger's insistence on dragging the company down identity politics routes Iger has recently said the company shouldn't be focused on messaging and should prioritize entertainment almost as if he listened to YouTubers over the past few years and pull the quote but it's always best to watch what people do and not what they say because on the same day Iger claimed Victory with the assistance of that kind of proclamation they immediately announced the casting of Silver Surfer in the MCU and he would be played by Julia Garner if you want to stop me you're going to have to [ __ ] kill [Applause] me today's sponsor keeps is a 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an alternate version of the character that does have a comic book origin even though that version of the character has appeared in all of like three comics and is best known as an Easter egg in the song title back to Shala Bal written by Joe cetani who himself is best known for guitars and suing Cold Play at this point there's no reason to give a company like Disney the benefit of the doubt it's a virtue signal Dei equivalent to stunt casting and instead of bringing a refreshed set of interested eyes to an upcoming Fantastic 4 movie you have them rolling into the back of people's heads as they carry on dismissing a once great Cinematic Universe it's not a bad prediction that this will end up like all the other Marvel movies that have been [ __ ] out the last four years because everything we're seeing says it's going to no matter what Bob Iger says films themselves are foundational celebrities are often just ponds that push the message out like poor Yan McGregor who from his appearance in this video was more likely to have just seen Isis than a Starbucks prior to hitting record you're no Star Wars fan in my mind we could spend hours going down embarrassment Avenue and relive the horrors of celebrity self-awareness or lack thereof one of my personal favorites in recent memory is the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial that upon research for this video a recent upload of it comes with an actual cringe warning in the title but celebrities attention Seekers as they are don't always need a studio to mandate a cringe Fest of pseudo morality I don't think Disney or Sony were behind the group of celebrities participating in the Imagine live stream during the pandemic the most iconically out of touch moment of The Last 5 Years if you're ever looking for a video that actually makes you cringe that'll pull your cheeks back hand of God another personal favorite of mine is Ben Affleck joining the BLM protests with his I really can't be bothered to be here face doing the talking for him about how invested he is in social justice he even invested time making a sign a bold move Benedict Cumberbatch a brilliant actor can't help himself and seems to make sure he's photographed participating in everything of the moment from the MEO movement in 2018 to making sure to flash the Ukraine flag with the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon connection that his great-grandfather was born there I too find cheap ways to connect myself to causes like I was born in California and spent all of three days there my entire life but why do you think my hair is blew half the time I got to rep my fellow Californians celebrities don't engage in dipshittery alone and neither do CEOs entire movie studios can do it too by releasing crazy blatantly racist [ __ ] they somehow think will fly audience tolerance for this sort of Tom Foolery had peaked by the start of last year so there was little doubt something like the American Society of magical Negroes was going to get rightfully [ __ ] on and dismissed surprise it was getting its ass kicked out of theaters after just 3 weeks the entire universe could tell this movie was going to get obliterated once the trailer dropped and the cast and director asked people not to judge the film by it the thing that exists solely to make the movie as appealing as possible or how about Bros last year that was at least well received by critics but it's remembered more for the director engaging in cognitive dissonance when he blamed straight people for not supporting the movie after it face planted at the box office the studio green lit a comedy a genre that's effectively no longer seen as a viable theatrical option and then niched down further by targeting the 18-34 gay male demographic and actually expected the movie to do well doubtful you see this happen all over the place it's encouraged by Studios by who they hire when they bring on activists with no interest in the actual property the American society movies press tour was hilarious with Nicole Byer who plays DD in the film saying I've gone to audition where it's a magical negro part where it's just a friend you don't have any backstory it's just like she's 32 and loves her best friend yes because that doesn't fit the description of thousands of characters in the side and background of movies and TV shows throughout history it's actually foundational racism even if it wasn't I'm personally shocked the co-host of a reality baking TV series isn't given deeper roles in film to seek her teeth into with that sort of filmography why wouldn't you and people in Hollywood are no strangers to indulging in virtue signaling for the sake of money it's why Hollywood Studios have engaged in propaganda from the onset the founder of MGM made his initial Bank backing Birth of a Nation one of the most wildly racist movies ever made that was controversial even at the time of its release in the movie Civil War Captain America said suspiciously of the world's Security Council it's run by people with agendas and agendas change that can be said of Hollywood's propaganda machine from pushing Birth of a Nation to the US government scrubbing over 1500 Hollywood scripts of anything showing the US in a negative light during World War II and celebrities have a long history Marlon Brando sent Charlene Little Feather to accept his best actor Oscar for The Godfather refusing to accept it himself and use the win as a chance for Little Feather to speak out on the mistreatment of Native Americans by the film industry the interesting thing to note is that little feather had some claps during her speech but was also showered with booze excuse [Music] me that's a stark contrast to modern-day Hollywood where this sort of thing would Garner Standing Ovation because it wouldn't be authentic it would be expected another contrast between past and present is the amount of Studios as a whole Studios and corporations became consumed by conglomerates the film business today is run by six companies in total and 40 years ago 90% of media was owned by 50 different companies now that's dwindled down to seven it's how you end up with a seemingly streamlined message across the board regardless of the studio as if each independent one is following the same mandate and it's because they are all of Hollywood aderes to ESG standards that's why Productions feel like the same hollow mass of propaganda trash and these standards are finally being exposed for the [ __ ] they've become even John Stewart somehow had the balls to call out Dei now that he's returned to the Daily Show he had someone do it for him but he still had his name written on it so hey credit where it's due Dei Dei stands for Dr Dre Easy E and Ice Cube installing Dei standards even if it was originally done with good intention Dei standard standards become modern-day propaganda when it's funneled through entertainment Elmer Davis a CBS broadcaster in the 1940s said the easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people's minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize they're being propagandized John Cena's Shameless situation with the CCP is a wild and blatant example of a celebrity delivering a propagandized message and companies do it too a company like Disney is just as likely to preach a message of importance of diversity and inclusion as they are to deemphasize fin on the Chinese Force awakens poster corporations don't give people enough credit this satisfies a small section of very vocal people who have no interest in their product but are more interested in compliance and it doesn't fool a Discerning public who can sniff out [ __ ] a mile away just like people do with celebrities who tend to be far more prone to embarrassing themselves than your average Joe found screaming on the street corner as a white fing female and fuing pissed about it before the age of social media a celebrity dip shittery was relegated to crashing award shows or interviews but now they have unfettered access to reach an audience anytime they need attention their daily lives are streamed for everyone to see and instead of normalizing or humanizing anyone in that position it exposes their self-absorbed Lifestyles and personalities that often seem detached from reality no matter what kind of political opinion they have a celebrity can spout it often to the detriment of their production whether that's fair or not is beside the point here Tim Ellen's right-wing views have stirred controversy same as Gina corano who's now embroiled in a lawsuit with Disney on the other hand you have someone like Seth Rogan whose insistence on never shutting the [ __ ] up on Twitter had fans questioning how someone goes from super bad to Santa Inc someone once said Seth Rogan's the kind of guy who would climb a glass wall to see what's on the other side as much as social media has allowed celebrities to satisfy their gluttony for attention this constant presentation of self grandis and virtue signaling further the negative perception of Hollywood when writers and actors went on strike most of the world didn't seem to mind they were scoffed at for asking support from the people who were already providing them a living even though the majority of people impacted by the strikes in Hollywood weren't millionaires by any stretch the perception of what it means to be in Hollywood is so apathetic that the world collectively cried out oh wo the millionaires aren't making more during a post-pandemic rise of inflation when the cost of existing is out of control from The public's point of view they're hearing wealthy people who make a living playing pretend complain about work conditions the average person doesn't want to hear that [ __ ] even if most of the people impacted aren actually millionaire actors but you can thank those millionaire actors for their role and how their profession is perceived if someone wants to be a movie star you kind of think of it the same way you would if they said they wanted to get into politics who actually wants that job in today's age a successful actor's life is never normal again after a certain point from the Open Secret initiation and shaming rituals of Hollywood Elites to recent and ongoing rabbit holes like Harvey Weinstein and adjacent to that p didy and the idea of celebrity with few exceptions seems to always amplify the worst of human Tendencies virtue signaling trying to fit in and saying the right thing so as to not be ostracized isn't saved for famous people it's The Human Condition but Celebrity Status is that on a Hulk Hogan amount of steroids for better or worse people excuse poor Behavior if it's backed up by great performance fair or not star players on teams typically get the star player treatment because they'll deliver on Game Day eccentric Behavior hasn't just been a staple of celebrities it's been expected from the antics of punk Madonna crossing boundaries in the 80s or David Bowie in the 70s but we're talking about great past performers putting out generational hits the modern Hollywood equivalent is the previously mentioned Seth Rogan preaching moral superiority on Twitter and releasing dumpster fires like Santa Inc at least our guy Robert Downey Jr drops a cringe bomb and then follows it up with Oppenheimer point being audiences would still see movies starring annoying people if the movies were good but they are not so no Grace is given people used to love going to the movies to see Schwarzenegger Stallone Julia Roberts All actors who had periods of their careers where they could sell a movie if their name was attached Blockbusters are more about IPS now and it looks like video game adaptations on the next big Trend a celebrity people will go to the theater for just to see their latest movie that basically doesn't exist anymore a recognizable face is preferred but it's not a draw at best audiences like to see actors in certain roles RDJ coming back as Iron Man could probably crack a billion e even if it was MCU phase 8877 but give him a Dr doitt remake and you're shopping at Dollar Tree with all that said and even with the word cynic in the channel name I think Studios can eventually turn it around in the coming decade Hollywood has propaganda ingrained in its business practices from industry birth but there's a reason I have a channel discussing movies they've successfully released pieces of media over the last century that managed to blend Commerce and art into something life-altering that have touched millions of lives That's The Power of art at its best and why it's recognized and used as such a powerful propaganda tool at its worst but I try not to dismiss anything outright no matter of the precedent I do understand the tendency to do that with most things especially Hollywood movies and I'm sure we haven't seen the end of Hollywood's Decay like I said I don't blame anyone who isn't thinking Disney has the best interest of the audience in mind when they're pulling out the Shala ball Silver Surfer and I'm not asking celebrities to be Role Models just don't be cringe when there's actual autonomy involved I mean I know for the foreseeable future no one's avoiding weird humiliation rituals like the rumor about why John Cena was naked at the Oscars but maybe Hollywood will stop that weird [ __ ] in the future too and everyone can get on just being average weirdos GG's and killer cops must be prosecuted they are murderers we can turn the tide call out hate Step Up

Channel: The Movie Cynic

Views: 194,351

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Id: eIMyvb1Vlks

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2024