Exposing bias against alternative lifestyles in popular media
My title for this entry sounds like a thesis paper, huh? But I get pretty miffed when I catch derogatory references to certain activities -things I like or feel are worthy- in popular media, particularly television. It's such a powerful tool, and I really doubt people who regularly watch TV realize just how much it affects them. You have to either come from a non-TV culture, or like me, have abandoned TV almost entirely to see how widespread its influence is.
Most of it is very subliminal, and hard to quantify, but recently, I've been seeing more obvious hints and it pisses me off. I was visiting a friend yesterday, and happened to catch most of one of the CSI shows. (It was CSI:NY with Gary "Woodenface" Sinese, but every one of these, inho, very poor shows is so formulaic, they might as well be all the same- certainly, the plot does NOT change from episode to episode, no matter what version you're watching!) It seems to me that cop shows must be the most unrealistic form of TV made- and they seem to be the best type of show to carefully insert the propaganda. It's helpful to have loads of criminals in the show, nothing better than a total psychotic moron character to make Woodenface look somehow morally superior. (The smugness of the cops on these shows is enormous- and repugnant!)
This particular show had a plotline of two psycho brothers hunting down random strangers in the woods with bows and arrows. Herein lies a lot of room for propaganda. First of all, "the Most Dangerous Game" did it first and best, secondly, their character's motives is glossed over with the line: "these people just don't think the way we do," and the discovery that their uncle (and sole guardian) was a serial killer who started the "family tradition" of killing of hapless strangers who broke down near his gas station. That scene allowed for the inclusion of Subtle Propaganda Point #1: "He raised them totally off-grid." Most people may not even know what that term means, but I do, and it makes me angry to see it carefully used to taint an entire group of people (ie. solar power, alternative energy enthusiasts) with the oh-so-common these days brush of "psycho-cultic-killer." With that awful polygamy cult making regular headlines, it's all we need to have TV tabloid crap like CSI tossing off those lines, like it wasn't deliberate propaganda. (This sort of thing always reminds of Babylon 5- the ruthless Lord Refa's line: "our experts in psycho-linguistics have been working on it for weeks!" In a more mainstream show, the experts would've been called speech-writers.)
The other propaganda points were more subtle- of course, the villains were white people (not that that's unrealistic- most serial killers are white- though I doubt the writers worried overmuch on realism), but furthermore, backwoods and "redneck" (the last remaining stereotype it's still okay to mock publicly- try that with any other ethnic!), and they used bows rather than guns, so here you have three innocent groups (off-griders, archers, and rural white people) are being smeared subliminally by CSI:NY. As a member of all three, I'm beyond upset. If this was the only time CSI did this sort of crap, I might could be mollified. But no, this is the latest in a long line of "psycho-linguistics." The first was the notorious "furry" episode, where the rancher shot the guy in the coyote fursuit. (Here they got to demonize both ends of the human spectrum- dumb redneck shoots wacko fursuiter. Another triumph for propagandists- and the mainstream can relax comfortably in the glow of their boob-tubes, feeling smugly superior to both extremes.) The second was a episode I caught a brief glimpse of- one where they slandered home-schoolers.
I could go on, but my point's been made and the library will close soon, so I'll leave you with this warning, if you still watch "mainstream" TV, the term to remember is buyer beware. Remember Korak's Law: TV ≠ reality! Don't let CSI's "flash in the pan" fiction influence your view on various subcultures or groups!