Captain America is a weird one to include. Not denying it's probaganda, everything is, but throwing Cap in with copaganda is such a serface level take. He's probaganda for American exceptionalism sure, but also embodies it in an old school New Deal way. The character has been consistently anti-facist over the years.
Imo Iron Man is the much more harmful propaganda. You can pretty much draw a direct line between the characters rise in popularity thanks to the MCU and the rise of Elon Musk.
"But they're just TV shows" "it's not that deep" etc. I would implore you to listen to this excellent episode of Citations Needed..
It covers how modern cop shows were invented directly to counter shows that portrayed defence lawyers as the protagonists, along with a general push to lionize the police state despite its inability to prevent crime or deliver real justice.
"Which propaganda?"
"Exactly what I'm talking about!"
I "love" when a show like Law and Order has a scene where the cops go to arrest somebody who is later proven to be innocent, and it's always at their workplace, or a busy family function, or a restaurant. The cops proceed to loudly accuse the person of the heinous crime right in front of their friends/family/neighbors/coworkers.
Then later on, the actual perp is arrested and no mention is made again of the innocent person they practically eviscerated in public or in front of their loved ones.
It's like these shows exist to subliminally train people to passively accept cops treating them like shit, even if you're innocent.
NGL CSI was my shit growing up. Though I was never deluded into believing that accurately reflected reality to any extent. ACAB
Needs NCIS
Is it any wonder I tend to gravitate to video games where the main character is stranded alone somewhere. Subnautica, Satisfactory, Factorio, Antichamber...
I have a Flag Smashers shirt... go figure, they speak to me.
I was putting it on a couple days ago and I paused and thought about it, and suddenly realized the immensity of the propaganda - the great Captain America destroying the evil socialists who think resources should be shared by everyone, and that nationalism is a barrier to truly having 'one human family'.
Blew my mind it took me this long. Also made me wonder if they were dug up from long ago comics when America was openly and blatantly monitoring and persecuting socialists and communists (specifically picturing the scenarios and time illustrated in Oppenheimer). Haven't had a chance to dig in to that part yet, but I will right now!
Moonie (Moon Channel) has a lovely 2h30 video on the topic of Kawaii: Anime, Propaganda, and Soft Power Politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM2VIKfaY0Y
It focuses mostly on the eastern part of things, but it applies to stuff we end up consuming, too. Also worth quoting one of the top comments in the video:
I think you get one thing wrong, and that is claiming Japan is the #1 at projecting soft power. I'm sorry but the US is #1 and it isn't even a contest (coming from a non-American). The reason we don't really get the impression that the US is this soft power behemoth is because the US has been so proficient in projecting soft power that it has been normalized and integrated everywhere.
25 years ago I noticed the trend in the movies in the theater, and realized the USA was becoming fascist. I was sad, but surprised later at how long it took. I rather thought it would be faster and more dramatic, and not this creeping sorry mediocrity seen later in politics
You forgot ncis
But Captain America is a good movie. I mean, he kills Nazis.
Stuff I like is different! It's NoT HyPoCrISy!
