Superhero movies & cop shows are state propaganda

Edition V-- The Military Entertainment complex 101

I watched the new Batman movie with angsty emo Robert Pattinson and was frustratingly inspired to make this newsletter. The more I grow politically, the more I despise superhero or war movies & cop shows and the more I resonate with the “villains” who are the real disruptors of the oppressive status quo. The more I practice anarchy or abolition, the more I see the insidious role that Hollywood plays in upholding capitalism & ensuring mass public support including taxpayer money to run every oppressive system in the American imperial empire- from the police to the military. Corporations like Marvel or DC Comics are run by the the same rich people who exploit people and this planet for their profit.

Fun fact: Did you know the paper trail (financial support) behind blockbuster superhero movies, TV shows and video games glorifying the police, prisons and the military leads to the state and the rich 1% that finance it? In fact, the Pentagon (aka United States Department of Defense), the FBI and CIA funds media for public consumption that portray the US navy, air force and army in a positive heroic light. The Pentagon has worked with Marvel studios to shape and create characters to their liking.

As said in this article that dissects Pentagon propaganda in movies:

“Marvel and Disney’s long histories of collaborating with the US government, in particular the FBI and the Pentagon, to create propaganda – in exchange for military equipment, location access and consultation – is reason for concern. The FBI and the Pentagon have both engaged in decades of direct intervention with television and film. J Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s founding director, served as a de facto co-producer for the 1959 drama film The FBI Story, even going as far as to play himself and force reshoots of scenes that he felt didn’t portray the FBI in an appropriate light.

Walt Disney even served as an FBI informant, who turned in alleged communists in return for the ability to film inside FBI headquarters.”

The entertainment industry’s role isn’t to just brainwash us into supporting the decisions of the rich, it also aims to actively make us complicit in oppression.

Phil Strub, the Pentagon’s former deputy director of entertainment media – its chief liaison with film-makers – described his role as:

“…encouraging entertainment media producers to create or increase positive and reasonably accurate US military portrayals in their projects while remaining mindful of their creative process. Continually seeks out new ways to capitalize on innovations in entertainment media to inform the American public about the military, and/or benefit military recruiting and retention.”

Strub was involved with the production of movies and shows such as Transformers, Pearl Harbor, War of the Worlds, Bones and 24.

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Let’s look at some examples:

Batman:

The 1%. The rich guy in a penthouse with a trust fund and unlimited resources who constantly upholds the oppressive status quo even though the “villains” repeatedly reveal the systemic failures to him. In the 2022 Batman (spoilers ahead) he merely shows up at the scene after the Riddler has systematically targeted the most violent and corrupt elite and even after he realizes that the current colonial capitalist world order serves the rich and not the people, especially not the most marginalized, he continues to side with the politicians, police and the state. When he realizes his own rich father was corrupt and abused his power for personal gain, he happily covers it up without helping dismantle the systems that enable some to hoard and leverage wealth and power to exploit people. He is not a revolutionary- he is a tool of the state that suppresses revolutions.

Riddler:

A poor orphan who is not out seeking power or personal revenge, he researches and systematically exposes the wealthy ring of corruption that has been exploiting Gotham’s most vulnerable for decades. He also relies on a community of rebels and see’s that everyone has a role to play which requires us to work together to upend systems. He’s an anarchist and everything seems logical until the 2022 movie goes off his character arc to frame him as a nonsensical villain who goes from only targeting the rich to advocate for the 99%, to suddenly trying to drown the city.

This a quote from the Riddler that was the only part of the whole movie that resonated with me:

You know, I was there that day. The day the great Thomas Wayne announced that he was running for mayor, made all those promises. A week later, he was dead and everybody just forgot about us. All they could talk about was poor Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne- the “orphan”. ORPHAN? Living in some tower over the park isn’t being an orphan. Looking down on everyone with all that money, don’t you tell me. Do you know what being an orphan is? It's thirty kids to a room, twelve years old and already a drophead, you wake up screaming with rats chewing your fingers, and every winter one of the babies die because it's so cold. But no, let’s talk about the billionaire.. because at least the money makes it go down easy, doesn't it? 

... It's time for the lies to finally end. False promises of renewal? Change!? We'll give 'em a real change now! 

In response Batman says:

“You’re out of your god-damn mind. This is all in your head, you’re sick. You think you’ll be remembered? You’re pathetic. A PSYCHOPATH.”

• Without speaking to any of the substance and valid criticisms of our class-based society that Riddler detailed, the Batman has only one tool to paint the Riddler as the evil bad guy and it is to label him as an insane “psychopath” for surviving his childhood trauma and being driven to work with people to bring on systemic change.

• This is why I think it is so key for us to understand the role that colonial capitalist psychiatry and mental health systems play in pathologizing divergence and framing all rebellion against norms and systems as “insane”. The Batman is “sane” and the hero because he’s a rich guy with endless luxuries who upholds oppressive systems and does nothing for the marginalized?

I’m not saying everything done by the Riddler portrayed in the movie is good- I’m saying the entire binary of good/ evil, hero/ villain needs to be questioned when the people funding these movies run the American empire and make our lives miserable. There is a reason dissent, rebellion, and revolution is demonized in superhero movies and pacifism in the face of brutal violence and oppression is encouraged. There is a reason the “rich guys” are framed as the “good guys” from the Batman to Iron Man.

Onto the next one…