It’s not unusual to constantly be bombarded with Hollywood imagery everywhere you go. After all, music and film are big, multi-billion dollar industries with gaudy advertising budgets and undeniable pull in American society. When considering the former it should come as no shock to anyone that Hollywood’s celebricult idols are plastered on nearly every billboard, in every magazine and major television advertising campaign, as are their characters and logos. They become linchpins of worthless products like soon to be forgotten, flash in the pan “blockbusters” or other worthless product that activist Hollywood wishes you to purchase or whatever idea they want to indoctrinate you into accepting.
The celelbricult and the Hollywood machine are inseparable and we know this. Their products are generally worthless and are usually distractions, another noteworthy point which many of us know as well. Yet even with this knowledge, many conservatives and libertarians still insist on using the imagery from their worthless products to promote their cause. Everything from borrowing characters and imagery from Hollywood movies to using Hip-Hop slang just to make their views palatable to millennials (or any many cases keep ad-revenue piling in).
*cue collective cynical eye rolling*
I know what you’re thinking and I can already feel your teeth gnashing.
“Well, they need to make money to keep their (news site, blog, YouTube channel, etc.) running, so they need a sexy aesthetic. They need imagery that’s going to attract people. Stuff that young people like.”
I get that to a certain extent, but when you borrow imagery from morally bankrupt entertainment or use superficial, falsely profound aesthetic, you’re usually just going to cheapen any integrity you may have wished to have in your cause/movement/website.
Perfect example of this is “The Matrix”. It’s imagery is beyond parody. Everything from using the term “Red Pill” to to using the the actual Matrix in the movie as a philosophical device to explain society has been overdone. It’s borderline comical at this point as it makes alternative thinkers, conservatives and libertarians look like pretentious, hokey, schizophrenic keyboard warriors who fear human contact. And don’t get me started on the term “Red Pill”, as any chance the term ceased to be been cutting edge about 300,000 conspiracy theory website and YouTube channels ago. Don’t get me wrong, I know many people who are genuine and sincere who frequently use imagery from The Matrix; however, at this point it’s comical and stale and an aesthetic that’s in desperate need of retirement.
And this doesn’t just apply to Hollywood either as using the term “Woke” is becoming epidemic for conservatives and libertarians at the moment. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how this term caught on in conservative circles given how it’s been used ad-naseum by smug leftist elitists/celebrities who think they’re more enlightened than the rest of the world because they listen to “The Secret” on repeat, read Mother Jones and eat “real food” (aka overpriced vegetables and trendy ethnic food that hasn’t been contaminated by “evil corporate greed”).
Now, for the record, am I saying all Hollywood and pop culture imagery is bad? No, of course not. After all, I do occasionally use images of Gary Cooper and the like just to be a bit cheeky and who doesn’t like a good meme from time to time? But using Hollywood or pop culture images should only be used in small doses – just enough to create a nice aesthetic without watering down what you’re trying to communicate. As independents, libertarians, conservatives, etc. our focus should be sincerity, integrity and information, three things we should never sacrifice in order to be palatable or for our own ego or prosperity. We truly are in the clutches of a culture war and if we rely on Hollywood and pop culture’s weapons, we should expect them to malfunction.
Just my two cents.
Love y’all and God bless,
– TDM
