Call me a liberal, but I can’t keep derailing threads about this and fully address it in a post on its own. I am worried all the progress we have made is down the toilet and the right’s now the one advancing and winning year by year.
I get it, we’ve been in the minority opinion before like with gay rights. As doom and gloom as it looks, there is no denying that things have gotten better. And even during the aughts backlash times of the “anti-PC tirade”, being progressive still felt avant-garde and more sophisticated than being a chud. Some of that energy eventually manifested into Obama (as much of a fraud he was, even when I was a kid it was still awesome seeing him win.)
Now I feel like it’s the inverse. Not only are we losing these cultural battles, but I feel fogey being a non-CHUD. CHUDs are highly praised everywhere and thanks to the internet, CHUDs have been able to make their own Hollywood alternative and their own cultural institutions to build real soft power.
I would love to know of any possible signs of hope this little golden age of chuddery will be short-lived and we’re making some small wins. I would also love to know how the rest of y’all keep on trucking.
What sort of Hollywood alternative are you talking about? Bentkey? Pureflix? I get (at least in the abstract) that some aspects about your environment really suck and that can beat you down and I don't blame you for that, but chuds are still plainly on the back foot of the "culture war" if you look at the country broadly and remember the absurd astroturfing campaigns inflating their visiblity on Twitter, Reddit, and streaming sites.
Libs are chauvinists regardless, but chuds are not winning in soft power in any real sense. They may yet win, because the margin has narrowed a bit, but that day is not today.
Probably best to start here. It may just be one studio but Angel studios. IIRC it was what produced Sound of Freedom, and both the David and Animal Farm movies that will be coming out and have been getting some attention.
Twitter, as bot-ridden as it is, still is one hell of a consent manufacturing machine. Even if fascism is just getting astroturfed, this feels pretty foreboding like the bourgeoisie don’t even want to performatively entertain some social good and the ruling class are more locked in. This isn’t even scratching the cultural power you see from YouTube and Twitch. Podcasting too, looking at the gangbusters Joe Rogan and many talking heads have done. Don’t get me wrong, I’m under no impression legacy media blessed us with these cultural victories because of a principled stance against fascism, but nothing sends a chill down your spine when a family member asks you “Zinn, who is Nick Fuentes?”
I get it, my environment both online and offline is demoralizing to say the least and makes me feel like an outsider. But part of me is missing rainbow capitalism as a sign of the times.
Angel Studios is not a Hollywood alternative. They are now responsible for exactly two films of note, and Sound of Freedom was basically a QAnon fad that is nearly forgotten already by mainstream society.
This is like saying that Pureflix is a Hollywood alternative because God's Not Dead did pretty well.
I do grant you that the podcast situation is dire, I didn't give that due considerations, but the libs are still obviously on top overall.