Two questions actually. I'm wondering if you have any relatives or friends like I do posting the usual memes about how right wingers are the real snowflakes because we can't "handle" a beer can with a "trans person" on it. I always hate the "right wingers are the real snowflakes" argument because these are the same people who cry if a show that takes place in 800AD Iceland isn't diverse enough, or literally think it is genocide if you acknowledge the delusions of certain people as objective reality. I know some libertarians say just don't buy it and the market will take care of everything, and I agree to a point, but it has been shown time and time again that companies don't care what the consumers want and there are those who only care about "THE MESSAGE". I can understand people getting sick and tired of the constant pandering to certain demographics (i.e lgbt, black, girl power, etc) that make up tiny percentage of the population. So how do you respond? I get that I can buy something else or watch something else but that doesn't seem to change anything.
Second question: Do you think there are some execs or tv/movie writers who live in such a leftist bubble that they honestly think certain things will be popular or do you think it is all the message? Like I feel like some people at marvel honestly thought that America Chavez or Ironheart were going to be huge sellers and were shocked that they were cancelled. Same thing with the gay Superman. Also in certain heavily blue areas it seems to be trendy to be anything but straight so someone who lives in those areas are probably shocked to see that a movie like Bros bombs. I know ESG has a lot of influence, but I also think some people honestly believe that shows like Rings of Power will be huge hits.
I have lefty friends and a common thing is for them to crow about how such and such company is doing great after promoting the latest insanity. They truly believe the Go Broke part doesn't exist. How could Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other companies large enough to be their own countries fall?
As for the second part, the vast majority of people who do cultural research are idiots. They don't understand it's just hanging out with people in the culture. I've learned tons more by taking buddies from another culture to a lab party than acting like the idiot professors I have met. The vast majority go in with their own ideas of what they are and what answers they will find. Check out Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich as an example. Heck, check out Laramie Project or so many more. Then, when someone who can actually do research comes in, they will put that person to the side and treat them like some kind of special needs kid who doesn't understand 'reality'. I had that happen with a project last year. They hired me to do the research, then ignored it for their own opinions. The proposals they made were rejected.
So yes, they don't know and don't care.
The first one. She went into low income areas and pretended to be poor with them. Then she wrote about what she learned entirely from a rich socialists point of view.