Of course they hijacked the film for “the Message” and that’s why it will underperform or outright fail.
The reason Hollywood still hasn’t gotten the message is that it’s one gigantic circle jerk of delusional assholes. You have two forces at work. The first half of these people are the product of the 30 years of social indoctrination, they are true believers. This is their substitute for religion and existential philosophy. In the eyes of the faithful, it is never the fault of the faith when they fail. Either they didn’t go far enough or invisible forces of evil ( Satan, white patriarchy, etc) undermined them. They will burn down the world and themselves before admitting the thing they believe is not 100% right 100% of the time. They have to. Their whole identity, sense of purpose, and feeling of righteousness is wrapped up in it. To face reality would be to admit they were made a fool and acted like a monster based on a lie. Humans would rather die on a foolish hill than feel the pain of guilt and regret.
The second group, the old school corporate greed mongers, well I figure it’s sunk cost fallacy at this point combined with the fact that the business world is still figuring out how the internet and social media affects business. They believe that the people who tweet at them aggressively about social issues are current or potential customers, who will eagerly empty their pockets if they just change X. Meanwhile, board members, HR, and PR are overflowing with the true believers, who doctor up any report and offer assurances that the massively negative response to these changes are just a handful of bots, spammers, or racists who were never your customers. The declining sales? It’s because you didn’t go far enough, there’s still too much misogyny and racism in your product! Sounds crazy but if you were surrounded by people who told you this, whose job on paper was to help you sell products and make money, can you honestly say you wouldn’t believe the same?
This isn’t going to stop until several big names burn to the ground. It will take the charred corpse of Disney or WB to make group 2 realize that the true believers are insane cultists with no interest in making money, just social engineering and pushing an agenda. Just look at Indy 5. Everyone admits it bombed but absolutely no one in the media or Hollywood is blaming the failure on them shitting on an established hero to push “the Message.” The lesson will not be learned until one of the titans of entertainment fall. At this point, it’s just a matter of which of the big names is going to be the example for the rest of the studios.
I wish I could give you more than +1 for your description of true believers. Wonderfully written, and something more people need to understand. When your belief becomes your identity you become incapable of acting in good faith.
Of course they hijacked the film for “the Message” and that’s why it will underperform or outright fail.
The reason Hollywood still hasn’t gotten the message is that it’s one gigantic circle jerk of delusional assholes. You have two forces at work. The first half of these people are the product of the 30 years of social indoctrination, they are true believers. This is their substitute for religion and existential philosophy. In the eyes of the faithful, it is never the fault of the faith when they fail. Either they didn’t go far enough or invisible forces of evil ( Satan, white patriarchy, etc) undermined them. They will burn down the world and themselves before admitting the thing they believe is not 100% right 100% of the time. They have to. Their whole identity, sense of purpose, and feeling of righteousness is wrapped up in it. To face reality would be to admit they were made a fool and acted like a monster based on a lie. Humans would rather die on a foolish hill than feel the pain of guilt and regret.
The second group, the old school corporate greed mongers, well I figure it’s sunk cost fallacy at this point combined with the fact that the business world is still figuring out how the internet and social media affects business. They believe that the people who tweet at them aggressively about social issues are current or potential customers, who will eagerly empty their pockets if they just change X. Meanwhile, board members, HR, and PR are overflowing with the true believers, who doctor up any report and offer assurances that the massively negative response to these changes are just a handful of bots, spammers, or racists who were never your customers. The declining sales? It’s because you didn’t go far enough, there’s still too much misogyny and racism in your product! Sounds crazy but if you were surrounded by people who told you this, whose job on paper was to help you sell products and make money, can you honestly say you wouldn’t believe the same?
This isn’t going to stop until several big names burn to the ground. It will take the charred corpse of Disney or WB to make group 2 realize that the true believers are insane cultists with no interest in making money, just social engineering and pushing an agenda. Just look at Indy 5. Everyone admits it bombed but absolutely no one in the media or Hollywood is blaming the failure on them shitting on an established hero to push “the Message.” The lesson will not be learned until one of the titans of entertainment fall. At this point, it’s just a matter of which of the big names is going to be the example for the rest of the studios.
I wish I could give you more than +1 for your description of true believers. Wonderfully written, and something more people need to understand. When your belief becomes your identity you become incapable of acting in good faith.