The Woke Generation - Fighting Back

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Oh okay. What about the new movie Charlies Angel's for example? I hated it because I felt it was too much about 'woke' politics, but was the original 70s show and earlier movies in the early 2000s also political for their times, but I just didn't see it?

God I remember all the Soviet movies in the 1980s

You mean you didn't spend your whole life hoping for the day you'd get to become a Wolverine?
I swear, the militia movement is mostly guys who are cosplaying/LARPing at being war heroes.

Actually even here in the antipodes there was the perpetual fear of a nuclear war or communism....Hollywood loved stoking fear with the bad Russians....

So you'd be Thylacines?

An "escapist space" is where medeocre cishetmales go to fantasize about being extraordinary cishetmales.

The idea that comics have ever NOT been political is hilarious. The whole premise of X-Men is accepting people who are different, and the consequences of fear. Spiderman's origin story is about the consequences of actions, and the sudden need to grow up into a much bigger world than you were ready for. Captain america literally fought, and fights, nazis. Batman was about using one's own privilege to help prevent the same thing that happened to him from happening to others, without expecting anything in return. Tony Stark stopped making weapons at the expense of his own wealth and power. Comics have always been political. It was just more convenient when the politics happened to align with yours.

Now that the politics are changing with the times, and no longer align with the old beliefs, the old guard feel like something is being "taken" from them, as though the comics belonged to them personally, and not the people who create them. "That's not MY superhero!" That was never YOUR superhero, skippy. These characters are not YOURS. They never were.

It's the same nonsense as when people whine about "politicizing" startrek, missing the point that trek has ALWAYS been political, all the way back to it's roots, when the network refused to hire Nichelle Nichols as a regular cast member, so Gene Roddenberry hired her as a permanent guest star instead (which made her more money than if she had ben hired as a regular cast member), and despite the network's insistence she only say things like "incoming hail" or "right away captain", Gene consistently gave her major lines, important roles, portrayed her as strong and competent, and gave her a segment to let her sing. Every series of trek has pushed the limits of social expectations.

Grumbling about "woke culture" seems to be little more than being offended that their beliefs are falling out of fashion.

As for Star Trek, and politics, I never thought of Nichelle Nichols as making the story political. Gene Roddenberry preferred a certain actress so he kept casting her, why do we have to read that as political to the story?

But I thought we were talking about politics in the storytelling though? What does casting her have to with the plot being affected by it?

But I think anyone would react to changes being made to a story, just because new producers felt like they needed to change with the times though, wouldn't they? Why not stick to the old politics of the story and keep fans happy, rather than new politics?

If its a relatable narrative then nobody cares there is a lesson. If you watch the movie and are easily triggered by something woke then you are i) hypervigilant looking for evidence of wokeness and ii) it confirms your existing bias that this movie is no good because it had some message you don't like.

Kids watch sesame street and there's plenty of life lessons thrown in. But kids still enjoy the music, songs, dances and colorful/fun characters. Children haven't learned prejudice yet to criticise cartoons or kids programs for being woke.

Well if a lot of fans complain that doesn't seem like a good sign...

You are onto something with hyper vigilance. It is not just hyper vigilance about woke, or even politics. It is not just fans, but reviewers, and those involved in making entertainment. There have always advocacy movies and controversial movies. All art of any kind is making some sort of statement about something. Accept for when the movie was specifically about advocacy most people missed the message, or did not define the movie by its message. It was the acting, the story, the special effects that defined most movies. That is a lot less true today. That is in part design, woke wants you to be reminded America is inherently racist as much as possible, but a lot has to do with how technology makes it easier to be hyper vigilant.

Oh okay. What about the new movie Charlies Angel's for example? I hated it because I felt it was too much about 'woke' politics, but was the original 70s show and earlier movies in the early 2000s also political for their times, but I just didn't see it?