Media Mind Control

[EclectYummination]

This thread is about various issues that have to deal with mind control / influence over the masses, even if it's the general topic of what things make people what ways and the masses are thought of as kind of controlling themselves, in general.

So:

* Some of Interesting ways in which folks behind the scene want to influence the masses, perhaps in some ways that you would not expect.

* Cultural differences; Traditions, Habits etc put inplace to help a culture / people controll themselves, again, perhaps how some of these work in ways that one would not expect.

Are some ideas. This thread was inspired by the recent one on GTA 4:

gta3-1.jpeggta_vice_city_ps2_usa.jpg1066_gtasa_xbox_boxart.jpg
gta-san-andreas-free1.jpgGTA-San-Andreas.jpg

Thread:

GTA IV Displays Ethnic Hate? Grand Theft Auto IV is the latest install ment in a series of G.T.A. games.

Anyway, speaking of violence & media, I theorize that this is a method actually used to pacify tensions in populations, and will buttress this with statistics:

But first think about it; you can find movies streching deep into the old days depicting violence. And interestingly, at least today there are those that exist depicting any race of people whooping ass even in any other race of people ; I remember catching this old ass flick on T.V. early one morning with this guy in what looks like somewhere out West, it cuts to one scene, he's the lone gun-man out in the open field easily picking off / taking out a few dozen Mexican bad guys hiding / ducking behind cover and aiming / firing back, it was the fakest of scenes ever.

By today however, you have plenty of movies with Asian protagonists, or at least primary / main ass-kickers, with white protagonists for since eons, and with black protagonists / ass-whoopers (e.g. plenty with Snipes, plenty of others). Rush Hour and Man on Fire serve as examples of Asians and Blacks in these cases.

I think this is there for a reason though: if you think about it, with humans naturally being violent (see: the gross bullying in schools, in the past kids having brought knives and guns to schools and how serious an issue that is), completely censoring them from anything seems almost bass-ackwards.

Especially considering the fact of how a lot of cheesy violent themes have come and gone when you look at it. Think about those corny cliches in 80s and 90s movies, think about people's zest for explosions, think about the explosion dodging at the last minute, think about the added in for aggrandizing effect hot woman on the arm of our hero. This isn't a complaint, I can see why these fils came about, I'm just saying, and the aggrandizement thing brings me to my next point:

It was almost like a way just that; a lot of us intrinsically being human males, well maybe more so the more immature we are or enticing to us it is, identify as the main protagonist.

So, yeah ..

It is sorta cool / interesting though that you can find any race of protagonists / most antagonists in films. Sometimes they happen to be white, asian, black, or hispanic depending on setting. They're obviously trying to make as much money off of as many types of people as possible while at the sametime easing tensions, it's pretty slick some of the stuff people do in this regard ...

[Prince Chupacabra]

Yes! I've been saying it for years! We can only achieve racial harmony with violence and bloodshed(albeit fictional and stylized)

[EclectYummination]

Well, this thread is less about race than it is about the male based strategy of providing imagery for males to psychologically fap to their ego's content to, in order to psychologically absolve them of the need to be this way in real life.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/p...jpg?1312485422

And yes, I've dabbled in other people's GTA games, above are those I did, but never the story line, except for one, about half way through. My entertainment rating: they were moderate -- though most who've ever even dabbled in free-roaming say the games are fun as heck, and not just yungins.

---------- Post added 2011-10-01 at 22:18 ----------

Anyway, moving on, on to a movie

[imglink]http://www.the-reel-mccoy.com/movies/2001/images/TheMummyReturns1.jpg[/imglink]

basically O.T., but speaking of very slightly & somewhat corny / cheesy elements in a film, anyone recall where the main guy in The Mummy played by Brendan Fraser has a masculine element of very noticeable bravado (butressed with a less prominent element of an almost goofy clumsiness / proneness to bad luck / mischief / misfortune at times, probably for added cute and bad boy effects). This was contrasted with the girl he dates's brother who's portrayed as more sophisticated in the way of words but physically is not a buff as the Fraser. The more bravado guy is better pulled off by this contrast, IMO.

Yeah, though, there is this identity element in this film too; early on in it we are introduced to this more stereotypically Middle Eastern seeming guy. He is Egyptian. He is the epitome of a fiendishly snivelling traitorous trechorous coward, and in part of the film when about to be eaten by the Mummy he pulls out six badjillian different religious pendants, including a cross, a moon, and even a Jewish star, to all of which the Mummy shakes his head "no" (it's hilarious ) before all of a sudden deciding to use him for some reason I forget -- I remember another afram girl was the one to notice the contrast to how the Egyptian dude was played (both having seen it before, and laughingly this was). Anyway come to think of it there is this Middle Eastern looking guy with a Falcon, who is cool and pretty heroic, but he is introduced to later and is more sparingly seen in the film which is sort of foggy (saw it probably 4 to 5 times ever, all a while ago, is an old movie).

I think though that these are elements used to ease some in an audience (white Westerners) potentially unconfortable with some foreign element by down-playing it in some manner, which in this case is the sense of potential competence -- that Falcon guy is mainly a mystic or something who roams the desert is the vibe you get.

By the way I believe I've seen that Middle Eastern fiendishly sniveling cowardice theme played before, once in a Middle Easterner, the other upon opening a book a friend randomly let me have (don't have it any more) Sahara, later opening it to read just those words (well, I recall, a great degree of "fiendish", and the gist of it) and a few more describing other ethnic based characteristics seemly interwoven into the character, and then closed the book.

But don't let that taint what you think I thought of the movie, I liked the bravado effect, it was good it was very entertaining. I know I've heard some females say that actor was cute before though I know many wouldn't agree. I take it all this, including that effect might have been there for that reason or helped the movie for that reason -- at the same time I know plenty of girls could've seen it as corny / an over inflated character, and hated on him, not necessarily due to a hatred of "inflated" characters in general, or a general finding them a bit corny sometimes, but because the particular characterization may not have appealed to them and so they found it corny and hated on it. Hey, haters gonna hate. Btw none of this is my opinion. My opinion was sort of in the first sentence or paragraph or so. Ok maybe I noticed its corniness just a wee bit at times.

[Prince Chupacabra]

I see what you're saying. I think the greatest example here is Schwarzenegger.
Look at the film Commando, in it Arnold is basically the epitome of masculine heroism.
You see him fight and kill with extreme tenacity and proficiency. But his actions are just, he's saving his daughter. He's a loving family man who (as we see in the very beginning) often takes time to stop and feed the dear (literally). paired up against a vaguely homosexual villain. Arnold is living out the fantasy/role of your average non-yuppie WASP.


Middle Easterners are never portrayed well in American media, they don't reap the benefit of the "cool token minority character" you often see with Indians, East Asians or Mexicans. I blame that on politics, Americans feuding with various MENA nations at a time, and of course the Israeli connection.

[EclectYummination]

I remember catching this old ass flick on T.V. early one morning with this guy in what looks like somewhere out West, it cuts to one scene, he's the lone gun-man out in the open field easily picking off / taking out a few dozen Mexican bad guys hiding / ducking behind cover and aiming / firing back, it was the fakest of scenes ever.

I find this now funny since since then (I was a small child) I've read this book by a Venda (Bantu speaking) South African author Mark Mathabane who in it describes how as kids somehow they were able to get into a movie theatre and he as a young child had the idea, watching those old movies (meanwhile, mind you isolated from whites in an Apartheid environment) that all whites are either superheroes or monsters

---------- Post added 2011-10-01 at 22:44 ----------

Also, I've heard like two different people talk about the low rape statistics for Japan, yet explain in their culture the prevalence of crazy stuff like this:

http://www.thatanimeblog.com/index.p.../cnn-vs-eroge/

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ape/index.html

that's pretty controversial, for sure.

---------- Post added 2011-10-01 at 22:58 ----------

Some intristing discourse made by commentaters here (scroll down).

[Prince Chupacabra]

For sure, The Japanese have very harsh legals system that one of the factors that keep society in check. But I'd say it goes further than that, Japanese are very orderly and their overall group psyche is less prone to rape. Who knows, maybe all this rape-porn/video games/kids shows offers an outlet for these sick ideals that people have.

[EclectYummination]

You know what, as .. icky as this stuff seems, I think you *may* have a point, having heard of the Nanking Massacre (also known as "the Rape of Nanking") which is the reason for some of the Chinese hate directed at the Japanese today.

[EclectYummination]

For me that they might censor something isn't that big of an issue, I think an example of this issue taken to the extreme is the Niqab.

The below is me on hijab (the burka & niqab)

The Burka

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A Little Bit on the Burka and what is known as as Hijab

I'm aware that the full body & face veil thing isn't a mandatory thing over there, and that in some countries like I think Egypt there exist girls who some feel negate the purpose of Hijab by wearing skin-tight jeans with a Burka on top. The initial impression is often that this is completely a male-biased thing, however some of the most adament proponents of it that have caught my attention have been women, and I'm even speaking casually here.

My Take

More interestingly however, I've read of Westerners complain of this. On a forum, a few Middle Eastern, but mostly Western white women [mostly from Western Europe] who've moved to Egypt or like to visit there commented on the in-ignorable prevalence in the city they live in of all the annoying little immature (in their view) comments women get for guys seeing the slightest of things, of sexual harassment. Like as if they are surprised at the number of guys who can't seem to abstain from being sexually excitable. And prior to this, way back in school days, I had heard that in someplaces in the Middle East a woman's wrists were seen as sexually exciting which to me was reminiscent of how (and this may have been brought up) in the early colonial days an ankle showing () was seen as sexually provocative / graphic.

Another instance of this was described to me by a former American soldier stationed in some big city or U.S. embassy in Arabia somewhere -- I know he was in Saudia before, but I'm not sure where this takes place aside from the fact that they were in a Mall at the time. About this story, I'm wondering if their girls had just been visiting or whatever (doubt they were expats) but anyway he said he and a few buddies were at the Mall a couple of them with their girls right and some (I think) Saudi dudes started verbally harassing them, someone was even bold enough to slap an ass and ended up getting their asses kicked by the U.S. servicement boyfriends . Now, I've heard that a lot of prostitutes in the Middle East come from darker skinned countries, such as in Egypt not all but most come from the South and a good number are or look SSA. This alone could have something to do with it, he said they are racists which I can believe, although that's one experience and I've heard of others so as not to paint the entire Levantine-Arabian region that way. What I've heard from Arabs is that Westernized Blacks get great treatment, they love Michael Jackson, yada yada, but it is true that people from inner African countries like Somalis are treated like far far worse than crap -- which I see a pattern nobody is looking at here; the former are rich (comparatively), the latter are the poorest in the world. It's another topic, but definitively I will say that I read an article on an Afram man who converted to Islam and moved to Egypt. Interestingly, he was lighter skinned, of a medium hue, knows Arabic, and happened to have been married to a darkskinned and African woman. He wrote that he was surprised at constantly being mistaken for Egyptian and not Western, and he wrote that he was treated well or just like a local. His wife on the other hand, looks more or was more Southern Sudanese, and he wrote of witnessing a great deal of racism directed at her I think mostly comments by women who all assumed she was a prostitute. I think in one case where he appeared to them to be a Westerner, thinking he didn't know the language, he overherd them saying such things in Arabic and went over and said something (don't remember -- maybe like, politely and with a smile "that's my wife").

[EclectYummination]

You know what, I just realized that at first scroll to look at my posts' pictures in light of the word "Media" in the thread title, that thread is *racial* is the impression anyone would get, but if anyone'd actually read my posts, they happen to be more about the topics in and of themselves, and not racially, even the one that kindof mentions Middle Easterners. But yeah, there is almost not a post that doesn't mention an ethnicity (Oops, ma bad). This is tangent & incidental.

I guess this is a thread that only those into discussions that take intellect will care to peruse by.

One thing I have noticed in the media, since the Millenium (hey, I was born late-80s), is that, where as in stuff prior to then, it could be miscellanious commercials, T.V., whatnot, etcetera, oft-recurring black male archetypes seemed almost always be one of three: extremely goofy-silly / clownish, such a dweeb / lame, or pretty gansta (at least gangsta - lookin'; dressin, cool i.e. non-chalant & hard demeanor), at least.

Not that I have a prob with seein any of those things or themes, heck, you see 'em in real life, I would just notice them is all.

You know what, I think there's something to this though; I remember right when I first noticed this triple-theme (and no I don't always notice all this type of stuff, it took me a while to notice this too) I started seeing it *all* the time -- I think this attests to the mantra, "you will find anything if you look hard enough for it", and it's all well & good to realise in the Meta-sense that the stuff you see is not real (not just not literally there in front of you, but also *obviously* [unremarkably] not necessarily portraying reality, just portraying a reality if only the imagination coming out of its creators/' head/s).