The Media and Ideology in the USA - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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By KurtFF8
#13065491
By KurtFF8

I recently learned of a new video game under production by the company THQ called Homefront. The game is about North Korea (the DPRK) invading an occupying the United States where the players act as the liberators of the US. This of course sounds much like the infamous film Red Dawn where the USSR and Cuba jointly invade the United States and occupy it with the protagonists forming a liberation group called the Wolverines. These two stories certainly sound familiar, as they should since John Milius actually wrote both Red Dawn and the upcoming video game in question.

The ideology behind such propaganda ought to be fairly obvious by upon closer look, the absurdity of such a story should really come to light. The United States has for some time attempted to spread its influence within the DPRK which has pushed the DPRK into the defensive position that it's currently in. Regardless of your opinion of the DPRK, it should be pretty clear to the broad left (minus liberals perhaps) that the DPRK has been a victim of US imperialism and continues to be so (The PSL has a pretty good article on the subject. The idea that a country like the DPRK which has actually been the victim of US imperialism actually ends up invading an occupying the US is absurd on a logistical level and an ideological level. It's an obvious attempt to turn around and blame a victim of imperialism for actually being an imperialist aggressor. Obviously the producers of the game don't think that the DPRK is some imperialistic country (or perhaps they really are so ignorant) but they certainly are putting in the minds of some as an "evil imperialistic country." Along with more official labeling like the "Axis of Evil" this writer, along with THQ continue to perpetuate aggression against countries like the DPRK.

Take the film Red Dawn, for example. It's one of the more obvious examples of official imperialist ideology: even Cuba, a small Caribbean island, helps take the place as an aggressor against the US, obviously meant to create negative sentiment towards the Cuban government as an evil aggressor. Considering the actual history of Cuban American relations since 1959 which include hundreds of CIA attempts (and one invasion effort) to overthrow the Cuban government, such revisionist history is far from an honest account.

A remake of the film has been planed by MGM. The Co-Director, Carl Ellsworth, is being quite straight forward with the role of the new film as "keeping in mind the post-9/11 world we're in" while making the film. The new film will feature China as the invader an occupier (perhaps with the help of Russia). (More info Here).

Milius seems to have a history with promoting reactionary accounts of history. According to the wikipedia article on him, his TV film about the Rough Riders that portrayed Theodore Roosevelt as a war hero was instrumental in posthumously awarding Roosevelt the Congressional Medal of Honor. Milius has a history of helping perpetuate reactionary revisionist history to help promote the state as being on the "side of good" in history, and his continuing work is a further demonstration that Hollywood and the media establishment of the United States do the exact opposite of what the right claims that they do: they promote US ruling class hegemony and paint those who challenge it as "evil aggressors against freedom."
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By Fasces
#13069073
It is a video game, Kurt. To call it a propaganda tool, when such obvious examples exist of video games as recruitment tools, is silly.

t's one of the more obvious examples of official imperialist ideology: even Cuba, a small Caribbean island, helps take the place as an aggressor


Ask the Angolans if size has anything to do with ability to interfere in local affairs. You would call that counter-imperialism, of course, and not worth mention.
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By KurtFF8
#13069253
It is a video game, Kurt. To call it a propaganda tool, when such obvious examples exist of video games as recruitment tools, is silly.


Are you trying to say that because it's a video game that it escapes the realm of being influenced by ideology? And just because there are blatant recruitment video games out there doesn't mean that the rest of them aren't also a part of ideology.

I don't really even see the point of your "criticism" here.

Ask the Angolans if size has anything to do with ability to interfere in local affairs. You would call that counter-imperialism, of course, and not worth mention.


That's quite a silly comparison and I don't think I need to explain why.
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By Okonkwo
#13069263
KurtFF8 wrote:I don't think I need to explain why.

You should. Cuba did not merely change Angola's fate, it indirectly changed the direction the whole area was moving in, culminating in the release of Nelson Mandela and the complete destruction of the Apartheid system.
By Average Voter
#13069272
You are probably right about people being influenced by U.S. imperialism. World in Conflict is about the Soviet Union invading the United States, but that was developed by a Swedish developer, and published by a French publisher.
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By KurtFF8
#13069291
You should. Cuba did not merely change Angola's fate, it indirectly changed the direction the whole area was moving in, culminating in the release of Nelson Mandela and the complete destruction of the Apartheid system.


I actually think I misread his quote about Angola. But I indeed wouldn't call it imperialism as Cuba wasn't necessarily trying to spread its own power and influence in the same way say the USSR or the USA engaged in geopolitics.

You are probably right about people being influenced by U.S. imperialism. World in Conflict is about the Soviet Union invading the United States, but that was developed by a Swedish developer, and published by a French publisher.


But to my knowledge, World in Conflict is not as blatantly "Go USA!" as games like the one I pointed out.
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By KurtFF8
#13076188
And how exactly does that demonstrate anything? Why would they not want to protect oil platforms?

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