Theres a reason some of the biggest streaming hits are often ten or more years old.
The Hollywood that produced Friends, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Seinfeld wanted one thing to entertain and, by extension, bag big ratings.
Todays Hollywood is different. So says the general public, which just dramatically noted that modern films are worse than they were just a decade ago. Re-issues of classic films like Hocus Pocus sometimes lap newer titles at the box office .
What changed? You might pin some of the blame on propaganda.
While many modern TV shows and movies remain apolitical and free of culture war fallout, many others embrace the new shift.
Not only are todays storytellers eager to insert their progressive agendas into new projects, but the industry calls upon groups tasked with helping them do just that.
The stories in question often suffer as a result, forcing viewers to scramble for older product.
A new report from Just The News shared how Good Energy Stories works with Hollywood to insert political messages regarding climate change into television, film, and media.
Its unclear how many studios or screenwriters have tapped the groups resources, but its hard not to notice how its preferred themes infiltrate movies and TV shows. Theres even a term used for fictional yarns with climate change themes: cli-fi .
TV and film characters routinely name drop global warming, climate change, and similar phrases even when the stories have little to do with the environment.
The hard-feminist comedy Barbie, for example, featured this line:
You set the feminist movement back 50 years, you destroyed girls innate sense of worth, and youre killing the planet with your glorification of rampant consumerism
Or consider this bloated bit of dialogue from Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One:
The next world war isnt going to be a cold one. Its going to be a ballistic war over a rapidly shrinking ecosystem. Its going to be a war for the last of our dwindling energy, drinkable water, and breathable air. Your days of fighting for the greater good are over.
Other movies, like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, directly address eco-concerns.
If a film doesnt name-check climate change it might embrace other parts of the progressive agenda, like open-border policies. For that, Define American stands ready to advise eager screenwriters. The group, formed by illegal immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas, says it consulted on 75 film and TV shows as of 2021.
Since then, weve seen more fictional stories pushing an open borders narrative like 2023s Unseen documentary and Foxs The Cleaning Lady series .
The upcoming Zoe Saldana drama The Absence of Eden suggests yet another sympathetic portrait of undocumented immigrants. Heres the official synopsis:
TheAbsenceofEdentakes place at the border between the United States and Mexico When Esmee (Saldaa), a young woman working as a private dancer in Mexico,is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense that results in the death of a cartel member, she flees her homeland for sanctuary in the United States Before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite again in America, touching off an interlocking story about people struggling to survive on Americasborder with Mexico.
Hollywood also loves gun control narratives, despite cranking out endless action films teeming with so-called gun violence. For that, screenwriters can turn to Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that regularly canoodles with Hollywood talent to inject their narratives into the stories we see.
Its Creative Council, including Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore, has a long history of shaping Hollywood stories. The Netflix drama House of Cards created a storyline tied to new gun laws that steered viewers to an Everytown website sharing similar messaging.
Films like 2016s Miss Sloane, which leaned heavily on outside consultants to shape its gun-centric storyline, offer more blatant examples of the collaborations in play.
The University of Southern California (USC) joined the movement, producing a handbook last year for Hollywood creatives to follow.
Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for Media provides guidance on how TV shows, movies, and even news shows should approach issues such as officer-involved shootings, gun storage, mass shootings, school shootings, and partner violence.
Hollywoods woke revolution offers another propaganda-like product. Gender-swapped stories abound, becoming so commonplace its now a source of mainstream ridicule thanks to South Park.
And then theres Late-night television, often indistinguishable from DNC talking points.
The line between comedian and White House press secretary blurred beyond belief recently when The Late Show host Stephen Colbert took part in a Biden fundraising soiree. Colberts appearance didnt surprise anyone. The far-Left host relentlessly uses his CBS shows platform to attack Republicans, deify Democrats, and ignore stories that paint progressives in an unflattering light.
Hes joined, to varying degrees, by fellow late-night hosts Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon. Comedy Centrals The Daily Show offers a rotating lineup of far-left comedians who essentially do the same.
Their propaganda-riddled monologues inspired the birth of a new phrase Clapter, meaning jokes meant to draw more applause than laughter.
In that regard, Colbert is in a class by himself .
Colbert cherry-picked comments from Special Counsel Robert Hurs testimony tied to President Joe Bidens document scandal. The comics monologue could be a gaslighting primer, suggesting Bidens memory is far sharper than we realize.
Thats not comedy or entertainment. Its propaganda. And, sadly, it has plenty of company in Hollywood.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor ofHollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News Big Hollywood. Follow him at@HollywoodInToto.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
