Vigilante Fever? It Starts With The One Eyed Monster In Our Living Rooms

 



Chauncey DeVega of "Salon" posted on his FB page a sincere question. He wants to understand how Kyle Rittenhouse inspires such empathy among the White Right, from parents who identify this killer as "like their own kids". He asks, "please help a working class Black guy to understand."

I put my two cents in, not to give the "answer of all answers", but to start a discussion. In particular I reminded him of the Reagan Era Cold War Film, "Red Dawn" and others of that genre as exemplary, which greatly influenced the current generation of parents from this demographic.

Here is my comment, with just a couple of edits and and additions for background. 

One of the seminal brainwashing events of the 20th Century which had a formative effect on the current generation of parents was the Reagan era Cold War movie "Red Dawn". Teens took up arms in a War of Liberation against Communist invaders and occupiers, and became idealized as the essence of heroism and patriotism. This resonated because the superpower conflict had escalated to near Cuban Missiles Crisis levels with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the US Pershing Missile deployment by NATO, and Star Wars Defense. We were at the brink in the 80's.

Movies like these always threw in a token minority or two to mask the actual intent of this form of psychological profiling. In my mind, I see Hollywood as a major factor in driving systemic racism and gun mania, going back to D.W. Griffiths"Birth of a Nation", which idealized the KKK as warrior liberators from the "n---- loving Yankee invaders" blah blah blah. You could call Red Dawn and other movies of that genre "Afterbirth of a Nation".

The thing which is so vicious about teen centered violent hero/avenger flicks (or lest we forget "Rambo" which also heavily pushed anti-government armed avenger type fantasy heroes) is that it manipulates young people who are struggling with reaching adulthood whose identity is not fully formed, have hormonal changes underway, and a deep seated sexual fantasy life. Being an armed hero and blowing away bad guys is a great way to impress your parents and "win over the girls". 

So, the idiotic White Right soaked up this brainwash program during the two cowboy regimes of Ronald Reagan, joined the NRA, won over the Girl, and bred white Christian gun nuts like Kyle Rittenhouse who grew up fantasizing about "killing commies for mommy". In Part, I believe that Hollywood/Gaming cultural sewer of recent years is where this vigilante garbage crawls out of. Similarly with the "Law and order" vigilante shooter films like "Death Wish", and the rogue Cop genre of "Dirty Harry, etc"

Just like in ancient Rome, the things which are destroying us are not foreign invaders. It is the things we choose to indulge in as our form of entertainment. A day at the Coliseum anyone? 👍👎

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