art and entertainment

Any art/media which did not wholly conform to the Nazi ideology or deviated from their worldview and didn't portray it in the "approved" or "correct" way was banned and labeled "degenerate art." Many forms of media the Nazis didn't like were burned. There was a strong connection between race and art to the Nazis, meaning "artists considered racially healthy would produce art that celebrated and furthered the advancement of the German race as a whole. By extension, individuals with mental or physical 'defects' were thought to be capable only of producing art that mirrored their 'racial deficiencies'." Photos of modern art were juxtaposed with pictures of disabled people to drive home this point and "demonstrate that they were both ultimately the outcome of negative hereditary traits and were symptomatic of a 'racial degeneration' which had to be curtailed." The chief offenders of degenerate art were, unsurprisingly, the Jewish people: "The chief culprits were thought to be Jewish art dealers and critics who used their allegedly disproportionate influence to harm the community, aided by wayward Germans seduced by their money and influence." Today's conservative arguments about how the "woke SJW Hollywood elite liberals" or whatever are influencing the world with their art and spreading Marxist values in their art is basically that Nazi argument, only with the Hollywood liberals being the culprits rather than the Jewish people.

Starting in September of 1933 the Nazis created the Reich Chamber of Culture which "supervised and regulated all facets of German culture" according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Modern art which was more abstract and expressionist or did not glorify the Aryan race, war, and peasantry was deemed "degenerate art" as well as "art bolshevism" and "cultural bolshevism" and the Nazis linked modern art to democracy and pacifism, both bad things in their mind. This part of the Reich "sought to identify and attack 'dangerous' artworks" and by 1937 some 20,000 modern works of art were confiscated and 5,000 were burned. Early on the Nazis even held carefully staged exhibitions for the degenerate art with the goal of mocking the art and the artists to turn the public against the works. The art was described as "monstrosities of insanity, insolence, incompetence and degeneration" by Adolf Ziegler, the man who made an opening address prior to the exhibitions and confiscated much of the degenerate art. Nazis would also claim that modern art contained Jewish and communist influences and that it "conspired to weaken German society with 'cultural Bolshevism'" according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Pretty similar to what some conservatives will say today about art and entertainment with progressive elements being part of a propaganda plot to promote "cultural marxism" and/or brainwash people.

Looking specifically at the music in Germany, Music and The Holocaust identifies one of the the goals of the Reich Chamber of Culture (or Reichskulturkammer in German which is abbreviated to RKK) "was the ‘cleansing’ of the musical world, which consisted primarily of eliminating Jews, foreigners and political leftists from the musical scene, and ensuring that music composed by such ‘undesirables’ was neither available nor performed."

In Mein Kampf Hitler would even write that "Culturally, he contaminates art, literature, the theater, makes a mockery of natural feeling, overthrows all concepts of beauty and sublimity, of the noble and the good, and instead drags men down into the sphere of his own base nature. Religion is ridiculed, ethics and morality represented as outmoded, until the last props of a nation in its struggle for existence in this world have fallen" regarding Jewish people. This is not too different from what modern Conservatives say about liberals, or more accurately "woke SJWs," contaminating and infecting media (Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel movies, et cetera) to the point that it's unwatchable because of the "wokeness."

Hitler had some pretty harsh words for the artists of abstract and expressionist works:

• In a 1935 address Hitler said "It is not the mission of art to wallow in filth for filth's sake, to paint the human being only in a state of putrefaction, to draw cretins as symbols of motherhood, or to present deformed idiots as representatives of manly strength."

• In a speech at Munich in 1937 Hitler said "If artists do see fields blue they are deranged and should go to an asylum. If they only pretend to see them blue, they are criminals and should go to prison."

Conservatives will lose it over media that is critical of America or portrays America negatively, some even going as far as to say that the companies that produce such media should be "abolished." This is not that far off from what the Nazis did by abolishing any art that was "un-German" and destroying the art that they didn't like in burnings. Only media that conforms to the Nazis values was allowed in Germany and it seems like today's conservatives only want media that conforms with their values to be allowed in America.

Idiots often like to claim that popular media like Marvel films or whatever Disney is making is now not enjoyable because it is too "woke" and that politics and real life issues should stay out of such media. But it would appear that Marvel has always been "woke." In a section of a newspaper titled "Stan's Soapbox" which ran from 1965-2001 Stan Lee would dispel the notion that his comics should be escapist and not touch on issues in real life:

"It seems to me that a story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man without a soul. In fact, even the most escapist literature of all—old time fairy tales and heroic legends—contained moral and philosophical points of view.

At every college campus where I may speak, there’s as much discussion of war and peace, civil rights, and the so-called youth rebellion as there is of our Marvel mags per se.

None of us lives in a vacuum—none of us is untouched by the everyday events about us—events which shape our stories just as they shape our lives.

Sure our tales can be called escapist—but just because something’s for fun, doesn’t mean we have to blanket our brains while we read it! Excelsior!"

Idiots like James Lindsay will tweet stuff like "abolish Marvel" in response to the comics criticizing part of America or exploring ideas they don't like, pretty much saying a whole company should be abolished because it printed an idea in a comic book that he didn't like. Marvel has even published Captain America comics critical of America before, as can be seen below in Figures 2 - 7. He criticizes America's involvement in a war, class divisions, the prison system, the status quo, and more. But this is all too much for the conservative mine to handle - remember questioning the world and the way in which one views the world is poison to the conservative brain and ideology and any speech which does so must be shunned and not allowed. You can see more thanks to this Twitter thread. Also, it's kinda weird how these people have an issue with Captain America criticizing America but had no issue with Captain America turning out to be a Nazi Hydra member.

DC Comics has done stuff similar in the past that today would be considered "woke" like this Superman thing from the 50s about how talking badly of someone for their race, religion, or national origin is un America below in Figure 1. DC Comics has confirmed this is a real thing.

Conservatives seem to be obsessed with optics, pointing out things like the TV ratings for Trump's interviews and addresses as president, how many people attend his rallies, and how many Twitter followers he had as if it's proof he was a good president (Trump's press secretary even lied about how many people attended Trump's inauguration to appeal to this fascination with ratings). The saying "go woke go broke" is emblematic with this fascination with ratings as a mark of whether something is not just good entertainment but good for the country or the "correct" way of thinking and implies that "woke" media will fail, not be popular, and not make a lot of money. This is because conservatives don't want to see their worldviews challenged in media and cannot fathom the idea that others actually might want to see social and political issues depicted in their entertainment and engage with content that makes them think. Thus, they just assume any media that does tackle a social or political issue in a "woke" way will be bad and fail because no one will have an interest in it or like it. But does "woke" entertainment really make a company go broke?

Let's look at the NFL, for example. Conservatives claim that the NFL's ratings tanked because the league went "woke" by saying racism was bad and including that message as a part of the 2020 season. However, in reality, the first preseason game of the 2021 season drew 7.62 million views, the most of any preseason game since 2017, the 2021 season opener drew in the most viewers since the 2016 kickoff, Super Bowl 56 had 10+ million more people watching than Super Bowl 55 and the biggest audience since Super Bowl 51, the Bills vs Chiefs divisional playoff game was the most watched divisional playoff since 2017, the 49ers vs Packers divisional game was the most watched Saturday program since 1994, and league revenue increased by 14% from 2020-2021.

A story called "The Guilty" from issue number three of Shock Suspense Stories from 1952 follows a sheriff who shoots and kills an unarmed black man, Aubrey Collins, in the back who he believed to be responsible for the murder of a white woman. In reality, the man who told him this was the murderer. The synopsis reads: "A bigot sheriff arrests a black man for the death of a white woman based on the testimony of a man who turns out to be the killer. The sheriff executes the suspect in the woods and claims he made a break for it." The story ends with this message from the authors, as seen below in Figure 8:

"Whether Aubrey Collins was innocent or guilty is not important! But for any American to have so little regard for the life and rights of any other American is a debasement of the principles of the Constitution on which our country is founded!"

More can be read about the publisher, EC Comics here and I'd like to credit this video for making me aware of the comic's existence (skip to 23:55).

Some of the stupidest shit you may ever hear in your life is someone essentially saying minorities in media - specifically movies, TV shows, and especially advertisements - is proof of white genocide. This is very dumb. Essentially, corporate America finally sees the value in attracting business from minority groups - black people, queer people, Latino people, Asian people, et cetera - and some white people can't handle that corporate America sees these minority groups as equal to them.

Movies and TV

Media production companies also want money from minority groups consuming their movies and TV shows, so it would make sense that there is media that caters to minority groups or is made with them in mind. There is no anti-white agenda, rather these companies are thinking "hey let's get the business of these minority groups as well so we can make more money." And to best get the money from minority groups they market to them and make media with them in mind.

Furthermore, the amount of minority groups in film and TV is roughly consistent with America's demographics. Using this report from UCLA, we can see that between 2011-2019 the percentage of white film leads decreased and the share of minority (people of color) film leads increased, similar to how the demographics of each group changed in the US over that time. In fact, in some years the number of white leads in the early 2010s was several percentage points higher than the actual white population in America at that time. For example, in the 2010 US Census white people made up 76.3% of the population but in 2011 they accounted for 89% of leading film roles (seen below in Figure 9). So if anything, white people have been OVERREPRESENTED in the media and this change over the last few years is balancing things out so that representation in media is more in line with America's demographics.

Obviously, as minority groups have become a higher percentage of the US population they have become more represented in media. This is hardly proof of a secret plot to erase white people, it is just a symptom of changing demographics. For some, this fear and unknown may push them to become racist or think there's a plot to replace them. For the majority of this country's history, white people in America have never known what it's like to be a minority so the projections of America becoming less white because of immigration makes them fearful because they've never known what it's like to be a minority, perhaps never even considered it because they've become so accustomed to their position in the majority that they just accept it as fact. And to them that change, that unknown, is scary and they have to make sense of it somehow so they start believing in racist, Nazi-esque ideology that says there's some sinister plot against them. These white people have become so used to being in the majority that their fear of change - potentially being a minority - leads them to become extremists. But I suppose if you put importance on whites being the majority in America, or believe that whites have to be the majority in America, then maybe you were already a little racist to begin with.

Ads

Commercials on TV (or streaming services) have a very wide target audience because pretty much everyone watches TV or has a subscription to a streaming service and the products advertised are usually everyday products or essentials (food, clothing, insurance, cars, et cetera) so it would make sense for the advertisers to cast a wide net since everyone - regardless of age, race, gender, et cetera - will need or want them. Thus, it makes sense for minority groups to be included in these ads because companies want their business. But this idea that companies value the money minorities may spend on their product just as much as white people spend on their product is so just triggering for some white people that they believe it to be evidence of some grand scheme to eliminate whites from the planet.

This considered, it seems like the people who take issue with minorities being in media and see it as proof of a war against whites that will lead to white genocide are merely racists who hate that minorities are being treated equally to white people in media.