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Post by michael77 on Aug 27, 2017 18:50:57 GMT
Very important topic. It needs more widespread discussion. For me, I tend to look at each individual piece of art and looks at its merits individually.
But, I think there are some intellectual/emotional trends that are most easily seen in pop culture, but are pervasive elsewhere. I am thinking specifically of what appears to me to be the widespread acceptance and lauding of aggressive behaviour. In my fifty plus years of life, I have seen an increase in aggression, both from politicians, the stories told in the arts, sports and so on. I'm not saying people were better in the past, but I have noticed an increase in aggression.
I think popular culture is a mirror, but with some influence. And as with most tools can be used for good and bad.
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Post by Account Deleted on Dec 17, 2019 15:12:36 GMT
One thing that strikes me as being unique to our present age is the internet as a pop culture medium. On reading this article today, I'm reminded that the internet and "on-demand" has proven itself to be (especially when marketing the next controversial "sensation" to a global audience) a way to softly by-pass what censorship State regulated broadcast channels are held to. This, in-turn (in my view) is further pressurizing and weakening the broadcast regulation attitudes in general. www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-leaders-urge-extreme-caution-for-new-netflix-series-31586/I trialed netflix for a month last year, and discontinued when I realized how much disturbing and sensationalist "mature" content it actually contains. Very little on it I could comfortably watch as "entertainment". Thoughts? Is content censorship dying? Netflix have reached a new low in blatantly anti-Christian - blasphemous - content. This Christmas they are showing a "black comedy" portraying Jesus as gay, entitled "The First Temptation of Christ." (This following a film called "The Last Hangover" which presents the The Last Supper in the style of one of The Hangover series of bachelor party movies). There's a petition to delist the film and issue an apology, which I'd ask you to sign and forward to others who will do similar. It's already heading toward 2 million signatories. Netflix need reminding Christians are a considerable numerical force globally who, if nothing else, Netflix may lose as subscribers. www.change.org/p/netflix-especial-de-natal-porta-dos-fundos
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Post by assisi on Dec 17, 2019 19:32:58 GMT
One thing that strikes me as being unique to our present age is the internet as a pop culture medium. On reading this article today, I'm reminded that the internet and "on-demand" has proven itself to be (especially when marketing the next controversial "sensation" to a global audience) a way to softly by-pass what censorship State regulated broadcast channels are held to. This, in-turn (in my view) is further pressurizing and weakening the broadcast regulation attitudes in general. www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-leaders-urge-extreme-caution-for-new-netflix-series-31586/I trialed netflix for a month last year, and discontinued when I realized how much disturbing and sensationalist "mature" content it actually contains. Very little on it I could comfortably watch as "entertainment". Thoughts? Is content censorship dying? Netflix have reached a new low in blatantly anti-Christian - blasphemous - content. This Christmas they are showing a "black comedy" portraying Jesus as gay, entitled "The First Temptation of Christ." (This following a film called "The Last Hangover" which presents the The Last Supper in the style of one of The Hangover series of bachelor party movies). There's a petition to delist the film and issue an apology, which I'd ask you to sign and forward to others who will do similar. It's already heading toward 2 million signatories. Netflix need reminding Christians are a considerable numerical force globally who, if nothing else, Netflix may lose as subscribers. www.change.org/p/netflix-especial-de-natal-porta-dos-fundosCoincidentally, I quit Netflix one week ago before I knew of this movie. The quality of their movies was pretty bad. Another reason I left was that it is easy to get hooked on series that have multiple seasons and seem to go on forever. Some people I know are staying up way into the night to watch episode after episode - then being tired the next day and unable to work! I signed the petition. I think it may be Brazilian in origin, so Bolsanaro will probably get the blame!
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Post by maolsheachlann on Dec 18, 2019 10:20:41 GMT
On the good side, I saw some Christmas movies on the Sony Christmas channel that had a strong Christian theme, and that were made recently.
Wish for Christmas (2016) shows the bad effects when a shallow girl wishes her parents' troublesome Christian faith away.
Christmas Grace (2014) is about two rival toy-shop owners who are in competition-- one is Christian, the other is a Scrooge-type who hates carol singers.
Both were very cheesy, but entertaining and uplifting. And the point is, they were being shown on a secular, mainstream channel.
I sometimes think European Catholics often undervalue popular American religiosity, perhaps because is mostly Protestant, and also because it is often not terribly sophisticated. Both of these movies have a rather cartoonish outlook on religious faith and atheism, but they ARE Christmas movies-- not a genre renowned for nuance or originality. And does everything have to be nuanced and original?
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 9, 2020 23:00:28 GMT
Anyone else exasperated by the way in which Easter is marketed to children as Easter Bunny Festival? The Cross and Resurrection are about the triumph of Jesus over suffering - suffering is acknowledged to be transcended. Teaching children that suffering doesn't exist and they can just hoover up the chocolate is a great way to create adolescent death-metal fans and Lovecraft wannabes in 10-15 years time, and of course they can then be sold Easter Chthulu T-shirts and similar accessories.
Of course I don't mean by this that suffering is good - it isn't - or that it shouldn't be minimised. Nor am I suggesting that we should disregard the measures our government prescribes to save lives; sneering at them is another form of denial.
Let me add that the sight of governments which have legislated for the martini approach to abortion (i.e. any time, any place, anywhere) issuing cute proclamations about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy makes me want to vomit. At least Herod didn't follow up the Massacre of the Innocents by posing as Santa Claus.
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Post by Young Ireland on Apr 9, 2020 23:35:13 GMT
Anyone else exasperated by the way in which Easter is marketed to children as Easter Bunny Festival? The Cross and Resurrection are about the triumph of Jesus over suffering - suffering is acknowledged to be transcended. Teaching children that suffering doesn't exist and they can just hoover up the chocolate is a great way to create adolescent death-metal fans and Lovecraft wannabes in 10-15 years time, and of course they can then be sold Easter Chthulu T-shirts and similar accessories. Of course I don't mean by this that suffering is good - it isn't - or that it shouldn't be minimised. Nor am I suggesting that we should disregard the measures our government prescribes to save lives; sneering at them is another form of denial. Let me add that the sight of governments which have legislated for the martini approach to abortion (i.e. any time, any place, anywhere) issuing cute proclamations about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy makes me want to vomit. At least Herod didn't follow up the Massacre of the Innocents by posing as Santa Claus. Ironically, this is as good a time as ever to remind people of the meaning of suffering. I also hope that this newfound appreciation of human life on the part of our Government might slowly lead them to reconsider their position on abortion and euthanasia, even if that hope is rather faint. What a pity such concern was missing during the referendum...
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Post by annie on Apr 10, 2020 9:50:27 GMT
In fairness, the eating of eggs, including chocolate ones, chocolate itself and sweets in general, particularly by children at Easter is in celebration of and with the risen Christ and the ending of the lenten fasts. Most children of my acquaintence abstain from sweet things for the full forty days.
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 11, 2020 0:06:23 GMT
I didn't mean to suggest that there was anything wrong with children eating chocolate eggs to celebrate Easter - indeed we have a duty to feast and celebrate Our Lord's triumph over death and rejoice in His Love. Even the Easter Bunny has his place as an embellishment. It's silence about Jesus and promotion of Easter Bunny Festival that I don't like.
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Post by annie on Apr 14, 2020 10:32:22 GMT
I didn't mean to suggest that there was anything wrong with children eating chocolate eggs to celebrate Easter - indeed we have a duty to feast and celebrate Our Lord's triumph over death and rejoice in His Love. Even the Easter Bunny has his place as an embellishment. It's silence about Jesus and promotion of Easter Bunny Festival that I don't like. Agreed. I believe that secular Ireland is trying to supplant Christianity and subsume every one of its sacred traditions with one of it's own making. Thus we have recent instance of the lighting of the flame at Easter (Patrick at Slane) honouring the Resurrection of Christ Our Light into a secular humanitarian self hug-in about how great we are. Likewise St Patrick's Day is all about us, our great nation, lighting up the world in green, while our saint is mocked as Our Lord was in His day. Don't get me started, it's all very sad.
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Post by annie on May 12, 2020 10:05:17 GMT
I didn't mean to suggest that there was anything wrong with children eating chocolate eggs to celebrate Easter - indeed we have a duty to feast and celebrate Our Lord's triumph over death and rejoice in His Love. Even the Easter Bunny has his place as an embellishment. It's silence about Jesus and promotion of Easter Bunny Festival that I don't like. Agreed. I believe that secular Ireland is trying to supplant Christianity and subsume every one of its sacred traditions with one of it's own making. Thus we have recent instance of the lighting of the flame at Easter (Patrick at Slane) honouring the Resurrection of Christ Our Light into a secular humanitarian self hug-in about how great we are. Likewise St Patrick's Day is all about us, our great nation, lighting up the world in green, while our saint is mocked as Our Lord was in His day. Don't get me started, it's all very sad. Forgive me. I would have put Mindfullness into the same box in my mind as the Angel industry, as a sort of jockey-back, then I came across Bro. Richard... brorichardblog.blogspot.com/2020/03/st-patrick-pandemic-and-divine-presence.html?m=0
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Post by Young Ireland on Sept 12, 2020 18:38:50 GMT
Not sure if anyone has been following the controversy surrounding Netflix's latest atrocity. A film that supposedly highlights the premature sexualisation of young girls in inner-city Paris, instead actually glamourises it in the worst way possible. From the awful title - "Cuties" - to the promotional material, and I am hearing that the film is actually even worse, this actually serves to mainstream pedophilia in the most blatant way possible in the last 30 years or so. Worse, the images are being inadvertently spread around social media those who are (quite rightly) opposed to this, compounding the damage even further. A few thoughts come to mind regarding this:
1. There is a serious problem in France where underage girls, particularly in the banlieues, get caught up in prostitution and the sex industry, which has been quietly tolerated by French society for decades. The stated purpose of this film was to highlight this appalling practice, which in itself is fair enough, but it does so in the most graphic and in-your-face way that it actually encourages it.
2. This whole episode highlights the fine line between exposing the evil of the sex industry and inadvertently compounding the damage by corrupting innocent minds in the process. There was absolutely no need to show the images or give graphic descriptions of the incidents in that movie: it should suffice to say that glamourising pedophilia is egregiously wrong and those who sexually exploit underage children (as was done here) should have the book thrown at them hard. It might be argued that this tactic is similar to the display of abortion imagery; I disagree, since abortion imagery generally does not titallate.
3. I fear that while Netflix will retreat this time, the Rubicon has been crossed, and we can expect more frequent and less subtle hints from certain sections in society that "pedophiles are unjustly vilified" or "it's not wrong if the child wants it". Slowly but surely, "anything goes between two consenting adults" is being turned into "anything goes between two consenting individials, regardless of age".
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 15, 2020 23:45:38 GMT
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Post by assisi on Sept 16, 2020 19:19:04 GMT
Not sure if anyone has been following the controversy surrounding Netflix's latest atrocity. A film that supposedly highlights the premature sexualisation of young girls in inner-city Paris, instead actually glamourises it in the worst way possible. From the awful title - "Cuties" - to the promotional material, and I am hearing that the film is actually even worse, this actually serves to mainstream pedophilia in the most blatant way possible in the last 30 years or so. Worse, the images are being inadvertently spread around social media those who are (quite rightly) opposed to this, compounding the damage even further. A few thoughts come to mind regarding this: 1. There is a serious problem in France where underage girls, particularly in the banlieues, get caught up in prostitution and the sex industry, which has been quietly tolerated by French society for decades. The stated purpose of this film was to highlight this appalling practice, which in itself is fair enough, but it does so in the most graphic and in-your-face way that it actually encourages it. 2. This whole episode highlights the fine line between exposing the evil of the sex industry and inadvertently compounding the damage by corrupting innocent minds in the process. There was absolutely no need to show the images or give graphic descriptions of the incidents in that movie: it should suffice to say that glamourising pedophilia is egregiously wrong and those who sexually exploit underage children (as was done here) should have the book thrown at them hard. It might be argued that this tactic is similar to the display of abortion imagery; I disagree, since abortion imagery generally does not titallate. 3. I fear that while Netflix will retreat this time, the Rubicon has been crossed, and we can expect more frequent and less subtle hints from certain sections in society that "pedophiles are unjustly vilified" or "it's not wrong if the child wants it". Slowly but surely, "anything goes between two consenting adults" is being turned into "anything goes between two consenting individials, regardless of age". Think they will target pederasty first and then go for paedophilia. This time we can see clearly what they are doing and their tactics of gradual chipping away at the law until there are no safeguards for children. I would dearly love our Church leaders, the 2 'Martins' ask some difficult questions and demand answers, rather than wait until the LBQT agenda is well advanced. For example they can pin the Government and LGBT mob down by asking them if they will guarantee that adult sex with an under 17 year old will remain unlawful. Start being astute in these matters. If the answers don't contain guarantees then use this as a platform for a campaign against both Government and LGBT. If they are not willing to lead on this battle, then they have tarnished their calling.
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 27, 2021 20:22:00 GMT
One thing that strikes me from browsing in the tvtropes website is that quite a lot of American pop culture (film and popular literature, especially in the fantasy genre) seems to assume a pagan universe dominated by competing occult powers, and some of these writers actually seem to draw on knowledge of real-life occultism. This should not be exaggerated, but there is a definite history of some Hollywood types dabbling in this sort of dirt, partly because the idea of creating your own reality which can substitute for or replace external reality has a certain appeal to actors and writers of fiction. (For the same reason, Christian Science and Scientology, both of which are forms of gnosticism and teach that the material world is a malign illusion, have had vogues in Hollywood.) The literary critic Harold Bloom claimed that gnosticism was America's real religion. That's probably an exaggeration, but given the American vogue for reinventing the self, I can see where he was coming from. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 24, 2021 12:47:57 GMT
This is an interesting column by a (Mormon) Sinologist arguing that the popularity of Young Adult dystopia fiction is a way for younger generations to conceptualise the parents' generation (anyone who has been an adolescent student of history will realise that the generation immediately previous to your own is harder to understand than earlier ones, because it hasn't had time to move from being taken for granted to being articulated). For example, it argues, the conspiracy theory genre reflects the experience of parents whispering/not discussing certain subjects in front of the children; the popularity of pseudo-Edwardian/Victorian settings reflects curiosity about a past that is remote enough to be exotic and close enough to be understandable. The sinister implications of the fact that in much currently-produced Irish pop culture it is the specifically Catholic past that functions as a dystopia are relevant here. scholars-stage.org/myths-of-the-over-managed/#comments
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