Now there is a word you do not see everyday….basically because the media and entertainment industries do not want the public equating stuff to war.
Hollywood has weaponized entertainment to promote war….some say as many as 2500 films and show are in that category.
“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize that they are being propagandized,” explained Elmer Davis, a renowned CBS broadcaster, who had just been named director of the Office of War Information (OWI), a Pentagon program created on June 13, 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor.
Later in 1953, as the Cold War was in full swing, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented on the burgeoning partnership between Hollywood and the Pentagon by stating that, “the hand of government must be carefully concealed and […] wholly eliminated,” adding that the engagement should “be done through arrangements with all sorts of privately operated enterprises in the field of entertainment, dramatics, music and so on.”
Thus, the president who coined the term “military industrial complex,” was, in fact, one of the first major proponents of what would later be called the military entertainment complex or the militainment industry.
Today, this militainment industry is thriving. From Top Gun to the Marvel franchise and even shows like Extreme Makeover, the Pentagon has been able to shape the narratives of more than 2,500 movies and TV shows. No one knows this better than Roger Stahl, the University of Georgia’s Communications Studies Department Head, and author of Militainment Inc. With University of Bath lecturer and Workers Party Candidate Matthew Alford, investigative journalist Tom Secker, and others, Stahl created “Theaters of War,” a concise 87-minute documentary in which he methodically dissects our modern militainment industry, showing the behemoth it has become.
Responsible Statecraft talked to Stahl, Alford, and Secker about the ways our TV screens are weaponized through the Military Entertainment Complex’s oversight over and control of Hollywood scripts and production agreements.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/theaters-of-war/
Do not get me started on the Pentagon and the patriotism of pro sports teams…..I know you have seen the ‘Patriot’s Day” or the Vets appreciation Day, or a salute to the armed forces….all that is not out of the desire to show their appreciation but rather a paid event by the Pentagon.
In the past few years, the Pentagon spent $6.8 million to pay for patriotic displays during the games of professional sports teams.
That’s according to a joint oversight report released by Arizona Republican Sens. John Flake and John McCain on Wednesday.
The senators found that since 2012, the Pentagon has signed 72 contracts with teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer that amounted to “paid patriotism.”
For example, taxpayers paid $49,000 to the Milwaukee Brewers to allow the Wisconsin Army National Guard to sponsor the Sunday singing of “God Bless America.” In another contract, the New York Jets were paid $20,000 to “recognize one to two New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers as hometown heroes.”
USA Today reports that NFL teams received the biggest slice of the pie — $6 million, according to the report. The newspaper adds:
“The Atlanta Falcons received $879,000; the New England Patriots, $700,000; and the Buffalo Bills, $650,000. The Atlanta Braves received $450,000, the most of any Major League Baseball franchise, while the Minnesota Wild were paid $570,000, the most of any National Hockey League team.
“The Atlanta contracts included a 2013 event during which a roaring crowd cheered as the Falcons welcomed 80 guard members who unfurled an American flag across the Georgia Dome’s turf.”
Keep in mind that cash is your money, taxpayer cash…..it is bad enough that we must fund every goddamn war on the planet but we also have to pay overpriced athletes to be patriotic?
Did you know patriotism has a price?
Go Team!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“cognito ergo me agitare”
Daily Agitator 