podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 I'm sick* and everything is garbage so have a fun one from me today. As a treat.

I'd heard a little bit about the predictive programming conspiracy theory. It's the idea that (((They))) put secret messages in films and TV to soften up the populace for events that they wouldn't otherwise swallow, like 9/11 or Sandy Hook, or to induce people to commit mass shootings, like the Aurora theatre shooting. This week on It Could Happen Here, Garrison explored the roots of the theory (which, weirdly, aren't particularly anti-semitic or even harmful, though of course these days it's both) and what people who believe this actually think.

Part 1 | Part 2 

I find this conspiracy theory interesting for two reasons. First, because it has a grain of truth to it. Creators do put messaging in their work, and that messaging is often related to things that are happening in the real world, and it's interesting to debate whether pop culture influences reality (see Frankfurt School, Nick Land, Ben Shapiro, that stupid ending to Game of Thrones) or simply reflects it (Marx, Plato), or, I don't know, these things kind of reinforce each other (this is actually the correct answer if you want art to mean anything at all and you don't have a grossly inflated sense of your own importance as an artist). So it's interesting to analyze media in terms of how intentional the messaging was and what ideology it's in the trash bin of (*sniff*) and I can absolutely see how people get carried away with it.

The second reason is that I genuinely think media literacy is an important skill and that we do a piss-poor job of teaching it in schools, and so as a result you get people who crave a deep-dive into media but have no idea how to do it. Accordingly, you get a dude who is convinced that all of the symbolism in The Hunger Games has to do with Saturn and is foreshadowing a revolution/police state in the US that will reorganize society into 15-minute cities or something like that, and completely misses that the symbolism in The Hunger Games is meant to reflect very real present-day concerns, albeit in kind of an obvious, workmanlike way. It makes me think that obsessing over stories is something inherent to the human condition whether we teach people to do it intelligently or not, and if these people just found a fandom or read Slacktivist's Left Behind reviews or I dunno, got an English degree, they would be happy and normal. There's a real "there but for fortune" feel about this particular conspiracy and it's interesting to learn about.

Also ngl I want to see that Civil War movie. It looks fun as hell. Sorry/not sorry.



* Probably not covid? At least 5 RATs say it's not. Plus it feels exactly like the time I got food poisoning last year so hopefully it's just that.

Comments

[ioplokon]

When I taught literature, I always told my students it's a deeply unfair discipline, because you'll never be completely right (our work is not finding the secret key that unlocks the text), but you can easily be completely wrong.

[sabotabby]

On the plus side, you can be completely wrong in interesting ways that reveal uncomfortable truths about yourself.

[dissectionist]

“We had sicknesses before Covid and they’re still here” is my constant mantra when I’m dealing with a Covid-exposure period and I feel unwell. Also “stress hormones make your body more symptomatic and this is very stressful”, though I don’t know if that one applies to you as much as it does to me. (Stress hormones can cause full-on nausea, temperature dysregulation, tremors, headache, and increased pain for me, so just stress alone can feel a lot like a flu.)

[sabotabby]

Well, I definitely have all of those things happening, which is fun. I don't know why it would hit me today vs. at Peak Stress two weeks ago though.

[dissectionist]

It could; the ongoing release of stress hormones can hit a point where the parasympathetic system (the PNS, which is supposed to calm things down) gets fatigued. Then the stress gets to run rampant for awhile while the PNS recovers enough to rejoin the battle.

But it’s more likely that recent stresses made your system more susceptible to catching one of the many illnesses going around. Norovirus is on the rise too; one of the epidemiologists I follow is predicting that the current rising wave of noro will end up hitting 10% of all the people in North America.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, this absolutely feels like when I got what was probably norovirus.

[frandroid]

haha

[sabotabby]

For those keeping track, my favourite conspiracies are this one (fourth place), Hollow Earth (third place), dinosaurs didn't die of asteroid they died of rickets (second place), and JFK didn't get assassinated, his head just did that on its own (forever #1).

[frandroid]

Rickets?? People are really looking for trouble.

[sabotabby]

It was on the latest Maintenance Phase and they couldn't stop laughing about it.

[symbioid]

I'm thinking back to like 1999/2000 this dude I met at a party at my dealer's place was all into using some movie as a metaphor and I'm thinking, yeah,ok... And some thing about cars teaching us to be slaves by using roads. It was like. That's what you took from this movie (I don't think the roads thing was in it at all he must have read the metaphor) I haven't seen one as bad as that since but I can imagine how that mentality has thrived online.

[sabotabby]

One thing they point out is that things that 1% of the population once believed are amplified by social media.

[china_shop]

Fingers crossed for continued negative RATs -- and also for you feeling better very soon.

[sabotabby]

Thanks. I'm a very sad little Tabby at the moment as I've already had to bail on one concert and tomorrow is looking less and less likely.

[dewline]

Glad to read that five RATs say "nay" re: COVID-19 in your case, and sad that you're forced to cope with whatever the Hell it is anyway.

[sabotabby]

Yeah I'm now really confused as to what it is. But 12 hours of sleep helped.

[radiantfracture]

Blergh re: sick.

The human ability to identify patterns and interpret them is the foundation of my job and also terrifying

[sabotabby]

Right? I think what fascinates me most is how closely this parallels how I think and what I do.

[flamingsword]

💊💊💊

I wish you all of the anti-emetics and various medicines.

Also, I’m going to link my friend who is into breaking down conspiracist thinking to these podcasts. I think he’d be stoked.

[sabotabby]

Drugs and sleep helped a lot.

[minoanmiss]

reads contemplates infuses you with electrolytes

[sabotabby]

Hah, I'm not even sure how electrolytes happen. I'm never so sick that I'd drink gatorade.

[greylock]

Brawndo! It's got what plants crave!

gatorade may suck, but do you have Lucozade?

[minoanmiss]

Drinking normal fruit juice and tea does suffice, but I got an example of the Power of Electrolytes during that week I had norovirus. it was weird and educational to feel myself cramping and misfiring in all my muscles because I had actually depleted my electrolytes.

[greylock]

It's the idea that (((They))) put secret messages in films and TV to soften up the populace for events that they wouldn't otherwise swallow, like 9/11 or Sandy Hook

(((They))) do have quite the tech sector.
But, this kind of stuff is decades old and as never made sense.
I won't insult you by assuming you don't know McLuhan is (if you don't I'll eat something nasty from my freezer), but back in Ye Olde Days when we were studying him at uni, and such, I remember a lecture on subliminal messages which I still think was dumb as fuck.

Putting tits in icecubes in Playboy ads seemed silly.

These days, post-Internet, it's a lot easier for me to see how Goebbles et all had propaganda right. You shift pewrceptions slowly, then more radically.

I genuinely think media literacy is an important skill and that we do a piss-poor job of teaching it in schools,

We do a bad job at a lot of literacy in schools. IIRC, even when I was studying journalism at uni there was a lot that was eluded. And again, that was largely pre-Internet.


Accordingly, you get a dude who is convinced that all of the symbolism in The Hunger Games has to do with Saturn and is foreshadowing a revolution/police state in the US that will reorganize society into 15-minute cities

I legitimately can believe this is a "deep dive" YT video, and don't want to.
But the 15-minute cities hysteria is So. Fucking. Dumb.
(Admittedly, I have largely lived a 15 minute city for a while, and if I went out I'd love it.)

Also ngl I want to see that Civil War movie. It looks fun as hell. Sorry/not sorry.

Same. I'm baffled that Texas and California are aligned? But... yeah. Down.
I am about to watch Madame Web though. So, my tastes... dubious.

[sabotabby]

As a Canadian, I was forced to read McLuhan from an early age the way kids in Catholic school are forced to read the Bible, and I always kind of thought about half of what he wrote was utter bullshit and the other half was obvious.

The 15-minute city conspiracy is wild to me because I live in like, a 15-minute neighbourhood now. Grocery stores, bank, work, hardware store, pharmacy, doctor, etc., all within a 15-20 minute walk. It's great. Why anyone wouldn't want this is beyond me.

[greylock]

I live in like, a 15-minute neighbourhood now. Grocery stores, bank, work, hardware store, pharmacy, doctor, etc., all within a 15-20 minute walk. It's great. Why anyone wouldn't want this is beyond me.

A bank>? seems unlikely!
A hardware store? Impossible!

I mean I am this (mostly) and I am lucky. I don't know what Canada is like. but I assume it's similar urban sprawl.