Want to know how bad it is for the left culturally right now?
Look no further than its journalists scrambling to find their representation in shows and movies that isn't even there.
It's something that caught my attention in a big way near the end of July. Two access media outlets reported things about two upcoming major films that weren't even true.
Variety took an already questionable interview with "Superman" director James Gunn, blatantly miscontextualized it, and released a report that ended up harming the movie's reputation and made it a beachfront in the culture war. The claim from Variety was that Gunn had purposefully turned Superman into a woke figure and that the film was all about immigration in a time when President Donald Trump's immigration policies were at the top of every news organization's front page.
As I reported in my review, that wasn't the case at all. There was no immigration message to be found in the film, which wasn't woke in the least.
Read: I Saw 'Superman' and It's Both Not What You Think, and Still Everything You Expected
Then, Collider did something very similar with the "Fantastic Four: First Steps" movie, where they reported that Sue Storm had assumed leadership of Marvel's first family. This time, both the actors and the film producer didn't help matters, but when the film was released, it was pretty clear that all of them were off.
Reed Richards was still the leader of the Fantastic Four, as is traditionally his role. Storm was given a much larger role than she usually gets in these F4 films, but she was not the group's leader.
Read: Fantastic Four Review: Did Marvel Actually Deliver Something Worth Watching?
The legacy media is known for its lies, whether it's about entertainment, politics, events, et cetera, but these two moments were unique in that it wasn't just lies. The media seemed to truly believe what they were seeing, despite having to fabricate the lens through which they were viewing things themselves.
I even made a YouTube video about it, because something about these two events seemed notable as a culture critic.
At the time, I thought maybe the access media was coming down on Hollywood through a sort of betrayal. They know that woke elements would anger fans, and they reported them being there even though they weren't, causing audiences to swear off seeing the film in theaters. This seemed like a really mean thing to do to your "friends."
Not that the media has any real friends, but I digress.
Another friend of mine had a theory that also made some sense. He guessed the media was intentionally sabotaging these films in order to make it clear to studios that even when movies aren't woke, they still fail, so they should just make the movies that please the bubble anyway. In this way, the message still remains strong even as Hollywood continues to burn. Better to rule the ashes than lose control of the kingdom, right?
That might still be the case, but it happened again, and now I'm not entirely sure it's a master plan of any kind. I think many in the media are just desperately clinging to their hold over mainstream culture that they know is dying... or possibly even dead.
Enter Sara Clements, someone who has very heavy connections to the establishment parts of the film industry, and (unsurprisingly) is a huge LGBTQ+ advocate, apparently being involved in the community herself.
Clements decided to review "Alien: Earth" for Peliplat. The show is another entry into the Alien franchise that has all the elements you'd expect from it nowadays. I won't analyze her review in totality, but I want to focus on the parts of it where she tries to tell you the show is actually an allegory for transgenderism:
And it’s surprising how it feels very queer-coded. The hybrids’ journey is unmistakably trans in its metaphor: from dysphoria and alienation to reclamation and self-definition. It’s also a story about bodily autonomy; about how systems try to erase the “wrong” parts of you, and how your sense of self must fight to survive. Even the scientists begin to question what they’ve done.
[...]
Where previous entries in the Alien franchise focused on the invasion of the monstrous into human space – xenomorphs breaching the boundaries of ships, of bodies – Alien: Earth reverses the equation somewhat. The hybrids are the invasion: human minds inside new shells, designed not for survival, but for servitude. It’s here that the show’s queer and trans allegories (unintentional or not) come to light. The process of hybridization is referred to as “transitioning.” Like many trans experiences in the real world, especially with body dysmorphia, these children are forced to suppress their feelings, retrain their movements, and learn to act “normal” in bodies that don’t match their sense of self.
To be clear, I haven't seen the show myself, but no other review of the show has mentioned there being "queer coding" or transgender themes in it. The show's creator, Noah Hawley, has said in interviews that the show does have themes centered around humanity's worth and the ethics of synthetic life, but nothing about queer themes.
This is an interpretation from a journalist who, like Variety and Collider, made a claim about themes in a show that aren't there, and has now caused many people to swear off watching it to avoid feeding a monster that should've died long ago.
Looking at this like an alien watching from outside atmo, this doesn't look like any grand plan to manipulate an industry... it looks like desperation to keep a delusion intact.
For years and years, the legacy media had a kung-fu grip on the culture. Through intrusion and pressure, it guided what we saw. It created the lens through which everything was seen, and when the media said jump, many corporations — including those in Hollywood — asked, "How high?"
But that largely changed, and now you can see the media's grip being forcibly pried off everywhere. Corporations can now do what sells, not what pleases activist groups, politicians, and suits too cowardly to say "No." Now you have blond bombshells talking about their jeans to the sound of a screeching minority.
The media isn't in control anymore, and the volume of their voice is being lowered to the appropriate loudness relative to their actual size — a small group of angry, ideologically obsessed people with no taste. In order to feel like they're still on top and not alone, they're writing reports that suggest their power is still intact and they're driving the culture.
This isn't reporting, this is fan-fiction.
And if the left is now doing this, then it's a true sign that they've lost control of the culture.
