Late Stage Capitalism

Here are some good examples from the article:

• In 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious” (F+F8), rapper and actor Ludacris reads a 30-word seeming-advertisement hyping Textron Systems’ remote-operated Ripsaw tank. It turns out Ludacris’ lines were written not by a scriptwriter, but by the Entertainment Liaison Office (the DOD). The scene effectively became an unskippable ad, brought to the viewer by the U.S. military.

• ...In the 2017 film "The Long Road Home"... in one scene, a military colonel claims that the 2004 Sadr City operation during the Iraq War, which resulted in the deaths of 22 servicemen and 940 Iraqis, was necessary to rid two million Iraqis from the oppression of a dictator and to provide them with a "better future." That claim ignores the series of false narratives — like the existence of WMD or Iraq’s purported ties to al-Qaida — that got U.S. boots on Iraqi soil in the first place.

• ...The second season of “Jack Ryan” has lovable Jim from “The Office” working through the CIA to topple a nuclear-armed Venezuelan dictator in hopes of installing a magnanimous liberal populist. The season aired around the same time Washington was parading Juan Guaido as Venezuela's new leader.

• ...For "Mission Impossible 7": The Defense Department loaned a Boeing-made V-22 Osprey for use in at least two scenes in which the aircraft would be filmed both internally and externally. The Osprey, known as the “widowmaker,” is a $120 billion disaster that is one accident away from being decommissioned, as it has already caused the deaths of 62 service members.

• According to Stahl, these scenes are intentionally designed to “forge an emotional connection between the viewer and the weapon systems.” A connection that could ease the blow in a scenario where the viewer realizes how useless and expensive the F-35, Osprey and other systems like the LCS program have turned out to be. This serves to “normalize these huge expenditures,” he added.

• While American people focus on state subsidies and welfare programs, they are “oblivious to the costs of our militaristic engagement with the world” — a cost that was briefly summarized at the end of the documentary as reaching $8 trillion in the period after 9/11 alone.

Imagine how much we could improve the world with that $8 trillion.