CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, et al; Are these shows propaganda? ( conspiracy )

submitted by Lobotomy

Alright, let me preface this by saying that I've seldom seen a smart person watch these shows, but they're wildly popular, and people just eat them up. Why? The show is bland, you know who did the crime in the first five minutes of any given episode, each episode is almost exactly the fucking same, and the plot for each could win an Olympic gold medal in Mental Gymnastics. The main investigatory characters skirt, or outright break the law, or their protocol, in nearly every episode, to catch the bad guy, and you bet your tight, supple asshole that they always catch the bad guy.

I think these shows, not unlike Zero Dark Thirty, and that Benghazi movie, drive this narrative that the U.S. Government/Law Enforcement is always on the moral high ground, always catches the bad guy, and enforces an unrealistic, optimistic, ideal, of what a Cop/Fed/MP/CIA officer is. I think these shows affect certain (read: stupid) people, and make them believe that the fuzz are infallible fucking superheroes.

On top of that, I think it also feeds into the cult behavior surrounding government trust/patriotism/nationalism in some small way. Cultists have a certain specific list of odd behaviors and attributes, that they must all have, in order to be classed as such. Miss one, and it's something else that isn't a cult. Why is this relevant? Because the aforementioned pro-state people fit the bill precisely for what can be scientifically classified as a cult .

TFP191

yes

bubbleki

The rabbit hole goes deep on this one. Almost all entertainment is left wing propaganda. You just have to know what to look for.

RedLeader

Answer to your thread title: Yes.

Tevelyn

the answer is more complicated than that.

your assertion isn't completely correct, as there are "issue of the week" episodes that center around cops being bad guys, and often deliberitely end with the cop getting off to show corruption in the system.

That being said, the genre of show does promote an authoritarian liberal agenda, but is it propaganda? That depends on your definition I suppose. Generally, the shows try to address current events, or historical situations that would cast the liberal idealogy in a positive light, but virtually everyone involved in the show is a brainwashed idealoge in the first place. So is it propaganda if thats just what the people behind the cameras really believe? Even if it isn't intentionally set out to be in the first place?

Lobotomy

So is it propaganda if thats just what the people behind the cameras really believe? Even if it isn't intentionally set out to be in the first place?

That's an interesting question actually.

pitenius

Yes, but... In this case, I think the agenda is actually set. I don't think there is a simple bias, as Tevelyn describes. I think you're closer to right with the themes that you named: The main investigators skirt or break the law, or protocol and they always catch the bad guy.

This agenda is inherited from the Hayes Code , but I think you are astute to note how the cops who break the law are often driven by honorable motivations.

The CIA has been so embedded in American media since the late 60s that I think there is always a soft agenda. In the past, the agency has been pretty stoked to announce that their propaganda campaigns pay for themselves.

I think you have a collusion of two propaganda mills: the passive education and the more active but opaque studio production system.

Lobotomy

Well, that was certainly an interesting read. I have some booking up to do.

pitenius

I was spreading your idea to friends today, if you're curious.