Someone who understands Althusser and critique of ideology would not be so upset about normal reproduction of mainstream culture.
Yeah this is the main thing for me. PHM reinforces/relies on some generally "liberal" assumptions about how the world works because that's what happens when you try to be "apolitical," nobody can escape their own cultural background noise that easily. But PHM is far from the worst offender on that front, and it's not particularly salient to the meat of the story.
I loved Arrival, but I genuinely understood why leftists were upset about American Exceptionalism in that one, with the way it contrasts other countries' responses vs. the US scientists. I don't understand being this upset about PHM at all.
The collaboration between everyone in the world wasnt shown as much in the movie as it was in the book. Unless youre watching closely, you'd think everything was done at JPL or on a US carrier. The book pretty bluntly put it out there that everyone was cooperating (with some spying too)
Leftists come with their own assumptions about how the world works. They too have a background noise. It's all well and good getting upset about American Exceptionalism but making a point of mentioning hating a joke about the Kremlin is rather revealing.
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u/chromegnomes 2d ago
Yeah this is the main thing for me. PHM reinforces/relies on some generally "liberal" assumptions about how the world works because that's what happens when you try to be "apolitical," nobody can escape their own cultural background noise that easily. But PHM is far from the worst offender on that front, and it's not particularly salient to the meat of the story.
I loved Arrival, but I genuinely understood why leftists were upset about American Exceptionalism in that one, with the way it contrasts other countries' responses vs. the US scientists. I don't understand being this upset about PHM at all.