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I remember studying Soviet propaganda in college.

I was always so amazed at how obvious it was. Wondering how people could sit through it.

But looking at my own country's propaganda gives me insight into this.

The wonderfully brilliant manipulation tactic is this:

1. Take a legitimate concern and build the story from that.
2. Take the ideal outcome (from the perspective of those in who want to maintain power / the creators of the propaganda) and make the hero advocate for that.
3. Take honest and good efforts by those not in power to address the legitimate concern, strawman them, and make them the villain.

One such corpus of propaganda is the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

• All the heroes are superhuman cops or vigilantes enforcing the status quo through violence.
• All the villains are trying to address societal concerns... but the realistic approach in the real world is twisted in these fictions to where their approach always includes genocide, violence, changing the current oppression to another oppressor of their choice, and other strawmen caricatures.

The propaganda messages conveyed are:

• The status quo and your current oppressors are here to stay and are the best you can hope for
• Fear and distrust any attempt to fix the current problems
• The only way to change is through violence (this is conveyed as bad)
• If anyone tries to change, they'll be stopped with violence (this is conveyed as good)
• The only people that can participate in the world (either fixing problems or maintaining systems of control) are superhuman demigods. The powerful. The rich. - Never you. Never the normal person trying to improve their and their neighbors' lives.

Pop Culture Detective recently release a video essay on this very thing. Watch it below.

Pop Culture Detective's "Marvel's Defenders of The Status Quo"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LpitmEnaYeU

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