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HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016)
🕑 Added 2020-06-22 17:19:17 +0000 UTCBy popular demand, here is the brief review I wrote about Curtis's 2016 iteration of his usual libertarian, Chapo-approved cant. I am not going to pretend that he does not make a few good points here and there. But my main problem with the guy is that he is one of those unreconstructed Marxists who despises identity politics...but then has rejected Marxism as well. So when that happens, all you have left is a free-market technocrat who only cares about the oppression of white men, and assumes that once we are sufficiently "free," all the subaltern folks' problems will just naturally sort themselves out. Anyway, here's what I wrote at the time:
Interesting thing about Adam Curtis' visuals. Whenever he wants to show the fake dreamworlds of consumption, the unreal world of the Internet, or just ideology in general, without fail he shows clips of girls and women. And maybe a cat video for good measure.
And of course, no discussion about how the "fake" cyberworld serves particular purposes for minorities -- African-Americans and LGBTQ folks in particular -- whose physical bodies are uniquely threatened in the "real world."
Seriously, this is the type of guy I used to avoid on Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, trying to sell me the Socialist Worker. One single analysis for everything, no nuance. I'll pass.
