The socialist realism art policies of the USSR are not the only examples of art foregrounding the experiences and values of workers, and you can find such art in many countries that never even got close to socialist, from the USA (e.g. Grapes of Wrath) to Japan (e.g. Kani Kosen), along with of course there being such art movements in societies that would later have socialist revolutions (e.g. The Lower Depths, written by Gorky in 1902, 15 years before the revolution)
But the point that I would emphasize more is that opulent fantasies in media generally don’t radicalize people (though perhaps stories of real opulent people profiting from their poverty do), it just produces something on the spectrum from escapist fantasy to a carrot-on-a-stick motivation to live “like that.” The first is a hyper-literalization of the Freire quote about “the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor,” i.e. not an aspiration but literally just a private fantasy, and the second is what he actually meant.
The socialist realism art policies of the USSR are not the only examples of art foregrounding the experiences and values of workers, and you can find such art in many countries that never even got close to socialist, from the USA (e.g. Grapes of Wrath) to Japan (e.g. Kani Kosen), along with of course there being such art movements in societies that would later have socialist revolutions (e.g. The Lower Depths, written by Gorky in 1902, 15 years before the revolution)
But the point that I would emphasize more is that opulent fantasies in media generally don’t radicalize people (though perhaps stories of real opulent people profiting from their poverty do), it just produces something on the spectrum from escapist fantasy to a carrot-on-a-stick motivation to live “like that.” The first is a hyper-literalization of the Freire quote about “the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor,” i.e. not an aspiration but literally just a private fantasy, and the second is what he actually meant.