They have elementary literacy. Sure, they can technically read, but they can’t comprehend themes, metaphor, subtext, or satire.
This isn’t just a fascist thing, it’s pretty widespread. Critical analysis is something people do a few times in school for books they hated (and probably never fully read) and then avoid doing it ever again for the rest of their lives.
That might be true for some of them, but I can speak from personal experience when I say some reactionaries have enough reading skills to understand a movie like Starship Troopers isn’t meant to make their side look good, but it’s easy to cynically use to say the opposite of its intended message because on its surface it’s a movie about aesthetically beautiful people defending themselves from subhuman invaders.
There’s definitely the group you’re talking about, which Sartre pretty accurately described. They’re just amusing themselves by deliberately defacing media because it’s funny to them. “The anti-Semites have the right to play” and all that.
They’re a minority. The majority are just “wow cool future!” when they see a piece of media like Starship Troopers. They’re very susceptible to that minority of reactionaries, but I think they can just as easily be swayed away from a reactionary reading of media by the very next person that talks to them. They don’t really believe anything, they’ll just adopt the last thing they heard.
Unfortunately, reactionaries have way more time to talk about movies and video games.
They have elementary literacy. Sure, they can technically read, but they can’t comprehend themes, metaphor, subtext, or satire.
This isn’t just a fascist thing, it’s pretty widespread. Critical analysis is something people do a few times in school for books they hated (and probably never fully read) and then avoid doing it ever again for the rest of their lives.
That might be true for some of them, but I can speak from personal experience when I say some reactionaries have enough reading skills to understand a movie like Starship Troopers isn’t meant to make their side look good, but it’s easy to cynically use to say the opposite of its intended message because on its surface it’s a movie about aesthetically beautiful people defending themselves from subhuman invaders.
There’s definitely the group you’re talking about, which Sartre pretty accurately described. They’re just amusing themselves by deliberately defacing media because it’s funny to them. “The anti-Semites have the right to play” and all that.
They’re a minority. The majority are just “wow cool future!” when they see a piece of media like Starship Troopers. They’re very susceptible to that minority of reactionaries, but I think they can just as easily be swayed away from a reactionary reading of media by the very next person that talks to them. They don’t really believe anything, they’ll just adopt the last thing they heard.
Unfortunately, reactionaries have way more time to talk about movies and video games.
Isn’t it over 1/2 read at the level of an 11yo or lower? and slightly more than 1/5 are functionally illiterate?