The most critically acclaimed tv shows in the western world all have one thing in common. Their mc is some irredeemable sociopath who uses manipulation and violence for gaining wealth. Breaking bad and the sopranos is the most glaring example. But even mad men is extreme in how evil the mc is. Dude cheats on his wife and neglects his kids but is considered badass for doing so. There's even one scene where don is handed a copy of Atlas shrugged by his boss
Is this how western elites view themselves?
"Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man’s ideas, views, and conception, in one word, man’s consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life? What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material production is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class" - Manifesto, Ch II
https://www.marxists.org/admin/books/manifesto/Manifesto.pdf>>2609821It's because it sells because of how outrageous it is
>>2609839Only boomers and chvds find Tony badass. Sopranos is clearly written in a way to show that all mafioso are massive hypocrites.
>>2609849*people that only watch the Sopranos through Yutube clips
It couldn't be more obvious what the writers did when Tony didn't want Meadow to date the Black-Jewish kid but then Meadow fucks him anyway while Tony falls unconscious because he saw Uncle Ben's rice, it couldn't be more in your face.
>>2609844It has never been outrageous, the anti-hero trope is capitalists self-inserting themselves into fiction to push pro-capitalist propaganda.
It's the chad vs virgin meme, but instead of a paint comic, its a billion industry using handsome and beautiful actors and actresses to do the bidding of the investors, who happen to be the capitalists themselves, while they shove their slop down the throats of proles. And to noones surprise, as they bankroll the whole operation, they can pick and choose the narrative that is pushed. Behind every filmed scene is a team of underpaid ghostwriters that have the sword of domacles swinging overhead.
>>2609861 (me)
And btw, things don't sell because of quality or social trends, things sell because of marketing, ironic as Mad Men is the OP image.
>>2609839Matthew wiener wishes he could be don draper lol
>>2609839Yeah but tony is a mob boss. Don is initially presented as a talented creative and man but then you find out he's a grifter who's faking everything
>>2609838It's the ideology that they pander that I find insane.
>be a sociopath: kill steal lie cheat it's badassIt seems like a psyop.
Do all capitalists view themselves as luciferian Nietzscheans who hold no regards to the consequences of their evil crimes? Why do they paint it as something honorable
>>2609821What is the message of any of those shows?
Mad men ends with don just being a better advertising exec lol
>>2609855>It couldn't be more obvious what the writers did when Tony didn't want Meadow to date the Black-Jewish kid but then Meadow fucks him anyway while Tony falls unconscious because he saw Uncle Ben's rice, it couldn't be more in your face.and yet the actors all turned out to be chuds IRL with zero self awareness, and gandolfini and the guy who plays paulie both went to visit US troops during the war on terror and they demanded his autograph because they found tony's character badass. turns out your problematic sociopath protagonist will always get digested by your dumbass audience as an epic sigma male anti hero.
and the sopranos official twitter account dickrode trump for years.
it doesn't work.
>>2609876Bruh take a look at society. Of course they exist. Not all capitalists but the ones at the top of power? Absolutely less. One of the problems with the denial of morality by socialists is that they truly do not comprehend how depraved the elite are. Even after the Epstein revelations you all still pretend like elite capitalists think and act just the same as ordinary proles just with the positions reversed. Pedophilia. Murder. Lying, cheating, stealing. Nothing is sacred for them.
>>2609880*Absolutely yes
stupid autocorrect
>>2609879Michael imperioli seems like he's well read
>>2609882which is funny because he's the most retarded character in the show who wifebeats, but he's never seen as a sigma male badass by viewers the way tony is because he's ultimately a coward and a drug addict and tony suffocates him for being a liability.
>>2609888This guy needs to be put down. Can't believe the cia picked this weirdo to run their ghost company
>>2609890The average human is pretty sadistic sadly. People need to realize that capitalist or not, people are not as self reflective or compassionate as the users on this board who seem kind of neurodivergent
>>2609895>The average human is pretty sadistic sadly.not really
>people are not as self reflective or compassionate as the users on this board who seem kind of neurodivergentpeople on here actually strike me as very rude. they'll dehumanize you over the very smallest things. especially in /usapol/
>>2609880Maybe in order to get to the top and stay there you need to be cunning and cruel
>>2609855>It couldn't be more obvious what the writers did when Tony didn't want Meadow to date the Black-Jewish kid but then Meadow fucks him anyway while Tony falls unconscious because he saw Uncle Ben's rice, it couldn't be more in your face.also phil leotardo stepping out of a literal closet to rape vito to death for the crime of being gay
>>2609906I'm so glad this ghoul got murdered
>>2609861Funny thing is religion used to condemn porkies, then they got co opted
>>2609927>Funny thing is religion used to condemn porkiesTo preserve feudalism tho
>>2609927It was always a psyop lol
>>2609935Most religions predated feudalism ngga
>>2609876Saying that its psyop is kinda implying that there is some pvre morality among humans that got coopted by class society. But fundamental to a materialist analysis is that our morality is dynamic and dependant on our material circumstances. If you live in a capitalist society you'd think that lying and cheating and harming others to get your way is based, just look at how gangsta rap or narcocorridos glaze gangsters, or how chivalry and bushido basically glaze medieval gangsters and warlords. And its not like they're cynically promoting this, rather the more you benefit from something the more you genuinely believe in that something.
>>2609983
Being sociopathic and rich is just the American dream, that's why everyone wants to be a crypto billionaire
>>2609967You are talking about how religion critised capitalism in the 18th ans 19th century.
>>2609839lmao sopranos is still the only one to really do it well. didnt cop out and give tony a sentimental ending like breaking bad. also the therapy scenes in are some of the best scenes but also harder to sit through than any of the kills because theyre so awkward. every time Tony goes on some horrific tangent clearly having no idea how offputting he comes across i have to pause to collect myself. peak tv
>>2609821it lets you have your cake and eat it: people can enjoy it both as a power fantasy within the status quo
and as a critique of the status quo.
>>2609973a fun one here is pre-capitalist morality towards commerce: making money through inheritance without 'earning' it was considered noble and moral, while making it through trade was suspicious because you weren't producing it, nor were you getting it through your birth. you were conjuring money out of thin air by ripping people off by buying for less than a fair price in one place and selling for more than a fair price elsewhere. (in the morality of the time.)
today by contrast, most people who inherit their wealth try to hide that fact and pretend that they've earned it through business.
similarly, to be a male wage laborer - except perhaps at a young age - was often faintly shameful, since it meant you weren't capable of running your own household and needed somebody else to boss you around.
>>2609861There's nothing wrong with anti-heros, provided their negative actions aren't glorified. Real people aren't perfect platonic beings, so if you want to do social realism properly, you need to depict people struggling against themselves.
>>2610210Not only Tony but the show presented pretty much EVERYONE as a hypocrite and a douchebag. If the viewer still finds the character a 'role model', the viewer is a piece of shit, not the writer.
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