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Regressive thinking or Freedom of speech?

One of my hobbies is collecting outdoor survival equipment like fire starters knives or one of those all in one shovels. I came across this youtube channel that is run by a US military veteran.

I know the chances of getting stuck in a foreign country as a private spy with the entire world out to get me is quite low but never zero XD. These sorts of videos became my primary source of entertainment.

However today I came across this video where he was advertising his own media platform and instantly my mind could identify all the problematic themes.












John Lovell presents in a one-minute ten-second disaster presents an ad for his media platform Warrior Poet Society Network or WPSN (sounds cooler this way).


How does he start?








Not the best start but at least he had my attention.


He then proceeds to mention how he wants "Good, Old fashion values" in his entertainment. What might they be?









What was most interesting to me was the fact that he made woke sound like a very negative term. "Netflix and Amazon have become woke". He says how we should be using his media platform so we can watch "old-fashioned values" in our entertainment.


My first reaction was instant disappointment and disagreement. The world needs more than just God family and country and certainly being woke is not a drawback to media. I saw it as someone trying to protect his values that have been rejected by the world due to how problematic they can be. The media needs to portray real issues such as widespread homophobia, systematic oppression of women etc instead of explosions and the glorifying of war.

He addresses his viewer directly saying "it hates my values, it hates your values" as a very subtle but extremely manipulating technique. Instantly made me think of media as teaching machines


However, it led me to think. Does the disagreement or contrast of values allow me to dismiss this person's beliefs or in fact his media portal? He seems to be providing an alternative instead of proposing to shut the current giants down. Where should one lie on the scale of liberalism here? Should all opinions be freely expressed on personal media platforms or should government agencies shut down such platforms and regulate control?



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6 Comments


25090034
Aug 01, 2022

Hey iman, A really interesting perspective on this. I think filtering content based on reviews is a really interesting approach. However I had a follow up. What if the reviews of the piece of content is split. What if some dislike it and an equal number likes it. Secondly I think basing opinions on other's comments can be troublesome. It can lead to herd thinking and loss of one's agency over thought.

How would you counter these issues?


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Sabeeh - 24020369
Sabeeh - 24020369
Aug 01, 2022

Hey!


Well written Uzair! You've asked some interesting questions towards the end. Firstly, not only is he just promoting his own alternative in the video, he's also dissing on the "woke culture" by calling it nonsense and saying that it sucks. I think that's where he could have worded his statement more peacefully. He has all the right to disagree with such values but it's also important to stay peaceful in my opinion. But I think, if he had said that more peacefully, it might not have made as effective of an ad for him because his target audience includes people like him. So being loud and calling it nonsense probably resonates more with the audience and that's why he…


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25090034
Aug 01, 2022
Replying to

Thankyou for the feedback. I agree with all of you analysis. He has basically used the emotions of his viewers to try and sell his media platform. If you watch the video he makes statements like " We need pure awesome fist pump media" while the screen shows gunfighting blasts and everything a teenager would find cool. So he found a way to make his media alternative sound "cooler" by exacerbating the emotions of his viewer.


Honestly thats what his audience might be. But I am also his audience what does that make me? XD

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Jehangir Ali Shah
Aug 01, 2022

Hello!


So I think you have struck upon a number of different large topics. And if I would divide the questions you have asked and attempted to answer in the blog is: Does being woke really mean anything nowadays? Is there a right way to carry yourself if you are engaged in online content creation? Do we separate the art from the artist?


Well, when it comes to being woke, I think there is a line dividing being actively involved in encouraging debate and discussion on topics versus giving time to the issues for the sake of performing. This is a huge topic and I do not have the expertise to answer it extensively. However, I think these days, diverse…


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25090034
Aug 01, 2022
Replying to

Hey Jahangir you are very right in pointing out the main themes of the blog and engaged with it well.

So for the video the person is dismissing being "woke" altogether. He wans family country and god in his content so any other type of "wokeness" is unappreciated which I think is the main reason I found it so problematic.


You are very right about drawing lines when there needs to be one. Extreme types of content are easy to filter but what happens when the piece of content falls into a grey area. Who decides where and when to draw the line. I ask you this because this is a leading issue in Pakistani content too. PEMRA faces pressures…

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Iman Aamir
Iman Aamir
Jul 31, 2022

Hi I feel like everyone has the write to express their own point of view on personal media platform as it is their way to convey their thoughts. while it’s the publishers right to present the view instead of government regulating I think the people should be the voters . They can criticize the channel , provide counter arguments as well . as a personal media viewer the first thing after watching any video is that I view the comments to see the perspective of the people and those perspective shape my views as well and lesve A stronger imprint than the video itself. So if viewers criticize , give feedback and channel allows it that can also help change…

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