# Election-centered Documentaries & Other Upcoming Fare **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 25, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455 "2020-09-25T01:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455/1 "2020-09-25T01:04:00Z")
(_I anticipate that most of the discussion of these works will be about their politics, not about their artistic elements. But if a moderator feels otherwise, of course, feel free to move the thread.)_ Last night was the premiere of a new documentary by Alex Gibney (“Going Clear” etc) on HBO, _Agents of Chaos._ It’s about Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections. (Part 2 airs in a few minutes. The documentary is also available to Amazon Prime members.) Part 1 was the fastest two hours I’ve spent in front of a screen in quite a while. (Gibney is good at what he does.) It begins with about 70 minutes on trolling, particularly that accomplished by the IRA in St. Petersburg. It then moves on to hacking, focusing on the activities of the GRU “Fancy Bear” initiative. Part 2 looks as though it will focus on the Trump Campaign and its connections with the influence operations. Part 1 contained some amazing remarks by Timothy Snyder, author of _On Tyranny_, among other trenchant works. This guy never wastes a single word on filler; for example, from his Twitter feed today: > From a review of the documentary at CNN: > [@](#): > > … Gibney teamed with investigative journalist Lowell Bergman and reporters from Russia to paint a sweeping portrait of the multi-pronged campaign, orchestrated under Russian president Vladimir Putin’s government despite his denials. Andrew Weissmann – a top lawyer on Robert Mueller’s team, who is out with a new book about the investigation – reiterates its key finding, saying that there were “clear, unequivocal efforts by the Russian government to interfere with our election.” > > The title, however, refers to “agents” in the US and Russia, harboring a range of objectives. … [https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/entertainment/agents-of-chaos-review/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/entertainment/agents-of-chaos-review/index.html) Most horrifying, maybe: the many smug take-downs of Hillary Clinton by anchors and interviewers on CNN, MSNBC, and the networks. One wants to reach through the screen and just _shake_ some common sense into them… ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455/2 "2020-09-26T00:44:21Z")
Another new documentary that heavily features election-centered concerns: _Hacking Your Mind_, a four-part series, funded by the NSF and currently being shown on PBS. > [@](#): > > Discover why it’s easy for politicians, marketers and social media companies to hack your mind, and find out how to hack your own mind to improve your life and the lives of your family and friends. … > > ### September 9: “Living on Auto-Pilot” > > Take a trip around the world to discover how you go through life on auto-pilot, and get an auto-pilot owner’s manual. > > ### September 16: “Weapons of Influence” > > See how politicians, social media companies and corporate marketers use big data to hack your auto-pilot decision making system and learn how to defend yourself. > > ### September 23: “Us vs. Them” > > Discover how the auto-pilot biases we all experience fuel our nation’s divisions, see how authoritarians can hack them and find out how to overcome them. > > ### September 30: “The Wings of Angels” > > Find out why hacking for good may be the most important scientific discovery of this century and learn how to hack your mind to improve your life and the lives of your family and friends. > **['Hacking Your Mind' explores how to take control of your mind](https://azpbs.org/2020/09/take-control-of-your-mind-improve-your-life/)** > > See how politicians, marketers, and social media companies hack your mind. Take control of your mind and learn how to improve your life! The series originated with Oregon Public Broadcasting and is more easily available than the HBO Alex Gibney documentary (you can see long excerpts on YouTube, for example).\* The host, Jacob Ward, has been working on the series since at least 2017, and it’s chock full of well-regarded research to back up its claims about how we can be manipulated by others. Ward published some of what shows up in the documentary in Medium: > [@](#): > > When I first met Richard Thaler, he quoted Homer. Not the philosopher, the Simpson character. Thaler was looking for a simple way to communicate the nature of human errors as he, an economist, had studied them, and in a single episode of the Simpsons he’d discovered his rosetta stone. > > Homer, during a routine checkup, is found to have a nail embedded in his brain, and the helpful doctors remove it. Suddenly, he’s smart. He’s walking around in a sweater vest, making intelligent observations about his astonished and increasingly irritated friends until they abandon him. Tortured, ignored, and miserable, he seeks to have the nail re-inserted so he can go back to being his old self. No doctor will help him, so it falls to trusty Mo the bartender to shove a nail up his nose and into his brain. > “How will I know when I’ve put it in the right place?” Mo asks. Thaler is telling this story, and he’s chortling already. > > “Just keep whacking it in there. You’ll know,” Homer replies, steely and calm. > A few whacks, and Homer begins spouting gibberish. A few more, he’s chanting “D-fence! D-fence!” > “Almost there,” Mo says. > > And here’s where Thaler can barely finish. With another firm whack, Mo has the nail back in its rightful place, because Homer blurts out “extended warranties? How can I lose?” And Thaler explodes in laughter. > > ## “I’ve been trying to explain this stuff in academic papers my whole career,” he says, wiping his eyes. “And they pulled it off in a single punchline.” … > **[A Nobel Prizewinner Working to Save All Us Suckers](https://medium.com/@_jacobward_/a-nobel-prizewinner-working-to-save-all-us-suckers-a17eb7e8b426)** > > When I first met Richard Thaler, he quoted Homer. Not the philosopher, the Simpson character. Thaler was looking for a simple way to… Of the three episodes shown so far, the second (“Weapons of Influence”) and third (“Us vs. Them”) are most clearly related to the upcoming US election and the influence campaigns designed to persuade people to vote one way or another–or not at all. Episode 3 has an eye-opening recreation of an experiment showing that humans are very prone to being manipulated by bad information—aka “fake news”—while dogs simply ignore bad information. Somehow this is not at all surprising. . . . \* \*The official preview: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs0lEP6r2Ig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs0lEP6r2Ig) - Video available online includes entire episodes from PBS itself: [https://www.pbs.org/video/us-vs-them-2t0c0s/](https://www.pbs.org/video/us-vs-them-2t0c0s/) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455/3 "2020-09-26T13:32:57Z")
I just watched the nine episodes of Tottenham Hotspur Football documentary on Amazon Prime. It was interesting, but became really cool to watch as coronavirus erupted world wide. The players represented various nationalities and their reactions differed. Some players immediately wore masks. The trainer urged hand washing. Fist and elbow bumps became the norm, but they did it jokingly. Many thought the shutdown would last a week or two. When the NBA canceled their season, things became real for the footballers. Watch episodes eight and nine (the last two) for the corona experience. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455/4 "2020-09-27T00:49:51Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > It was interesting, but became really cool to watch as coronavirus erupted world wide. The players represented various nationalities and their reactions differed. There is probably a very interesting documentary to be made using footage like that, as well as hours of other world-wide reaction to the virus. Such a documentary could say something about human nature (as well as cultural influences on how people react). Closer to the topic, I’d also like to know how elections around the world differ in the pandemic era as compared with the way things were being done before it hit. In other election-doco news: CNN has a new one about civil rights icon John Lewis, premiering tomorrow night: > [@](#): > > Using interviews and rare archival footage, this CNN Films’ documentary chronicles the late Congressman’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration. … > **['John Lewis: Good Trouble' - CNN](https://www.cnn.com/shows/john-lewis-good-trouble-cnn-film)** > > Using interviews and rare archival footage, this CNN Films' documentary chronicles the late Congressman's 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration.... I’m guessing the documentary will carry obvious implications for viewers, in relation to their choices in coming weeks (for example, whether to work with organizations that encourage voting). ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-centered-documentaries-other-upcoming-fare/921455/5 "2020-09-28T22:51:23Z")
Part of the “other upcoming fare” I was thinking about when making this thread was the Showtime offering “The Comey Rule,” a four-hour recreation of James Comey’s revelations about his time as Trump’s FBI director—until Trump fired him, of course. > **[The Comey Rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comey_Rule)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Comey Rule is an American political drama television miniseries, based on the book A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by former FBI director James Comey. The miniseries stars Jeff Daniels as Comey and Brendan Gleeson as President Donald Trump. The two-part miniseries was aired from September 27 to September 28, 2020 on Showtime. > The series follows FBI director James Comey in the run-up to the 2016 election, and later in the early m... Part 1 aired last night; part 2 will be shown tonight. I haven’t seen it and critical reviews so far seem to be only midding-enthusiastic. But it’s another chance for potential voters to consider the events of recent years as an influence on their voting decision. I’d think some Trump fans might tune in out of curiosity about Brendan Gleeson’s portrayal of their hero, and thus learn things that Fox News has carefully kept from them. Showtime’s page on the miniseries: > **[The Comey Rule | Series Starring Jeff Daniels and Brendan Gleeson - Official...](https://www.sho.com/the-comey-rule)** > > The official site of The Comey Rule. Learn about the series, watch clips, go behind the scenes and more. Series not available on SHOWTIME.