And there were how many of those while Apartheid was in place? Or even after?
The Nazis are also viewed as a group distinct from Germans as a whole, so you can get away without pulling any punches. Even in movies made during the war there would be “good German” characters. The same kind of mental compartmentalization doesn’t exist for the Japanese, making it harder to go after wartime Japanese without seeming to appear racist against modern day Japan.
Note that the approach applied to Americans only. The U.S. was fighting the Nazis; the British and Russians were fighting the Germans.
Probably necessary also considering a good bit of the American audience were themselves ethnic Germans and grew up listening to their parents still speaking the German language at home.
So, since The Juwes run Hollywood and give us Marmaduke, Piranha 3D and Hot Tub Time Machine, it’s evidence of a plot against Christians and Muslims.
Okay. :):eek:
Reminder to self…must use powers wisely…
I hesitate getting into this since I don’t want to waste a lot of time defending my position.
Any ethic group is going to have biases, both positive biases as well as negative. That is not to say that every member of the group will subscribe to those biases and even when one such member does, it does not mean they will subscribe to the same degree. The extent and homogeneity of such biases will depend on a variety of factors including the extent to which the group sees itself as an identifiable and cohesive entity.
If we assume that Jews in the US see themselves as such an entity, and from personal observation I would be inclined to believe that they do, then I think it is likely that they do in fact subscribe to certain preferences and biases that are not shared with other groups or the population in general.
To the extent that this is also true, then in a situation where such a group does in fact dominate an industry, those biases will be reflected in the choices that they make.
Realizing that several caveats have been issued along the way, I don’t think the logic of this line of reasoning can be questioned. Practically speaking what that means is that while the logic may not be infallible for every single and conceivable example, it should in general be capable of providing some amount of guidance.
As an example, I would suggest reviewing how Jews tend to be portrayed in television and movies. This has been touched upon in a few posts but has mainly been ignored. For characters who are either explicitly or by fairly explicit implication identified as Jewish, are the portrayals predominantly positive or negative? My sense is that they are overwhelmingly positive. That isn’t to say that many times positive characters don’t have negative traits. They have to. It simply isn’t realistic otherwise and would too obviously smack of bias. But the overall portrayal seems to be extremely positive.
We understand. You have more important things to do.
Do I sense disappointment? You might feel better knowing about a couple of negative examples that come to mind. There’s the Bernie Bernbaum character in the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing, a truly loathsome and unlikable figure. Eli Wallach’s character in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is not exactly a sympathetic character either. And you don’t have to look too hard to find complaints from Jewish groups about Hollywood portrayals of Jews* (I don’t have any particular gripes on this subject myself).
It may well be that there are fewer vile or unlikable Jewish characters than, say, Christian ones. In addition to this reflecting proportional numbers, it seems to be the case that minority characters in general are less likely to be portrayed in movies as nasty and/or evil.
Have you considered making this your sig? :dubious:
*my favorite is the dust-up over Woody Allen’s rabbi in Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, who appeared on a game show called “What’s Your Perversion?” and was shown tied to a chair being whipped by a beautiful blonde, while watching his wife eat pork.
As I said, several caveats were issued. If you think those were meant insincerely or you think I’m a closet antisemite, those are your issues to deal with, I already have plenty of my own.
Speaking of dealing with (your) issues, there’s the one where you announce that your logic is inescapable and then ignore evidence that runs counter to it.
You didn’t even cite anecdotes in the first place, just your feelings.
Of course, if you don’t care about presenting a convincing argument, it doesn’t matter.
The argument consists of a series of implications. I thought that was obvious. As such it does not have the power of peer-reviewed empirical data. However it can still be useful. Hence my comment about it providing guidance.
I did not provide anecdotes since anecdotes do not improve the veracity of the implications. There’s also the fact that I do not keep a ledger of such things.
I believe that within the caveats I mention the logic is valid. If you have a criticism that discounts this claim, feel free to make it.
There are certainly non-Hollywood movies that deal with Arab-Israeli themes to come out recently. For example, *Waltz with Bashir *, made in Israel, was nominated for a whole slew of film awards - and won many.
Another Israeli film released even more recently was Lebanon.
The problem is … these films are not money-makers. Waltz With Bashir, while winning piles of awards, earned the princely sum of - $10 million worldwide. So yes, North Americans are not rushing out to see them.
“Jew Unit”–Israeli Band Name?
If there’s any bias at work, I’d think of it as “like them or hate them, but oh those Jews!” – the rather annoying presumption that everyone instantly recognizes and enjoys every arcane aspect of Jewish culture, usually in the form of self mockery. Most of everything I know about Jewish life I’ve picked up from entertainers “poking fun at themselves.” It’s like listening to a coworker constantly babble on about the crazy hijinks of her family members, none of whom have you met or really have an interest in meeting, quite frankly.
I don’t know if U.S. servicemen made the distinction. In Up Front Bill Maudlin mentions that he keeps hearing about how the Americans are at war with the Nazis and not the German people. He scoffs at this saying that other than a few specialist SS divisions he hasn’t seen a Nazi. He’s been fighting Germans.
In the Brazilian documentary “Senta a Pua”, which talks about Brazilian fighter unit in Italy in WW2, a couple of the soldiers made the difference that those on the Wehrmacht were soldiers and decent, but the SS units were devoid of military morals
Would extended mixes of their greatest hits go into an album entitled: “Jew Unit: Uncut”?
Come on, you had to see that coming a mile away.
“Jews run the media” canards aside, don’t the numbers suggest some discriminatory hiring practices?
Question: DO eyetalyun -Americuns run the Mob?
Arguably about the same amount that the disproportionate number of African-Americans in sports teams implies discriminatory hiring practices.
I suspect that nepotism would play a much higher role in hiring for a movie than hiring for sports.