# Question on discussing art/entertainment's effect on political views in Café Society

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-discussing-art-entertainments-effect-on-political-views-in-cafe-society/919981>\
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**Created:** [September 6, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-discussing-art-entertainments-effect-on-political-views-in-cafe-society/919981 "2020-09-06T23:53:45Z")\
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**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 7, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-on-discussing-art-entertainments-effect-on-political-views-in-cafe-society/919981/7 "2020-09-07T23:03:23Z")

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> [@DSeid](#):
>
> No mod I but it seems to me that the moderatable aspect is not that it was political but that it was political in a way that was not material to the show. Russian meddling and/or what Russia wants is just not enough on topic.

That would make sense to me if the post in question had been about Russian meddling.

As it was, though, it was a post about the topic of pandering to viewers who might have lived through years of depictions of black people that were either negative, or absent entirely.

Here is is (link to the thread is in the OP):

> [@Lovecraft Country S1 \[SPOILERS within\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-country-s1-spoilers-within/916355/74):
>
> > [@Lovecraft Country S1 \[SPOILERS within\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lovecraft-country-s1-spoilers-within/916355/74):
> >
> > Decent white people probably really were quite rare, in the experiences of many or most black people, at the time.
> 
> “Quite rare”—very possibly. But ‘entirely non-existent’?
> 
> As an example of what I see as pandering: the scenes of white neighbors looking disapprovingly at the multitude of vehicles arriving for Letitia’s housewarming party. In reality, wouldn’t _most_ neighbors look askance at a noisy party----no matter the races of the people involved?
> 
> But the show, pandering away, depicts the whites as vicious bigots who ‘naturally’ react with breaking-and-entering, to be followed, one assumes, by violence against the virtuous.
> 
> This, again, may seem like ‘turnabout is fair play’ to a lot of viewers, and I can understand that kind of reaction. I can empathize with it.
> 
> I’m just refraining from applauding the divisiveness. We’re seeing so much _'the races are distinct and can NEVER get along_’ propaganda from the Kremlin and its allies, now, that I can’t welcome more of it from HBO.

Obviously readers will judge for themselves. But, again, this wasn’t a post _about_ Russia or its actions; it simply mentioned the current political climate in which one side sees advantage in racial division and/or ginning up racial animus. The argument was that the showrunners, whether by design or inadvertently, had created an entertainment that supported division and animus.

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