Well, there was this…

In the original script for the first Iron Man movie, the hero went up against the evil weapons dealers. The U.S. military rewrote it so that he was a heroic weapons dealer who explicitly argued for more military funding.

Which is about where I stopped reading. If this is true, then the military saved the movie. Iron Man was originally written as an alcoholic, billionaire, weapons dealer. Stan Lee created him as a totally unlikable character

Iron Man debuted in Tales of Suspense #39, introduced as a billionaire weapons dealer who turned into a hero after forging his own armor that led to his freedom from capture. At face value, Tony Stark doesn’t seem like someone readers would grow an immediate attachment to, as he was a self-absorbed industrialist who sold extremely dangerous weapons to the highest bidders. Initially, Stark was a selfish egotist who rarely thought about the consequences of his actions.

In an interview from 2013, Lee admitted he intentionally created Tony Stark to be unlikable as a dare to make readers love someone who wasn’t a good guy. He said that readers weren’t exactly fans of war and the military when Iron Man was created during the midst of the Cold War. In response, he made a hero who represented all of the bad things about war. Lee said he shoved Stark down readers’ throats to make them like him - and it worked.

Consider the typical audience for blockbuster Hollywood action movies featuring America-Fuck-Yeah! teams using good old American military tech to defeat the bad guys. It may be obvious to you and us that these movies feature a heavy amount of pro-military and pro-US propaganda. But the average viewer probably just wants to shut off half their brain, see big explosions, and watch other heart-pumping action. Do you think they’re considering the ethical implications of the military vehicles and weapons featured in these films? They just leave the movie feeling pumped up and generally happy, and to some degree they’ll associate those feelings with the US military.

Nobody is surprised when the movie where Little Nobody leads a heroic defense of a military outpost is propaganda. Similarly, I would expect most people to understand that NCIS runs a lot of plot points and characterizations by the US Navy. The average Michael Bay movie gets a bit more complex, but I assume people at least realized something was up in Transformers.

But then you have stuff like The A-Team with Liam Neesons. I know a LOT of people who were surprised by how involved the military was in that. Because they got kicked out of the military and the bad guys were CIA agents and generals. But then you realize that Seventh Heaven is basically screaming “ooohrah” every five seconds and everyone on the A-Team loves the military and the real problem is these mean politicians and rogue agents who don’t believe in America! Because the military is all about being your best self and having a lot of autonomy while still having faith in your superiors.

And that is the problem. Because there are a lot more insidious tweaks that can be made. I don’t want to guess on the name, but I want to say there was even some random ass romantic comedy from the 10s that had a LOT of propaganda in it because it got them cheap jeeps?

And the more you know about the actual tactics and talking points, the easier it is to have those “Wait… da fuck just happened?” moments.

Not casually. They want them to be considerate about it.