Kulturkampf

[Polident]

https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/01/obamas-latest-movie-decree/

There’s a connection between four years of the Biden administration, abetted by legacy media, misleading the nation and the suspiciously hasty way that film reviewers and institutions rushed to ratify the 2024 movie year before the year was actually over, leaving many releases unseen (such as Robbie Williams’s amazing Better Man). Add to that propaganda Barack Obama’s annual culture-czar decree on the year’s best movies.

For any sentient citizen, these are examples of how media are used to influence or persuade the populace — to further an agenda or encourage a particular, biased perception. For purely political purposes, these movie lists oppose rational and aesthetic responses. Anyone who believes them demonstrates “the self-deception that believes the lie,” as lyricist Lorenz Hart wrote. This hardcore credulousness first began when Obama issued a favorite TV and sci-fi movie list in 2016 to maintain his grip on the minds of gullible followers.

It’s a contemptible media strategy, comparable to when Lenin declared in 1919, “The cinema for us is the most important of the arts.” Lenin encouraged the nationalization of the Soviet film industry, and Obama’s recommendations flatter film culture’s already established socialist principles. Early year-end movie lists show the activist media at their most calculating and pernicious.

Armond White truly is the last real film critic.