Ever since I first watched Dr Strangelove all those years ago, I thought Sterling Hayden was underrated and wondered why he wasn't in more films. I guess maybe this was part of it.
I'm glad that I never had the opportunity to be thanked by Ronald Reagan for anything. At least that's one regret with which I need not live. After all, who would want to be associated with Ronaldus Minimus in the first place? Speaking of Reagan, he flat-out lied in that interview when he said that the people drove the change in films released by the studios. Admittedly, however, lying was par for the course with Reagan. Just listen to his Oval Office address in which he claimed to forget that trading arms for hostages was unconstitutional during Iran-Contra. Then again, he was always simple-minded. His appearance before and aiding and abetting of the Committee in its un-American activities is proof conclusive that he had gone to the Right at least six years before he would endorse Eisenhower (with his running mate, Dick Nixon, whose claim to infamy in '52 was his $18,000 slush fund (now worth $250,000 adjusted for inflation), a precursor to his even worse misdeeds a few years later) for president. Reagan never outgrew his Rightist ways. If anything, he brought into the the executive department. Indeed, Reagan it was who directly set the stage for Trump, DeSantis and all their ilk today.
@@thomash.schwed3662 A comedian a while back - I want to say Norm on SNL News - had a joke about "Ronald Reagan has a new autobiography out. It's titled "I Am Informed I Was Once President."
One of the funniest things I’ve ever learned was that HUAC kept a very close eye on Ayn Rand, because she so frequently wrote letters accusing people of being Communists that it was perceived as suspicious.
I appreciate the readings of words from people at the time. Phrases like "it was a different time" often oversimplify things, not just saying that we have to look at the context, but making it sound like nobody knew better back then. It's important to highlight that there were people back then who struggled against the standards of the time.
"A different time" uses slight of hand to distract from that they were the same sorts of people with the same flaws with barely disguised aesthetic changes.
The one thing that somehow always still surprises me is founding out how many similar echoes of the past we've truly been dealing with since then, how much now is so structurally similar to the worst eras of our past, for so many of the same reasons. What never surprises me anymore is why this information is often so hard to find, or something never told to me, never written in modern books, or not taught in schools. The active suppression of this information and the truth behind it is the single greatest weapon devised against modern society.
You get that a lot from people who defend H.P. Lovecraft, even though you can literally look up articles and letters written at the time where people aren't happy with his blatant racism.
@@Levyathyn I feel like a big part of it is this myth of linear progress that is hopefully being debunked more and more these days. The idea that things are always getting better, and the present is always superior to the past. In reality progress isn't a perfect steady climb upwards and tends to do a lot of loops. We've been playing the same songs on repeat for at least a few generations at this point.
The one thing I always say to people who use the "it was a different time" line, is to remind them that there were already abolitionists at the founding of the country. There are always people who can tell right from wrong, but somehow it is always the same people on the wrong side of history.
God, Adrian Scott's opening statement was incredibly powerful and while it makes sense that the committee didn't allow it to be read it's still very frustrating
And it proves something that I will often say... the progressive mind will create something that can last into the future. Why? Because the progressive mindset looks forward and can see more of humanity. Adrian Scott's opening statement is still relevant. It needs a few words replaced but one could use this to respond to the republican witch hunt for the magical Hunter Biden laptop. (and even the conservatives hate the conservatives of the past. Notice how the Republican party claims they are the party of Lincoln? Lincoln was part of the progressive party of his time. If Republicans were consistent, they'd be choosing somebody more conservative... like somebody from the traitorous UnAmerican confederacy.)
When I was young, I used to think that it was just "a different time," and that "we know better now." But no, we don't "know better" now, and now as then the apparent paranoia and stupidity we see are just transparent cloaks veiled over otherwise naked power grabs. The fact we still have to put up with this disgusts me now in a way it didn't used to.
I can relate with this attitude. I used to claim to be one of theese leftists that might have gone right wing, due to YT-Propaganda. But I am sure it would have not worked. I was raised pretty progressive and as a teenage boy I was just to selfcentered to fathom the fact that not everyone grew up with a philosopher as a father and a femnist activist as a mother. But there is a point to be made here. This belive "it was just the old times" is one of the strongest weapons conservatism has. Because it is rooted in the truth, that we actually achieved some progress, whilst simoultaniously being comfy. (and as we figured out, kidnergarten morals tell us it is over now and people love their kindergarten morals, I guess keeping them is comfortable aswell) This to me is one of the core differences between conservatism and fascism. Conservatism tries to make you feel comfy and fearmongers to make any of the "threats" a threat to you comfort. (which means just ignore it, the state will take care of it, but let's not talk about how as this aswell threatens our comfort) Fascism tries to make you feel hatred and fearmongers to make any of the "threats" an existential threat to be eradicated. (removing the taboo from the violance carried out, radicalizing it in the process)
If you look at footage from the 70s of the Watergate scandal breaking, there is no shortage of Republicans screaming "fake news!" in different words. We tend to not be reminded of how they rushed to defend the man who until recently was the go-to name to cite as an example of stupid, inept, bigoted, corruption, but there were slimy grifters back then, too.
@chumbucketjones9761 in the context you are using it, "money" is that tool whereby markets (productivity) are (is) manipulated by social mechanisms. There once was a term to describe the use of social means to manipulate market (econonic) systems, but alas, I dare not speak it. Edit to add: money is a construct, and in this case is a construct utilized to determine value in the minds of the many, whilst manipulated by the works of a few. The control of money allows the counterfeiting of productivity. This can be mitigated by competition for money between consumers of product money, but exacerbated by centralized control of "service" money.
40:30 It should be noted that "Cultural Marxist" is not a stand in for Communist; it is a stand in for the Nazi term "Cultural Bolshevism", from which it is directly descended.
Someone clearly has not read Gramci or looked at the Frankfurt school. You must be a nazi if you critique cultural Marxism, ignoring the fact that its an actual thing developed by western marxists in the 20th century. I guess Gramci was a nazi
The Nazis did invade the Soviet Union, do you think there was a difference in their minds between a Cultural Marxist, a communist, and a Bolshevik? The Bolsheviks led a revolution which led to the Soviet Union, that same Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany when it invaded Poland, and then the Nazis attack the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union asked for help from the Western Allies, the Western Allies gave that help, and then the Nazis were defeated, and the Soviets thanked us by starting a Cold War with us after stealing the technology for atomic bombs!
One thing I'd like to add about "The Best Years of Our Lives" is that they weren't dealing on the trope that "disabled people are easy to anger" but I think it was more a reflection on veterans and PTSD. Though at the time it wasn't called that and it was hardly spoken of it is definitely something that I felt the movie was trying to portray, but maybe that's because I'm a veteran with PTSD, who knows?
That's what I got from the clip (it's been a while since I've seen the movie so I don't remember much aside from it being amazing). The guy at the bar is basically saying that the hero lost his arms for nothing, and is simultaneously outing himself as a Nazi sympathizer, the very kind of person our guy had been fighting.
A friend who fought in World War II described this film as incredibly realistic and accurate to the experience of veterans at the time. Remember they had been home barely a year and they didn't have modern language for things like PTSD.
@@davidbjacobs3598 It's a great scene and the American Firster is definitely painted as the villain in the scene. It's the able-bodied character played by Dana Andrews who punches the guy out. Harold Russell's character completes the scene by satisfyingly ripping the American flag pin off the guy's lapel. I don't see Harold Russell being portrayed as a hothead here. Instead, I think the 1940s audiences would have interpreted the America Firster as getting what he deserved. I even read some conservative essay once from the 2000s where the guy was still mad about how "unfairly" the America Firster had been portrayed in that scene.
In my greencard interview, they asked me if I was or had even been affiliated with the Communist Party of the U.S.A. I was not expecting the question, and laughed in shock. My attorney kicked my chair and coughed, I said of course not.
You may have committed a very serious federal crime if you lied then. The United States banned Communists in the 1950s. Outright banned. As in, it's a thought crime, and you can be put in prison for a long time for being one.
Which is a wild question because it's infamously well-known in leftist circles that the cpusa hasn't been a player since, at the absolute latest, the 70s. It's such a common refrain that cpusa is filled entirely with feds that joining up doesn't prove you're a socialist, it proves you're suicidal
What the hell? Wouldn't they just want to ask if you've been in any Communist party? How would you be a member of the Communist party of the United States if you weren't even in the United States lol
God the shit I've been threatened with on sets by both my union and production is unreasonable. All because I posted to an actor group that we didn't have any water or enough chairs on a hot day and I couldn't reach out rep (who was supposed to be on set), without production details.
it is still and always will be infuriating that such simple, literal kindergarten messages like "Be nice to people", "It's okay to be different!", "We share", and "If we all work together the task will be done fast and we all can go play!" are cast as subversive. Not just by wannabe writers and comedians, who are simply Bad at their craft because they are incurious and unempathetic about anyone but themself, but actual politicians and police.
I always found it funny that if those messages are put in media that it is seen as "woke" or too "political". And people thinking like that has always made me hate myself growing up as a bisexual boy feeling like I was a bad person because of who I would fall in love with and that I could never be happy as an adult because I can't have a regular family with kids or my own.
its always darkly amusing jut how blatantly, cartoonishly evil cosnervatives seem to be, especially since a villain in a fictional story acting like them would be seen as too cliche and unrealistic
@@sarafontanini7051 as a young catholic, it really pissed some people off around me that i came to the conclusion when I was "too young to know better" that if Jesus came back today, those fucks would have him on a crucifix by noon.
Also I thought that the argument can be made, that most of this is "actually capitalist" - "Being nice" became "Families take care of one another" (so it is okay that austerity killed the welfare state) - "It's okay to be diffrent" as long as you can sell your labour for someone elses profit - "we share" is not true. The only moral people that share a the rich people that donate so much - "If we all work together the task will be done fast"... okay in capitalism that means so it can be done over and over multiple times, but this might be the only true thing. Capitalism is somewhat effective in dividing up labour in a productive way. (And I've heard leftists claiming capitalism would be fine - if not for climate change / the impossibillity of endless growth - in a world with strong unions, that are able to fight for wages increasing with inflation and hours worked per week going down whilst keeping the same wage per month)
I find it so fascinating that there was a time when Hollywood and film wasn't associated with the restrictive, milk toast schlock that is considered today. That people wanted to explore ideas and experiment. Wild times.
My dad talked about supporting the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and yet almost in the same breath he curses unions for being a waste of both time and money… just when I think he’s getting more progressive he reminds me that he’ll always be conservative no matter if he says he’ll never vote Republican again.
I think he’ has a point from what we see today, but unions have been defanged and twisted by parties that are against workers which is then used as propaganda against it. He has years of seeing unions exist in America and nothing being done, makes it hard to have faith as we work together we can change that view. I think from your example he’s a great example of the start of that change
To be (somewhat) fair, it's hard for folks of older generations to decouple labor unions from organized crime, because that was such a pervasive element of unions for so long.
I don't know if Americans know that, but to this day whenever someone is applying for a Visa, they have to answer a questionnaire in which one of the questions is "are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
Who is anti-Semitic? I saw a bunch of people protesting for the Palestinians yesterday in Gettysburg, the Palestinians started this war by killing 1300 Jews, and now they are complaining about the causalities caused by the Israelis in a war the Palestinians started? Well if they did not want the causalities, then why did they start the war? They should have just left the Israelis alone and people would not now be dying in Gaza. Now question one, do Jews have a right to live and if so, then why did the Palestinians start killing them? The second question is does it matter who kills a Jew? If one person who kills a Jew is a Nazi and the other person who kills a Jew is a Palestinian, then the Jew is just as dead in both cases and both Nazi and the Palestinian are both anti-Semites, are they not?
@@thomaskalbfus2005 1) The war didn't start in October 2023. 2) "They" is not all one person. The people who are dying in the bombing of Gaza are not the same people who killed Jewish people in October. 3) It is not true that before the October attacks Palestinians were not dying in Gaza due to the occupation.
@camipco in all wars you have civilian casualties, so if you are an innocent Palestinian living in a neighborhood where rockets are being launched into Isreal on a routine basis, and you don't care, then you should expect your neighborhood to be turned into a warzone when the Israelis retaliate for those attacks, it is incumbent on you to get out of that neighborhood! There were a lot of innocent Germans in Nazi Germany too, but we had to do what we had to do to defeat those Nazis, even though it involved killing civilians, so how is Gaza different from Germany?
@@AxeMan808 okay so. whats wild is i looked him up cause he's been on my radar forever. I was a kid when Occupy Wall St started, and thats one of the first news stories I remember. this was following Obama being elected and the market crashing. during occupy I was in 8th grade an took journalism as an elective. IM P SURE I REMEMBER TIM POOL BECAUSE I WATCHED HIM COVER OCCUPY. then as a teenager I moved further right into edgelord territory and Tim pool was still with vice. then Trump got elected, I finished high school, George Floyd got murdered, and I grew up and i swung way left. AND NOW FKING TIM POOL LEFT VICE AND IS A RIGHT WING GRIFTER. he also denies ever having anything to do with occupy which makes him a liar. but anyway, him as a starry-eyed millenial turned astray and me, we x-faded and completely missed each other
I'd always looked at The Committee through the lens of wider anti-communist fearmongering and Republican politicking, and never considered how it acted more immediately in Hollywood as a strike-breaking and labor-abusing tool, so thanks for making this video.
Thank you for building a monument to these giants who stood against the House Un-American Activity Committee and the blacklist and telling the broader story of the history of organized labor in the US. I learned a lot.
Sort of gives Barzini's little joke in THE GODFATHER, "After all, we are not Communists", an even more ominous meaning...! That not only the studios, but the FBI & CIA, got into bed with organized crime because... "COMMINISM!"(sic.) shows not only how appalling & hypocritical things were when I was a child, but are coming right back now thanks to people like Trump and Hillary Joe McCarthy! When she had a gall to call Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders "Russian assets!", I was livid and decided I would never vote for her as Dogcatcher, let alone President....
And now we're seeing celebrities, talents and workers being blacklisted and fired in Hollywood for even voicing out against genocide of Palestinians. While this video may not bring up this issue, it's still an appropriate video for the current moment we're in right now.
i'd really like to see Maggie break down how Hollywood and our country in general became so subservient to Israel. I've got nothing but love for Jewish people, but the way our country just caves on any anti zionist stuff is so disappointing
@@Neon_Ghost1America isn’t subservient to Israel. It played a massive part in founding Israel. America uses Israel as a pawn to keep tabs on the Arab world. Not the other way around.
@@Neon_Ghost1- that might be a third rail Maggie's in no hurry to tap dance on. It's hard enough for Jewish people who are pro-Israel but anti-Netanyahu to parse the difference between them, let alone the vast number of bigoted morons who think it's just dandy to verbally assault the one Palestinian-American we have in Congress! With extremists like the Schumers gleefully trying to criminalize any pro-Palestinian speech to "defend Israel!", there's a real chance UA-cam might turn coward and decide to demonetize her for taking a stand like that. Having read your comment, I know you understand the need to preface every remark about why Hollywood, and by extension America, kowtow to Israel without first prefacing it with assurances that you're not remotely at all anti-Semitic.
@@Neon_Ghost1 I don't think it's accurate to describe the US as "subservient" to Israel. Supporting the Israeli government militarily is in the strategic interests of the US and the economic interests of the military industrial complex. Israel is convenient to us. And a lot of the disregard for the lives of Palestinians is just rooted in Islamophobia and racism. If the interests and actions of the Israeli government were not aligned with the US, I think that support would disappear real fast. A significant factor in support of Israel comes from Dominionists, Christians who believe it is their mission to bring about war in the Holy Land. But their support for Israel is incredibly anti-Semitic once you scratch the surface, it comes with the expectation that Jews will convert to Christianity when Christ returns. And as for Hollywood, they are far more subservient to the US military than to Israel, and more supportive of the lighter skinned, richer side in any conflict.
Maggie, I slept on you for a long time, but my gods you’re one of the best Leftist UA-camrs around and I’ve been enjoying all your media criticism for about a year now. Keep up the damn fine work.
On 5 January 1952, Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia (who later was a senator on the Watergate Committee) attacked TV shows where blacks and whites mingled on screen. His specific targets included The Mariners, a singing quartet comprised of two Whites and two Blacks who appeared on "Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts"; a Christmas program where White and Black children danced together; and a show where a Black man and a White woman were shown talking to each other. Talmadge wrote that these programs violated Southern segregation laws and should be boycotted. He published this in his own political weekly, "The Statesman".
For an insight into just how deranged HUAC could be, take a look at the "100 Things You Should Know About Communism" series. It was produced and published in 1949 under congessional auspices, and can easily be found in a certain archive online. Here is the first thing you should know about communism: "1. What is Communism? --A system by which one small group seeks to rule the world." And now you know what communism is! Subtlety is not their strong suit. But they are very funny. And I recall reading that at least one of these HUAC congresscritters was a southern Democrat and KKK member. PS This video is another banger, as always!
Another amazing video. Thank you for sharing. Have you read "Hitler in Los Angeles" by Steven J. Ross? The pre-WWII section of this video reminded me of it. It's about how a Jewish lawyer named Leon Lewis stopped Nazi plans against actors and the government right here in LA. He had a bunch of undercover spies in the local Nazi groups. I've lived in CA my whole life and never heard anything about this until I read the book (I didn't even know there were openly Nazi groups here back then). There are some shared themes with that story and this one, like this obsession with stamping out hypothetical communists instead of actually solving real problems, and the idea that controlling Hollywood and actors will lead to controlling the whole USA. Anyway it's a great book, it's a very exciting story with some truly unusual people caught in the middle of the conflict, and I'm so grateful to these unsung Californian heroes.
When I watch a Maggie Mae Fish video and hear the voices of youtubers I really like, appreciate and follow, I get a warm and cozy feeling that makes me feel happy... then I remember that she's posting a video about some really depressing and nasty stuff and get serious (but still feel warm and cozy). Thanks Maggie, top quality content stuff, as usual!
I've been researching a lot for a doctorate on comic book films and it's always interesting to see that the same status-quo-enforcing red scare process also came crashing down agains the comic book industry, cascading in the creation of the Comics Code Authority. Of particular note is "Crime Comics' Communist Czar" Leverett Gleason, a card-carrying communist famous for employing a large number of Japanese-Americans, women and for running the Lev Gleason Comics like a worker co-op with some artists getting cut in the shares of characters on a unprecedented move at the time. The Comics Code Authority and the House Of Un-American Activities eventually destroyed Lev Gleason comics (Gleason himself was actually charged with contempt by the HUAC) and most of the ones involved just retired after the collapse of the publisher, resulting in something of a "lost generation" of comic artists. In light of this, the bit where you overlay Captain Marvel footage with this becomes even more amusing, particularly given some of the dominance of superheroes in the medium came exactly as a reaction to the Comics Code Authority (because they were safer stories that fell in with the Code, at least in theory).
Captain Marvel (the movie) is also basically USAF propaganda, too, which makes it even more potent. The film industry and the comics industry were so co-opted by the status quo that even these days post- HUAC and CCA still resonate the lasting effects of those efforts.
@@RealLukeWilson Captain Marvel is actually kind of fascinating in that sense because the film is textually a USAF propaganda piece in the vein of Top Gun but subtextually a critique of imperialism (the Kree Empire persecuting refugees who are also a cultural minority and falsely branding them as "terrorists" to fuel their war machine and whatnot) so the film ends up in some textual level at war with itself. It's an example of how much of an uphill battle it can be to "reclaim" those spaces, if you assume the best intention of the creators.
The statements by all of these workers and defenders of rights sound SO contemporary, especially Scotts’, almost nothing has fundamentally changed when we can keep ending up in these cycles
"We devalue the arts, so we can devalue the labor." THIS. THIS is the reason that AI has been pushed so hard into the realm of recreating art/music/etc... It's solely to preserve capitalism. If you push automation towards the physical realm, it eventually forces capitalism to crumble since it would afford people the time to learn and pursue their creative/other passions. They wouldn't need to work to live. If you make it incredibly difficult for humans to compete with machines in the creative realm, it forces many into exhausting physical labor jobs, draining them of their energy and ability to organize, to learn, to push back against any systems that would take advantage of them. Same reason colleges are now so villified. People are given plenty of time to LEARN, and most often, when you learn more about the world, about other people, and the systems that make the world run, you are more easily able to see the flaws in it (something those in power KNOW and PREVENT since they BENEFIT from those flaws).
Saying colleges are now vilified seems like, at best, an unmakeable generalization. College is pushed heavily in a lot of Western public schools and has been increasingly so since globalization exported jobs to cheaper countries. Higher education is also obviously a non-negotiable requirement for many jobs
YES. although my brain wishes they were cited on screen while they're talking but thats probably a little nitpicky, they're cited like immediately in the description so.
I hope someday to be able to express how much of an inspiration in so many ways you are to me. I recently stumbled upon the idea that I don't get better at things, i get better at copying people that are already good at them. Early apologies for how much I "reference" your influence. You're a brilliant human, Fish.
This isn't a fight to win on some sort of front line, it is a fight that must continue to be fought at all levels. The problem is in thinking the fight is won and letting down one's guard...
This is such a good video essay. I can't believe I've never come across this channel before. I hope you see more success in the future because you deserve it!
So, General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove was formerly a Communist Party member in real life? Just when I thought that I couldn't love that film anymore than I already do, Maggie Mae comes along and makes it even better! :)
It's incredibly interesting the backdrop this documentary has been released against. Not just the strikes, but ironically against the current state of WB and their current president's views on writing off gilms for tax purposes.
The “are you a member of the communist party” bit reminded me so abruptly of the tik tok trials and the lawyer asking the guy if hes part of the communist party of china or whatever
I’m so glad I was introduced to your channel this is like one of the best yt vids I’ve ever seen from visuals to the analysis and choice of topics for discussion ahhh so cool
As an addendum to the section on labour disputes during WWII, there were a number of significant ones occurring beneath the veneer of wartime harmony, intersecting with the struggle for racial equality. Most notably, "Remember Port Chicago!" as Thurgood Marshall once declared: the refusal by black sailors to load dangerous ammunition after the Port Chicago explosion, which the US Navy attempted to portray as a mutiny; the strikes by black Seabees of the 80th and 34th Naval Construction battalions; and the Ft Devens strike by black women in the Women's Army Corps. There were also the hate attacks by white workers on black colleagues at the shipyards in Mobile in May 1943; the hate strike at Packard in Detroit in June 1943 and at the American Steel Foundries in East Chicago near Gary, Indiana in July (which galvanised a walk-out of their own by black workers in protest); and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company hate strike in 1944.
Regarding "Are you a member of the communist party?" When you go through American Citizenship application, they STILL ask if you are a member of the Communist Party. This question is asked in the same section of questions where if you answer in the wrong manner, they can deny your citizenship. So the implication is that this is still going on, just in ways that are harder to see and therefore fight.
I don't think that mAIggie is hotter than original Maggie. That's the problem with AI, any time it tries to make a "hot" version of a character it comes out looking uncanny and without artistic expression. Original Maggie by contrast is quite "artistically expressive."
It's videos like these that reinforce my view that the United States is not actually a right wing country, and never was a right wing nation, but in fact is one of the most authoritarian regimes of the 20th century in the reaction of its ruling class to the workers
From your wording, it seems like you believe being a right wing country and having an authoritarian regime are mutually exclusive. They're not. The US is still quite right wing compared to many other western nations. For example, your political rhetoric equates liberals with leftists, even though the liberal parties in most countries (afaik) are considered centre right to right wing. A politician advocating for social democratic policies (not democratic socialism) is considered rather extreme in the context of US politics. Yes, you (edit: the US, I shouldn't assume) have some progressive ideals, and I'm aware that the political structure and the lack of universal labour rights make sure not every voice is heard in the US. But even accounting for that, the Overton Window seems quite far to the right over there. Of course, I could be getting things wrong as an outsider, but that's what it looks like from across the ocean. I hope this perspective helps you a bit and that this was coherent enough. I typed this on mobile.
I was surprised how angry the description of acting as... "reading words off of paper" made me, as someone who highly values writing, reading, poetry and acting, as a performer and general enthusiast. The willful ignorance that constantly undercuts meaningful creative work in favor of just... making a copy of a copy of what once worked for easy profit. This brings us ever closer to the least amount of creativity and personal connection possible, favoring a stale hero's journey
@@MaggieMaeFish This is what I get for writing in short social media form. Regardless, my writing being criticized by a media critic I admire is... pretty funny 🙌
I've never understood why the government, which was concerned with communists in the government, were concerned with Hollywood screenwriters. This video explained it perfectly. And chef's kiss on the use of the Clue clip.
You know what my favorite thing about this channel is? Whenever I ask myself, "Will Margaret go fishing?" this channel always gives me a non-committal answer.
Great video, as always. I would highly recommend the new book by Kliph Nesteroff,"Outrageous". It touches on similar themes and is just a great book. His other 2 books are worth your time as well, "The Comedians", and "We Had a Little Real Estate Problem"
My dad was an animator, and I was raised on stories of the Disney and Warner Bros strikes, and the eventual triumph of the pro boss unions from the generation before him and his generation. Fights would still break out in the 1980s. My dad was briefly VP of his local, but quit because it never really wanted to help members. The way the system worked and still works, animators and a lot of workers are “independent contractors,” which means they don’t get union protections, health insurance, etc., and when he retired after 40 plus years he received a pension of $69 a month. He won multiple awards, was respected as one of the finest artists in the field of animation, but his lifelong anti boss attitude damaged his career. He hated bullies, and I’m grateful he taught me to be the same.
CEOs are calling for student and faculty protestors to be blacklisted in a time where costs of living keep increasing. One thing I believe will endure is the strangeness involved in witnessing the vilification of friendship and community. It’s one thing to be political allies, but to share common goals with other people who you have no preceding material interests is so foreign to those ready to wage war and cause conflict. May solidarity and restorative justice shared by wise & compassionate people of the land continue to guide forward.
Communism is not just “state power”. It is state power for and by workers. Nearly every socialist country has a higher quality of life compared to similarly sized capitalist countries, despite the abhorrent trade blocks forced upon them by the imperial west. There are legitimate criticisms to make of socialist experiments, but mindlessly regurgitating Cold War propaganda is not how to do it.
Something I feel like I will never get over is how LLMs are effectively trained on the collective intellectual and cultural achievements of humanity yet aren’t subject to IP laws. But a random guy can come up with an idea and protect it with the legal system When have capitalists cared about consistency though, so who am I kidding.
I miss the old Maggie before she was killed and replaced by mAIggie
I for one welcome our new mAIggie overlord
@@andiralosh2173 All hail the robot! May she replace us all. No seriously lol we suck.
MAIgie is way hotter
Let's be precise it's mA.I.ggie.
Too soon. Rest in Power Maggie ✊️
I love that "I knew I made a huge mistake when Ronald Reagan thanked and congratulated me" is an actual recorded statement from a man's life.
Ever since I first watched Dr Strangelove all those years ago, I thought Sterling Hayden was underrated and wondered why he wasn't in more films. I guess maybe this was part of it.
I'm glad that I never had the opportunity to be thanked by Ronald Reagan for anything. At least that's one regret with which I need not live. After all, who would want to be associated with Ronaldus Minimus in the first place?
Speaking of Reagan, he flat-out lied in that interview when he said that the people drove the change in films released by the studios. Admittedly, however, lying was par for the course with Reagan. Just listen to his Oval Office address in which he claimed to forget that trading arms for hostages was unconstitutional during Iran-Contra. Then again, he was always simple-minded. His appearance before and aiding and abetting of the Committee in its un-American activities is proof conclusive that he had gone to the Right at least six years before he would endorse Eisenhower (with his running mate, Dick Nixon, whose claim to infamy in '52 was his $18,000 slush fund (now worth $250,000 adjusted for inflation), a precursor to his even worse misdeeds a few years later) for president. Reagan never outgrew his Rightist ways. If anything, he brought into the the executive department. Indeed, Reagan it was who directly set the stage for Trump, DeSantis and all their ilk today.
@@thomash.schwed3662 A comedian a while back - I want to say Norm on SNL News - had a joke about "Ronald Reagan has a new autobiography out. It's titled "I Am Informed I Was Once President."
@@thomash.schwed3662 fun fact, Reagan used "Make America Great Again" as one of his campaign slogans
@@mollistuff and a kind austrian once wanted his neigbours in germany to be great again too!
One of the funniest things I’ve ever learned was that HUAC kept a very close eye on Ayn Rand, because she so frequently wrote letters accusing people of being Communists that it was perceived as suspicious.
Paranoia is a side effect of speed users (which she was )
She went so far right they thought she went around the horseshoe 😂
she who smelt it, dealt it
Hahaha haha! That's just _richhhhh!_
And Rand grew up in eastern Europe under socialist dictatorship, she actually knew a socialism was about
I appreciate the readings of words from people at the time. Phrases like "it was a different time" often oversimplify things, not just saying that we have to look at the context, but making it sound like nobody knew better back then. It's important to highlight that there were people back then who struggled against the standards of the time.
"A different time" uses slight of hand to distract from that they were the same sorts of people with the same flaws with barely disguised aesthetic changes.
The one thing that somehow always still surprises me is founding out how many similar echoes of the past we've truly been dealing with since then, how much now is so structurally similar to the worst eras of our past, for so many of the same reasons. What never surprises me anymore is why this information is often so hard to find, or something never told to me, never written in modern books, or not taught in schools. The active suppression of this information and the truth behind it is the single greatest weapon devised against modern society.
You get that a lot from people who defend H.P. Lovecraft, even though you can literally look up articles and letters written at the time where people aren't happy with his blatant racism.
@@Levyathyn I feel like a big part of it is this myth of linear progress that is hopefully being debunked more and more these days. The idea that things are always getting better, and the present is always superior to the past. In reality progress isn't a perfect steady climb upwards and tends to do a lot of loops. We've been playing the same songs on repeat for at least a few generations at this point.
The one thing I always say to people who use the "it was a different time" line, is to remind them that there were already abolitionists at the founding of the country. There are always people who can tell right from wrong, but somehow it is always the same people on the wrong side of history.
God, Adrian Scott's opening statement was incredibly powerful and while it makes sense that the committee didn't allow it to be read it's still very frustrating
Dude was just too based for prime time.
And it proves something that I will often say... the progressive mind will create something that can last into the future. Why? Because the progressive mindset looks forward and can see more of humanity. Adrian Scott's opening statement is still relevant. It needs a few words replaced but one could use this to respond to the republican witch hunt for the magical Hunter Biden laptop.
(and even the conservatives hate the conservatives of the past. Notice how the Republican party claims they are the party of Lincoln? Lincoln was part of the progressive party of his time. If Republicans were consistent, they'd be choosing somebody more conservative... like somebody from the traitorous UnAmerican confederacy.)
What I find kinda scary is how relevant it *still* is.
@@IanDresariehistory is always relevant and often scary
@@IanDresariehey its scary to realize how little progress america has made socially over the last 100 years. But recognizing it is the first step.
When I was young, I used to think that it was just "a different time," and that "we know better now."
But no, we don't "know better" now, and now as then the apparent paranoia and stupidity we see are just transparent cloaks veiled over otherwise naked power grabs. The fact we still have to put up with this disgusts me now in a way it didn't used to.
I can relate with this attitude.
I used to claim to be one of theese leftists that might have gone right wing, due to YT-Propaganda.
But I am sure it would have not worked. I was raised pretty progressive and as a teenage boy I was just to selfcentered to fathom the fact that not everyone grew up with a philosopher as a father and a femnist activist as a mother.
But there is a point to be made here.
This belive "it was just the old times" is one of the strongest weapons conservatism has. Because it is rooted in the truth, that we actually achieved some progress, whilst simoultaniously being comfy. (and as we figured out, kidnergarten morals tell us it is over now and people love their kindergarten morals, I guess keeping them is comfortable aswell)
This to me is one of the core differences between conservatism and fascism.
Conservatism tries to make you feel comfy and fearmongers to make any of the "threats" a threat to you comfort. (which means just ignore it, the state will take care of it, but let's not talk about how as this aswell threatens our comfort)
Fascism tries to make you feel hatred and fearmongers to make any of the "threats" an existential threat to be eradicated. (removing the taboo from the violance carried out, radicalizing it in the process)
Yes indeed😮
If you look at footage from the 70s of the Watergate scandal breaking, there is no shortage of Republicans screaming "fake news!" in different words. We tend to not be reminded of how they rushed to defend the man who until recently was the go-to name to cite as an example of stupid, inept, bigoted, corruption, but there were slimy grifters back then, too.
my fucking god we really are just fighting the same fight over and over
Indeed we are. The wheel of time😊
Money always wins and unmitigated capitalism is where money wants us to go.
@chumbucketjones9761 in the context you are using it, "money" is that tool whereby markets (productivity) are (is) manipulated by social mechanisms.
There once was a term to describe the use of social means to manipulate market (econonic) systems, but alas, I dare not speak it.
Edit to add: money is a construct, and in this case is a construct utilized to determine value in the minds of the many, whilst manipulated by the works of a few. The control of money allows the counterfeiting of productivity. This can be mitigated by competition for money between consumers of product money, but exacerbated by centralized control of "service" money.
It's the curse of the phrase "Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it." Because they deliberately keep us ignorant of our history.
That's how oppression works
40:30 It should be noted that "Cultural Marxist" is not a stand in for Communist; it is a stand in for the Nazi term "Cultural Bolshevism", from which it is directly descended.
Good point it was already a myth created by fascists to persecute people. It’s a meaningless term meant to smear
Someone clearly has not read Gramci or looked at the Frankfurt school. You must be a nazi if you critique cultural Marxism, ignoring the fact that its an actual thing developed by western marxists in the 20th century. I guess Gramci was a nazi
or "Judeo Bolshevism"
@@usersar2213 Christo fascism.
The Nazis did invade the Soviet Union, do you think there was a difference in their minds between a Cultural Marxist, a communist, and a Bolshevik? The Bolsheviks led a revolution which led to the Soviet Union, that same Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany when it invaded Poland, and then the Nazis attack the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union asked for help from the Western Allies, the Western Allies gave that help, and then the Nazis were defeated, and the Soviets thanked us by starting a Cold War with us after stealing the technology for atomic bombs!
One thing I'd like to add about "The Best Years of Our Lives" is that they weren't dealing on the trope that "disabled people are easy to anger" but I think it was more a reflection on veterans and PTSD. Though at the time it wasn't called that and it was hardly spoken of it is definitely something that I felt the movie was trying to portray, but maybe that's because I'm a veteran with PTSD, who knows?
That's what I got from the clip (it's been a while since I've seen the movie so I don't remember much aside from it being amazing). The guy at the bar is basically saying that the hero lost his arms for nothing, and is simultaneously outing himself as a Nazi sympathizer, the very kind of person our guy had been fighting.
@@davidbjacobs3598oh wow that guy at the bar really sucks
A friend who fought in World War II described this film as incredibly realistic and accurate to the experience of veterans at the time. Remember they had been home barely a year and they didn't have modern language for things like PTSD.
It was probably called shell shock or war fatigue at the time.
@@davidbjacobs3598 It's a great scene and the American Firster is definitely painted as the villain in the scene. It's the able-bodied character played by Dana Andrews who punches the guy out. Harold Russell's character completes the scene by satisfyingly ripping the American flag pin off the guy's lapel. I don't see Harold Russell being portrayed as a hothead here. Instead, I think the 1940s audiences would have interpreted the America Firster as getting what he deserved. I even read some conservative essay once from the 2000s where the guy was still mad about how "unfairly" the America Firster had been portrayed in that scene.
In my greencard interview, they asked me if I was or had even been affiliated with the Communist Party of the U.S.A. I was not expecting the question, and laughed in shock. My attorney kicked my chair and coughed, I said of course not.
😮
You may have committed a very serious federal crime if you lied then. The United States banned Communists in the 1950s. Outright banned. As in, it's a thought crime, and you can be put in prison for a long time for being one.
Which is a wild question because it's infamously well-known in leftist circles that the cpusa hasn't been a player since, at the absolute latest, the 70s. It's such a common refrain that cpusa is filled entirely with feds that joining up doesn't prove you're a socialist, it proves you're suicidal
What the hell? Wouldn't they just want to ask if you've been in any Communist party? How would you be a member of the Communist party of the United States if you weren't even in the United States lol
I'm reassured to hear that. Communism definitely isn't welcome in America. This is the wrong place for that nonsense.
God the shit I've been threatened with on sets by both my union and production is unreasonable. All because I posted to an actor group that we didn't have any water or enough chairs on a hot day and I couldn't reach out rep (who was supposed to be on set), without production details.
Yikes!
it is still and always will be infuriating that such simple, literal kindergarten messages like "Be nice to people", "It's okay to be different!", "We share", and "If we all work together the task will be done fast and we all can go play!" are cast as subversive. Not just by wannabe writers and comedians, who are simply Bad at their craft because they are incurious and unempathetic about anyone but themself, but actual politicians and police.
I always found it funny that if those messages are put in media that it is seen as "woke" or too "political". And people thinking like that has always made me hate myself growing up as a bisexual boy feeling like I was a bad person because of who I would fall in love with and that I could never be happy as an adult because I can't have a regular family with kids or my own.
You just epitomized Greg Gutfeld, among so many others.
its always darkly amusing jut how blatantly, cartoonishly evil cosnervatives seem to be, especially since a villain in a fictional story acting like them would be seen as too cliche and unrealistic
@@sarafontanini7051 as a young catholic, it really pissed some people off around me that i came to the conclusion when I was "too young to know better" that if Jesus came back today, those fucks would have him on a crucifix by noon.
Also I thought that the argument can be made, that most of this is "actually capitalist"
- "Being nice" became "Families take care of one another" (so it is okay that austerity killed the welfare state)
- "It's okay to be diffrent" as long as you can sell your labour for someone elses profit
- "we share" is not true. The only moral people that share a the rich people that donate so much
- "If we all work together the task will be done fast"... okay in capitalism that means so it can be done over and over multiple times, but this might be the only true thing. Capitalism is somewhat effective in dividing up labour in a productive way. (And I've heard leftists claiming capitalism would be fine - if not for climate change / the impossibillity of endless growth - in a world with strong unions, that are able to fight for wages increasing with inflation and hours worked per week going down whilst keeping the same wage per month)
It's so cool hearing different youtubers I like quoting all of this stuff. Like there's todd and there's folding ideas. It's like a scavenger hunt
So I definitely heard Sarah Z right?
Yeah and I heard lady Emily 2
I was making food while listening and just kept going "oh!" when I'd recognize a voice. It's always fun.
There's a full list of participants in the description, peeps :)
I find it so fascinating that there was a time when Hollywood and film wasn't associated with the restrictive, milk toast schlock that is considered today. That people wanted to explore ideas and experiment. Wild times.
My dad talked about supporting the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and yet almost in the same breath he curses unions for being a waste of both time and money… just when I think he’s getting more progressive he reminds me that he’ll always be conservative no matter if he says he’ll never vote Republican again.
There's only so much you can do when a person is being exposed to so much right wing media
I think he’ has a point from what we see today, but unions have been defanged and twisted by parties that are against workers which is then used as propaganda against it. He has years of seeing unions exist in America and nothing being done, makes it hard to have faith as we work together we can change that view. I think from your example he’s a great example of the start of that change
To be (somewhat) fair, it's hard for folks of older generations to decouple labor unions from organized crime, because that was such a pervasive element of unions for so long.
@@devinphillips9704 Not to mention many unions were notoriously racist and excluded minorities from joining their ranks.
@@devinphillips9704That’s anti-labor propaganda. Also, it seems hypocritical to regard the mob as somehow worse than the police or the army
all throughout this video i had the phrase "history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes," just running through my mind. great video
I prefer the one about it repeating as farce.
So the Oscars are basically keys being shaken in front of your face like a newborn baby? Well gotdamn it...
Yes.
Ofc🎉
I don't know if Americans know that, but to this day whenever someone is applying for a Visa, they have to answer a questionnaire in which one of the questions is "are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
no way are you fr?
oh and mind you, in my case it was a Visa for TOURISM, not to live in the US!
Correct, and too this day, answering yes earns you a lifetime ban from ever entering the US
@@Jonnyg325 as it should, people from USA are weird, they want to starve to death apparently and don't want to listen to europeans
I find it funny that non-americans don't know this. Also if you tick "ye" on that box even as a joke they can deny your visa
"Let him say he is not anti-Semitic but let the record show he does the work of anti-Semites" is so fucking spot on.
We get it. You support genocide.
Who is anti-Semitic? I saw a bunch of people protesting for the Palestinians yesterday in Gettysburg, the Palestinians started this war by killing 1300 Jews, and now they are complaining about the causalities caused by the Israelis in a war the Palestinians started? Well if they did not want the causalities, then why did they start the war? They should have just left the Israelis alone and people would not now be dying in Gaza. Now question one, do Jews have a right to live and if so, then why did the Palestinians start killing them? The second question is does it matter who kills a Jew? If one person who kills a Jew is a Nazi and the other person who kills a Jew is a Palestinian, then the Jew is just as dead in both cases and both Nazi and the Palestinian are both anti-Semites, are they not?
@@thomaskalbfus2005 1) The war didn't start in October 2023.
2) "They" is not all one person. The people who are dying in the bombing of Gaza are not the same people who killed Jewish people in October.
3) It is not true that before the October attacks Palestinians were not dying in Gaza due to the occupation.
@@thomaskalbfus2005 That's not even what the comment was about, you Apartheid apologist lmao
@camipco in all wars you have civilian casualties, so if you are an innocent Palestinian living in a neighborhood where rockets are being launched into Isreal on a routine basis, and you don't care, then you should expect your neighborhood to be turned into a warzone when the Israelis retaliate for those attacks, it is incumbent on you to get out of that neighborhood! There were a lot of innocent Germans in Nazi Germany too, but we had to do what we had to do to defeat those Nazis, even though it involved killing civilians, so how is Gaza different from Germany?
As somebody in the film production industry, I am so happy that one of my favorite creators is covering Hollywood Strikes
Dammit Maggie, I thought I was continuing my streak of "not having to accidentally see Tim Pool's face in a UA-cam video".
Cw necessary for tim pool
what even is tim pool? is he a liberal or a fascist or just some dude?
@@maxonmendel5757Just one of those Right Wing Grifters whose moral compass is "That Week's Officially Mandated Grievance."
@@AxeMan808 okay so. whats wild is i looked him up cause he's been on my radar forever.
I was a kid when Occupy Wall St started, and thats one of the first news stories I remember. this was following Obama being elected and the market crashing. during occupy I was in 8th grade an took journalism as an elective. IM P SURE I REMEMBER TIM POOL BECAUSE I WATCHED HIM COVER OCCUPY.
then as a teenager I moved further right into edgelord territory and Tim pool was still with vice. then Trump got elected, I finished high school, George Floyd got murdered, and I grew up and i swung way left. AND NOW FKING TIM POOL LEFT VICE AND IS A RIGHT WING GRIFTER.
he also denies ever having anything to do with occupy which makes him a liar. but anyway, him as a starry-eyed millenial turned astray and me, we x-faded and completely missed each other
@@maxonmendel5757I have no comment other than "I like your use of x-fade"
THE REAL MAGGIE MAE FISH?!?!
I know, right!? Whatever did we do to deserve this?
I like THE EXTREME MAGGIE MAE FISH... just prefer art style and it's more inclusive :D
just wanna say your stuff is amazing and your amazing : D
Better than the Real Ghostbusters. (yes, fight me.)
She's a communist
I'd always looked at The Committee through the lens of wider anti-communist fearmongering and Republican politicking, and never considered how it acted more immediately in Hollywood as a strike-breaking and labor-abusing tool, so thanks for making this video.
You might look at the entire anti-communist fearmongering project in the USA as a smokescreen for anti-labor politics across all industries.
Thank you for building a monument to these giants who stood against the House Un-American Activity Committee and the blacklist and telling the broader story of the history of organized labor in the US. I learned a lot.
Sort of gives Barzini's little joke in THE GODFATHER, "After all, we are not Communists", an even more ominous meaning...!
That not only the studios, but the FBI & CIA, got into bed with organized crime because... "COMMINISM!"(sic.) shows not only how appalling & hypocritical things were when I was a child, but are coming right back now thanks to people like Trump and Hillary Joe McCarthy! When she had a gall to call Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders "Russian assets!", I was livid and decided I would never vote for her as Dogcatcher, let alone President....
And now we're seeing celebrities, talents and workers being blacklisted and fired in Hollywood for even voicing out against genocide of Palestinians. While this video may not bring up this issue, it's still an appropriate video for the current moment we're in right now.
i'd really like to see Maggie break down how Hollywood and our country in general became so subservient to Israel. I've got nothing but love for Jewish people, but the way our country just caves on any anti zionist stuff is so disappointing
@@Neon_Ghost1America isn’t subservient to Israel. It played a massive part in founding Israel. America uses Israel as a pawn to keep tabs on the Arab world. Not the other way around.
@@Neon_Ghost1- that might be a third rail Maggie's in no hurry to tap dance on. It's hard enough for Jewish people who are pro-Israel but anti-Netanyahu to parse the difference between them, let alone the vast number of bigoted morons who think it's just dandy to verbally assault the one Palestinian-American we have in Congress! With extremists like the Schumers gleefully trying to criminalize any pro-Palestinian speech to "defend Israel!", there's a real chance UA-cam might turn coward and decide to demonetize her for taking a stand like that.
Having read your comment, I know you understand the need to preface every remark about why Hollywood, and by extension America, kowtow to Israel without first prefacing it with assurances that you're not remotely at all anti-Semitic.
@@Neon_Ghost1 I don't think it's accurate to describe the US as "subservient" to Israel. Supporting the Israeli government militarily is in the strategic interests of the US and the economic interests of the military industrial complex. Israel is convenient to us. And a lot of the disregard for the lives of Palestinians is just rooted in Islamophobia and racism. If the interests and actions of the Israeli government were not aligned with the US, I think that support would disappear real fast. A significant factor in support of Israel comes from Dominionists, Christians who believe it is their mission to bring about war in the Holy Land. But their support for Israel is incredibly anti-Semitic once you scratch the surface, it comes with the expectation that Jews will convert to Christianity when Christ returns. And as for Hollywood, they are far more subservient to the US military than to Israel, and more supportive of the lighter skinned, richer side in any conflict.
I also thought of that while watching. Institutions continue their historic momentum
Maggie, I slept on you for a long time, but my gods you’re one of the best Leftist UA-camrs around and I’ve been enjoying all your media criticism for about a year now.
Keep up the damn fine work.
On 5 January 1952, Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia (who later was a senator on the Watergate Committee) attacked TV shows where blacks and whites mingled on screen. His specific targets included The Mariners, a singing quartet comprised of two Whites and two Blacks who appeared on "Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts"; a Christmas program where White and Black children danced together; and a show where a Black man and a White woman were shown talking to each other. Talmadge wrote that these programs violated Southern segregation laws and should be boycotted. He published this in his own political weekly, "The Statesman".
and now he's probably dead so look where that got you Talmadge
I bet he had a heart attack when Kirk kissed Uhura on Star Trek! The first intra racial kiss on TV!!
For an insight into just how deranged HUAC could be, take a look at the "100 Things You Should Know About Communism" series. It was produced and published in 1949 under congessional auspices, and can easily be found in a certain archive online. Here is the first thing you should know about communism:
"1. What is Communism?
--A system by which one small group seeks to rule the world."
And now you know what communism is!
Subtlety is not their strong suit. But they are very funny. And I recall reading that at least one of these HUAC congresscritters was a southern Democrat and KKK member.
PS This video is another banger, as always!
--- EXCELLENT COINAGE! . . . "Congresscritter". Ingenious! Thanks.
At least the state doing a tiny bit instead of being lazy uant then connunist
Another amazing video. Thank you for sharing. Have you read "Hitler in Los Angeles" by Steven J. Ross? The pre-WWII section of this video reminded me of it. It's about how a Jewish lawyer named Leon Lewis stopped Nazi plans against actors and the government right here in LA. He had a bunch of undercover spies in the local Nazi groups. I've lived in CA my whole life and never heard anything about this until I read the book (I didn't even know there were openly Nazi groups here back then). There are some shared themes with that story and this one, like this obsession with stamping out hypothetical communists instead of actually solving real problems, and the idea that controlling Hollywood and actors will lead to controlling the whole USA. Anyway it's a great book, it's a very exciting story with some truly unusual people caught in the middle of the conflict, and I'm so grateful to these unsung Californian heroes.
I love the irony of conservatives bashing Captain Marvel for being woke propaganda when it's simply US military propaganda.
US military propaganda that promotes “progressive” causes.
Different period
Shoutouts to the entire Production Team!!! 🤙🏿🍻
Definitely! The quality of the research really stands out
This piece is one of your BEST. A work that you'll be remembered for not-only in this space but others.
When I watch a Maggie Mae Fish video and hear the voices of youtubers I really like, appreciate and follow, I get a warm and cozy feeling that makes me feel happy... then I remember that she's posting a video about some really depressing and nasty stuff and get serious (but still feel warm and cozy).
Thanks Maggie, top quality content stuff, as usual!
I've been researching a lot for a doctorate on comic book films and it's always interesting to see that the same status-quo-enforcing red scare process also came crashing down agains the comic book industry, cascading in the creation of the Comics Code Authority. Of particular note is "Crime Comics' Communist Czar" Leverett Gleason, a card-carrying communist famous for employing a large number of Japanese-Americans, women and for running the Lev Gleason Comics like a worker co-op with some artists getting cut in the shares of characters on a unprecedented move at the time. The Comics Code Authority and the House Of Un-American Activities eventually destroyed Lev Gleason comics (Gleason himself was actually charged with contempt by the HUAC) and most of the ones involved just retired after the collapse of the publisher, resulting in something of a "lost generation" of comic artists.
In light of this, the bit where you overlay Captain Marvel footage with this becomes even more amusing, particularly given some of the dominance of superheroes in the medium came exactly as a reaction to the Comics Code Authority (because they were safer stories that fell in with the Code, at least in theory).
Captain Marvel (the movie) is also basically USAF propaganda, too, which makes it even more potent. The film industry and the comics industry were so co-opted by the status quo that even these days post- HUAC and CCA still resonate the lasting effects of those efforts.
@@RealLukeWilson Captain Marvel is actually kind of fascinating in that sense because the film is textually a USAF propaganda piece in the vein of Top Gun but subtextually a critique of imperialism (the Kree Empire persecuting refugees who are also a cultural minority and falsely branding them as "terrorists" to fuel their war machine and whatnot) so the film ends up in some textual level at war with itself. It's an example of how much of an uphill battle it can be to "reclaim" those spaces, if you assume the best intention of the creators.
@@RememberTheDead Honestly your doctoral paper sounds fascinating, so I hope it goes well!
@@RealLukeWilson Thank you! Here's hoping
The statements by all of these workers and defenders of rights sound SO contemporary, especially Scotts’, almost nothing has fundamentally changed when we can keep ending up in these cycles
A truly human production.
Good shit as always Maggie, you and Lindsey Ellis are the reasons why I have a Nebula membership.
"We devalue the arts, so we can devalue the labor."
THIS. THIS is the reason that AI has been pushed so hard into the realm of recreating art/music/etc... It's solely to preserve capitalism. If you push automation towards the physical realm, it eventually forces capitalism to crumble since it would afford people the time to learn and pursue their creative/other passions. They wouldn't need to work to live. If you make it incredibly difficult for humans to compete with machines in the creative realm, it forces many into exhausting physical labor jobs, draining them of their energy and ability to organize, to learn, to push back against any systems that would take advantage of them. Same reason colleges are now so villified. People are given plenty of time to LEARN, and most often, when you learn more about the world, about other people, and the systems that make the world run, you are more easily able to see the flaws in it (something those in power KNOW and PREVENT since they BENEFIT from those flaws).
Really great point, I hadn't thought of it that way!
Saying colleges are now vilified seems like, at best, an unmakeable generalization. College is pushed heavily in a lot of Western public schools and has been increasingly so since globalization exported jobs to cheaper countries. Higher education is also obviously a non-negotiable requirement for many jobs
Loved all of the different YT voices in this video. Felt like a community
YES. although my brain wishes they were cited on screen while they're talking but thats probably a little nitpicky, they're cited like immediately in the description so.
@@brandonbeliveau-vanover152 Princess Weekes as Reagan? Brilliance.
Thank you for keeping this conversation going!!
🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤
Much Love!!
I appreciate your restraint in not dragging out the "just say Jews, Jack, this is taking forever" scene a thousand times
I hope someday to be able to express how much of an inspiration in so many ways you are to me.
I recently stumbled upon the idea that I don't get better at things, i get better at copying people that are already good at them.
Early apologies for how much I "reference" your influence.
You're a brilliant human, Fish.
humans are a lot more mimics then people give them selfs credit for a lot
Unless I'm completely wrong, the narrator of the clip from Hollywood on Trial at 4:44 is none other than legendary director John Huston.
yup! Huston narrates Hollywood on Trial. Burt Lancaster narrates Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist.
AI Maggie is great, and in no way am I in fear of her developing a god complex and turning everyone into mutants.
Thank you for listing all for your sources, and particularly the movies you showcased/referenced in the video, in the description!! 🙏
This isn't a fight to win on some sort of front line, it is a fight that must continue to be fought at all levels. The problem is in thinking the fight is won and letting down one's guard...
This is such a good video essay. I can't believe I've never come across this channel before. I hope you see more success in the future because you deserve it!
So, General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove was formerly a Communist Party member in real life? Just when I thought that I couldn't love that film anymore than I already do, Maggie Mae comes along and makes it even better! :)
Thank you for another enlightening and educational video, Maggie, it's always appreciated :)
"No Senator, I am from Singapore"
12 minutes in and i am already hearing some of my favorite youtubers guest starring. Kudos, and good choices.
For some reason I want to buy Behr brand paint now
Merry Christmas Maggie and have a happy healthy new year!
It's incredibly interesting the backdrop this documentary has been released against. Not just the strikes, but ironically against the current state of WB and their current president's views on writing off gilms for tax purposes.
This video is very well sourced and the reading material alone was worth the watch. Props.
The “are you a member of the communist party” bit reminded me so abruptly of the tik tok trials and the lawyer asking the guy if hes part of the communist party of china or whatever
This documentary was well done and very informative. Your tussle with your AI made me chuckle.
OMG! Its Maggie Mae Fish!
I’m so glad I was introduced to your channel this is like one of the best yt vids I’ve ever seen from visuals to the analysis and choice of topics for discussion ahhh so cool
Imagine the movies that could have been made if it hadn’t been for the "UN-American Activities Committee"….
Great video, Maggie! There's a lot here that I wasn't familiar with, and much more that was eye opening too. Thank you!
As an addendum to the section on labour disputes during WWII, there were a number of significant ones occurring beneath the veneer of wartime harmony, intersecting with the struggle for racial equality. Most notably, "Remember Port Chicago!" as Thurgood Marshall once declared: the refusal by black sailors to load dangerous ammunition after the Port Chicago explosion, which the US Navy attempted to portray as a mutiny; the strikes by black Seabees of the 80th and 34th Naval Construction battalions; and the Ft Devens strike by black women in the Women's Army Corps. There were also the hate attacks by white workers on black colleagues at the shipyards in Mobile in May 1943; the hate strike at Packard in Detroit in June 1943 and at the American Steel Foundries in East Chicago near Gary, Indiana in July (which galvanised a walk-out of their own by black workers in protest); and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company hate strike in 1944.
Great video. Well done. And I appreciated the surprise of hearing the soothing tones of Todd in the Shadows.
Officer at the IWW here, great work comrade 🫶⚒️
I'm always so excited every time I see you have a new video. Thank you for these gift.
I loved Sterling Hayden in Dr Strangelove. I had no idea he was so fucking cool & ahead of his time. Shame he got pressured into being a narc.
Unrelated, but always a pleasant surprise hearing Dan Olson in other folks' videos.
Regarding "Are you a member of the communist party?"
When you go through American Citizenship application, they STILL ask if you are a member of the Communist Party. This question is asked in the same section of questions where if you answer in the wrong manner, they can deny your citizenship. So the implication is that this is still going on, just in ways that are harder to see and therefore fight.
The US is still a plutocratic oligarchy with overt fascist tendecies, it is just remarkably good with its propaganda.
Just found your channel. Found your research and analysis of this time period very informative and well structured. Can't wait for more videos.
Can we bring back the word "dandy"? I don't know if it's offensive or what the etymology of the word is, but I like it.
Plus, it can be either an adjective or a noun. Maybe even a verb, I'm not sure.
look into dandyism
Oh, uh, saw your paint commercial here, in Michigan. You were very informative.
I always have to be mentally prepared before watching your videos because my mind gets blown.
I'm here because of this week's episode of Junkfood Cinema. Thanks to Cargill for bringing this video up.
I don't think that mAIggie is hotter than original Maggie. That's the problem with AI, any time it tries to make a "hot" version of a character it comes out looking uncanny and without artistic expression. Original Maggie by contrast is quite "artistically expressive."
Luv hearing my favorite youtubers recording lines for my other favorite youtubers. Hi, Todd!
It's videos like these that reinforce my view that the United States is not actually a right wing country, and never was a right wing nation, but in fact is one of the most authoritarian regimes of the 20th century in the reaction of its ruling class to the workers
From your wording, it seems like you believe being a right wing country and having an authoritarian regime are mutually exclusive. They're not. The US is still quite right wing compared to many other western nations. For example, your political rhetoric equates liberals with leftists, even though the liberal parties in most countries (afaik) are considered centre right to right wing. A politician advocating for social democratic policies (not democratic socialism) is considered rather extreme in the context of US politics.
Yes, you (edit: the US, I shouldn't assume) have some progressive ideals, and I'm aware that the political structure and the lack of universal labour rights make sure not every voice is heard in the US. But even accounting for that, the Overton Window seems quite far to the right over there. Of course, I could be getting things wrong as an outsider, but that's what it looks like from across the ocean.
I hope this perspective helps you a bit and that this was coherent enough. I typed this on mobile.
One thing tends to lead to the other.
A Maggie video dropped Christmas came early you look amazing in this video as always.
Well, new MMF video drops, and now I’m better informed and entertained.
I love it here. You rock, Maggie.
Fabulous, informative, and amazingly written video!! Solidarity
I was surprised how angry the description of acting as... "reading words off of paper" made me, as someone who highly values writing, reading, poetry and acting, as a performer and general enthusiast.
The willful ignorance that constantly undercuts meaningful creative work in favor of just... making a copy of a copy of what once worked for easy profit. This brings us ever closer to the least amount of creativity and personal connection possible, favoring a stale hero's journey
Because Guttfield doesn't do the same. 🙄
I am trying so hard to understand your comment
@@MaggieMaeFish This is what I get for writing in short social media form. Regardless, my writing being criticized by a media critic I admire is... pretty funny 🙌
@@MaggieMaeFish okay, I edited it for clarity
I've never understood why the government, which was concerned with communists in the government, were concerned with Hollywood screenwriters. This video explained it perfectly. And chef's kiss on the use of the Clue clip.
You know what my favorite thing about this channel is? Whenever I ask myself, "Will Margaret go fishing?" this channel always gives me a non-committal answer.
Great video, as always. I would highly recommend the new book by Kliph Nesteroff,"Outrageous".
It touches on similar themes and is just a great book.
His other 2 books are worth your time as well, "The Comedians", and "We Had a Little Real Estate Problem"
I have "real estate problem!" It's great!
how real. how vulnerable.
“Don’t you see…? We’re Actors. We’re the opposite of people.” -the Player, _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_
This is an incredibly important documentary. Puts the modern cultural divide in perspective
My dad was an Academy member and I saw America on Trial at the Academy streaming with him.
My dad was an animator, and I was raised on stories of the Disney and Warner Bros strikes, and the eventual triumph of the pro boss unions from the generation before him and his generation. Fights would still break out in the 1980s. My dad was briefly VP of his local, but quit because it never really wanted to help members. The way the system worked and still works, animators and a lot of workers are “independent contractors,” which means they don’t get union protections, health insurance, etc., and when he retired after 40 plus years he received a pension of $69 a month. He won multiple awards, was respected as one of the finest artists in the field of animation, but his lifelong anti boss attitude damaged his career. He hated bullies, and I’m grateful he taught me to be the same.
I mean, communism WAS always about workers' rights.
Workers of all countries, unite!
Hearing one of my favorite UA-camrs in another one of my favorite UA-camrs videos is better than any marvel Cameo could ever be.
CEOs are calling for student and faculty protestors to be blacklisted in a time where costs of living keep increasing.
One thing I believe will endure is the strangeness involved in witnessing the vilification of friendship and community. It’s one thing to be political allies, but to share common goals with other people who you have no preceding material interests is so foreign to those ready to wage war and cause conflict.
May solidarity and restorative justice shared by wise & compassionate people of the land continue to guide forward.
"man, I'd really wish they'd pay me a survivable salary from only one job."
"COMUNISM??!"
And sometimes, irl, outside of political propaganda, anti-communism is just simply anti-communism. Because state power isn't liberation.
Communism is not just “state power”. It is state power for and by workers. Nearly every socialist country has a higher quality of life compared to similarly sized capitalist countries, despite the abhorrent trade blocks forced upon them by the imperial west. There are legitimate criticisms to make of socialist experiments, but mindlessly regurgitating Cold War propaganda is not how to do it.
I can't believe my subscription feed did not inform me of this one. Thank you for all your content!
Wait a second... at around he 11min mark...
Is that ToddInTheShadows?
yes!!!!!!!!!
Certainly wasn't expecting to hear the voice of John Huston out of nowhere today
The more I learn about American history the more I think it can just be summed up as "Disguising fascism as democracy for dummies".
Please never stop making more of these brilliant videos, Maggie! ❤
why is it ALWAYS Reagan
Gotta love how he blames the entire country while being shady and the real problem the whole damn time. Lil snake boy.
i think about that robot chicken skit so much! fantastic video
Oh great history is repeating and none of the good stuff is returning
Something I feel like I will never get over is how LLMs are effectively trained on the collective intellectual and cultural achievements of humanity yet aren’t subject to IP laws. But a random guy can come up with an idea and protect it with the legal system
When have capitalists cared about consistency though, so who am I kidding.