This is very true, but people still need a significant push to get there. They still need to first be angry enough to not want to take it anymore, before they start looking into what can actually be done.
I think entertainment is one of the poorest means of distribution, because, as it is now and in my opinion, entertainment exists in a state somewhere between not being taken seriously, and being taken seriously enough to pacify the subconscious.
On the other hand, populist means of distribution would be far more effective for this. Appeal to the average citizenry, make the message clear and simple, easily digestible in terms of complexity not wording, but frame it still within the context of reality.
As a concrete example, I'd offer stuff like House Of Cards, The Fall of The House of Usher, The Boys, and many, many other shows with a "calling out truths through metaphors" theme. All of these shows are on point as far as having the metaphors parallel life, but even so they are heavily misinterpreted at worst (see people being downright surprised that Homelander is supposed to be the bad guy), or consumed then forgotten at best.
We need to go beyond metaphors and tackle the Concrete, the what-is, as-is. Show the numbers, show concrete examples of how life is made worse by actual people, and call it out directly - as opposed to the luke-warm and abstract wording of news, that dilution of the truth to make it inoffensive enough as to be easily swallowed then excreted by readers, as the truth isn't the point of news anymore, it's getting more and more eyes on your webpage.
Edit: and it needs to be short. We don't want to keep people entertained on the couch, we want to deliver the blow, then let them fester alone and in silence, sitting with the truth in their lap.
Edit 2: maybe this'd offer a clearer example of what I mean. We (Romania) recently had our Presidentials and narrowly avoided electing a Fascist (George Simion). The reason why his campaign was that successful (and the reason why Trump's was as well, for that matter) was that he kept it simple. They had billboards posted across all major cities with his party name, his face, and a message saying "apartments for €30.000" (in the context of a one bedroom, ~50m² apartment now costing upwards of €100k in many larger cities). It was utter bullshit, as anyone who knows how basic economy works has said from the start and as Simion himself admitted on live television, but the message was clear and impactful enough to settle into people's minds.
Blessing and a curse, yeah... fewer new experiences and the world becomes less immediately "Wow!", but the increase in depth stemming from all of that accumulated context makes old experiences even better in many cases.
I'm thinking here primarily of books, movies, games, music, relationships of all sorts, even of our own persons. One can start to see the multiple layers beneath the surface which were difficult to see due to a lack of life contexts.
I honestly wouldn't. Not because I disagree with the concept, but because more on-point escapist media would just ensure that people will get their revolutionary fix without ever leaving the couch. We don't need that. We need people to be angry, to be fed up, to have no other escape than to fight for it.
Capitalism has done wonders at keeping us sedated by selling us our fantasies of change and better days. It's time we stopped taking those meds.
Oh, no doubt! This mess is perfect for somebody's business! Money has been and will continue to be more powerful and more important than politics in this, our Capitalist hellscape. Hiding in plain sight.
Divide Et Impera will never not be an effective control method. Keep the Basics arguing amongst themselves, and they'll never have the time to pay attention to the ones pulling the strings in the background.
Edit: this is not to say that the heinous shit espoused by some people is in any way excusable. We may be pitted against each other in this Left/Right divide, but one side is clearly more monstrous than the other, even when accounting for extremists on both.
I'm sorry to say, but I disagree. I remember older people having been more respectful ever since I became aware of the world around me, even those only slightly older than myself.
I used to hang out with the "older kids" during high-school, Seniors and beyond, and these groups have been calmer and more polite, even when out drinking and doing stupid things.
On the flipside, the generations immediately after mine started behaving like... well, like animals early on... I still remember entering a 6th grade class while I was in the 8th and witnessing one of the students being hit in the head with a chair. I knew most of my generational peers and can tell you with absolute certainty that no such thing ever happened for as long as I was in school with them.
This extended throughout University as well, as the dorm in which I was staying got a lot (I mean, a LOT) noisier and more chaotic, to the point where the surroinding neighbours started calling the police pretty much regularly, because the freshmen were throwing mattresses and fridges out the window (literally). Edit to add: the worst we ever did during the three years I spent there (I'm talking my generation and those above us) was play the guitar a bit too loudly while hanging around in the hallway, sharing cheap beer.
And it goes for what I've said about neighbourhoods, too, the only people pumping music and constantly yelling at all hours are usually teenagers, students, or people my age. Most 40s and above can barely be heard after 10PM. I've never heard as much noise in the neighbourhoods in which I've lived throughout my life (I moved around a lot) until about 6-7 years ago. Everything got WAY worse starting with the tail end of the Lockdowns, too...
Honestly, and surprisingly, it's the older people who have the most decency nowadays, from what I've seen
... A lot of people around my age (30-ish) and many, many younger than me seem to be exhibiting something akin to sociopathic tendencies.
I'm not talking about politics or other such grand scale stuff, I'm talking day-to-day interactions. More and more new neighbors are demonstrating a complete lack of respect for others in their neighborhoods, playing loud music at ungodly hours, parading around in their overrevved cars with the bass thumping directly into your brain stem, younger people (30-40 and below) are far more impatient in traffic, far more self-absorbed, self-concerned, and egotistic. Of course, the older people aren't all good, with outdated and regressive mentalities still flourishing among their ranks, but in terms of habitual decency, they're in the lead...
These are all purely personal observations, of course, but I genuinely think an innate sense of respecting other people's existence has been diminishing, if not entirely lost generation to generation.
These can, of course, all be tracked all the way back to the voracious consumerism engendered by Capitalism. The main symptoms are not clustered around older people, though.
Pretty much! I remember attending Sunday services several times at the behest of my grandmother, and half the time they consisted of mean gossip and fear-mongering.
Edit: of course, I'm not saying all Orthodox priests follow this script, but the Orthodox dogma in general seems to be VERY conducive to it...
Eh, Christian Orthodox traditions frown upon any sort of black magic and such, as Jesus's divinity is held as THE factor for his performing miracles. Anything which isn't Jesus-related is considered to stem from Lucifer.
This is very true, but people still need a significant push to get there. They still need to first be angry enough to not want to take it anymore, before they start looking into what can actually be done.