In days of yore, Hollywood was said to be subliminally conditioning the American mind to its own leftist worldview. For example, that observation was attached to a wonderful Western (with a terrific score by of all people, Tex Ritter), High Noon.
As a kid I didn't know that we were dealing with the ravages of McCarthyism, I thought Gary Cooper was standing alone against the bad guys.
In the old days, if Hollywood was in fact conditioning our national mind, at least it sought to uphold American values and was constrained to be somewhat subtle about its prejudices. Criticism was constrained by some responsibility to assess cinematic quality. Was the acting good? Was the writing good? How about the score (Tex Ritter really was good!)? Etc. etc.
Today, our critics care only whether we are politically correct.
What would Karl Marx say?
