Out(rage) against the machine

Film and TV content creators fake indignation to make money. Don’t get sucked in says CONSTANTINOS PSILLIDES

Anger sells.

According to internal papers released by a Facebook whistleblower in 2021, users were five times more likely to use the ‘angry’ emoji as a response, pushing the company to prioritise more toxic and divisive content. Or, as your weird uncle calls it, ‘I’m just asking questions.’

Social media platforms weren’t alone in capitalising on rage. Marketing teams and digital content creators picked up on it really fast. Hateful, sometimes downright offensive videos and posts get more clicks, so the formula quickly dominated the field. The more you rile people up, the easier it is to get them in your revenue stream.

In the entertainment industry, this manufactured outrage focused almost exclusively on Hollywood’s attempt over the last 10 years or so to become more inclusive and diverse. From recognising and abandoning racist tropes to including more People of Color (POC) in the cast to giving up the practice of casting white actors in non-white roles, to shedding light on some uncomfortable racial violence history, Hollywood is taking baby steps forward but for some that is too much. Any piece of entertainment that attempts to be inclusive, offer proper representation to PoC, or is diverse is decried with the internet trolls’ battlecry: being ‘woke.’ The accusation against Hollywood is that it has succumbed to the whims of an ultra-leftist elite that enforces its extreme beliefs on the entertainment industry, forcing diversity and stifling creativity.

Make no mistake. The entertainment industry is by no means well-intentional. Forced diversity and tokenism are actual problems but are nowhere near the monster they made it out to be, and people usually recognise when they are being lied to.

A Google search on how ‘wokeness has destroyed Hollywood’ will yield impressive results. Apparently, affirming minorities and becoming more sensitive to LGBT youth brought the once mighty Hollywood industry to the brink of destruction. ‘Go woke, go broke,’ threaten the digital warriors, boycotting anything they perceive as a threat to the establishment.

Predictably, it failed.

More diverse films make more money, and it is not hard to understand why. A global audience does resonate better with a more diverse cast. Seeing a PoC as the noble protagonist makes it easier for PoC to identify with him/her, thus making them more invested in the movie.

In short, ‘being woke’ sells, which is the only variable studios have in mind. They didn’t do this because they were directed by a higher force or because they are bleeding heart liberals. Films and series are becoming more inclusive because it sells. As simple as that.

This is precisely what Amazon had in mind when developing Rings of Power. When the first stills from production dropped, the usual suspects went amok. A PoC was cast as a dwarf, another as an elf, both roles added by the production team as they didn’t canonically exist in Tolkien lore! A woman was presented as a warrior! Female dwarves don’t have beards! The outrage machine was fired up and ready to go. Hours upon hours of YouTube videos were posted, thousands of posts, lambasting the series before they even saw an episode.

These outrage brokers are just a minority among people who vehemently hated the series. In a recent interview on the WTF Podcast, author Neil Gaiman gave a rare insight into the psyche of overly invested fans. He recounted the story of a fan who told him that because one of the Superman writers changed the superhero’s story in comic books, it destroyed his life.

“Why did it destroy your life? Is it because you were the world’s number one Superman expert, and now you’re not? Or what is it?”.

The fan then responded with this. “Well, it’s a bit that, but it’s much more. He brought back Superman/Clark Kent’s mom and dad, and they’re dead in the comics. And my mom and dad are both dead, and I can’t bring them back.”

Suppose one uses entertainment as a coping mechanism to understand the world. In that case, it is only to be expected that the slightest change in the source material will result in a furious backlash. This sentiment is precisely what the outrage brokers are counting on and exploiting.

Rings of Power is by no means perfect. There are legit criticisms that can be directed at it, but those criticisms ring insincere when coming from people who benefit from the outrage. There is an industry of hate at play, and it falls upon us not to be sucked into it.