Power

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Tickled (2016)

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Tickled (2016)

Tickled (2016) is essentially a film about how the YouTube-based world of “competitive tickling” is run by a secretive exploitative millionaire named David D’Amato, a man who inherited his fortune and served as an assistant principal to 8 different high schools over the course of just 10 years. D’Amato would pay young straight men to tickle and be tickled by their friends, all on film, all completely clothed, and all under the guise of a homophobic, pseudo-religious media organization called Jane O’Brien media.

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Icarus (2017)

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Icarus (2017)

In Icarus (2017, we learn how the deception of Olympic officials was accomplished, how the Russian government directly sponsored the illegal doping program, and how far the government was willing to go in their attempts to cover up the mess—denials, lies, and assassinations. Revelations made in this film implicate all levels of the Russian state bureaucracy, nearly every Russian athlete, and the International Olympic Committee which turned a blind eye for years. The film makes us question the fairness of modern athletics and whether steroid-free sports are still possible.  

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Hail Satan? (2019)

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Hail Satan? (2019)

Hail Satan? (2019) is an exciting documentary that focuses on non-theistic satanism as a means to maintain a secular democracy. The film presents The Satanic Temple as a religious and political organization where satanism functions as a socio-political counter myth. They don’t see themselves as anti-Christianity but rather post-Christianity, and they advocate for religious pluralism. It is very intersectional, too!

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Repatriating Museum Artifacts Looted from West Africa

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Repatriating Museum Artifacts Looted from West Africa 
PBS NewsHour, 2022, 8:10... As a debate over how and when to repatriate art continues to roil, one clear-cut case of looting in the 19th century has art leaders taking strong stands now. Jeffrey Brown went to look at a museum that is confronting the controversial origins of its collection

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QAnon's Anti-Semitic Roots

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QAnon's Anti-Semitic Roots

Vice, 2021, 6:46… The internet has been accused of wrecking many things over the years – print media, Blockbuster and privacy, for instance. One thing it definitely hasn’t killed, though, is the antisemitic conspiracy theory. In fact, the internet is breathing new life into ideas that have been doing the rounds – sometimes causing mass murder – for centuries. In this episode of Truth Hurts, we look at how today’s biggest conspiracy movements are just recycling the same old, evil lies.

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Exporting Homophobia

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Exporting Homophobia

Vice, 2020, 4:58… A set of laws known as the penal code was exported from Britain to its colonies and is still affecting LGBTQ politics to this very day. The penal code laws made being gay a criminal offense, and while Britain decriminalized homosexuality in 1967, it’s still illegal in over 30 former British colonies. These countries didn’t have a history of homophobia before Britain enforced their own ideas of morality, but thanks to the empire these laws mean many live in fear.

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Emoji, Language, and Corporate Control

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Emoji, Language, and Corporate Control

DW Documentary, 2020, 49:52… Who has power over the emoji? Where are emojis coming from? There is one "High Council" of online communication that is difficult to access and has the power over our emoji selection on the keyboard: The Unicode Consortium. So what does it take to get a new emoji on the phone's keyboard? Why is the LGBTQI rainbow flag emoji in the keyboards, but not the one that stands for transgender people? Where lies the power to make such decisions?

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Credibility Bookcases

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Credibility Bookcases

The New York Times, 2020, 4:20… Introducing the credibility bookcase, a background that lends authority to your video interview. From a dramaturgical perspective, it can be seen as a form of sign equipment we display to others to enhance our front stage self. In other words, books and bookcases are intellectual accessories. But it’s not just books, though—Joe Biden’s carefully placed football delivers an all-American vibe, and the material of the bookcases can indicate socioeconomic status as seen with the fancy woods endemic in celebrity homes.

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Sociologizing The Dark Knight

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Sociologizing The Dark Knight

The Thought Theater, 2020, 8:35… The character of Batman and the stories that revolve around him have always seemed to be substantiated on the symbiotic relationship between an individual, and the elements that encapsulate them. How do the ideas of society and the balance of good and evil mixed in with a little bit of chaos tell the story? Today we try to dissect and figure that out.

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Fox News & The False Consciousness

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Fox News & The False Consciousness

Vox, 2019, 8:37… Carlson’s show is meant to distract Fox News viewers from Republican economics, channeling their frustration and anger at groups that don’t deserve it. That kind of misdirection produces what Marxist theorists call “false consciousness”: when workers are tricked into accepting their own exploitation.

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Anti-Gentrification Activists Defeat Amazon

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Anti-Gentrification Activists Defeat Amazon

The Verge, 2019, 4:48… Amazon announced plans in November for a $2 billion headquarters in New York’s Long Island City, also known as HQ2. Almost from the beginning, New Yorkers were skeptical. In the days after the deal was announced, there were a ton of protests. But three months later, the company is abruptly pulling out, chased out by local activists and politicians. How did it go so wrong so fast?

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

NowThis, 2019, 14:00… Prince believes that raising the minimum wage will increase consumption and we're better off putting money into the hands of people who will spend it in the economy than those at the top who already have plenty of money. Prince also says that the wealthy people in charge do not care if the economy improves just if they're making more money.

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China's Social Credit System

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China's Social Credit System

ABC News Australia, 2018, 27:14… When big government meets big data, you get 'Social credit', China's new amalgamation of all data points collected on an individual and processed to produce a 'score' that ranks you based on 'trustworthiness'. Score high, and you can reap rewards like lower interest rates or speedier services, but fall foul, and you could end up under effective house arrest.

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The Identity of Hong Kong

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The Identity of Hong Kong

Vox, 2018, 14:24… When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Chinese leaders agreed that Hong Kong would be able to keep its economic and political systems, including some of the civil freedoms denied to China’s citizens on the mainland, for the next 50 years. Although Hong Kong still has nearly 30 years of semi-autonomy left, China has started tightening its grip, and many believe it is chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedoms.