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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   14686 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026

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‘Citizen Vigilante’ starring Armie Hammer (yeah, that guy from ‘The Social Network’ who got MeToo’d) is (roughly) about an American who goes to Europe and conducts a highly restrained and well-planned vendetta against foreign gang rapists and their institutional enablers.

It sounds like a pretty straightforward remake of Taken.

It's an interesting affirmation that everyone understands and acts on racist phenomena.

"Taken" doesn't code 'the outsiders are harming us' i.e. whites, but this movie does. So the almonds of some German bureaucrat got activated and the movie is a no go.

It's probably the most ubiquitous and interesting dynamic in western media production and no one talks about it. But the incredible dance around never having the outsider victimizing whites is the greatest commonality all modern movies share. And if that is ever a theme, it's explored in such a way as to demonstrate that whites feeling victimized and acting on those emotions are wrong in some way.

On the flipside there's no shortage of 'brown person victimized by cruel evil white folk' movies.

Everyone understands this. Everyone knows. The only difference is whether ones brain can see the patterns or if it can and chooses to ignore it because 'evil white people' codes as real on some level in ones brain.

It's an interesting affirmation that everyone understands and acts on racist phenomena.

I haven't seen Citizen Vigilante but in regards to Taken I would say that this attitude says more about you than it does the movie.

"formal authorities are uncaring/ineffectual/complicit and it falls upon a square-jawed father figure to step in and correct the obvious injustice" is practically a genre unto itself. Death Wish, True Grit, John Wick, Dirty Harry, Die Hard, and The Equalizer all immediately spring to mind. Guys like Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, and Jason Statham have built entire careers around playing this sort of role.

I mean, yeah. I exemplify Taken in my post as a movie that does not code against foreigners despite it's theme explicitly being about evil immigrant foreigners victimizing white people and then being brutally murdered by a white man.

The topic being explored here is: If the bad guys in Taken were coded brown, would it be the same movie? Obviously not. And that's an interesting affirmation that everyone understands and acts on racist phenomena. And that this song and dance is being actively played in the productions of nigh every movie. As when this song and dance is not played and whites are allowed to take revenge on the brown outsider, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

FSK ratings in Germany even take intentionality of violence into account when handing out ratings. Brutal depictions of whipping a slave in Django Unchained are not bannable, since they are, in their terms, necessary to build empathy with the victims and a disgust towards 'slavery', which translates into disgust for a white character so we can later celebrate their brutal murder. So the regulating bodies take political deliberations into account when deciding if something is verboten or not.

Well, what about disgust towards brown foreigners raping white girls? What about disgust towards activist judges that let them go free? We can celebrate a black man brutalizing 'evil whites' but not a white man brutalizing evil browns?

The topic being explored here is: If the bad guys in Taken were coded brown, would it be the same movie? Obviously not.

I do not think it's obvious at all, nor do I agree with the claim that "Taken does not code against foreigners".

Likewise I don't buy the claim that "when a white takes revenge on the brown outsider, it sticks out like a sore thumb". Maybe in a German movie, but in the US Black gang-bangers and South American drug cartels exist as stock villains right alongside Nazis, Communists, and Arabs.

Again, I haven't seen Citizen Vigilante but I think your framing reveals more about you and how you view the world than it does the movie. You being a German would explain a lot.

but in US media Black gang-bangers and South American drug cartels exist as stock villains right alongside Nazis, Communists, and Arabs.

They used to. Is this still a thing, post 2020?

Are movies still a thing post 2020?

Someone has to provide content for anti-woke YouTube tirade channels.

As a subscriber to The Critical Drinker and a bit of a "YouTube tirade" person myself, you have a point.

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