Is this really where we’re at?
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Over the weekend, a movie was released called The Sound of Freedom. It’s based on the true story of a DHS agent that rescued a young boy from human traffickers in Columbia, but fails to rescue the boys sister. He retires from the DHS to try and finish the case and ultimately frees the sister. True story.
The film starred Jim Cavaziel and cost $15 Million to make. On July 4tu, the film actually grossed $14.5 Million,, $3 Million more than Indiana Jones. The film has great scores on the review sites (88% on IMDB). It’s a great movie with great results. Something to be celebrated, right?
Type the words “sound of freedom” into Twitter (decent people who wish to live good, happy lives should under no circumstances actually do this) and the search will yield dozens of triumphant reports crowing about the improbable victory of a film by that title over the likes of Indiana Jones at the box office this week.
That’s not, strictly speaking, accurate – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny had already been out for five days, the first three of which out-earned Sound of Freedom’s opening-day take, when the new independent thriller came to theaters on Tuesday. But for a fleeting moment this past Fourth of July, while the intended audience of Indy’s latest outing was presumably spending time with their families and friends at barbecues or in other social situations, an unoccupied fandom rallied by the star Jim Caviezel claimed the day with a $14.2m gross versus Dial of Destiny’s $11.7m. No matter that these figures require selective, almost willfully misleading framing to allow for the David-and-Goliath narrative trumpeted by supporters; as the copious tweets accusing Disney of being in cahoots with a global cabal of high-power pedophiles make clear, the truth doesn’t have too much purchase around these parts.However one chooses to slice it, Sound of Freedom has over-delivered on expectations in dollars and cents, a feat of profitability uncommon for a comparatively low-budget production without a major Hollywood-led promotional campaign. Judging by the robust round of applause that concluded the fully-seated screening I attended on Wednesday evening – and this, in the liberal Sodom of Manhattan! – it would seem that the folks at the two-year-old Angel Studios have tapped into a substantial and eagerly marshaled viewership.
Following that money leads back to a more unsavory network of astroturfed boosterism among the far-right fringe, a constellation of paranoids now attempting to spin a cause célèbre out of a movie with vaguely simpatico leanings. The uninitiated may not pick up on the red-yarn-and-corkboard subtext pinned onto a mostly straightforward extraction mission in South America, pretty much Taken with a faint whiff of something noxious in the air. Those tuned in to the eardrum-perforating frequency of QAnon, however, have heeded a clarion call that leads right to the multiplex.aviezel stars as special agent Tim Ballard, a Homeland Security Investigations operative who really did work for the state busting up child-trafficking rings for more a decade. (Or so he claims – the DHS can neither confirm nor deny the real Ballard’s employment history.) Even if he did not literally have the face of Christ, Ballard would still exude an angelic aura as he gently hoists dirty-faced moppets out of peril with the gravely uttered catchphrase: “God’s children are not for sale.” -
The story:
As the story noted, Siegel's sources told her "federal agents allegedly found classified information on (ABC News national security producer James Gordon Meek) Meek's laptop during their raid." Siegel reported that Meek left his job at ABC after the raid; a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster evaporated.
As edited by Rolling Stone Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman, however, the article omitted a key fact that Siegel initially intended to include: Siegel had learned from her sources that Meek had been raided as part of a federal investigation into images of child sex abuse, something not publicly revealed until last month.
Why did Rolling Stone suggest Meek was targeted for his coverage of national security, rather than something unrelated to his journalism?
Neither Siegel nor Shachtman would comment for this story. This article is based on a review of some contemporaneous communications and also interviews with 10 people with knowledge of incidents described here, including several individuals at Rolling Stone, as well as people at ABC and federal law enforcement agencies.
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He laments the marginalization of pedophiles, while counting on his political tribe to marginalize a mainstream movie by connecting dots from it to QAnon. And it's working.
This is along the same lines as someone having been convicted for murder as a young adult, being more socially acceptable going forward, than someone who said something racist as a young adult. This is what culturally programmed morality looks like, and the programmed humans aren't wired to see the absurdity of it.
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Yeah, it's PJW, but just watch the first two minutes.
Link to video"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Yeah, it's PJW, but just watch the first two minutes.
Link to video@George-K said in Is this really where we’re at?:
Yeah, it's PJW, but just watch the first two minutes.
Link to videoPJW is biased. IMO biased people should never be listened to about anything, ever. That's how you become smart. With a principled stand against biased people and the information they provide.
The only acceptable bias, is against bias. Period.
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@George-K said in Is this really where we’re at?:
Yeah, it's PJW, but just watch the first two minutes.
Link to videoPJW is biased. IMO biased people should never be listened to about anything, ever. That's how you become smart. With a principled stand against biased people and the information they provide.
The only acceptable bias, is against bias. Period.
@Horace said in Is this really where we’re at?:
@George-K said in Is this really where we’re at?:
Yeah, it's PJW, but just watch the first two minutes.
Link to videoPJW is biased. IMO biased people should never be listened to about anything, ever. That's how you become smart. With a principled stand against biased people and the information they provide.
The only acceptable bias, is against bias. Period.
Horace gets it.
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There was not a theater within 30 minutes showing the movie last week. This week it’s come to a couple of local theaters, but it’s weird as most are only offering 1-2 showings a day and during the day… The same theaters are offering 4 showings of Indiana Jones while Sound of Freedom is bringing in 4-5 times the daily domestic box office.
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Sound of Freedom just passed Indiana Jones on the domestic box office - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/date/2023-08-13/
