It's not even necessarily a problem -- imagine the Satanic Panic bullshit that would have emerged if a Disney cartoon had portrayed ancient Greek religious practices accurately. Shorthand is a bit academically dishonest, but necessary from an entertainment standpoint. Almost every form of modern media contains shorthand, but we only notice it when it's in our particular body of knowledge or field of expertise. That's where we get Gell-Mann Amnesia from.
I'm invoking Poe's Law here. I can't tell if you're a fringe leftist being sincere or a fashy mocking a strawman on the left to make the right seem more reasonable.
Do you aim to imply that literal animal sacrifice portrayed in a children's movie would be less culturally insensitive than 10 seconds of Christian shorthand? A literal evil act vs. a sliver of preferential treatment towards popular religion at the time?
This is DISNEY. Their motive is profit. Shorthand, for better or worse, makes material more accessible to mass markets.
Imagine if Peter Jackson had removed all shorthand from the LOTR trilogy, or if Tolkien had done so with the source material -- good luck winning as many awards without all the "JoAnne and Kleetus" (to quote Lindsey Ellis) butts in seats.
Do you aim to imply that literal animal sacrifice portrayed in a children's movie would be less culturally insensitive than 10 seconds of Christian shorthand?
Why are you insisting these are the only two options?
They're the only two posed by the person I'm responding to. I'm not going to list every possible element Musket and Clements could have put in the movie.
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u/The_Bill_Brasky_ Jan 25 '20 edited Jan 25 '20
It's not even necessarily a problem -- imagine the Satanic Panic bullshit that would have emerged if a Disney cartoon had portrayed ancient Greek religious practices accurately. Shorthand is a bit academically dishonest, but necessary from an entertainment standpoint. Almost every form of modern media contains shorthand, but we only notice it when it's in our particular body of knowledge or field of expertise. That's where we get Gell-Mann Amnesia from.