CountryRoads [fae/faer,it/its]
They do it out of pure spite, not to compete with the bourgeoisie. Most of these type of people are too stupid to even be familiar with the concept. It’s very basic “I’m the Big Man” type shit, which is why they all love Trump and hate “the Liberal Elite” - which is where they put all their frustrations about competing with global Capital onto yelling at teachers and college students.
1984 gets thrown around as the “harsh, totalitarian nightmare state”, but I’d actually argue it’s not. Only the Party members, basically the PMCs and above, live under totalitarian rule. The way that the life of the “proles” is described in 1984 is more like how people talk about BNW - endless trite distractions and petty bullshit, with the occasional random attacks to keep people confused.
But if a small-time creator makes an indie show/film, then they can be as critical as they want, which makes it better than a complete ban (which is censorship).
Arguably our system is far worse. Direct censorship is a crude tool that rarely works. The USSR had a huge underground network of banned media. Banning something makes it titillating and people seek it out.
In Capitalist society, sure the indie film gets made, but how do you distribute it? How do you advertise it? Propaganda is not that effective if you’re just preaching to the choir. Sure, go ahead and make your awesome indie flick that’s anti-Capitalist and totally revolutionary. Good luck convincing anyone to see it, or handling media hit jobs to dismiss it.
Fyi, this is pretty much the MO of modern US government, ramped up to extreme. Why would the neoliberal state ban you and look bad, when they could just ignore you and make you look like a fringe weirdo?
But but but Guys, culture is not a ~material issue~. What media people consume is not ~doing politics~. Art is not praxis, unless it involves donating money to my/my friend’s charity project!