My Take | Showbiz is preparing the American public for war with China
The warmongering fantasies of the US entertainment and defence establishment are increasingly indistinguishable
How about a script like this for an American thriller? China pressures Mexican drug cartels to kidnap a US congresswoman and kill her entire family. It smuggles in nuclear scientists – or at least tries to do so – to help Iran build The Bomb. Both evil plots are linked. How? Not sure, but somehow it’s all tied to Beijing’s impending invasion of Taiwan.
In response, Washington dispatches a female-led special operations unit to both rescue the congresswoman inside Mexico, which may be seen by the Mexicans as an act of war, and assassinate the Chinese nuclear scientists before they could reach Tehran. Crazy, no?
Actually, that’s pretty much the real plotline of the second series of Paramount’s Lioness, starring, among others, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman.
China, Mexico, Iran – sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That’s especially so in the mental universe of Donald Trump, but not just him.
It’s remarkable how the entertainment industry goes hand in hand with the defence industry and the American empire.
I have just watched the finale of the second series, and marvelled at how the warmongering fantasies of US entertainment and defence are going hammer and tongs, each trying to outdo each other in exaggerating the threat from China.
