gotta be real serious here, promoting media literacy is kind of The Goal as far as trying to get people to stop needlessly absorbing shitty ideas from media. purity culture stuff like judging and shaming them isn't just unhelpful in that it tends to shut people off from becoming more progressive, it's actively harmful because it promotes a LACK of media literacy. the goal shifts from trying to interface with the media and interpret what it's saying and means to just trying to consume the "good" media and only absorb "good" ideas.
id much rather have a friend who's really into cop shows but understands the harm they do than someone who only reads anti-racist literature but absorbs none of it
I was thinking about something similar last night when I was watching Quiet On Set.
I genuinely recommend that people watch the show, if they can stomach it, because it is really, really good about showing you all of the ways in which actual grooming happens. Smart parents, loving parents, parents who really give a shit and were really involved in their kids' lives, they got maneuvered around by predators, and it's really important to know how that works so you know what to look for.
In one case, a parent (who was incredibly involved and knew that there was Something Not Good about the person who became their child's abuser) got maneuvered around by that abuser in a way I didn't expect but which made perfect sense once it was explained.
Engaging with shit that you know is Not Great but being able to articulate thereafter why it isn't great, why it's propaganda, and knowing what it can do to you? You know what that propaganda actually looks like, not what someone told you it might look like, and you are gonna be better able to see it the next time.
