https://old.reddit.com/r/stupidpol/comments/1qotp7r/i_hate_that_the_curtains_were_fucking_blue_meme/
I can’t tell you how much this meme has ruined all conversations about media. You can’t discuss ANYTHING about movies without anyone going “whoa bro it’s just a movie it’s not that deep”.
The thing about movies, novels, etc is that they’re not real. Which means that every single thing you see on the screen was put there on purpose.
Why did the author/movie-writer/etc specifically decide to mention the color of the curtains in this scene?
Sometimes it really is just arbitrary. Maybe he just mentioned it because he wanted you to visualize the scene and irrelevant details have to be in there for that to happen. Maybe the set director just grabbed whatever was cheapest at the thrift store, but those are still intentional decisions.
What I’ve found is that the people who engage in this type of talk end up with bad “theory of mind” on everything, not just about movies.
When you say things like “Why is Trump creating tarrifs”, “why is X doing Y”.
They’ll just smugly dismiss it as “lol cuz they’re dumb” and think they’ve said something useful.
You still have to answer your question of “what is his motivation” “what do they think they’ll accomplish”, “why did it fail” etc etc.
It’s sort of a fundamental A or B. Do you accept the thought-terminating cliché? Or do you push past it? That dichotomy plays out in many different forms. Good job outlining the way it can happen in media, and why it’s a good trap to stay out of.