History Main / WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical

* [[https://medium.com/@dustinkoski/charlie-from-hazbin-hotel-is-a-classical-liberal-810838172f1e This article]] states that ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'' (an animated show pilot for adults that deals with how Charlie, the princess of Hell, tries to redeem the souls of the damned) is a criticism, although involuntary, of classical liberals and how they do not understand the working class who they pretend to help.

Also note that only rarely is this analysis laudatory. Nine times out of ten, the critic is repulsed by the supposed moral/philosophical/social/whatever point a work is making and uses their argument to condemn the author. This can even result in a sort of premortem DeathOfTheAuthor if the critic claims that ''everything'' [[{{Bulverism}} in the work arises from subconscious attitudes the author may or may not have]] (a possible side effect of the [[UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory ''auteur'' theory]]). The argument might even be applied to an entire society of a particular time and place, with the implication that because the audience enjoyed something ''as entertainment'', [[SeriousBusiness they must have applied its values to their daily lives as well]].

** The episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E1TheCutieMapPart1 The Cutie Map]]", in which the villain rules over a {{dystopia}}n village of brainwashed ponies stripped of their individuality in the name of "equality", was welcomed enthusiastically by some right-wing and conservative viewers who interpreted it as a criticism of political correctness. To the point where a certain far-right author, partly for trolling purposes, encouraged his blog's readers to vote the episode into that year's UsefulNotes/HugoAward as part of a campaign against the (alleged) left-wing bias of the awards.

* ''VideoGame/LethalCompany'' tasks you with collecting scrap in [[NoOSHACompliance unsafe working conditions]], and slaps you with increasingly high profit quotas. If you fail to meet quota, you're [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness fired (jettisoned into space) and just generally seen as expendable]]. These elements are in place to put forth the game's BlackComedy, but it was also released around the same time that many corporate game development studios were exercising a series of mass layoffs. It certainly doesn't help that many of them were also being exposed for unfair treatment in the workplace, and that the game was released in the middle of the then-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

* ''Comicbook/XMen'':
** [[ImpliedTrope It's been suggested]] that Creator/StanLee intended the two mutant leaders to represent the competing tactics of civil rights leaders UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr (Professor Xavier) and UsefulNotes/MalcolmX (ComicBook/{{Magneto}}), and the analogy is very frequently mentioned in discussions of the books.
** There have been comparisons with gay people and other specific or non-specific minorities which some fans see it as a "violation" of what the story is supposedly about when a particular plot or character's behaviour does not fit in with their interpretation of choice. Some writers consciously or subconsciously fed this by modeling the mutants' plight in particular storylines on that of real-life minorities, which also led to fans squabbling amongst themselves as to whether the X-Men are more a metaphor for race or for homosexuality, and also to the tendency among some fans to consider "ugly" mutants "truer" mutants than "pretty" mutants. All this often loses sight of the fact that Marvel's mutants started out as a fairly standard science-fiction "super-race" melded with the standard Silver Age superhero conventions. Thus, during the first two decades of the X-Men's existence, the default was to maintain a SecretIdentity and hide that one was a mutant from the public, which would have caused a different sort of backlash if the feature had been intended as a metaphor of or a comment on the situation of a minority within society in the real world. More broadly, they represent alternative paths that oppressed people can follow: appeal to the consciences of the oppressors by taking the moral high ground, or defend your rights by force.
** Website/{{Cracked}} [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20915_5-random-coincidences-that-invented-modern-pop-culture.html did an article]] about how despite a good chunk of the franchise's popularity stemming from the fact that mutants can be seen as an allegory for people of color, LGBT individuals, or others who are considered "outsiders," Stan Lee came up with the concept of mutants simply because he didn't want to have to write a bunch of new origin stories.
---> ''"Make no mistake -- these are some of the most beloved characters in comic book history, and it's specifically because of who they are. The X-Men are hated by the world purely because they were born different -- it's not hard to see why that resonated with fans. Who knows how things would have turned out if Lee had spent a whole weekend inventing various radioactive animals to bite each of these people."''
** In any case, the mutant metaphor was not apparent in the early Lee/Kirby issues. It only came in with Creator/ChrisClaremont's issues, as [[http://graphicpolicy.com/2016/03/17/a-peoples-history-of-the-marvel-universe-week-7-magneto-vs-erik-lensherr/ pointed out]] by writer [[Blog/RaceForTheIronThrone Steven Attewell]]. Others have pointed out that there are countless white, straight comics fans who have personally identified with the ''X-Men'' characters, and that the comic's themes arguably speak more to ''individual'' alienation from society rather than group persecution. This is especially apparent since the most popular X-Man is ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, whose stories rarely revolve around mutant prejudice and he's often presented in various media as a NotInThisForYourRevolution type, and often affected this pose in the earlier comics.

* The cry "Viva la libertà!" in the first act finale of ''Theatre/DonGiovanni'', where [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]] takes a single line from Lorenzo Da Ponte's text and has all the characters repeat it over and over, is read by some as Mozart's support for the French Revolution.

%% Seven subpoints...? Really? 3rd subpoints should start questioning the validity of the main point.

** It takes a pretty nuanced view of what the KGB sleepers do, as well as showing the less-than-savory methods the FBI Counterintelligence people get up to.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' has been decried as leftist propaganda specifically made to decry the [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush administration]]. This would be a difficult feat, since ''B5'' '''ended''' two years before Bush was elected President. Oops.
** {{President Evil}}s are an atavistic evil archetype in what might as well be called American mythology. Practically every American president was roughly comparable to President Clark [[{{Demonization}} if you believe the opposition]]. Drawing from this folklore, is in a sense no different than appealing to Babylonian myth.
** Besides, President Clark bears a resemblance to UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson, particularly since he comes to office with the assassination of his predecessor (the image of his inauguration looks just like the famous photo of Johnson's), which he turns out to have orchestrated, as some RealLife {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s claim [[WhoShotJFK happened]] with UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy.

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Some aspects of the show, such as Luke's choice in attire, are very much political, but others aren't, as with Luke's ImplacableMan moment in Crispus Attucks in season 1. [[https://decider.com/2016/09/15/luke-cage-showrunner-cheo-hodari-coker-on-mike-colter-heroes-for-hire-and-making-an-inclusively-black-superhero-show/ In an interview]], showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker acknowledged that politics can certainly be read into the Crispus Attucks attack, and would be extremely relevant, but the scene drew primarily from ''Film/TheTerminator''.

** The second season has some Trump influence in it. Mariah makes a remark of "Now is not the time for alternative facts" when learning about Arturo Rey's failure to kill Luke with a Judas bullet. D.W. Griffith outright calls Luke "Luke Trump" when Luke inherits Harlem's Paradise in Mariah's will upon her death, right after Luke says "I'm gonna make Harlem great again."

*** The series does make the point that gods aren't defined by their powers, but rather by their actions and benevolence. The Goa'uld and the Ori, who abuse their [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens positions of privilege]] over their subjects, are not fit to act as gods over the people they rule. This was probably intentional, but considering Daniel's statements about fire being bad (the Ori use fire as a good symbolism, even choosing to appear as it instead of the default ascended light form) coming from the Ancients, it doesn't seem to mean they were against Christianity.
*** It's important to note that, while this is mostly in the background and not heavily discussed, the main characters themselves are shown as being on different wavelengths when it comes to religion. Jack O'Neill is snarkily irreverent and cynical towards religion in pretty much all its forms. Cam Mitchell tends to be positive about it, mostly through anecdotes about his very religious grandmother, but it's unclear whether or how much he himself believes the same things. Samantha Carter, in the face of her possible death, expressed the hope that after all of her work convincing enslaved people that they were following false gods, "somewhere one of those gods" was real. Her father, Jacob/Sel'mak, is openly a believer. The series supports religious tolerance (and the additional aesop that pretending to be a god in order to exploit people is bad), but it's hard to find a strong stance for or against religion per se. The series doesn't even condemn paganism, as it's never clear whether the Goa'uld created/inspired the ancient religions or simply decided to impersonate its deities (most clues given point at the former, though).

Relatedly, many critics hold a belief that '''every''' work is political, regardless of what the author intended; for instance, critics may feel that an author has particular moral or social obligations to challenge the "status quo" (or whatever the critic ''believes'' is the status quo). A related school of thought holds that, since the author is someone with opinions who exists in a political context, those opinions and context must necessarily shape their work in various ways with varying degrees of subtlety and self-awareness. An attempt to be apolitical is a kind of political statement unto itself (specifically, of [[NeutralityBacklash supporting the status quo]]) and that’s if one is lucky. If one is unlucky, this belief will be used to claim that apolitical works are, by definition, not TrueArt. We used to have a trope for this (“True Art Sticks It to the Man”), but it was sent to the Administrivia/PermanentRedLinkClub because it necessarily broke the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment.

* ''Film/ThreeHundred''. Complicated again, as the (accurate to the comics) movie adaptation was made during UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, which Creator/FrankMiller supports, but the original comic was written a decade earlier. Notably, though, people who take this tack disagree on whether the Spartans are meant to represent the US and the Persians' Islamic terrorism, or the other way around; it could be seen as brave Western freedom lovers fighting Middle Eastern tyrants[[note]]Historical Ancient Greeks, from the 4th century [=BC=], [[RealityIsUnrealistic spoke just like that]]: a Greek by education is a free man, who does not bow to Eastern tyranny and superstition[[/note]] or as a vast and diverse empire underestimating a local population and getting its butt kicked. At a March 2007 press conference, director Creator/ZackSnyder found himself nonplussed when asked by a reporter whether King Leonidas was meant to be UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush or UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. Original author Frank Miller claims that his comic to a large degree was inspired by the 1962 film ''Film/The300Spartans'', which is often considered to be a metaphor for the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. Whether such a message was intended or not is far from clear.

* An In-Universe example happens in ''Film/{{Joker}}''. While Arthur did kill three employees of Wayne Industries, it was partially out of self-defense and had nothing to do with a classist belief. This doesn't stop the citizens of Gotham from using it as a political point against the rich.

* ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'' has a bunch of aliens from Mexico trying to get into America and succeeding despite a gigantic wall and security to keep them out. These aliens are stereotyped as villains in propaganda. These aliens are apparently not metaphors for Mexican immigration to the U.S. according to director Creator/GarethEdwards, but that hasn't stopped people from drawing the comparison. The fact that Mexican immigrants making the border crossing are characters within the story and there really is a wall being built on the Mexican-American border does not help.

* The Chinese historical/fantasy movie ''Film/Hero2002'' was regarded as highly controversial particularly in America because of the conclusion of [[spoiler:the main character accepting that a brutal dictatorship is the only thing that can stop the centuries of civil war]]. While in China the film was likely interpreted as having a generic "sacrifice for the greater good" message, in large parts of the west (and Taiwan), it was seen as overt Chinese political propaganda to legitimize the government in defiance of its messy history of imperialism and human rights abuses.

* An [[http://blip.tv/renegadecut/48-morality-and-modern-politics-in-the-dark-knight-trilogy-6704872 older episode]] of ''WebVideo/RenegadeCut'' is fairly blatant in its accusations of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' being, among other things, "pro-surveillance propaganda". It [[AuthorTract doesn't end there]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr2d4As312LulcajAkKJYw Townsends]] is a Website/YouTube channel that revolves around 18th century American living, with an emphases of cooking. A video shot at Mount Vernon is about orange fool, a dessert enjoyed by the Washingtons. Once the video was posted, the comments section was flooded with comments from people who saw "orange fool" as a TakeThat against Donald Trump.

* It's been suggested that Creator/StanLee intended the two mutant leaders to represent the competing tactics of civil rights leaders UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr (Professor Xavier) and UsefulNotes/MalcolmX (ComicBook/{{Magneto}}), and the analogy is very frequently mentioned in discussions of the books. Another comparison has been gays, or other specific or non-specific minorities, that some fans see it as a "violation" of what the story is supposedly about when a particular plot or character's behaviour does not fit in with their interpretation of choice. Some writers consciously or subconsciously fed this by modeling the mutants' plight in particular storylines on that of real-life minorities, which also led to fans squabbling amongst themselves as to whether the X-Men are more a metaphor for race or for homosexuality, and also to the tendency among some fans to consider "ugly" mutants "truer" mutants than "pretty" mutants. All this often loses sight of the fact that Marvel's mutants started out as a fairly standard science-fiction "super-race" melded with the standard Silver Age superhero conventions. Thus, during the first two decades of the X-Men's existence, the default was to maintain a SecretIdentity and hide that one was a mutant from the public, which would have caused a different sort of backlash if the feature had been intended as a metaphor of or a comment on the situation of a minority within society in the real world. More broadly, they represent alternative paths that oppressed people can follow: appeal to the consciences of the oppressors by taking the moral high ground, or defend your rights by force.

---> Make no mistake -- these are some of the most beloved characters in comic book history, and it's specifically because of who they are. The X-Men are hated by the world purely because they were born different -- it's not hard to see why that resonated with fans. Who knows how things would have turned out if Lee had spent a whole weekend inventing various radioactive animals to bite each of these people.

* Creator/{{Bethesda}}'s tweet about the then-upcoming ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'' earned a lot of backlash from right-wing groups, due to its phrasing. Special ire was drawn from the phrase "Make America Nazi Free Again," a play on UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. Unsurprisingly, the media made a point about [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtissilver/2017/10/10/wolfenstein-make-america-nazi-free-again/#1b54c4132554 how it showed the political atmosphere]] of the time. Bethesda themselves, for what it's worth, said they weren't trying to be political, but just promote their game about killing Nazis. That didn't stop people on the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} forums from declaring the game some sort of propaganda - exactly which kind of propaganda, they don't seem to agree on.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' gets misunderstood all around.
** Its detractors point to its frequent use of politically incorrect material as comedy, saying that this "proves"

* ''Webcomic/IWillSurvive'': Borba created the comic to show how a potential break-up between a OneTruePairing like [[WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}} Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde]] could go down. However, since he chose an unwanted pregnancy as the impetus for said break-up, this has led to several readers (pro-life and pro-choice alike) debating over the controversial topic of abortion, even though the comic itself never tries to take a stance on it.

** Its detractors point to its frequent use of politically incorrect material as comedy, saying that this "proves" ''South Park'' is racist and so forth. And some of its supporters (young conservatives and libertarians, mostly) see how ''South Park'' ridicules the politically correct and "enlightened" and love to think of the show as being a (somewhat ironic) defense of "traditional" American values -- neglecting to notice that the show's creators try to offend ''everyone'', regardless of where their political/social/cultural sympathies lie. Whether or not they do a good job at this is likely where the problem lies. Of course, seeing ''all'' targets as ''equally'' worthy of ridicule is, in itself, a political stance.
** Co-creator Trey Parker is a Libertarian, and he and Matt Stone have expressed conservative views both in and out of the show, leading some commentators to coin the term "South Park conservatives". However, they have been quite outspoken about their desire never to be pinned down to either end of the political spectrum. Some choice quotes:
--->"We hate conservatives, but we really fucking hate liberals."\\
"[[TheHorseshoeEffect People on the far left and the far right are the same exact person to us]]."

* Twix's famous "Left Twix vs. Right Twix" ad campaign is frequently interpreted as being a satire of political polarization in America (the left and the right), especially the divide between left-wing Democrats and right-wing Republicans, by saying that they're not so different from each other, as the whole joke of the campaign is that Left Twix and Right Twix are exactly the same and the rivalry between them started from an incredibly petty feud that their founders had hundreds of years ago. The fact that the ad campaign began airing during a heated presidential election added to the interpretations. However, it seems just to be a quirky ad campaign that was made without any intended political commentary.

* Twix's famous "Left Twix vs. Right Twix" ad campaign is frequently interpreted as being a satire of political polarization in America (the left and the right), especially the divide between left-wing Democrats and right-wing Republicans, by saying that they're not so different from each other, as the whole joke of the campaign is that Left Twix and Right Twix are exactly the same and the rivalry between them started from an incredibly petty feud that their founders had hundreds of years ago. However, it seems just to be a quirky ad campaign that was made without any intended political commentary.

* Twix's famous "Left Twix vs. Right Twix" ad campaign is frequently interpreted as being a criticism of the division between Democrats and Republicans (the left and the right) and trying to say that they're not so different from each other, as the whole joke of the campaign is that Left Twix and Right Twix are exactly the same and the rivalry between them started from an incredibly petty feud that their founders had hundreds of years ago. However, it seems just to be a quirky ad campaign that was made without any intended political commentary.

* ''VideoGame/WatchDogsLegion'' takes place in a United Kingdom that's turned into a surveillance state policed by brutal mercenaries and armed drones, with nationalism and terrorism being two of the factors responsible for its woes. The resulting economic downturn has caused a popular rebellion to begin rising up in order to return the country back to the good old days. The game was only officially announced on June 10 but already people are making comparisons to the game's setting being what will become of the country if Brexit is allowed to go through, and if its advocates are able to seize power.

* Creator/MarkMillar continues to insist that any political allegory in ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', a plot in which superheroes who didn't want to register with the government were rounded up and shipped off to what's come to be called "Space Guantanamo" by both fans and the ''Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics'', was completely accidental.

** Creator/MarkGatiss is often criticized for reactionary racist/sexist/warmongering Aesops in his ''Who'' stories, but his real-world political leanings are known as left-wing. A lot of it may be down to bad luck — "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead The Unquiet Dead]]" (often read as an allegory for how war refugees should be treated with suspicion and can never assimilate into society) happened to come out at a time when asylum seekers were featured heavily in the news. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E8ColdWar Cold War]]" accidentally portrays mutually assured destruction as good, which might have gone unnoticed had the episode not synced up with the death of Margaret Thatcher. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror The Crimson Horror]]" has Creator/DianaRigg playing the episode's EvilIsSexy star, who (just before it aired) went in the papers saying uninformed [[StrawFeminist things]] about feminists.

* Some have interpreted ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' as somewhat of a commentary on shady business practices of large corporations when dealing with smaller competitors. Pizzaface has a massive corporate empire in the tower, spanning from various restaurants (Golf, Fastfood Saloon, Don't Make A Sound), production centers (Fun Farm, Peppinobot Factory), and even a tropical vacation resort (the third hub). He threatens to shoot Peppino's Pizza with a giant laser, mirroring how larger businesses will throw money around, rather than using the actual quality of their product, to remove small businesses. [[spoiler:And the real final boss Pizzahead]] seems to perfectly mirror Mascots from large chains like [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald]], a happy-go-lucky face hiding a darker corporate side. Peppino by contrast, while down on his luck, and not perfect, is genuinely passionate about his job. [[spoiler:This passion allows him to defeat Pizzahead despite everything he throws at him, showing the true triumph of the small businessman.]]