Kit Knightley – Off-Guardian March 20, 2021

For some reason I woke up this morning to a world – or a pretend media world, at least – obsessed with the Netflix show Adolescence.

I’m not going to link to it or describe the plot, because I’m not being pulled into this trap. I’m not talking about Adolescence, I’m talking about the people talking about it.

That might seem like a paper thin distinction, but it is an important one, in my mind at least.

With thanks to Charlotte

Why is everyone talking about this show? Why am I being flooded with tweets praising the performances and the writing? Or giving me trivia titbits about the production?

Even the people that hate it are talking about, complaining about the race-swapped casting or political messaging.

It’s everywhere.

The front page of the Guardian this morning:

Since when does “what’s trending on Netflix” have any impact on the political landscape? What’s happening?

There was even a question about it during Prime Minister’s Question Time yesterday:

That’s an MP, apparently, asking the supposed leader of the nation if the latest hit Netflix production should be compulsory viewing in schools.

She mentions misogyny as well, but honestly that’s immaterial. The existence of the question is bizarre enough on the meta level that we can disregard the specifics of the politics.

She asked – and he answered. Not just to say “what an odd thing to say in national parliament, go away and never talk to me again”, but actually giving it credence.

“That’s a very good question madame, maybe we should force school children to consume Netflix’s fine content. I’m watching the show myself and must say it’s jolly good!”

I’m barely satirizing.

Notice how the he not only takes the question seriously, but makes sure to note he is watching and enjoying the show.

This is quite literally product placement.

It’s no different from when the camera lingers on a Mercedes logo in a movie. It couldn’t be less subtle if Starmer had cracked open a Pepsi, taken a sip in slow motion, licked his lips and said “I always drink Pepsi when I’m working hard to serve the country”, then winked at the camera.

It’s a really good demonstration of the way the system works. And I do mean THE system – there is only one. Politics, advertising, entertainment, the military and everything else…they’re all joined together. Departments of the same company. Fingers on a giant corporate hand.

And, like all good hands, it can multitask.

It can promote media slop for profit WHILE it sells politics that serve agenda.

What is that agenda? Protecting the children!

From what? Knife crime. Or misogyny. Or hate speech. Or immigrants.

Pick your preferred problem, react however you want, the solution remains the same – more control.

Censor the internet, ban smartphones in schools, forbid the sale of knives online, crack down on hate speech. Tag X people for Y reason. Create a registry, they LOVE creating registries.

You know how this goes.

Knife crime isn’t the problem guys. We don’t need special rules for selling knives to teenagers or brown people or anyone who looks a bit weird. We don’t need a special registry for everyone with a knifeblock or who googles whetstones.

The internet isn’t the problem. We don’t need rules about who can access what or where or banning anonymity or controlling “hate speech”.

Misogyny isn’t the problem. We don’t need special educational classes for young men to teach them how awful they are or to put testosterone blockers in school water fountains to prevent violence or another registry for everyone who follows Andrew Tate on Twitter.

We don’t need any new rules at all. We have plenty of rules (such as the Online Safety Act, which came into force two days ago just as the Adolescence hype launched).

The problem with our society is not a lack of rules. The problem is powerful people creating fake problems to scare real people.

The problem is politicians indistinguishable from advertisers and entertainment companies indistinguishable from military contractors and newspapers indistinguishable from intelligence agencies.

The problem is the monolithic nature of global corporate government that uses authoritarianism to boost profits and uses profits to increase its authority in a cycle of exponentially increasing tyranny.

The problem is that hand we were talking about earlier, and the way everything everywhere becomes an excuse for it to tighten its grip around our neck.

That’s the problem.

…and that’s the reason everyone is talking about Adolescence.

Do yourself a favour, ignore it.

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