Microsoft releases "Mixed Reality" advertisement on Good Friday, sets to private after negative reactions

I don't mean explicitly Christian TV shows; there weren't many "Touched by an Angel"'s back in the day either.

But they were there. Did that market go away? Now you can watch Lucifer instead.

Off the top of my head in the last 24 hours I've watched some of Community on Netflix which has a prominent positively portrayed Christian; and the episode of The Blacklist I watched the other day had the character going on about her belief in God / Christianity and she's the protagonist.

What was the Community character? Dan Harmon does not strike me as the type to lavish praise on Christians in his shows, I don't even remember what character you're talking about at all.

Portrayals are more secular these days for sure; lots of characters are vaguely religious, express faith or a belief in God, etc. If anything it's still incredibly rare for any character to claim they do not believe in God; and these characters are rarely portrayed in a positive light.

That's what I mean though, it feels like a secular take on it, it's lip service for the most part and actual praise or highlighting aspects of that faith are fewer and farrer between the jokes and condemnation.
 
i did notice a slew of Christian or afterlife-oriented tv shows after Trump won. The Good Place and Miracle Workers and a bunch of other stuff. i think there is a big market these days for secular atheists mocking Christians. clearly they want to sell stuff to the Ricky Gervaises of the world.

plus you have all the Occult stuff like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and all that. people don't recognize is but most Satanic stuff is still in the Christian cosmology. after all, devils, demons, satan, etc. are all from the Christian universe.

back when i was growing up we had Angels in the Outfield which looked corny as hell but right now tbh i would get high af and watch.
 
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But they were there. Did that market go away? Now you can watch Lucifer instead.

We have stuff like the Hallmark channel that's nearly 24/7 Christian stuff; that company owns a couple of other Christian cable channels that I can't name off the top of my head but I've seen them in my cable listings. There's a market but it's shifted; all the major networks care about is demographics. More people identify as vaguely religious now and less so a specific sect of Christianity and TV / movies followed suit.

What was the Community character? Dan Harmon does not strike me as the type to lavish praise on Christians in his shows, I don't even remember what character you're talking about at all.

I don't know her name; the black lady.. she's like the mother figure of the group.

That's what I mean though, it feels like a secular take on it, it's lip service for the most part and actual praise or highlighting aspects of that faith are fewer and farrer between the jokes and condemnation.
Well people are less "religion" religious and more secular "spiritual" now statistically.

It's just for money in the end.... nobody in entertainment cares that much about anything else.
 
We have stuff like the Hallmark channel that's nearly 24/7 Christian stuff; that company owns a couple of other Christian cable channels that I can't name off the top of my head but I've seen them in my cable listings.

Most people that I know these days don't even have cable or satellite anymore, nearly everyone I know is fully Netflix/Kodi box of some sort/pirating. You have to really want this stuff nowadays to be exposed to it.

I don't know her name; the black lady.. she's like the mother figure of the group.

IIRC despite being nice and motherly, they actually portray her in the typical Christian nosy neighbour, moral majority, I know better than you type. That is, the other cooler protagonists view these aspects of her character negatively. I'd have to watch again for specific examples but I'm certain there were plot lines centred around Shirley feeling she knows what's best and the rest of the gang feeling she is sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.

Well people are less "religion" religious and more secular "spiritual" now statistically.

Media definitely had no part in this.
 
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Most people that I know these days don't even have cable or satellite anymore, nearly everyone I know is fully Netflix/Kodi box of some sort/pirating. You have to really want this stuff nowadays to be exposed to it.

Well I mean.... Netflix has religious stuff.. couple for kids that I know my cousin has our niece watch.

IIRC despite being nice and motherly, they actually portray her in the typical Christian nosy neighbour, moral majority, I know better than you type. That is, the other cooler protagonists view these aspects of her character negatively. I'd have to watch again for specific examples but I'm certain there were plot lines centred around Shirley feeling she knows what's best and the rest of the gang feeling she is sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.
Hmm.. maybe, I'm knew to the show.. or at least re-watching after only having seen the first few eps a few years ago.

Media definitely had no part in this.

Maybe? I think the media and it's influence is circular.... the media is influenced by society since people deciding to watch something is how money is made.. but that content might circle back and compound something's popularity or lack of popularity.

But "the media" didn't decide to surprises religion.. that's conspiracy theory crap IMO. It's all mega-corps focus testing things these days.. and their tests show generic secular "spiritual" types are what are going to make them the most money.
 
IIRC despite being nice and motherly, they actually portray her in the typical Christian nosy neighbour, moral majority, I know better than you type. That is, the other cooler protagonists view these aspects of her character negatively. I'd have to watch again for specific examples but I'm certain there were plot lines centred around Shirley feeling she knows what's best and the rest of the gang feeling she is sticking her nose where it doesn't belong.
knowing Dan Harmon, i actually found Shirley to be respectfully portrayed, considering the creator. that dude is really high on his own secular fumes. yeah from time to time the story was poking fun about how backward she was but in general he went easy on her.

as for the media working against religious content, i think this is the case. but not consciously, as in they have set out to work against religion. they aren't trying to work against a moral foundation. they just are nihilists. they have none. they don't believe in ANYTHING. thus their content has no morals to speak of. there is no substance there. it's why Luke Skywalker thinks the Jedi and Sith are more or less the same. it is about deconstructing symbols and removing them of meaning. that is postmodernism and nihilism. yes it has enveloped pop culture over the past half century. you can't put morals into your media if you have no morals to speak of.
 
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Well I mean.... Netflix has religious stuff.. couple for kids that I know my cousin has our niece watch.

That's something at least. I haven't really dug around for that type of stuff myself, just making the observation that it feels like the broader cultural media has become a lot more secular in general, and I do feel like in most media I consume, if a religion/religious person is going to be the butt of a joke, it'll be Christian. Perhaps because it has been the dominant religion for so long. But at this point to me it feels like stopithesalreadydead.jpg

But "the media" didn't decide to surprises religion.. that's conspiracy theory crap IMO. It's all mega-corps focus testing things these days.. and their tests show generic secular "spiritual" types are what are going to make them the most money.

I think #Phonepunk# #Phonepunk# said it well, there was no grand conspiracy, it's simply the nature of the beast , what the people in control of media production push, and what we as consumers in turn accept.
 
The ad is crap, but really, you believe in the devil? Kind of childish.

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I think #Phonepunk# #Phonepunk# said it well, there was no grand conspiracy, it's simply the nature of the beast , what the people in control of media production push, and what we as consumers in turn accept.

I think you underestimate the role the consumers play in this is what I'm saying.

Particularly in the modern world where we have a billion ways to consume media, so much choice... we don't "accept" what is pushed, we accept what we want.. and then they keep pushing us that same stuff until the next trend hits.
 
Particularly in the modern world where we have a billion ways to consume media, so much choice... we don't "accept" what is pushed, we accept what we want.. and then they keep pushing us that same stuff until the next trend hits.

It's a bit of a chicken or egg thing and a much larger discussion, but I feel that entertainment media plays a large part in creating and shaping public trends.
 
I think you underestimate the role the consumers play in this is what I'm saying.

Particularly in the modern world where we have a billion ways to consume media, so much choice... we don't "accept" what is pushed, we accept what we want.. and then they keep pushing us that same stuff until the next trend hits.
yeah consumers play a role but at the same time the products they sell aren't exactly stretching the limits of anything. it's not like there is a vast marketplace of ideas, and due to corporate consolidation, the list of total companies at the top responsible for making things is getting smaller every year. if you look at mass media there really are a very small selection of genres/subjects/allowable topics. kind of silly to pin that on consumers when it is the companies at the top that are making this stuff.

like with this silly performance art video, do you think the majority of Microsoft consumers are all about dated performance artists from the 70's who rip off Viennese Actionism? no, the idea to make this was probably from some silly self important marketing consultant with an undergraduate level education in art history. on some level the corporate producer has to take responsibility for the shit they are selling.

also i disagree that consumers accept what they want, often they have to settle for what the market gives them, which can be very different from what they want. note the current furor over "fan service" and "entitled fans", people fuming at the consumer simply desiring a product that meets a personal standard. very often what the customer wants is not what the producer delivers.
 
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I'm not sure of which type of satanist she is. If she were to be a LaVey Satanist (since it's the most famous one) then she would not believe in the devil as he's depicted in the Bible. The devil, according to LaVey is merely a representation of the self, what a person should strive for.

Here is a direct quote from Church of Satan, which was founded by LaVey, regarding the 9 Satanic Statements.

  1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
  2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
  3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
  4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
  5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
  6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!
  7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development," has become the most vicious animal of all!
  8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
  9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years
I have never researched about Satanism, but my impression from reading stuff in the bible was always, that Satan just represented free will, and that human power to decide. For good and for evil.

Basically he represents humans themselves, opposed to that asshole that wanted to keep people dumb and bound by his rules and who did horrible things to his believers again and again.
 
That's something at least. I haven't really dug around for that type of stuff myself, just making the observation that it feels like the broader cultural media has become a lot more secular in general, and I do feel like in most media I consume, if a religion/religious person is going to be the butt of a joke, it'll be Christian. Perhaps because it has been the dominant religion for so long. But at this point to me it feels like stopithesalreadydead.jpg

We kinda deserve to be the butt of the joke quite often though.
Imagine a tv show that would show you or me as a Christian and show us in a good light. Knowing myself, that would be quite the propaganda! :D

Hell, even the Bible doesn't show Christians in that good of light to be really honest about it. And that's how it should be. When Paul doesn't mock himself of being an awful human being, he is complaining about Christians all around falling into terrible behavior. That's how it was in The Old Testament too. Jews, the chosen people, were scolded quite a bit by God himself, and the people in New Testament didn't do that much better either. Sure. they were all ready to follow Jesus, to be with the Master, but it didn't take that much to betray him and lie about ever even knowing him. Have we somehow gotten better than that? To be really honest, even with this writing I'm probably also trying to handwave my past, present and future sins away in a "hey, they sinned then and couldn't help it and I'm no better than that so..." kind of way.

So technically wanting to have some art medium to show us Christians in a good light is wanting to support propaganda.
 
A bunch of free speech snowflakes offended by an art project. Right wing SJW culture warriors.

She could be literally advocating for Satan and it's fine, because of freedom of religion, something that a lot of religious people never seemed to grasp.

Imagine how us atheists feel watching all the times Christianity is mentioned in association with something.
 
tbh, i think all churches should be raided

scientology, satan, mormon, catholic, christian, islam, so forth

let's see what everyone is up to
 
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tbh, i think all churches should be raided

scientology, satan, mormon, catholic, christian, islam, so forth

let's see what everyone is up to

Science is scarily becoming a new religion as well, or at least those in power manipulating it. If you think they're not gonna try to push things on people after all of this COVID straight out of shaming and blasphemy if you don't playbook, I'll sell your swampland to another Floridian.
 
Science is scarily becoming a new religion as well, or at least those in power manipulating it. If you think they're not gonna try to push things on people after all of this COVID straight out of shaming and blasphemy if you don't playbook, I'll sell your swampland to another Floridian.

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