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user-inactivated · 4240 days ago · link · · parent · post: Why psychopathic film villains are rarely realistic — and why it matters.
Such movies, and TV shows of the same ilk, also function fairly well as pro-police, pro-surveillance propaganda. Criminal Minds is probably the one I hate the most. By portraying a new evil genius on a weekly basis that can only be stopped by a hardboiled no-nonsense detective who doesn't follow the rules and various highly unconstitutional investigation techniques, they prime the viewership for acceptance of the real thing. As media role models they even encourage real police and those who aspire to become police to act in the same way. Nobody blinked when the PRISM scandal broke because we'd been seeing the same thing on CSI for more than a decade.