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Gordon R. Vaughan's avatar

A lot of good points in this one. Not sure I will be able to unsee this bias towards giftedness/privilege over effort, now that it's been made clear.

Of course, many have long complained about how film and TV give a very compressed view of success, leaving out all the hard parts and struggle in the middle. But I don't recall seeing anyone point out this consistent preference for the privileged, gifted hero and how Hollywood contrasts these to the scrappy, upstart and sometimes hard-working and creative (to the point of kooky) villains.

It's almost as if Americans have a deep-seated longing for a the nobility of class-based society, as opposed to a true meritocracy. Is Hollywood right about this??

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