This. While there can be a thin line or murky area between art with a message and actual propaganda, they are not always one in the same. Propaganda usually relies on intentional misinformation and omission of truth and facts. You can have art with bad messages and unfortunate implications due to an unintentional slip ups and lack of research on the creators, writers, or whoever's part in the project. Or because of messed up values of said creators or them not giving a fuck about the quality of their work. Laziness is also another factor. Copying other and doing the job worse.It's kinda hard for an author to make something with a message and not be pushing it. An author makes a piece of art revolving around a message because they think it's important to tell and share with lots of people. How does one accomplish that without "pushing" the message? If you want people to experience your art with a message, you're pushing a message. Or else you'd write a book and burn it after reading it yourself. Or a graffiti artist would find a spot that no one sees.
Pretty much everyone knows a major component of propaganda is the use of misinformation (in some kinda form). Over half the words in that definition are dedicated to that very fact. And there's definitions for the word without the "may"s in it.
Once again, you make the mistake and misuse words of their actual meaning or definition. And use the stupid of you want to discuss this with me phrase.Look, if you want to discuss this with me, you're first going to have to prove to me that you understand what I'm saying, because this whole exchange has just been me correcting your misunderstandings over and over again.
No. Sonic has a pro-environmentalist message or green aesop. It works best and hand in hand in the classic games. Mainly Sonic's 1-3, and Sonic CD. With CD being the best of all four games in that regard, because it ties in with the gameplay. In Sonic games, there is always the beauty of nature and whatever Robotnik is involved destroys nature in planets, animals life cycles, and biosphere. His final levels, when not in space stations are polluted cities, factories, and industrial areas with heavy pollution.Is Sonic the Hedgehog environmentalist propaganda? How do we distinguish the two?
Test it by this criteria:
- Did you feel that the gameplay took a backseat to the message?
- Is the message "crammed in" so that it comes off as out of place or poorly written?
- Do you get a "both sides" look at things or are otherwise encouraged to think critically, or is there only "one right answer"?
Sonic CD embodies this with Little Planet. A planet that bends the laws of time and space making time travel trivial for some with a high intellect or who can go at a speed of Mach 1. Whenever Sonic travels in the past of each Zone, you see the stage in its primitive state before Robotnik interfered. Sonic goes in to the past to destroy the roboticizer from making a bad future, or by collecting the 7 time stones. The present version of each stage is mostly normal, but with robots and certain hazards laid out. If you fail to destroy the roboticizers or collect all the times, you get a bad future. The stages are littered with pollution, smog rust, and dried out water, depending on the stage your playing. Things are so bad that the music gets warped and bastardized and Robotnik's own creations are miserable. When succeeding and getting the good future, the stages are clean, angelic, and free of Robotnik's creations. Whatever machinery or technology is lying around is either helping nature or making things run properly without harming the planet. Showing machines and nature can work in harmony.
What's great about this message is that it's subtle and ties in with the gameplay. It does not villainize/demonize technology (in the good futures) and does not talk down to, nor insults its audience like most pro-environmentalist works. Especially from those of the 1990s. It respect the player and audience. Sonic rarely ever got preachy with its messages. Whenever it did, it mainly boiled down to stories not involving the games. Sometimes from the Archie brand comics they could go overboard depending on the writer. The games on the other hand; did not suffer from this.