When the Director of a billion dollar franchise, chiefly about shooting people either At Home or in Other Countries, we all know the game being played.

American Politics only exist outside the realm of entertainment, as entertainment. Our escapism, our fantasy, all uniquely individualistic. It’s got to reflect the realities of our individualist society – some people will say that.

You can believe that story if you want.

Under the surface of that lie, we can kind of see the truth. Most of the American body of politic does not exist to be scrutinized. Our individualism is often an excuse to not see the structures of power for what they’re really holding up.

In the middle of the war on terror (because it seems deep-hell is going to come back to that over and over, lately) the genre of “the shoot and cry” was established. We should not weep for the damage the war did to our country, our psyche, the people of other nations. We should, all, instead hold hands and mourn how tough things were for The Troops. Caveat: Our Troops only, though.

Culturally, Entertainment is really only allowed to be political if it represents certain interests. We all know the Shoot and Cry genre was political, it’s just those movies are where the political became propaganda. It is sad that people in the military suffered – but they did it with dignity and for the rest of us.

Hollywood movies about almost all historical injustices treat them as if they are solely still the responsibility of bad actors. There were no politics happening, and history is not largely a result of politics. Truly, the meaning of A-Political is when the truth of something exists only to be sold.

A-political also works when ideas that cannot, possibly be grown-at-home American ideas need to be criticized. Call of Duty: Cold War is a game the director of has not yet said is “not political” but will eventually end up saying. Cold War’s opening narration posits that the fight for equal rights, well, the fight going on now was planted by the Commies.

Relating this information to prospective players (consumers) is a man who history would describe as a a fascist: maybe he knew coming to America might present him with a nation receptive to his ideas. Overlaying this information is a trailer comprised of footage of marches, rallies, and curiously featureless events. We know, of course, that there are are currently events like that happening in real life.

Yuri Bezmenov’s words aren’t told to the audience through an awkward CG cipher – the clip used in the trailer is from a real recording. Looking into his full speech reveals more than a handful of youtube videos saying he described a “leftist” takeover of America. A takeover that is referred to now with worthless phrases like “cancel culture” and “censorship”

Googling the trailer of course reveals countless comment sections filled with the kind of one-joke, always coming from the latest Hot Piece of Pop Culture about leftism “wow leftists said videogames are political and don’t like this? Hypocrisy.” Suddenly, this game doesn’t seems like a different kind of “not political”

Call of Duty has a solid history of working as right wing propaganda. For hitting the lowest marks that all Shoot-And-Feel content must in America. A videogame genre that supplanted the type of film it borrows the name from. Shoot-And-Feel isn’t cry, feel bad, or otherwise process emotion. In the barest sense, a shoot-and-feel asks the player to shoot some people first and have a connection with it later. Maybe the emotion is guilt, but often it is rage. Call of Duty: The One With The Airport Shooting curtailed an emotion of “I can’t believe I FELL for this! War truly is bad.” Some of the other Call of Duty games feature an emotion known as: “It sucks I have to kill this one guy who has an internal life, after killing thousands that don’t!”

The Cold War is a period, however ahistorical this game ends up being (we’re using a lot of a-modifiers), is allowed to be political. To Americans, our greatest propaganda is not about succumbing to invasion, but from an internal weakness caused by foreign ideas. Like a host getting sick, it’s not an external wound that kills us – but something left behind after the pain is healed.

Collectivism, nurture, to be cared for and create communities, to march for the rights of people treated as less-than, those ideas cannot be American. Propaganda of this kind always circles back to the same old idea: whatever is steering America towards a future not ruled by fear, callousness and poverty – these ideas are foreign to us. To have community is to have communism, and to have communism does not reflect the truth of capital I individuality.

Call of Duty: Cold War is the newest in a long line of Propaganda, winking towards the right audience, telling the rest of us we’ve imagined history and reality where there is none. In the new form of McCarthyism, entertainment will sell people pulling the trigger on themselves.