These are some of the film trainings that you will enjoy in December 1:38
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(CNN) -
On January 8, 2017, Meryl Streep delivered a speech at the Golden Globe Awards that, depending on who you ask, gave a voice to heartbroken Americans or misjudged voters' frustrations.
Shocked and scared after Donald Trump's presidential victory, Streep rallied her audience of Hollywood stars, filmmakers, and foreign press, telling them they belonged to "the most vilified segments of American society right now," but if they were fired, the public would have "nothing to do other than football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts."
Her speech couldn't be less persuasive to the demographic she seemed most desperate to reach.
Many Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 did so because they felt forgotten by the
political and social
establishment
, and believed that their way of life was under threat.
Their motivations are unlikely to include ensuring that celebrities continue to charge millions of dollars to play someone else.
Surrounded by colleagues who shared the same priorities, Streep's message only accentuated the existing gap.
Almost five years after that speech, "Don't Look Up," the Netflix catastrophe satire starring Streep alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, spends more than two hours making the same mistake.
In its efforts to advocate for its cause, the film does nothing but alienate those who most need to be moved by its message.
The premise of the film is that a huge comet is on a collision course with Earth, but the corrupt and self-centered president (played by Streep) and the evil media choose to ignore the danger because they think they can take advantage of it.
Meryl Streep represents President Janie Orlean in "Don't Look Up."
It is a metaphor for climate change that should generate empathy, by nature.
Unfortunately, there has never been a more hostile environment to use it.
As "Don't Look Up" says, the biggest problem facing the world is that the gullible public and greedy elites continue to refuse to listen to smart scientists.
In the recent context of misinformation about vaccines and billionaires taking vanity trips into space, it's a tempting position.
The problem is that when science is politicized, either by those who defend it or those who deny it, objective truth ceases to have general persuasive power.
Almost 80% of Americans have been exposed to misinformation about covid, and many do not know what to believe, according to a survey
Contradictory as it may seem at times, to win people over, science must remain apolitical.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play scientists with an important message in the movie "Don't Look Up."
Take Anthony Fauci, America's long-suffering infectious disease expert.
He went to great lengths to remain politically neutral while serving under the Trump administration because he knew that the appearance of bias would only serve to alienate many of the people who desperately needed to hear his advice.
Like Greta Thunberg, who until the 2020 US elections relentlessly focused on climate action without getting into the dirt of the left versus the right, Fauci understands that any political association only serves as a distraction from the task at hand.
When Fauci's words were taken out of context in a GOP announcement in mid-October 2020, he was quick to distance himself.
When Fauci's recommendations to combat the coronavirus, such as the use of masks, continued to conflict with Trump's interests, he changed tack and began to discredit both Fauci and the science he represented.
As it did?
He claimed that Fauci, who is not registered with any political party, was a Democrat.
This political fracture was reflected in the public acceptance (or lack thereof) of science.
As of late October 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, Democrats made up 76% of those who expressed concern that others were not wearing masks, while Republicans made up 92% of those who expressed skepticism or opposition to masks.
Almost a year later, Americans who relied primarily on Trump for their information on Covid-19 were among the least likely to get vaccinated.
Far from winning people over to evidence-based precautions, Fauci's Trump-imposed association with Democrats only served to make him a target for Republican ire.
Vaccination against covid-19 began a year ago in the United States.
These figures reveal how it goes
Science is objective: "mathematics", as "Don't Look Up" constantly says, either adds up or not.
But insofar as scientific truth is intrinsically associated with a political creed, people with opposing political sympathies will be predisposed to distrust it.
No matter how well-intentioned the writers and cast of "Don't Look Up," the goal of defending scientific facts must be dissociated from that of asserting moral superiority.
The constant insinuation that those who hesitate to accept new evidence, be it the safety of vaccines or the impact of the comet, are stupid, corrupt, and on the "wrong" side politically, only adds another hurdle for science to overcome.
Towards the end of the film, when one of Streep's character's distinctly Trumpian rallies turns into chaos, Jonah Hill, who plays Streep's son and secretary-general, yells "
rednecks
" over his shoulder as he escapes. . The message it is intended to convey - that "bad" politicians who try to mislead audiences have nothing but contempt for them - is clouded by the fact that the "good guys" who made the film don't seem to think much of them either.
Defenders of science should always try to leave politics at the door.
Otherwise, the task is not only to convince people that the comet is approaching, the planet is quickly overheating, or the vaccine will protect them.
It is also about forcing large sectors of the population to accept that a cornerstone of their personal ideology is wrong.
And when the comet is so close, there is no time for it.
Climate ChangeLeonardo DiCaprioMeryl Streep