Liberal Vs Conservative; Thank You for Smoking. Daily Log Blog March 12th 2019

             In the beginning of the class Mr. Rivers went over the questions we should be asking ourselves while watching 'Thank You for Smoking'

            -How does this film make arguments about the tabacco industry and/ or the governments attempts to control the tabacco industry.
            - How might the satire paradox affect the way the audiences interpert this film's arguments
            - How would the film be different if it were Thank You for Vaping.


-Mr. Rivers then mentions how the main character of our film is a 'Lobbyist'.
       Lobbyist: Speaks for an organizations to persuade government, speaks on behalf of a political arguments, all about big business and MONEY, uses manipulating language to 'spin'

-A liberal might not trust big businesses and would rather choose to trust professionals. Money is a corruption of democracy

-A conservative may like lobbyists because they protect big business and allow for economic survival

Mr. Rivers then asked up to focus on liberal and conservative viewpoints seen in the movie regarding Nick's job as a lobbyist.

      As we continued the film we saw as the senator announces that all cigarettes must have a skull and cross bones on each box with the words "poison". Nick responds by suggesting that more movies featuring cigarettes will spike sales. He also suggests using sex appeal to sell more cigarettes. (conservative viewpoint) The 'Captain' of big tobacco speaks with Nick and also suggests putting cigarettes in movies will increase sales. A scene with the senator says that Nick only speaks bullshit in order to fool people to sell cigarettes (liberal view point), he also demanded a more sad kid with cancer who is hopeless and pathetic in order to sway public's opinion against tobacco companies. Nick then ends up hooking up with a female reporter who was writing a report on how Nick views himself and then Nick and his son head to California. Nick then goes to meet a man named Jeff to discuss how to put cigarettes in movies in order to expand who is smoking. Nick wants more young, hip and cool people to smoke. Nick explains to his son how his job requires a moral flexibility, Nick then explains that by proving his competitors wrong he would always be right even if he doesn't prove his arguments to be correct.

While watching this portion of the film it became clear to me that the senator is a liberal while Nick is a conservative. So far there is viewpoints from both the liberal and conservative viewpoints but the movie remains somewhat neutral. Both the liberal and conservative viewpoints come off as manipulative and in genuine. Big tobacco only care about money and simply pretend to care about teenagers smoking when in reality their goal is to appeal to younger audiences. The liberal viewpoint is concerned with taking the cigarettes out of business for the sake of the younger youth. Although their goal seems to have good intentions the senator still asks for a more depressing and pathetic cancer child to sway audience's opinion. Understanding the satire paradox is important because we can understand what a film or other source of media is trying to tell us. It seems this movie has not taken a side liberal or conservative. A liberal watching this movie may see the senator as the protagonist of the movie and see nick as the antagonist and the other way around for a conservative. In that sense the film can spread a larger message that can appeal to larger audiences.