Steven Spielberg

Master of propaganda, rewriter of history and predictive programmer

movie theater screen showing the word "propaganda"

The movie Jaws terrified me when I first saw it as an eleven-year-old on a 19” TV screen in my family’s living room. For the younger readers, yes, TVs really were that small, and the TV probably had Channellock pliers where the channel knob was broken from me or my siblings changing channels too fast. Again for the younger people reading this, we had to get up to change the channel, no remote-control channel changer, and getting up often meant risking the loss of your spot on the couch. Only people who grew up in big families can understand this pain.

After watching Jaws, I was afraid to swim in an ocean for years, even lakes kind of caused me to stress out over what was swimming beneath me. Spielberg took something that happens a handful of times globally each year, deaths by shark attack, and basically made viewers believe there was a 50/50 chance they would be eaten by a shark if they even dipped a toe into the water at the beach. It probably didn’t help that I watched the Jaws movie series dozens of times.

He took something that is extremely rare, deaths by shark attacks, and without directly saying it, made one feel it was way more common than it really is. Essentially, he manipulated our perception of the truth through our emotions, in this case, fear.

The releasing of Spielberg’s new movie Disclosure Day on June 12th made me think about how often his movies seem to introduce ideas, exaggerate perceptions or validate narratives being told to the public. Often doing “predictive programming”, warming us up for a narrative to come in the future.

I've said this many times before, it’s strange how often movies are made about a person, a subject matter or a historical event with the intention of convincing us that things happened or will happen the way they want us to believe. The Social Network told us that Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook while at Harvard. Snowden told us Edward Snowden was a whistleblower and not a CIA spy installed into the NSA to discredit it. When one goes back and rewatches movies from the past, one can see how often we were warmed up for things that would come later. 9-11 is a great example.

I haven’t seen the movie Disclosure Day, but from talk about it on social media, it seems to obviously be about aliens. Introducing or hinting at the idea that it’s aliens that are real and not God. That the concept of God was created to explain aliens. That what we believe to be God is really just highly intelligent alien life forms.

In hindsight, I’d say this propaganda piece didn’t really catch traction. Maybe it’s because there were too many other things going on in the Zeitgeist for it to become a major talking point. Maybe the people who have the ultimate control over the media and social media turned the algorithms off that would usually amplify something like this. Interestingly, the Taylor Swift wedding that was strategically held right before America’s big 250th birthday celebration didn’t seem to distract Americans away from the joy and pride they have in their country. The Deep State’s ability to distract and mislead us seems to be dwindling.

This isn’t the first time Spielberg has made a movie about aliens, from Close Encounters in 1978 to E.T. in 1983, he has been a big contributor to the narrative that aliens exist. In some movies he portrays aliens as friendly and wanting to help mankind, and in other more recent movies like The War of the Worlds, he portrays them as wanting to wipe out the human race.

Disclosure Day seems to be the first time he has hinted more directly to the idea that God is really just an alien. He has patiently spent close to fifty years warming us up to this great reveal. First convincing us aliens are real, then “Bam”, God is an alien. This may sound ridiculous, but understand there are people who want to believe that God is an alien, and this helps them do just that.

Going chronologically through some of Spielberg’s movies one can see that they seem to shape narratives, narratives that either he or a group that he belongs to wants the public to believe. Narratives that may have some truth, or narratives that lack any truth at all.

Jaws (1975). He mastered the art of persuasion and manipulation through fear very early on. He established the theme of government cover ups. In this case the local government covering up the shark attacks because of their greed to keep the beaches open and their local economy flowing.

Close Encounters (1978). He put into our minds that aliens are real, they are trying to communicate with us and they possess superior intelligence. Again, the government is covering it up, in this case, the Federal Government.

1941 (1979). Here we are convinced Pearl Harbor happened the way the history books told us it occurred. In reality, England knew it was coming and purposely chose not to warn the Americans, knowing it would drag the U.S. into the war.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). A great movie which again rewrites the history of WWII vilifying the Nazis to a generation that didn’t experience it during the actual war. Before Raiders, Nazis were viewed by most Americans as being more like a military opponent. After Raiders, they became evil super villains.

Poltergeist (1982). Spielberg was heavily involved in the making of Poltergeist, a movie about ghosts terrorizing a family whose house was built on a cemetery which had its headstones removed but not the graves. It is said he pretty much directed the movie as well but for some reason didn’t want the credit. Like Jaws, Poltergeist alludes to a common theme in Spielberg movies, money over morals. Cover ups and greed.

E.T. (1983). More aliens, but this time super nice, lovable aliens. One could make the case that the alien E.T. represented Jesus Christ. He came to Earth, died and came back to life, and had the power to heal. In my opinion, this is not to draw people to Christ, but to implant the idea that maybe Jesus was an alien and not the Son of God. Subtly of course, and more government cover ups.

The Color Purple (1985). A work of fiction about the abuse of a black woman in the South starting at the turn of the 20th century. Another case of creating a narrative through fiction that viewers believe to be historically accurate. Much of the white guilt many middle-aged people have today was planted 40 and 50 years ago.

Empire of the Sun (1987). Again, the rewriting of history to tell the chosen narrative of Japan invading Shanghai. In other words, Japan bad! It just so happened to come out at a time Japan was peaking as an economic superpower. Japan’s economy collapsed two years later. Apparently, they were getting too big for their britches and needed to be taken down.

Schindler’s List (1993). The book Schindler’s List is fiction based on historical figures and events. Nothing in history has done more to convince the general public that the Holocaust happened the way we are told it happened than Schindler’s List.

It’s like all the movies Spielberg has made about the Nazis were made to set up Schindler’s List. Kind of like how all his movies about aliens were made to set up Disclosure Day. I would bet most people who saw Schindler’s List didn’t realize it was a fictional book. By the way, pointing out Schindler’s List is a book of fiction doesn’t make me a Holocaust denier.

An interesting fact that most people don’t know, following WWII, Holocaust survivors were often shunned in Israel. The thought was that they must have done some really horrible things to stay alive in the internment camps. It wasn’t until after Schindler’s List that Holocaust survivors were universally idolized by the general public.

Jurassic Park (1993). It’s tough to say if the main purpose of making this movie was about lending credence to the theory that dinosaurs once roamed Earth or if it’s more about the idea that DNA can be used to create living beings. Maybe it’s both.

Amistad (1997). A movie about the slave trade. Roots hadn’t been “on the air” for twenty years, so it was probably time to reach a new generation.

Speaking of which,

Saving Private Ryan (1998). Yet another movie about WWII. This came out seventeen years after Raiders of the Lost Ark. Probably time to reach another generation to “explain” how the war happened. It’s funny how people say it’s the most realistic depiction of the war, many of the people saying this of course were born 30 years after the war.

A.I. (2001) A classic bit of predictive programming. Prepare the general public for what is going to come 20+ years in the future. And of course, paint that picture in the darkest of light, the robots turning against the humans.

Minority Report (2002). More of the same predictive programming, predicting what will occur 20+ years into the future. Or maybe they were explaining to us what was already happening in a town in the middle of Washington state. A few years prior, Blackrock built a supercomputer to predict the probability of future events. Is this an indirect way of showing how AI super computers will or are be used to predict future events and behavior? AI again painted in a dark light.

Is it ethical to arrest someone for a crime they haven’t committed yet if the models show to a high degree of certainty that they likely will commit the crime? Are we being told data is being collected on us to such a degree that what we are going to do is known before we even do it? In reality, algorithms are certainly used to feed us our social media, and it’s obvious that we are monitored to be given the right advertisements. Try having a conversation about something near your phone and notice how you receive an advertisement about it not long afterwards.

War of the Worlds (2005). Aliens invading Earth. Flipping from aliens are good, to aliens are bad. If we aren’t motivated to love the nice aliens, then we will be motivated to fear the bad ones.

Munich (2005). We are told Israel’s Mossad is good and justified in their actions in going after terrorists responsible for the 1972 murder of Israeli Olympic athletes. Rather than take the suspected terrorists to trial, we are being told it’s ok to just kill them.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). In this movie Jones discovers the bones of ancient aliens that were worshiped by the natives of South America as gods. Yet another case of government covering up the existence of aliens and hinting to God really being an alien.

Lincoln (2012). Again, the retelling of history through cinema. To be fair, I wasn’t there in the 1860s so I have no way of knowing how accurate the movie is, and honestly, neither were you. A historian saying it was historically accurate means absolutely nothing to me.

Bridge of Spies (2015). The Cold War retold through cinema, emphasizing that everyone deserves due process, even people who are accused of doing horrible things. “What are you trying to tell us Steven, and what about those Olympic terrorists, due process for me but not for thee?”

The Post (2017). A movie about the heroic efforts of journalists at the Washington Post trying to release the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the classified documents exposing a decades-long government cover up regarding the futility and deception surrounding U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. I’m being completely sarcastic when I say, “heroic efforts.”

This is the same CIA newspaper that uncovered the Watergate break-in. Or should I say, worked with the CIA to concoct the Watergate story to politically assassinate President Nixon.

It seems like Spielberg is trying to paint a respectable picture of the media at a time when Trump introduced us to the expression, “fake news.” And let’s not forget, yet another case of government a cover up.

Ready Player One (2018). In this movie we are introduced to a virtual reality existence. Is he telling us we already live in a matrix-like reality, or is he warming us up to a future our overlords have chosen for us?

and finally,

Disclosure Day (2026). Again, I haven’t seen the movie, but from what I can gather, there seems to be a motive to make people question their faith in God. Spielberg isn’t going to come out and directly say the God we worship is really an alien. But he will get enough people to ask the question, to question their faith.

Another government cover up to keep society in the dark, but is the ultimate cover up to keep us in the dark about aliens, or is he saying the ultimate cover up is the protection of religion?

There are four main themes I get from Spielberg’s movies. One is the idea that aliens are real. He hints to the idea that God is really just an alien, and religion is a cover for alien existence.

Another theme involves the Nazis. Statistically speaking, Hitler doesn’t hold a candle to Stalin or Mao when it comes to death tolls, yet he is universally considered the most evil leader of the 20th century thanks to movies like The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It’s not by mistake that the term “Nazi” is thrown around so much to anyone who doesn’t agree with a liberal. Hmm, maybe the true definition of “Nazi” is someone who disagrees with you. If that is the case, then it is more fitting. Spielberg transformed the Nazis from military opponents to evil super villains.

The third theme that stands out to me is government cover ups. Government cover ups on local, to federal to international levels. Cover ups to suppress information as well as cover ups inspired by greed.

The last theme is the retelling of history through cinema. He takes historical people and events and uses fiction to tell the story. The viewer believes because it involves a historical event or person that it must be true.

I was raised on Spielberg movies; the man is a master storyteller. What I’m beginning to realize is that is exactly what he has done, he has told us stories. He has shaped and altered our beliefs and understanding of the world through fiction.

It’s ok to enjoy a movie or a fictional book, as long as we don’t lazily accept the fiction as truth. As long as we don’t allow the fiction to alter our perception of reality. Instead, it should inspire us to dig and find the truth we are being led away from.

It seems none of us find the truth unless we first discover what isn’t the truth.