Shill Times

During the run of Ahsoka, a YouTube channel called Grizzy started gaining some attention for compiling clips of Disney shills reacting to the series. They're pretty funny and sad, if you can get past Grizzy's occasionally homophobic humour.

Even if you liked Ahsoka, it's hard to believe anyone who says it was "the best Star Wars content ever." I feel like this was a specific phrase that Disney wanted them to say, it recurs so much and is too obviously absurd.

Grizzy includes Grace Randolph in his compilations, which I don't think she deserves. I do think she takes money from Disney but you can kind of sense when she's giving a genuine opinion and when she's earning her payola. The thing I like about Randolph is that she has class. If she doesn't like something that other people like, she doesn't call people idiots for it and she seems genuinely open to the idea that she could be wrong. That's pretty rare, especially on YouTube.

I remember in the last decade or so of Roger Ebert's life, he was publishing some questionable positive reviews that made it pretty clear he was on the take, at times. But one has to remember all of the medical bills he likely had. I can talk all day about journalistic principles, but I've never had to support a family nor have I ever had a severe, long term illness. I have some imagination, though, so I'm not so quick to condemn people when they express an obviously paid for opinion. But it is saddening because it chips away at the communal experience of popular art.

That was one of the fun things about reading Pauline Kael and Quentin Tarantino recently; reading how they reacted to movies I've seen. I saw one comment on Kael saying that, even if you disagreed with her, you still knew where she was coming from, from how she expressed herself. Apparently Ridley Scott has her negative review of Blade Runner framed on his wall, not to gloat but because, according to him, "there’s a lesson in that, which is: ‘When you think you’ve got it, you don’t know shit.'" Scott's gained quite a reputation for a low bullshit tolerance in recent years.

I'm often reminded of an article I read that said the point of Russian propaganda was not to deceive people but to make them feel like they could never know the truth. That may not be the intention behind the shill epidemic, but I fear it's the effect. Ultimately, it's just another way Disney and other companies are digging their own graves.