“A lot of people have informal mutual understandings with these power structures, and they enter into an alliance with them, even if it’s unspoken. This goes not for just Hollywood directors, but for content creators. Some of these channels take off and other channels don’t. If someone’s smart enough, and they figure out how to market themselves and promote their material, in a way that they know is in a line with these agendas, then they get rewarded and they can see that they’re being rewarded. So they know, “I’m in.” But part of being in is being able to recognize you’re in without even having to be told that you’re in. If you’re the kind of person that needs to be taken to CIA headquarters and sat down in a room with a bunch of guys smoking cigars, and told you’re in and here’s your instructions, they don’t want you. They want somebody who can just figure it out and play along. It’s like jazz: they need a musician who can play the tune without having to be given the sheet music…
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