The Secret Agenda of “Independence Day”

This summer, I read a review of The Conjuring, the great little horror film from “Saw” director, James Wan, that claimed it was right wing propaganda filled with misogyny and was “less egregious but somewhat akin to making a movie that claims, in passing, that slavery was OK or that the Holocaust didn’t happen.” Yikes.

If you’ve seen the movie then you know that’s a bit of a stretch to say the least, but then I looked at how much traffic the article had gotten and it got me to thinking; what movie could I twist into having a hidden agenda?

It has to be something beloved so it’ll make people mad enough to share the article and say “Look what this idiot had to say!” How about “Independence Day?” Not only is it highly popular, but every Fourth of July when it airs on cable, I can direct people back to my whistleblowing review. So here we go, the TRUTH about “Independence Day’s” hidden agenda.

We don’t even make it to the opening credits before the brainwashing begins! The first image we see is a logo for 20th Century Fox, A News Corporation Company. So basically, FOX NEWS. Nice try, right wing nutjobs, we’re on to you already!

Don’t worry, it gets worse. The opening shot is one of outer space when all of a sudden we see the shadow of the horrible alien ship coming to destroy the world. Let’s look at a screenshot of that moment. Looks innocent, right? WRONG.

Pretty convenient how they made the surface of the moon white and outer space, where the awful aliens come from, black isn’t it? We get your conservative message loud and clear. You’re saying if we had elected a white president instead of Obama then America wouldn’t have the financial problems we have now. Who cares that this was made years before he was even running for office, this had to be the work of the Christian Coalition working against Obama to get abortion banned. Whatever.

We then cut to this gentleman who is working in some sort of monitoring station. He’s playing golf and not really paying attention when an alarm goes off that he assumes is nothing. We get it, director Roland Emmerich, you’re saying that North Korea is all talk and that any threats from them are empty and should be ignored. Why don’t you keep your political opinions out of our faces, pal. This is neither the time, nor the place.

A few minutes later, after the unknown objects have been identified, the government lies out this image they had printed up:

Seems innocent until you flip it around and connect the dots, that is:

That’s right, the random dots along with the flying objects CLEARLY spell out MUSLIM OBAMA. Was this digitally added in some post-production years later? Who knows, but we can’t let these Tea Party yahoos get away with this kind of propaganda.

A few minutes later we cut to the desert where a man is furious that his crops haven’t been watered. What’s that plant in your hand, buddy? Looks like marijuana to me. Now here’s the hidden message that you probably missed. He’s holding the marijuana in his hands but if you look to the right you see a pantless and a shirtless redneck fighting in front of their RV. Basically they’re implying that if states continue to legalize medical marijuana then the world will become a desolate wasteland full of degenerate hicks. Wow, why don’t we all move to the Bible Belt and listen to public radio?

Immediately we cut to an airplane soaring through the air. What color is that plane, you ask? Red, of course. It’s the color of Republican voting states. What the director is trying to say is that the Republican Party is going to continue to soar to new heights while everyone else (the minorities, as seen below) are left on the ground. It couldn’t be any more obvious.

A few minutes later the alien ships begin entering the atmosphere and, conveniently enough, the first place they decide to make an appearance is trusty old Iraq. “What’s the big deal?” you ask. Well let’s just look at what is in front of us. Iraq is scared and frightened as an unknown enemy has just entered their territory. What will they do? Who will rescue them? How about the United States of America! Roland Emmerich is screaming “Let’s fund the war in Iraq!” with his imagery. I’m sure he still writes George Bush’s name into his ballot every year.





Well what have we here? It seems as though a bit of right wing planning was inserted into this movie and we didn’t even notice it. Here’s a shot of the alien spaceship headed towards New York City, more specifically, the Twin Towers!

Does the conservative media find it so laughable that they pulled off September 11th, they’re willing to flaunt it right in our faces? This is almost a frame for frame reshoot of the footage of 9/11. You Bush supporters are just repulsive.

We finally get some screen time for someone that isn’t Jewish, but it’s not anything pleasant. Will Smith is trying to be a hero, but he’s being yelled at by, you guessed it, an African American woman! Why did it have to be a woman of color? Why couldn’t he be living with a nice, straight, white businessman who loves him too much to see him risk his life and go off to war so he begins nagging him? I don’t need to see a picture of the casting directors to know that they are white, upper middle class men with a serious agenda and a hatred of women of color.

In another hidden message the conservatives thought we would miss, there’s a quick shot of a television with a Latino news anchor warning not to shoot at the spaceships. Seems innocent enough, until you rearrange the images in the picture. Here’s what the naked eye sees:

and here’s the truth, with the images rearranged:

Wow! So that’s the kind of message you’re trying to send? The Latino community is armed and hates cops? This kind of narrow-minded thinking sets progress back hundreds of years. Grow up and get educated.

And finally we have the most iconic shot of the movie: the White House being destroyed. Now obviously this is taking a shot at Obama, but upon closer examination you can see how arrogant they were with bashing him. Here’s the original image:

And here’s the enhanced image:

Is that Obama laughing at the White House being blown to bits while forcing Macho Man Randy Savage to sacrifice his life and finish off the building? Yes it is. How dare you parade trash like this in front of our faces and the eyes of our children. You’ll pay for this, conservatives. You can try to force your opinions down our throats, but we’ll just keep vomiting them backup. I hope you like vomit, because we’re about to do a lot of it all over the place.