Blog #11- The Yes Men

In the film "The Yes Men Fix The World" the Yes Men use satire to point out the hypocrisy in several government organizations. The first example that they present has to do with George W. Bush’s website. This is during the time that he was still the governor of Texas. He had stated that he had helped to create a more “green” environment yet in reality he had made the state more polluted. The Yes Men had attained a url that was very similar to GWB’s website’s url. They the proceeded to mimic the look and layout of the website. They posted their critique of GWB on the website. Along with their written critique they also mocked the image on the original site by posting an image on the mock site of GWB pointed at an African American person. They used this satire to point out the hypocrisies in the information that is being fed to the American public. This points out the false consciousness that is ever present in our society. Karl Marx’s idea of false consciousness is very applicable. In our capitalistic society the Yes Men point out disconnect between appearances and reality. People are lead to believe something that works against them, people have been mislead and lied to. The Yes Men take these fallacies and point them out in a way that is entertaining so people will take the time to listen and pay attention to what they have to say. The general population is much more likely to pay attention to a prank than read a lengthy article that is confusing. In this way the Yes Men use media to break down the media that is already presented. People blindly believe what the media tells them, the Yes Men challenge that and make people realize that there is always another outlook.