stiffly
1yr ago
there’s a strong tendency on the left to underestimate the power of nationalism.
I’m not sure why this tendency exists or how it developed.
Well, that's easy. When it's for them, they're in favor of it, but if it doesn't work for their side, then nationalist is a synonym for fascist. Orwell had a lot to say about this.
British nationalists: fascists. Ukrainian nationalists: heroes. American nationalists: fascists. South African nationalists: heroes. Now you try!
stiffly
1yr ago
Go figure, people don't like bitter tannins. The ones who do are really into wine, and they don't buy nearly as much as the mass market does.
stiffly
1yr ago
I thought that these days wine doesn't gain much by aging. You're meant to drink it soon. In fact, if you keep it for years, it'll go bad.
stiffly
1yr ago
Basic stuff. Really, really basic. Like showering every day, loving your children, shouldering responsibility for your life, being the changes you want to see, planning the life you'd like to have, going somewhere that's good enough so that the going is worth the while. So, so many people don't even do this, but it's that they don't even ask the questions in the first place. Or even know that they should be asking these questions. It's really sad.
In earlier ages, we had elders who would instruct the young. They knew what they had to do. Hunt the buffalo, weave baskets, fetch water, form families, respect the land, live such that your ancestors would be proud. Now that's gone and it's causing profound suffering.
stiffly
1yr ago
Oh, that's easy - crystal therapy works because the people who are treated with it believe that it works. The placebo effect. It's the same with witch doctors, faith healers, and TCM.
stiffly
1yr ago
I forget what it is called, but what does this community think about when a movie takes a character that was white or a male and makes it a different gender or race for the sake of it?
The term you are looking for is "fan-baiting".
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1568182048564875265.html
“Fan-baiting” is a form of marketing used by producers, film studios, and actors, with the intent of exciting artificial controversy, garnering publicity, and explaining away the negative reviews of a new and often highly anticipated production.
Fan-baiting emerged as a marketing strategy in 2016/17, after fans of beloved franchises such as Ghostbusters and Star Wars objected to what they saw as poor writing choices, sloppy scripts, and cheap alterations to plot lines and characters for the sake of shock value.
Along side these critics, there was a small group of bigoted but vociferous commentators who objected to the inclusion of black and female actors in roles traditionally held by white male actors. Some of these individuals began publicly harassing actors.
Bigots have always attacked diversity on screen, but in a highly polarized political climate, instances of harassment on garnered disproportionately massive media coverage, which provided production studios with both free publicity and a new defence against actual critics.
Studios seized the opportunity to discredit criticism of poor writing & acting, insinuating that these, too, were motivated by bigotry. What used to be accepted as standard critiques were increasingly dismissed as part of the ignorant commentary of a “toxic fandom.”
Soon, it became standard practice before release to issue announcements specifying diverse casting choices, coupled with pre-emptive declarations of solidarity with the cast whom they now counted on to receive disparaging and harassing comments.
Actors who are women and/or BIPOC became props & shields for craven corporate laziness and opportunism. The studios save money both by avoiding expensive veteran writers as well as by offloading publicity to news outlets and social media covering the artificial controversy.
“Fan-baiting” works. It brings in a new sympathetic audience whose endorsement is more about taking a public stance against prejudice than any real interest in the art. “Fan-baiting” also permits studios to cultivate public skepticism over the legitimacy of poor reviews.
“Fan-baiting” also compels reviewers to temper their criticism, for fear of becoming associated with the “toxic fandom” and losing their professional credibly, resulting in telling discrepancies between critic and audience review scores.
The true nature of “fan-baiting” is never so clear as when a script is well-crafted and audience reviews are accordingly positive, exposing the announcements, declarations of solidarity, & grooming of skepticism for what they really are: cynical corporate marketing tactics.
stiffly
1yr ago
Nah. If a woman isn't into it, it's her loss. Not yours!
Don't chase women. They love the attention and will knock you off the horse again and again just because they like to see you struggle. Don't play that game. It's abuse. YOU are the prize, men. Women need to chase you. If they don't, they blew it. Move on. Life is too short to play other people's bullshit games.
stiffly
1yr ago
Yeah. After reading the unfiltered internet for years, and seeing people pour out their problems on the page, things I have never experienced, the more I am convinced that simple life hygiene is what is wrong with so many of them. They cause so many of their own problems. Moreover I think that so many of these problems are left over from when we lived in tribes. We stopped doing that a long time ago, and yet we still have all these neuroses because we don't make our own food or weave our own baskets any more. Especially not living in extended families, that one was a punch in the gut to humanity.
Heck I don't say this as some exemplar of a shining true life, either. I used to think I was depressed. Turns out, there was no brain chemical imbalance at all, it was just that I had a shitty life and that was because I was doing it wrong.
stiffly
1yr ago
If she wasn't mentally healthy, how can she consent to kill herself?
Or did the doctors decide for her? That's even worse. We're getting into Aktion T4 territory here.
stiffly
1yr ago
but the reality was a small, bald little man-child who wouldn't register as a 4/10 on the attractiveness scale.
Oh man. Wait till they hit 30.
I recently saw this comic posted on a far-left site of a person holding a photo of a young femboy catgirl making a cute face, while looking at the same person at 30, bearded and drinking at the bar in a rumpled jacket and tie, still with the cat ears and tail. Wish I still had the link.
stiffly
1yr ago
Yes? It's the talk of the town? That's why that Washington Post "journalist" tracked her down, doxxed her, and harassed her family members.
stiffly
1yr ago
We already banned gain-of-function research.
Why do you think Fauci & Co. had to outsource it to China and Ukraine?
stiffly
1yr ago
If the Japanese and German war efforts were so doomed, why were they stupid enough to throw themselves into a war they couldn't win?
Because it was a desperate, last-gasp gamble for both of them. Starting a war usually is (unless you're a neocon).
The Japanese knew they were engaging on a high-risk venture with little chance of success. But they had been forced into a corner by FDR's steel and oil embargos. It was either strike now, or be assassinated by the ultranationalists they had been egging on. We actually have the minutes from the last imperial council meeting where they made the final decision for war and they're quite clear on this.
Hitler considered that there were too many Germans and not enough food to feed them. The soil was giving out, and what would happen then? Germany must rely on imports, and hence become yet another slave of the western bankers. Hitler always felt himself racing against time, and needed to strike quickly. Imagine if he wasn't so hasty and had an army of Tiger tanks and V2 rockets to start with.
stiffly
1yr ago
If she's mentally unwell, then she's deficiently in no shape to make life or death decisions.
stiffly
1yr ago
If they’re from a western country they may consider themselves (and others like them) an expat instead of an immigrant, but it all amounts to the same thing.
Expatriates are foreign workers. They go to another country to work there, but will return home. An immigrant goes to stay.
It kind of sucks they have no language requirement. You should speak a country's language. No matter how many people speak English, you're still stuck in the English bubble. I know people who have lived in other countries for over a decade and still don't speak the language. It's sad, honestly.
stiffly
1yr ago
I remember the best tequila producers in Mexico saying that there's no way a bottle of tequila should cost more than $40. But - the market was demanding super overpriced tequilas. So, they shrugged their shoulders and marked up the price to $200, and people loved it.
stiffly
1yr ago
Diversity for thee but not for me. The ADL, the organization which advocates for mass immigration changes tone when it comes to Israel.
stiffly
1yr ago
007 isn't some hereditary title that passes on. It's his agent number. They have numbers so that they aren't referred to by name in intelligence agency documents, so they can't be betrayed. Post-WWII (and pre-WWII) Britain's secret service was full of communist traitors who could and did give away operations to the enemy.
stiffly
1yr ago
They just want to get rid of Libs of Tiktok so very badly. She's exposing the trans agenda in public schools and boy, that kind of thing can't succeed if there's a spotlight shining on it. The whole idea is to do it by stealth, without informing parents. Thus "stochastic terrorism" is the way to silence her.
stiffly
1yr ago
It would have to be super depressing living somewhere and going to funerals all the time.
I remember hearing this interview with an older woman, and she was like, "I'm finished with men! I fall in love with them, and them with me, and then we get married, and then they die! I can't take it any more!"
Overall, it is white progressives, not right-wingers, who constitute the most intolerant group in America, and who are also far more likely to eschew contacts with political opponents than any group.
https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/#Losing_a_Friend_over_Politics
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