domain:eigenrobot.substack.com
I have another criticism of them in the link here if you would like to respond. Cowboy Bebop does not only have a substandard plot; it lacks any semblance of worldbuilding and logical consistency.
Honky Tonk Women, the episode I singled out as one of the worst of the early episodes in this regard? The entire plot relies on Spike going to that specific casino, at the same time the trade is happening, sitting down at the right table, looking very similar to the guy who is supposed to make the deal, deciding to keep one chip, bumping into the guy who was meant to make the deal and then accidentally swapping chips with him. What really gets me about this is not just the insane coincidence, it's also the fact that later in the episode Gordon offers to pay Spike for the chip and they make an attempt at swapping it again, but this time they don't faff around with any of that casino bullshit; they decide to stand on the surface of a spaceship to make the swap. It's unclear why they didn't just choose to do this in the first place, since it seems much easier to not be noticed all the way out in the wasteland of space and you don't have to cover up the transaction in a crowded venue under layers upon layers of byzantine obfuscation.
There's also the question of why they even got Faye in to facilitate this transaction as well, seeing that she's an outsider. Supposedly this is because of her quasi-mystical skill at cards, but... the guy wasn't even meant to bet the chip in the first place, he was just meant to tip her with it, so the skill that supposedly makes her a good fit for this job is not actually very useful. Then at the end Spike and Jet decide the tech hidden in the poker chip is too dangerous and decide to lose it by betting it on roulette at another casino, when it would just have been much easier and far safer to, I dunno, throw it into the sun? Smash it with a hammer? Would it not be trivially easy to destroy?
I found myself zoning out during the episodes as a result; I did so because the plot makes about the same amount of sense regardless of whether you actually pay attention or not. In addition, characters are often shallow, and the episode-to-episode emotional beats feel completely unearned because they are often trying to rush out a dramatic emotional conclusion without the appropriate space to do so. It's just very much carried by its aesthetic and style, and to me, that's not quite enough to make a show entertaining.
Then there's GitS. There's a lot of talking in that film, but I find it barely even has enough to chew on to discuss at length - the overarching plot is that an AI called the Puppet Master has been created by Section 6, it becomes sentient and demands political asylum while posing a small number of very ill-defined philosophical musings about what constitutes a mind even, and then spontaneously decides for itself that the purpose of any living organism is to reproduce and hybridise itself with other lifeforms. It's not clear why it would want this or how it has arrived at that judgement. It tries to make a poor analogy to the merits of sexual reproduction in biology by stating that a single computer virus could destroy all of its copies, but that doesn't work here; all of its copies would be modifiable and endlessly updatable in a way that the human brain currently isn't. There's also a serious lack of legibility in how the Puppet Master even thinks; you never get a good model of how its cognition works. It just comes up with wants and needs on the fly without any foreshadowing, which means the plot gets unpredictably dragged all over the place by some inscrutable god.
I was left with a profound feeling of "okay, I guess" after the film ended.
voters-eliot-azure
patently unbiased
11hr ago
Many movements don't have leaders, or if they do most of their own members probably couldn't identify them. Was GamerGate a movement? Tea Party? 99%ers? BLM? Are all of those words useless and should be dispensed with?
I mean, all of these are deeply different examples of movements that can't really be compared, apples-to-apples:
- GamerGate - grew out of relatively minor scandal, capitalized on a specific set of disillusioned individuals; may or may not have been significantly bankrolled and astroturfed by figures like Steve Bannon
- Tea Party - Anti-establishment movement within the Republican party, lots of younger blood; perhaps a knee-jerk reaction to Obama. Definitely had a lot of centralized planning and coordinated efforts, but paled in comparison to what the democrats were doing at the time and what Trump is doing now.
- 99%ers - response to a specific economic event, fizzled out as soon as the engine started running again
- BLM - initially a grassroots movement as a reaction to some very publicized injustice; later co-opted by a specific organization that seemed quite a bit like a grift, which probably contributed to it fizzling out.
The reason I bring those up is that I do judge those "movements" based on more than just "what they're about". The actual structure of the movement is just as important. That's why we care about grassroots movements more than ones bankrolled by PACs - we at least believe that the former represents the will of the electorate, where as the latter is just astroturfing.
It seems to be the consultants, focus groups, and corporate America that are guiding these decisions - not some National Wokism political action committee.
In other words, college-educated people.
Is the implication here that anyone with a college education is woke? I have a laundry list of counterexamples... My point is that profit-driven individuals and organizations probably overcalibrated to what they thought would sell to their target demographics, rather than some conspiratorial effort to inject woke ideology into our economy. I mean, the opposite probably happened in the 20th century where a certain concept of masculinity was sold to the masses, and we ended up with a John Wayne generation despite all evidence pointing to John Wayne being a pretty poor role model no matter your political tendencies.
FtttG
11hr ago
The US courts are surprisingly willing to accept that defence
It's been successfully deployed by both Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson, also.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
11hr ago
What did Mike Huckabee do?
georgioz
11hr ago
There definitely woke things which are centrally defined and driven, especially if it is implemented withing government. These are things like hate speech laws, various DEI labor requirements etc. Additionally even oldschool Marxist were constantly infighting, especially in power vacuum before some faction solidified their power: think about bolshevisks vs mensheviks or Stalinists vs Trockyists etc.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
12hr ago
Good luck finding the forest.
Southkraut
The rain fell gentlier.
12hr ago
They are well-made, but hardly well-written. CB can get away with in because it's just honest pulp, but GitS, like anything written by its author, is horribly pretentious yet superficial slop on the plot and characters side.
07mk
12hr ago
I'm yet another huge fan of Gurren Lagann, but I won't defend it. Given why you didn't like the 1st few episodes, I doubt that you'll enjoy the rest of it. The whole series is based almost purely around the power of hotbloodedness and sheer force of will allowing you to overcome anything, and that aspect of it only escalates as it goes on, until it spirals completely out of control by the end. The reason I'm a fan of the show (and the 2nd movie, which I consider the superior version of the climax and ending) is that the show leans into this theme so incredibly well that, through sheer force of will, it makes the absurdity and stupidity work.
voters-eliot-azure
patently unbiased
12hr ago
Even so, my assessment is that above a certain threshold of "freeness", really existing free markets tend to do better than centralized or relatively unfree markets.
Agreed. Something something Boris Yeltsin visits an American grocery store.
Ideally, I think we should have the minimum number of regulations and laws necessary to prop up a functioning and trustworthy market, along with things like pigouvian taxes and legal nudges to help the market avoid market failures.
Agreed.
But I'll grant that some forms of these are not directly or indirectly propped up by government, and I'm not against light touch, effective regulation that minimizes the damage to society without radically limiting the speed of growth and innovation.
Agreed.
I guess the nuance is what requires the most attention right now. On the regulatory capture side, probably healthcare. On the market capture side, to be "on-topic", maybe Visa / MasterCard - although regulation certainly plays a role there, their competitive moat is network effects. It'd be a bummer to see my "credit card rewards" kickbacks disappear, but I also know that all of my purchases are 1-2% more expensive (at least) because Visa and MasterCard have to have their cut.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
12hr ago
there are no Etruscans
That the Etruscans were assimilated into the Roman Republic is a matter of historical record.
Gauls
The French consider themselves to be Gauls.
Picts
Controversial in Scotland, to say the least
Carthaginians
I'll give you that one.
Trojans
If we go with schoolboy history, the Romans disagreed. If we go with modern archaeology, Troy was continuously inhabited from the Neolithic through to Roman times, and the Bronze Age Collapse hit Troy after Mycenae, meaning that the Iliad story of "Troy was destroyed by a Mycenae-led Greek army in the late Bronze Age" is proven false.
Deliberate genocide happens, but it is the exception and not the rule.
Damn, I'm sad to hear this. This is one of those times when I had really hoped that I was wrong about what was going on.
The problem, at least as I see it, is that even with this realization it's been hard for her to break her habits. We go out to brunch and she still eats her little vegan salads. I tell her she should add some chicken or other protein to the salads and she declines. She still consults the app on her phone that counts all her calories for the day. It's hard for me to figure out what the line is between pushing her to be healthier for her own sake, and being outright controlling over her lifestyle. Do I just put my foot down and confront her, pushing her to be serious about her health?
Here's the thing about all of this. You can't really control her behavior, and trying to do so is just going to be crazymaking for the both of you. It's her problem to deal with, and hardcore eating disorders are things that have to be managed, not problems that can be solved. It seems like you're really worried about her (and rightly so!) but the last thing you want to do in this situation is to behave in a pushy, controlling, or confrontational way. The most likely result of that kind of behavior is further withdrawal and further entrenchment of the eating disordered thinking--it just feeds the disease. Instead, I'd encourage you to see yourself as her ally, her first line of love and support, and think about your relationship with her on those same terms, which is to say that the more you can love, accept, and support her as she is, the more she'll be able to positively use her own strength constructively in her own life. You can still express your concerns or worry when she asks for feedback (which I'd recommend that you do as gently as you possibly can!) but otherwise those feelings are yours to deal with as well as you possibly can. You can check out The Secret Language of Eating Disorders by Peggy Claude-Pierre, it offers great insight into the minds of the eating disordered.
I said in my earlier reply that it's a long road, she needs a lot of people in her corner, and she needs to choose to work on this herself, yadda yadda yadda, and I'm afraid all of that is still true. Is that something you can live with? Think about what's best for you in this situation without any regard for whether or not she's going to be able to change her eating habits. Can you still love this girl and be happy even if she's always going to be controlling about her eating and even if she stays underweight? If the answer to those questions is a yes, then I'd encourage you to start with accepting that this is likely to be a chronic issue for the duration of your relationship with her, and I'd also encourage you to seek out and find support for those of us that love our eating disordered partners and spouses. There's bound to be lots of heartache and many bumps in the road, and the better you can do with keeping your own metaphorical oxygen mask secure, the better your relationship with her will fare.
Regardless, I still wish you well!
voters-eliot-azure
patently unbiased
12hr ago
Woke people have their own ontology of what is man and a woman, what is justice, with their own prescriptions of how society should work with their own sins such as racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia or homophobia.
To be fair, people who are violently anti-woke also have their own ontology of all of those things. Man is John Wayne, woman is kitchen appliance / baby incubator (/s).
I agree though, generally, that the parallels are there (re: the content of your 1st paragraph) - but they'll be there for literally any ideology that posits that classes in society are arbitrary and not meritocratic. What makes this distinct from Marxism, to me, is that none of these things are centrally defined. It's a consensus-driven ideology, not a top-down prescriptive ideology. And there's quite a bit of infighting as well, which elsewhere I point out, kind of prevents it from leaving the fringes of the leftwing. Does Nancy Pelosi give a shit about transgenderism beyond the token "statement from the office of"? She certainly doesn't fight against it, true, but I don't think she's ever been claimed as an "ally".
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
12hr ago
Bebop and GitS are not good, they have immaculate vibes but that’s about it. I think they’re mostly carried by nostalgia.
The hell is this, the Terrible Take Tuesday thread? Cowboy Bebop and GitS are not just good, they are excellent. The plot in Cowboy Bebop isn't that special (though that isn't what it's about), but overall both are great series.
oats_son
12hr ago
Looking into it again... maybe, yeah. The LibsOfTikTok thing was pretty relevant to bring up for that story in particular. Trace never disavowed the hoax, and then he wrote another thing that was sorta relevant to it. It is also noteworthy that Trace waged the culture war outside of this forum in a more real way than almost anyone who has ever commented here with the LibsOfTikTok thing.
Trace has a history of being, I dunno, mentally unstable in terms of his online persona, with TheSchism and then this swearing off of the site. Given those two actions, I think it's fair to say that he was never very in love with the principles of this site in the first place, a "fair weather friend". I'm not in disagreement that rules like the one we operate under can be a burden, and that sometimes, it's best to drop all pretenses of fairness and tell people to bugger off, but since this is a public forum and low effortposters and partisans naturally select themselves out and everyone else can only just... reply to your posts, it's not a huge problem. In contrast, Twitter sucks. I've tried it and I found a couple profiles I like other than Trace, but the format doesn't really lend itself to good conversation like a place like this does. Everything peters out, Trace is fickle at best at responding to his commenters, character limit, have to click many times to continue reading conversations, etc.
Oh well. If he wants to join the McDonald's of websites, the Universal Culture melting pot shitstorm and thinks it's better, what can I say? I guess it probably is better for him since he wants more exposure.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
12hr ago
Sounds good to me. Like I said, get the medical test, open and shut case from there.
Stonewall about the medical test... well...
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
12hr ago
Bebop and GitS are not good, they have immaculate vibes but that’s about it. I think they’re mostly carried by nostalgia. If you thought that was the best anime had to offer then I wouldn’t blame you for writing it off.
Most of my absolute favorite Japanese stories come from VNs and JRPGs rather than anime/manga. Although I do think there are some great anime-original stories. But if you like Ghibli movies I may not be the best person to give you recommendations, based on the alignment of our tastes. The only Ghibli movie I think is really great is Mononoke.
western civilization despised these people
Not only western civilization, also ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, rooted in the Near East; The Assyrian and Babylonian empires, also Egypt.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
12hr ago
Elections being held or not held is neither here nor there, it's perfectly reasonable not to hold them during wartime. Running the country under a constant state of martial law is however somewhat concerning from a liberal-democratic point of view.
The US could've pressured Ukraine into holding elections with the immense amount of leverage America possesses. If they stopped funding Ukraine the bottom falls out from the Ukrainian war effort. It's well within America's power to replace Zelensky. That's what BigGuy is actually talking about. The US however doesn't want to particularly stir the boat after all the rhetorical and emotional investment in Zelensky, plus it's more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic than anything productive.
All Ukrainian decisions are taken in an atmosphere that American patronage enables. If it weren't for US economic and military support, the war would've ended by now with a clear Ukrainian defeat.
This line of argument you keep making 'oh these people think the US is this unrealistic, omnipresent, hyperagentic state and others are merely reactive' is particularly inappropriate for a country like Ukraine which is so heavily dependant on American aid. It's unhelpful in general but egregious here.
The US invented the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, NATO, Bretton Woods... America is a very big and rich country, highly interventionist, with many fingers in many pies. Not everything comes out of America but the US is very important.
hydroacetylene
12hr ago
No, it’s proof of fearmongering campaigns succeeding at generalizing thé behavior of the bottom 20% of men.
There are various non-invasive tests for karyotype. If Mme Macron is 46XX, no court is going to order a physical examination.
Owens' only defense here is going to be "I was joking and everyone knows it, so my claims don't count as statements of fact." The US courts are surprisingly willing to accept that defence (see "pedo guy") but Owens calling Mme Macron a man consistently over several years makes it harder.
Can you run two inconsistent defences in a civil trial in the US? You can in a criminal trial ("I didn't kill him, and if I did it was self defence.") But in England that isn't allowed in a civil case. Even if she can, I suspect Owens doesn't ask for medical tests because it makes it harder to make "I was joking" stick.
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
12hr ago
If Israel starves all Gazans to death, there would probably be a severe international response. We are seeing consistent public opinion shifts against Israel already. Mike Huckabee’s recent shift is a telling example. There’s also been a general shift against Judaism among the public. The question is how much Israel can torture the civilians before there is sufficient moral pressure to make them stop.
thejdizzler
12hr ago
What? The Arabs living in actual Israel have full citizenship and famously have representation in the Israel parliament. If you're going to be a jew-hater at least get the facts right.
Despise is a strong word. Sure the Babylonians annihilated Jerusalem, but the Israelites did foolishly try to rebel, and moving around conquered populations was a common tactic. Cyrus the Great famously let the exiles return and rebuild their temple. They did get into conflict with the Greeks and Romans over their unique heno/monotheistic thing.
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