Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]

gaypayoo

I watched that clip on CNN and after saying that Trump accused Elon of having Trump Derangement Syndrome. Extremely funny stuff.

CW: liberal zionism, genocide apologia

https://www.vox.com/politics/414049/reading-books-decline-tiktok-oral-culture

I was reading this article, which is interesting but flawed, about how a group of thinkers believe that society is devolving from a literate culture back into an oral culture (and how that will spell the doom of Liberalism, and herald the return of tyrant kings). The author is ambivalent about that premise while maintaining that the overall decline in literacy is not good and probably a sign of bad things to come. I was even thinking of making a post out of it. But then I got to this bit:

[T]here are several reasons to question the broader premise that declining deep literacy is the driving force behind illiberal politics in America today.

…

Likewise, illiberal leftists — such as those who authored apologias for the October 7 massacre — are not typically distinguished by their lack of literary erudition (and much the same can be said of liberal intellectuals who’ve rationalized Israeli war crimes in Gaza). Nor were the Stalinists of yesteryear especially unacquainted with libraries.

Maybe it’s just my personal hatred of the word ‘illiberal’, but I can’t bring myself to engage more with the article, which kind of peters out at the end anyway. The author seems unclear where to point the blame for America’s illiberal turn. Is it that nativist hicks are forcing the educated elite out of power? Is it that phones are bad? But what about these stats that indicate phones are good and made us woke about the gays? But how does that fit with the existence of Andrew Tate, the evil man who lives in the phone of every teenage boy? Socrates once condemned writing, so maybe if I say AI is bad somebody will think that makes me look a fucking idiot so I won’t say that even though I believe it.

I really was thinking about how I suspect the idea that America was once shaped by an engaged and literate electorate (as was theorized earlier in the article) is misguided, that the US has long taken its cultural cues from the elites, that those elites were once well-educated people engaged in the project of Liberalism, and then once education became for the hoi polloi and Liberalism lost its moral standing to Socialism the elites gave up all pretense of giving a shit sometime around when JFK took one to the dome. I mean there’s more to it than that because obviously the views of the masses have mattered and had an effect on things (largely in how the bourgeois respond to those views) but not in the orderly-and-learned-citizens-engaging-in-(non-disruptive)-civic-duty way I feel was implied early on in the article. You could also make an argument that the elites never gave a shit at all, that it was always a farce, that all this is business as usual and the only difference is that now even VOX writers can see that. But the whole thing ends on such a disappointing note and I’ve got better things to do with my time (I should have been asleep two hours ago), so I’m not going to think any more about this.

Didn’t they already try to bomb a boat that Greta could’ve been on like a month ago?

I watch a bit of Dropout and on one of their shows there was a bit where they had a celebrity judge and they were doing a survivor parody, I think. Can’t remember who the celebrity was, I guess it doesn’t matter. But Adam Conover was there, sort of randomly because he’d never been in an episode of that particular show before, and I remember thinking it was clear that he was only there because he was friends with the boss and must have wanted a chance to be around the celebrity guest. He just stuck out like a sore thumb because this was one of their improv shows which are entirely built around the actors’ rapport with one another, a sizable part of the appeal is that you can tell all the performers and crew are friends who are hanging out, and none of the other performers seemed to know what to do with or say to Adam. I didn’t necessarily feel like the other performers disliked Adam or anything, it was just very much the “friend of a friend who you don’t know or have anything in common with has come to the get-together and it’s making things slightly awkward” vibe.

Also he just wasn’t very funny.

I actually kinda like Rogue One but the main thing I remember about the movie is that when they properly introduce the blind monk character, Chirrut Îmwe, it’s in the middle of a fight and he shows up to knock out stormtroopers with his walking stick. And at first it’s sort of cool, but then it goes on forever, and it starts to feel silly, and you can feel the cracks in the choreography because you start to think “surely one of these guys would just shoot him in the back” and then the character is just there and basically doesn’t do or say anything of significance until his death scene. Sort of the problem of the entire movie in microcosm. Lots of interesting ideas for characters that don’t get much to do or say. Even the best fleshed out character, Jyn, feels contradictory and ultimately thinly characterized.

As I always say, the novelization is much better.

Hey I don’t know how aware you are of this but they just put out a biopic about your life, mostly about you joining the rebellion. It was pretty good, they got Diego Luna to play you and everything. Maybe a little prettier than the real thing, eh? Anyway, while watching I kept waiting for you to directly address the audience and specify that you are the exact same type of communist that I am, but you never did. Why was that cut from the film, do you think?

They’ll never invent trains. You just can’t enshittify a train to the necessary level of profitability for these monsters.

I love AOTC, on paper. A hard-boiled detective story; Star-crossed lovers; A political thriller; All set across the epic backdrop of space in an age where a once great government is coming to its end. What’s not to love?

In practice though if ROTS is a screw-up child, and TPM is like a kid who you thought was going to be president but then ended up as a working mid-tier stand-up comic like just enough to make a living but not enough to “make it”, then AOTC is a kid who grew up to be a serial killer.

Also I’m pretty sure the novelization is by R.A. Salvatore. I’ve not read it but I have read some of his other novels and the man’s not a miracle worker like Stover.

I love the version of AOTC that lives in my head, but every seven years or so when I convince myself to do a rewatch I find I just can’t enjoy it. Some really great ideas, but the execution of them is something else. I really think that with the right script doctor, some judicious editing, and maybe a second director who is just in charge of the actors, it could have been something really great. But what we’re left with is tough to love. But I respect you for doing what I can not.

Clearly it’s too late now, but I think the answer is to just jump into watching A New Hope.

Also I can’t believe we learn some of Luthen’s backstory. I just assumed he was someone a bit like Mon Mothma, using his real name and the real identity he had during the time of the Republic as an antiquities dealer as a cover for his rebel activities. Much more interesting to learn that he was an NCO with a penchant for artifacts who got fed up one day and made a choice of where to stand, just like the people he recruits. Interesting that it seems no one, not even Kleya, will ever know Luthen’s real name or who he really was before he rebelled.

Incredible that Tony Gilroy came along and just made the best thing Star Wars has put out since 1980. Why would he do that?

My personal enjoyment of the operatic tragedy that is Revenge of the Sith might edge out Andor, slightly, but loving ROTS is what I imagine it must feel like to have a kid who’s a real screw-up. You love them and you see all the best parts of them, but you can’t deny the mistakes they’ve made. But unlike ROTS I don’t needs to qualify my enjoyment of Andor. It’s not like twenty years from now I’m going to say “oh I like Andor but have you read the novelization? It completely realizes what that show was trying to do,” like I do now with both ROTS and Rogue One.

I think next paycheck I’m going to splurge and buy a lot of the old X-wing novel series if I can find one that’s not too high.

The last bootleg feed I knew of for Trueanon (jumble.top I believe) seems to be down. A sad day when I can’t get podcast slop for free but there’s no world in which I am paying $5 a month for Trueanon, a podcast. Easy come easy go.

Talked to the guy at work who loves WH40K and he said “You know that show made me switch from rooting for the Rebels to rooting for the Empire. Because you see in Andor they don’t have it that bad.”

And I said “haha yeah” because what can you even say to a statement so baldly wrongheaded.

I am formally demanding that the site admins change both the domain name and the associated site branding of this website to hexarmadillo

Disney must really be paying for a marketing blitz for their new marvel movie, because my twitter timeline is full of it.

I don’t watch marvel movies, I don’t much like them, I don’t interact with posts about them. If I do, it’s usually accounts I follow making fun of whatever the latest Marvel slop is. The recent Captain America movie they did, Deadpool & Wolverine, Doctor Strange, etc. I really only see posts mocking these films. When a marvel movie is (comparatively) well-received I really don’t see much about it. I heard the latest Guardians of the Galaxy movie was well liked, I didn’t see a single post about that film. The last time I can remember there being serious activity on my TL is either when everyone was making fun of the Scarlet Witch show or when everyone was making fun of Eternals.

But this new Thunderbolts movie, I swear every other post is about it. Not from accounts I follow, either. Not making fun of the movie, but excitedly buying into its marketing gimmicks. Every post is Taskermaster this, New Avengers that, Florence Pugh is slayying in this one queen. I hate it. I’m not interacting with this posts, I demand they go away.

One more sign I should stop using social media, but do I ever learn?

Someday I’ll check to see if I’ve actually got the right mega before clicking post.

Removed by mod

Just watched Louis Theroux’s new doc about Israeli settlers. I felt like his life was in danger every time he talked to one of them. They are all armed, deranged lunatics.