In my personal opinion, those folks need to lighten up. We’re talking about a completely fictional realm where there is plenty of fantasy diversity expressed in other ways, written by a British man who was born in 1892. Enjoy it or don’t, but there really isn’t much foundation to assume that Tolkien was trying to be racist with his literary choices.

From the Wikipedia article on Tolkien and race:

In his personal life, he was anti-racist both in peacetime and during the two World Wars.

Sure, we can throw in some black characters in new productions of his work, but judging the man by modern standards is just looking for outrage.

Oh, cool, I just missed the memo. It’s too bad they can’t change the community name to reflect that.

Squid Game isn’t a movie, so why is this posted in movies?

Please Jesus tell me you intended an /s at the end of that statement.

I heard that plenty in East Texas too.

So you want to sleep with your fiancée? I feel like I’m missing something. That is pretty normal.

One could argue that the purpose of life is self knowledge. As a part of the universe, we are driven to understand it. More recently, we know that self exploration through therapy resolves emotional traumas. Travel and exposure to other cultures tends to create compassion for them.

Γνῶθι σεαυτόν
Know Thyself

What’s the point of encrypted messaging if it just shares it with an LLM anyway?

I hated just about everyone in The Whale. Everyone who was enabling him was an accomplice to a murder, in my opinion. I also found the main character to be so revolting that I couldn’t muster much sympathy beyond my aforementioned blame towards his enablers.

I love challenging media, but that one had nearly nothing redeemable about it. I’d rather have a crack problem than a food problem after seeing that movie.

“If I see you on the street, I’ll shoot you.”

Better than nothing. Hopefully some good studies get published from this.

I’m starting to question the legitimacy of this publication.

I was not only talking about property crime, I was talking about throwing smoke bombs and rocks at the police.

Which, once again, I think is an entirely justified thing to do. My position hasn’t changed either, I suppose. I saw violent stuff, I think the violence is justified.

Well, when I first brought it up in this thread, I was responding to someone else and it was relevant. Now you and I seem to be locked in some sort of pointless back and forth where I keep feeling like you are interpreting my words to be the opposite of what I’m saying half the time, and then you respond with either a question or another misinterpretation.

We may be stuck here until the end of the universe at this rate.

The end result is just me repeating things that are still available to see on YouTube. I’m not breaking any news here.

You seem to think I’m making disparaging comments about the protestors. I fully support them and think they are entirely justified in using any means necessary to repel the illegal forces of government that are violating the rights of citizens.

I am only relaying what I have witnessed live through a camera lens, not casting judgment against them.

It was the smoke bombs and rocks that I consider violent, but I also think it is justified. Pacifist methods of resistance have been playing into the desires of the ruling class for a long time.

I mean, I actually think it is very possible to be more white than Italians—they weren’t even considered white in America until the last 100 years or so.

I wrote a longer comment further down in this thread—the group of 100 I saw live on @LordHito’s stream was definitely violent—some had what appeared to be homemade smoke bombs, they lit fires, and smashed some windows.

However, I think this response is entirely justified and the police have definitely been more violent than the protestors.

I don’t disagree with anything they’ve done, I just think it is disingenuous to say they were a peaceful mob, even though that is what the news has been mostly showing.

I want to preface this by saying that I support the protestors and any measures they deem necessary, but what you are saying does not match up with what I’ve witnessed. A live streamer who goes by @LordHito spent several hours streaming the protests after dark. Dozens of protestors seemed to have homemade smoke grenades, as well as rocks and anything else they could hurl easily. Fires were started and windows were broken.

That said, I think those are all entirely justified. The other option is to sit around while democracy dies, and that is unacceptable. There has no doubt been collateral damage, but so it goes in struggles against the government.

100%, the police have been more violent than the protestors and are the true aggressors, but many of protestors have not been the flower children you seem to imply they are. I won’t go so far as to say most, but definitely more than an insignificant amount.

I wish them the best in their struggle. They fight for all of us.