I really like this, and the other one of his portrait photo that was just run through the yellow filter. I didn't have anything to chime in on the real memorial threads, but seeing this lion memorialized through shitposts is honestly good for my heart.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Also Kilmer batman is objectively hottest batman and also died recently.

[–] mickey@hexbear.net 3 points 12 hours ago

While I may have to defer on matters of preference, you say objectively, yet Adam West also played Batman thonk

And RIP to a real one, I have been meaning to watch the 90s Batman movies at some point. Maybe I can roll Point Break soon for some Kilmer action.

[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A little while back there was a small group of people who reached out to Parenti's kids, who were taking care of him due to the progression of his dementia, and asked if they could visit to meet him and pay their respects.

They reported that he seemed happy and well cared for and, from memory, they also said that they explained to him that he had become a topic of memes amongst the left and they showed him some. If I'm recalling correctly, he seemed to be a bit puzzled by the memes but he appreciated them.

I'm not a very sentimental person and I don't believe in the afterlife but I think that if Parenti could see it, he would be equal parts touched and baffled by all the shitposts in memoriam. (And honestly, I feel the same way.)

[–] mickey@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes I remember that! Maybe it's not quite the level of Bob Dylan going to meet Woody Guthrie, but it can be our own little legend - and shoutout to those comrades and Parenti's children for making that happen.

[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, it was very cool reading about that when it happened.

It's a bit heartbreaking for me to remember that because, prior to that point, there wasn't any real confirmation about why Parenti stepped out of the (admittedly small) limelight to seemingly retire but I could tell it was due to dementia because I could see the early signs of it in his lectures and there's a clear progression of symptoms over the passage of time. I probably shouldn't have done this but online occasionally people would ask what happened and occasionally I'd respond telling them what I had observed and that it had all the hallmarks of the onset of dementia. It sucks to knowing you're right while hoping you're wrong, only to eventually get confirmation that you were right the whole time.

It feels like such a cruel injustice to have such a sharp mind robbed of its capacity like that.

[–] mickey@hexbear.net 1 points 11 hours ago

Yeah dementia is really brutal. I feel a similar way to your closing sentence when Tom Magliozzi from Car Talk got Alzheimer's and had to stop making new episodes back 2012.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 4 points 23 hours ago

This made me tear up a little. Okay more than a little.