Ericthescruffy

A lot of American soldiers, just like a lot of Americans otherwise, have main character syndrome.

There was a reddit post a while back from some troop who had regrets who really summed it up well saying: "When I enlisted I thought I was signing up to be Luke Skywalker. Instead I realized one day I was just another faceless Stormtrooper."

I love the Republic!

Reminds me of how China was stupid and backward for overreacting to sars and then overnight we suddenly were told to be very skeptical of their numbers and even question if they leaked it themselves. Legit...I take everything in western media with a huge grain of salt these days.

Ultimately whatever your feelings on this action...Isn't this kinda the inevitable conclusion without any effort to de-escalate?

The ruling class has made it perfectly clear that any and all posturing and moralizing about political violence and human rights is complete cynical horseshit so inevitably you're going to have people that call them on it. Wrong target, wrong method et al.....I don't know how we really are supposed to engage in that kind of dialogue when nobody in authority seems to have any interest in doing so.

What is the politics of Pac-Man?

Just as a surface read: something about strength through consumption or nourishment to overcome obstacles and enemies. Also: ghosts are bad.

I don't think it's a gotcha at all, but rather an important additional point that just because all art/media is inherently political does not also automatically mean all art/media is inherently deep or complex. The saying is less the idea that all art/media has secret political messaging and more an observation that because all art/media has human voices and creativity behind it it objectively means that it has their own views and biases baked into it.

Exactly. All art and media is political. No exceptions. The degree to which you consider a piece of media/art 'Apolitical' is the degree to which it either reinforces or at least does not challenge the politics you consider to be 'normal'.

I never knew that but fuck me does that track. Honestly between this and like 90% of the people my company employees I'm starting to wonder if country boys are all imaginary and it's nothing but petty bourgeoisie cosplaying all the way down.

Edit: fuck me. I made this joke to my SO and she laughed and said: "duh. Babe.... do you think you can actually be that level of country bumpkin and own land???" It is all fucking cosplay. Even the people who live in cheap ass housing on this shit do it to get the homestead tax credit it sounds like.

Nobody gives a shit about the events that happen in your story. They care about how the events impact the characters of your story. Your audience will never get invested in the stakes of the story if the characters aren't invested in them.

I don't want to say they bare zero responsibility for remaining ignorant and never seeking basic media literacy but: partly I really do think it's an inevitable consequence of both neoliberalism and the cult of celebrity. Art under neoliberalism is about commodifying and branding everything and I think most mainstream actors of today's generation are basically always playing two roles in any project. There's the role they have in the film, and the role they play on late night, press junkets, and social media that everyone in fandom sees. Most marvel stars are especially good examples of this one. People get thrown for a loop with a legend like de niro because he doesn't have to play that game and people aren't ready for it.

I always find it so hilarious that neoliberals will simultaneously build their lives and world views around hypothetical technological solutions that will resolve resource/logistical realities like magic and then turn around and say that the problem with Communism is that its too utopian or idealistic.

I personally know like several guys here in the US that would enter into a relationship with an obviously evil demon if that demon had a cartoonishly artificial set of booba.

I mean to be fair...some of us are into obviously evil demons for their personality....

The allegory gets dicey when you consider the distinction between Capitalism and Feudalism but: the story begins with the revolution against the Farmer Mr. Jones who obviously is a symbolic stand-in for the ruling class. The story ends with the pigs under napoleon playing cards and drinking with the local human farmers from the surrounding areas and the other animals watching them and finding human and pig being literally and figuratively indistinguishable from one another. The essence of the story is a cautionary tale about how revolutionary politics can end with the same systems of oppression and class being replicated and reinstated. Orwell I think was pretty explicit in his critique of the USSR and Stalin, but the entire reason why Napoleon and the Pigs in Animal farm are the villains is that they ultimately betray the spirit of the revolution and choose to enrich themselves and effectively become no different than the ruling class they overthrew.