Ericthescruffy

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.

Like I get parents being scared of having disabled kids for the financial strain if nothing else, but like afaik most autistics can be self sufficient and independent with the right developmental help.

It's basically been a long running joke in my family that back in my father and grandfather's day we didn't have people with autism. We just had engineers.

He was yet another in the long line of people accurately identifying the abuses of capitalism but attributing them to communism.

I don't know if that's really fair characterization? I know Orwell in pop culture has essentially been a CIA op but having read Animal Farm I think its more accurate to say that he was accurately identifying the abuses of capitalism and claiming that communism under Stalin had essentially become a mirror image of them.

Now obviously that's a take I know many on this site would heavily push back on but still...what I know of Orwell strikes me more as being the quintessential "westsplainer". IE: the equivalent of modern day leftist thinkers in the west who denounce China for being not real communism and/or doing the thing wrong.

social credit score

My favorite bit about the social credit score is to point out we essentially have the exact same thing here in the west also...we just don't have the social part of it. In practice your credit score still typically defines where you can live and what resources you have available.

He should have been the one to fill his dark soul with LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTT!!!!

Said it before many many times: I genuinely unironically think every good leftist should go out and borrow or pirate a copy of Peter Thiel's zero to one because it's a shockingly honest glimpse into how the ultra rich actually think. He directly engages with and actually concedes that many critiques of capitalism are essentially correct, like how markets inherently bend towards monopoly in order to maximize profit. Rightwing media figures are generally just cheerleaders but the people they work for at the highest level know how this game actually works.

My dad passed away about 10 years ago due to complications from a long term chronic illness. I've had to do a lot of unpacking and work in that time especially following my own divorce. A pretty common trend you see among kids who have had parents that needed the kind of long term care and medical impact my dad had is it's not really until after they pass that you can sort of separate them as a person from the disease and the impact it had on your lives. We also have some weird overlaps with children of narcissistic parenting because we usually wind up not having all our needs met growing up. Lots of codependency issues.

Tldr; I had a great dad and I love and miss him, for all his failings. Honestly: just imagine if Hank Hill was a marine turned chef and you can kinda get the picture. Simple man who couldn't even understand me half the time but loved me unconditionally every second we were together even while he was trying to keep his own shit together.