natellite

I love Hardcore History! But I think it's most useful when used as a jumping-off point for continued interest into an event or period of history than the sole piece of information, because yeah, the show has a bombast problem. It's the complete opposite end of the spectrum from my freshman year world history class, where the professor sat down, lectured from his notes in an unbroken monotone for 50 minutes, stood up, and left. Refreshing and fun, but sometimes a little loosey-goosey on the details. That isn't meant to scare anyone off! But it's good to be aware exactly what Carlin is aiming for with that podcast; namely, an engaging narrative that's fun to listen to.

Yeah, that's a great point, too. HBO has a lot of incentive to get the most out of their "YOU CAN'T SHOW THIS ON NBC!!!!" image, hence the lesbian fisting orgy. (That probably happened, right? I haven't seen the show since season 1.)

Yes, but I think the point being made there was that HBO doesn't care how aware of Game of Thrones' problems you are, they've still got your money - and that, at the end of the day, is what drives decisions at the level and scale of something like an HBO show. Awareness is important, but if "awareness" is where your critical involvement with the product begins and ends, it amounts to slightly less than a hill of beans. It is the absolute bare minimum standard. That said, I also think it's a huge leap from what I just wrote to "remove all problematic things from your life forever" because 1. good luck lol and 2. I don't think something's cultural worth hinges entirely on whether or not it passes a litmus test. I just don't think we're there yet.

FWIW, everything on Polygon written about Game of Thrones is by Ben Kuchera or Brian Crecente. Reviewers aren't typically writing features like that; my understanding is that Polygon is a pretty heavily demarcated organization with regards to your role. It's likely a waste of time to have a reviewer writing things about this show unless they have something really interesting or insightful to add. I think Arthur has been doing this kind of thing long enough that it's safe to assume that he's aware of the problematic elements in Game of Thrones, but I'm also deeply skeptical of the value in trying to infer anything about him either as a feminist or as a person based solely on his TV-watching habits. That way lies madness.

Hah! Joke's on you, Hideo, I already feel ashamed of my words and deeds 100% of the time.

fuck what you heard

Well, in other news, I've been working my way through Discworld a book at a time, and I've reached Guards! Guards!. The realization that this book is literally just Hot Fuzz in Ankh-Morpork makes me want an Edgar Wright Discworld movie more than I've wanted just about any book adaptation ever made.

I think they did way better with Romulans in DS9 than in TNG. There are a couple of really good Romulan arcs in DS9.

Metal Cap?!

Right, and he's mistaken about that - as a rich, straight, white guy he is more likely to actually influence people just by existing in his position of perceived power and authority than Anita is. This is why, as Deadpan noted, one of the primary responsibilities of male supporters of feminism is to talk to other men. I didn't mean to imply that radical politics in general needed to go under the bus - someone has to do it, and naturally that term is going to imply something different to everyone. I'm just generally exhausted by the stuff I was steeped in for years. I'm sure other people's experiences with it were more positive.

I've agreed with both sides of that particular point, to be honest. I don't have a problem with men calling themselves feminists - lord knows the patriarchy affects men, too - my problem is with the men who think that the 'feminist' label necessarily gives them an authority role, like they're barging into our sewing party, rolling up their sleeves and finally getting things done. I don't care what you call yourself as long as you have, like, the minimum of respect and self-awareness; you gotta know when to speak up and when to stay in your lane, or at least know when to ask. Marketing is important, but by your works shall ye be judged, you know? But, like, that's just me, too, and I know at least one other completely brilliant woman who would totally disagree with me. It's all very fraught and complicated and difficult.

The really infuriating thing is that he isn't even wrong. I'm hugely frustrated with the leftist inclination toward eating one's young - it's why I've gotten away from radical queer spaces over the years. I just don't have that kind of righteousness in me anymore, it burns me up and leaves me empty. I'm done with sniffing out and bringing to light ideological impurity like it's some kind of fucked-up inquisition. But the messenger, in this case, is as important as the message, and I'm sick to death of being preached to by rich white men about how to correctly perform feminism. This is why the other side is so much better at this. At least they can stay on-message.

Aww, I love being talked down to by dudes who think they know how to "fix" feminism.

Yeah, you're right about that, but there's a rich history of feminist film critique that has existed and endured for decades before this group came around. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that people are looking at major films through a different lens. But I guess it's different because this is their movie that they like.

I have kind of a weird request. I'm looking for a book from my childhood. It was a YA novel about MUDs. I don't remember much about it, except that it was about a young woman who gets introduced to online roleplaying on some kind of fictional fantasy MUD, and is totally entranced by the experience, and I think there's some kind of, like... cyber-intrigue surrounding a burgeoning online romance and breaking into a college's server farm or something like that. The only thing I remember about the book (I think) was that the cover was red. Did anyone else read anything like that? Am I just going crazy?

On the other hand, I just had a thought - I completely understand the need, as someone with anxiety, to throw oneself wholeheartedly into opinions, into both self-aggrandizement and exultation of beliefs. It's the pendulum swinging in the other direction - saying "actually, I'm great, and everything I do is great, fuck you if you disagree" provides a brief, intoxicating moment of clarity through the fog that settles over your life and your sense of self. It doesn't excuse anything, and I'm not presuming to speak about why anyone does anything to deal with their own illness. But I can also see how that would progress from being a coping mechanism to just being a lifestyle choice, learned behavior. Still wish he'd be a little more thoughtful about it, though.

Well and it's ridiculous, too, that the hypocrisy of this feigned outrage isn't even apparently part of the conversation. The people decrying SJWs harassing Joss off twitter are the same people who haven't just been willfully ignoring the harassment of people like Zoe and Anita and so on, they've been perpetrating it. But a day, maybe two days of vocal criticism, not about Joss Whedon's worth as a person but about a product that he conceived, commodified, and sold? Well, that's a bridge too far. Really, my only question is why people seem to be collectively buying it. The other side is way better at this kind of thing than we are - it's true in politics and it's true here, too. Maybe most folks are prepared to assume the worst just on principle.

I'm not Casey Malone, and I'm not about to try and change anyone's mind about anything on twitter. But if I were, I would say that highly socialized systems are way better at encouraging people to follow their dreams, because with a sophisticated system of social safety nets (say that five times fast) you can actually afford to fail, which is not a luxury afforded to everyone or indeed almost anyone in America. America encourages people to dream if and only if you already have the money to turn your dreams into a product while also vouchsafing your health and well-being. It turns out: That's a lot of money. It's way easier to be an indie dev in Canada or, say, Sweden than it is to be one in America. Dan Ryckert has led a blessed life and has, apparently, known no hardship at the hands of a monolithically unsympathetic system. I can't fault him for that. But I don't really know why he felt the need to go to bat for our economic system against someone who was clearly upset about it - surely capitalism needs no defense, if it's all that it's cracked up to be. I just have a really hard time with how unthoughtful Dan apparently is.

No, I'm sure that's true. I've actually had one or two pretty good games as a jungling Legion, it's mostly just that at my MMR (pretty effing low) it's hard for most people to get the momentum together to be really effective.

I'm pretty sure this isn't worth making its own thread for, but I've been playing agar.io basically nonstop today in between classes. It's basically online multiplayer Osmose, or the first level of Spore played with dozens of other people at the same time. You pick your own name, so naturally people are using slurs of every flavor - so, you know, consider yourself warned. But man, it's fun.

I think all the Alien movies are worth watching in their own way, they're all really, really interesting, even when they're bad. But for the purposes of this exercise, only the first movie is probably necessary. If we want we can have an Idle Viewers: Alien Marathon Movie of the Year vs XxXXenomorphXxX movie watch later on or something but when people talking about the Alien franchise as a feminist work, they're talking about the first movie. Also I'm really really excited to see A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, I haven't had the chance before now but that movie is right up my alley.

Allegedly. I've never seen a Legion jungle that wasn't fodder.

Yeah, I lost a bunch too. Luckily Insight isn't the worst thing in the world to lose in your first run, and you can always bell for it if there's something you really want.

Yay! This gives me a little more incentive to finish my term paper early too, I'd hate to miss Alien

what the heck this is the cutest thing ever