Josie and the Pussycats was lampooning our current celebrity obsessed, “influencer” obsessed, consumer lifestyle 20 years ago. Yes, there was certainly celebrity worship back then. But the way the movie portrayed it and the consumer greed that seeks to profit from it feels even more relevant today.

Why did the first notes from The Lion King just burst into my head?

Eight decades later, and all those lessons have been forgotten. Self-interested and shortsighted leaders have risen to the tops of many nations, and nationalistic rhetoric is gaining popularity again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss–Howe_generational_theory

In some ways, I’m a believer in the “80 year cycle, theory”. But to me, it’s a much simpler cause. 80 years is going to be roughly four generations removed from whatever the last chaos was (in this case, Hitler and Fascism and the Holocaust).

The generation that lived through it is long dead. They taught their children (My parents) to never forget. They in turn taught their children (Me…Gex X) to still remember what was fought for. And then the current generation (my kids if I had any) have a far less fundamental grasp on that history. We’re so far removed from that event that it’s been forgotten just long enough that it all makes an appearance again for the very same reasons. Because it’s an easy trap to fall into; blaming someone else for your problems.

All this has happened before and it will happen again. It’s as simple as “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it”.

Plasma:

“Here’s literally all the things… You sort it out, if you want. If not…whatever.”

Because people are dumb. And I don’t mean that in some flippant, off-hand, snarky way. I mean that in all dead seriousness. People are dumb.

The truest line ever written was from Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black.

“A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” The novelization of the film actually takes it a bit further and adds “A mob is only as smart as it’s dumbest member.”

Long story short, group-think skews towards the simplistic and instinctual. This election is close for the same reason that one scared cow will turn into a stampede even though the rest of them have no idea what they’re running from…because we’re wired to see that if other people are running, maybe we should be too…it’s a matter of survival.

A smart person can see past that and resist when they’re alone. But get them into a crowd of like minded individuals and we aren’t smart anymore. And people like Trump take advantage of that.

What is that, about tree-fiddy American?

Reagan and “trickle down economics” ushered in the 80s and poured gasoline onto Wall Street, empowering a thousand Gordon Geckos to abandon the middle class workers in the name of greater profit.

In Russia, Linux forks you!

My opinion of Musk has nothing to do with it. For the price of it, its ugly as fuck.

I’m not a fan of priuses either, but priuses don’t a) take wild swings in design in order to be “edgy” and b) price themselves according to supposed “cool points”.

With or without Musk, your choices reflect who you are. This guy bought an overpriced vehicle in order to be “cool” and now he’s butt hurt that no one agrees with him.

Best decision my (now ex) wife and I ever made. Not because we are divorced now. But because

a) I’m free to live my own life. and

b) Even back when kids was an option, she and I both kind of saw the world that was coming and decided that we didn’t want to subject our children or grandchildren to the world that was turning to shit.

Looking around today, I feel absolutely vindicated for taking that stance back in the early 2000’s when I was married.

I wouldn’t call this “inconsequential”, but not only is Deckard a Replicant, he’s a very specific Replicant.

Gaff (played by Eddie Olmos) was the original officer assigned to hunting down the escaped replicants, before Holden and before Deckard. When the escaped Androids originally tried to storm the Tyrell corporation, one of them got “fried” going through an electric fence. And it was either there, or in another encounter, that Gaff was wounded in the leg, forcing Holden to take over the case, and we know where that ended up…

I posit that the android that got “fried”, didn’t actually get fried. In concert with the Tyrell corporation, they programmed him with Gaff’s memories in order to finish the job, which is why Gaff is chaperoning him, driving him around; to make sure the memory implant holds. It’s why Gaff seems to know what he’s thinking and can make origami to give him hints. It’s why Gaff at the end of the movie says “You’ve done a man’s work”. And it’s why Gaff is such a dick to him. Imagine chaperoning your artificial replacement around that everyone thinks can do just as good a job as you…

I always watch Blade Runner from that perspective. At least until the sequel came out and ruined it for me.

Or maybe, just maybe, Europe has been around for soooo much longer than America that they’ve reached the age where they realize that there are other priorities in life than just the accumulation of wealth. Like enjoying life, having a work/life balance, socializing with one’s friends and family.

Perpsectives change when your history as a country is longer than a few hundred years.

No. It’s called the Paradox of Tolerance. “Discussing” rationally with the intolerant only serves to justify their position in their own eyes and thereby embolden them.

In other words, putting up with them simply gives them more ink

Turning the other cheek only works if the person doing the slapping has a sense of shame. Trump and his ilk have long since proven they have none.

Logic does not rely on assumptions. It relies on making deductions about what is probable when faced with the current knowledge.

I see what you are meaning, but it’s a misunderstanding of how the scientific method works. Base Assumptions never come into play.

The hypothesis comes from the existing evidence, not the other way around.

For example, Eratosthenes didn’t have an “assumption” that the earth was round and then said, “hmmm…how shall we test this?” Rather, he had heard from someone or other that at noon is a certain city, there was no shadow. While in another city, there was a shadow being cast by objects. He started to logically deduce why that could be. He had his evidence, that in one city to the south, no shadow, and in another city, a shadow of 7 degrees at the same time of day. He knew the distance between the two cities and deduced not only that the earth was round, but it’s size as well.

No gut assumptions necessary.

…pursue acquiring that family

That’s just such a weird creepy incel way to word that…

If Simon Whistler can host a thousand youtube channels and a new podcast every day of the week with just a handful of staff, freelance writers, and a couple of editors…

The unsealed documents make it clear that lawyers by and large were telling him over and over again in 2020 that the election was not stolen. My hope is that lawyers, I’m assuming most of whom have read those documents, tell him to pound sand when he approaches them this time around and as a result the loser just ends up shouting into the wind.

No downvote. I 100% agree.

Science is not a “belief”. It’s a “deduction”

One is based on logic. The other is based on gut feeling emotion.

edited: I feel like emotion is a better contrast in my analogy.

1. Your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins (metaphorically speaking)

2. “Facts” and “Beliefs” do not share equal weight in ANY policy discourse.

3. Whatever your religious beliefs (and you are welcome to them) stays at home when you are doing business or in any other way interacting with the public.