Dr. Gonzo

And yet misogyny has run rampant throughout human history and women still have to fight for equal rights and protections as men... basically all over the world. As a result, it's not surprising there are TV shows, films, books, etc... that have political messaging in support of equality for women. Companies having political values or putting out political messages isn't anything new. Especially in films, which are a form of art. There's always been politics in art, in the Rennaissance... most art was actually political (even the very religious stuff). Art has famously been used for propaganda (which is political) since... probably since the concept of "art" became a thing. As a result, it's not surprising a filmmaker puts their political values into a film. And honestly... Star Wars itself originally is a story about fighting off fascism to restore democracy. The prequels are very much about how easy it is to lose democracy and slide into fascism - with a lot of not-so-subtle criticisms of Bush and the Iraq war. So political ideas in a Star Wars film are not new either. Feminist ideas aren't even new to Star Wars. The leader of the Rebel Alliance is Mon Mothma, a woman portrayed as a strong and respected leader fighting for freedom in the galaxy. Princess Leia needs to be rescued by Luke, Han, and Chewie... but she never seems like a weak character. She withstands getting tortured by the Empire, watches her family (and planet) get murdered in front of her eyes, and never once seems to display weakness at all before Imperial leadership. Her character is considered a feminist hero by many for good reason. I think Disney are pretty not subtle about the way they do it... and a lot of what they do tbh feels like obvious "LOOK WE ARE INCLUSIVE AND THEREFORE GOOD" to pat themselves on the back. And then other times, like with Andor, their political messaging is really well done and brilliant. I don't think anyone likes sloppy political messaging that just seems like forcing in some sort of ideas of diversity - it's just lazy tokenism. What I liked least about the Disney trilogy of Star Wars was the absolute dogshit writing. I didn't hate Rey because she was a woman Jedi, disliked Rey because she's a poorly written character it was fucking stupid that with barely any guidance or training she's suddenly a master at the force. If this director that "End Wokeness" is worried about can put her political messaging in line with... the traditional political messaging of Star Wars and can tell a good story that's well written, I will probably like her film. If her political messaging is sloppy tokenisms and the film is poorly written, I'll think it's shit. But I'm not going to think it's shit because of "wokeness" - I think wokeness is an entirely meaningless term. "Oh no, some film and TV show has political messaging" - no shit, that's always been the case. If you don't like the political messaging, don't watch it. And I do think that the people who use the terms "woke" and "wokeness" as a pejorative descriptor are definitively racist and/or. They don't like the idea of people they don't believe as equal to be portrayed as equal to them in popular culture. For instance, if the idea of Disney casting a black woman as Ariel in the Little Mermaid upset anyone... I know 100% that they are a racist. It's a fucking mermaid, why does the skin colour matter? It doesn't, it's just people being pissed off something they remember from their childhood is now depicting Ariel as someone they see as "lesser" - and they see her as lesser because they're racist. So then they say things like "Disney is woke" and "go woke, go broke" because otherwise what they'd want to say and tweet would probably include the n word and get them widespread condemnation. If someone made the works of Ayn Rand into a film or TV show, I'm not going to watch it because I know it's going to be shoving libertarian values that lead society towards fascism down my throat. And Ayn Rand was a terrible writer aside from being a terrible person. By the same token, I don't know why any libertarians or far right people would want to watch Star Wars - it's a franchise where the political messaging has always been against their values. tl;dr - films are a form of art, art has always been political, worrying about politics in art too much is stupid.

Yeah, even if Szoboslai is out. I wouldn't expect us to ever use a traditional back 3 unless we're doing something like trying to hang onto a 1 goal lead with the last 10-15 minutes left. I also think Jones has demonstrated he's pretty well rounded this season - he's improved every aspect of his game, defensively and offensively. Either way, it's infinitely more protection than the back two was given last season with midfielders that had no legs left chasing shadows while the defense was constantly under pressure. And even then we didn't resort to a back 3 - and I think that's for good reason.

@Redcanuck - ISIS has taken credit for the attack

They are but they aren’t really that big anymore. They’re still banned in Iran, so they can’t run for any political office. Most of the more active people from the party were killed in part of the mass purges of the 80s and the rest are in exile.

@Redcanuck - we'll probably never know, but AP seems to think it's ISIS (which I take to mean this had some Saudi involvement), the IR is quick to blame Israel for it - which has members of Iranian opposition claiming that it was the IR itself in a false flag attack. There's certainly history for that, with things like Cinema Rex. MEK are, in my mind, the most likely suspects because a terrorist attack that targets a large number of children as well as those connected to the government seems like the kind of stupid move they would do. They're absolutely hated in Iran, despite their close ties with the American right-wing. I feel bad for the kids though. Iran does this a lot with their big televised propaganda events: they'll bus in shitloads of poor people and their kids in to participate in propaganda events with the promise of giving them food. Now there's 95 people dead and over 200 injured... and a lot of them are kids. But I doubt we'll ever know who was truly behind this. Personally... I think it's an inside job. It seems conspiratorial - but it is surprising that no high level sepahis were at the procession. Like with the Shah Cheragh attack... I think this is similar to the Cinema Rex attack of the 70s. The Shah got the blame, but most evidence pointed towards it being done by pro-Islamacists that would eventually foist Khomeini's reign of terror on Iran.

I hate traditional back 3s, I hope we don't go with one even without Endo.

I think the way we play is far off from how sides with a back 3 typically play, imo. And with the way we play, I think there've been times where MacAllister's been alright as a 6 in our system... but I think seeing Endo over the last month highlights how much better our midfield can be with a more natural player in the role.

Oh shit did he get hurt? I think he's just been pretty sloppy with the ball lately but honestly he probably has improved off the ball. MacAllister's gotten back to fitness at a good time for us. He's not a natural #6 but he's probably the closest we've got for the role until Endo's back from Japan. I'm looking forward to seeing more Endo & MacAllister together, so we can see MacAllister in a more box to box role.

I think we need Szobo to find form ASAP. As well as the non-Salah members of our attack. Because while Endo seemed like a random signing, he'd really come into form as of December and I think he's easily been our best midfielder in the past couple months. Makes me quite glad we missed out on Caicedo & Lavia with their massively overinflated transfer prices. Endo in good form has reminded me of someone with the good qualities of Milner and Henderson - he's a solid addition to the squad. Salah being out for us is an obvious big loss because he's one of the best players in the league if not the best player in the league.

No nobody’s claimed responsibility. It’s probably MEK though.

73 killed after an attack in a procession commemorating the dead General Soleimani in Kerman, Iran.

I liked all the borderlands games - I think 2 was the best, but I still thought 3 was very good. Fallout 76 has come a long ways since launch. It's also weirdly the least toxic multiplayer community I've ever seen in a game now. Back when I started it was awful because there would be high level people waiting for new players and then would just immediately keep killing them.

https://newrepublic.com/post/177804/netanyahu-wants-dershowitz-israel-hague-gaza-genocide-hearing lol Netanyahu wants Alan Dershowitz to represent Israel against the genocide charge South Africa leveled at it. Hilarious timing with Dershowitz showing up 3 times in the Epstein flight records. Great PR. Who better to defend the indiscriminate bombing of a densely packed area full of children than an alleged child rapist, who's advocated for lowering the age of consent in the past.

Epstein flight records show 2 US presidential candidates taking the pedo plane. Trump & RFK Jr. Bill Clinton also shows up on the list (as many times as Trump) - but he's no longer got political aspirations. Think they all belong in prison, rather than on the campaign trail though.

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Some friends talked me into playing some Fallout 76 with them. I tried it years ago and I didn’t really like it. Liked it much more revisiting it though.

I think they just reap the benefits of American politics relying on lobbying because being elected is expensive - and they’ve got a well funded and strong lobby in the US.

It's interesting seeing Christians getting attacked in Jerusalem while the world is busy with this conflict thought:

Iran's weapon exports to Hezbollah in Lebanon have really ramped up in recent weeks. And now Hezbollah's getting more and more involved in the conflict. I feel bad for Lebanon. The government has no power. Nobody really wants to get involved in another brutal war other than Hezbollah - the country is in a bad way right now. The last time Hezbollah and Israel fought, it was essentially a stalemate - but the cost to Lebanon was high. If Hezbollah keeps escalating, Lebanon's going to see itself getting the Gaza 2023 treatment. It benefits nobody in Lebanon for them to be at war with Israel once again. It's a country that relies on tourism and the last time they fought, the IDF blew up Beirut's international airport. That would probably happen again... and this time the country is still in recovery from the horrific port explosion.

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Yes

Christmas isn’t a very Islamic holiday tbf

Tbf loads of people have been calling what Israel has done to Palestinians genocide, even before this massive flare up in the conflict. It is genocide, according to the UN definition. It maybe doesn’t have international recognition… but there have been loads of genocides that definitely were genocides that don’t have international recognition because of geopolitical reasons. It’s wrong to not recognise genocide but it’s not exactly unique to this conflict.

So what the fuck do you think Hamas were thinking on October 7? How was it meaningful resistance? They knew it would lead to Israel obliterating Gaza. They were counting on it. I’m not playing the card of anyone being responsible. I’m not doing mental gymnastics to justify the unjustifiable. I’m not going to do that. If you can rationalise the indiscriminate bombing of a densely populated area with tons of children for a sustained period of months - you’re a monster. By the same token, if you can rationalise a savage terror attack like Hamas’s… you’re also a monster. It’s easy (and safe) to cheer on a terror attack sitting behind a computer screen in the west. But make no mistake, Hamas knew what their attack meant for the people of Gaza - they were counting on it. So by cheering Hamas on, don’t think you’re not one of the many westerners who don’t value middle eastern lives. The kids of Gaza deserve better than having their government use them as sacrificial lamb pawns in geopolitics. I don’t know what it is about this conflict that causes so many to lose the ability to have objective rational thought & why some are so quick to leave humanity behind. The propaganda of this is so wild, I hope it’s well studied. The inception of Israel was poorly thought out and western countries are to blame. But genocide is wrong, full stop. Terrorism is wrong, full stop. The governments and leadership of both Israelis and Palestinians have failed their citizens, their neighbors, and the world - for decades. Justification of any of their recent crimes is impossible.

I mean... with Hamas you haven't even said they're bad. You said what they did was akin to a slave revolt (even though... they're meant to be the fuckin' government of Gaza). You think the Houthis shooting missiles that... aren't doing anything other than interfering with shipping lanes and are going to cause the US Navy to strike (which means more death for Yemenis) is a good thing. To your credit, you did come close to saying the Houthis are bad (but at this point, I'm going to have to assume that's because they're Shia) - but you still think they're doing a good thing. So you're taking bad actions that haven't resulted in anything other than death of innocents - and you're attributing good qualities to them because you've taken a side. You taking a side and seeing these things as "bad" or "good" is very much seeing the world in black and white.