Burrito of Peace wrote on May 22, 2022, 14:01:
Heinlein said it best "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

He sure said it well, but he was surely wrong. Specialization is a HUGE part of the reason why humanity has progressed as far as it has. Once people no longer had to worry and deal with each and every facet of living in order to survive, they were able to focus their energies on specific fields of study and industry. This allowed them to make much bigger discoveries and utilize their time more effectively. Most everything we take for granted today is ONLY possible because of people specializing in their specific fields.

And exceptionalism is not to be discounted so easily either. Obviously we have benefited from the group, but history is replete with exceptional individuals that were motivated to go above and beyond the status quo, and they more often than not they didn't do it just for the nebulous ideal of the greater good, but their own personal gain as well, be it glory or fortune.

Me like Matrix. Make feel good...

Cutter wrote on May 22, 2022, 12:18:
It bombed because it was just more woke BS. And it wasn't even about female empowerment so much as we're all special little snowflakes who can be Neo's, if just for one day. That's the worst kind of communist crap that fails to acknowledge that some people/things are exceptional in certain areas of life. And thank fucking god for exceptionalism. We'd still be living in caves banging rocks together if we were all a bunch of equally dumb apes.

I wish I could play football like Aaron Rodgers but I can't. There's nothing inherently fair or unfair about that. And the looney left telling everyone they can do/be anything is just more lying feel good empty platitude bullshit. You can't. Learn to deal with it already. Little Vicky said it best....

Vicky Valentine: I'm sorry, Lisa, but giving everyone an equal part when they're clearly not equal is called what again, class?
The Class: Communism!

I am not even sure you understand your own argument.

The people that want everyone to have equal opportunity, are communist snowflakes.

They should just realize some people are exceptional, but not them. They will be told who is exceptional.

That seems well thought out.

Scottish Martial Arts wrote on May 23, 2022, 13:59:
When I saw that in the theater, the audience cheered at "You'll be dead" guy

Oh no, people enjoyed a movie! The horror, the humanity! How dare Disney make a film that people actually had fun watching???

Beamer wrote on May 22, 2022, 14:23:
Man, that's a good response

I'm constantly appreciative of the intelligent people on this board and their willingness to take time to comment.

Razumen wrote on May 23, 2022, 06:31:

Scottish Martial Arts wrote on May 22, 2022, 22:05:

Hardline Mike wrote on May 22, 2022, 11:48:
It seems to me all the meaning is right there on the surface. Matrix Resurrections is blatantly a meta commentary on needless sequels and nostalgia. They make no attempt to hide it.

Precisely this. Resurrections wasn't much of an action movie, but as a satire of contemporary popular culture it was kind of brilliant: if you're the kind of movie goer that got really excited when the "You'll be dead" alien showed up in Rogue One, Matrix: Resurrections is mocking you and your tastes.

So fan service in a movie is bad? Yeah, no, F that. Just because it's mocking something doesn't make the film good, or even what it's mocking bad. The movie itself didn't need to exist, it only used name and carcass of the Matrix franchise to send its own irrelevant message, in the most irreverent way possible.

And just like the other countless games and movies that poke fun at tropes and themes, while doing the same things it mocks, and little else, it becomes clear that there really isn't anyone of value to be gleaned from it at all. It becomes the thing it despises, another throwaway cash grab, filled with lies and empty promises.

Well rumor is it was going to be taken from Lana Wachowshki and made anyway. So why not burn it down?

Razumen wrote on May 23, 2022, 10:01:
Sounds like your projecting bud, absolutely no one has ever said that about the random cameo that's easily missed and not even a major point of the movie, which had a lot of other things going for it than some cool throwbacks. If that's enough to ruin a movie for you, that's your problem alone, no one else's.

I bet Spider Man No Way Home left you in a pile of tears in your shower.

When I saw that in the theater, the audience cheered at "You'll be dead" guy: it was blatant and obvious fan service meant to trigger a pavlovian response in the lowest common denominator because Disney accurately judges its nerd-product (i.e. Star Wars and MCU) audience to be composed of morons and man-children. If you think that was subtle and allusive, god help you. In any event Rogue One has nothing going for it as a movie aside from raw spectacle.

And I haven't seen an MCU movie since Iron Man. I have a rule: if it's thematically simple enough to be fully understood and appreciated by an 8 year old, then it's not worth one's time unless one is actually a child.

These things work only if the media is meta and the references are most of the point. Roger Rabbit, or the new Chip & Dale,.fit this.

It works less well when it tries to tell a story beyond the references. It's part of why I despised the book Ready Player One. Referencing Pacman overtly didn't make it special or nerdy

Scottish Martial Arts wrote on May 23, 2022, 09:39:
"OMG I recognize that: I know what that is! I'm so special for having seen... Star Wars!"

Sounds like your projecting bud, absolutely no one has ever said that about the random cameo that's easily missed and not even a major point of the movie, which had a lot of other things going for it than some cool throwbacks. If that's enough to ruin a movie for you, that's your problem alone, no one else's.

I bet Spider Man No Way Home left you in a pile of tears in your shower.

Razumen wrote on May 23, 2022, 06:31:
So fan service in a movie is bad?

Yup, if you like that crap, you have bad taste. This is a hill I will die on, and any movie, even one that wasn't particularly good, that would twist this particular knife earns at least my lukewarm approval on that basis alone. "OMG I recognize that: I know what that is! I'm so special for having seen... Star Wars!" That eliciting that sort of facile sentiment is the basis of most of our contemporary popular culture is as strong a signal of aesthetic decline as one can muster.

/rant

Scottish Martial Arts wrote on May 22, 2022, 22:05:

Hardline Mike wrote on May 22, 2022, 11:48:
It seems to me all the meaning is right there on the surface. Matrix Resurrections is blatantly a meta commentary on needless sequels and nostalgia. They make no attempt to hide it.

Precisely this. Resurrections wasn't much of an action movie, but as a satire of contemporary popular culture it was kind of brilliant: if you're the kind of movie goer that got really excited when the "You'll be dead" alien showed up in Rogue One, Matrix: Resurrections is mocking you and your tastes.

So fan service in a movie is bad? Yeah, no, F that. Just because it's mocking something doesn't make the film good, or even what it's mocking bad. The movie itself didn't need to exist, it only used name and carcass of the Matrix franchise to send its own irrelevant message, in the most irreverent way possible.

And just like the other countless games and movies that poke fun at tropes and themes, while doing the same things it mocks, and little else, it becomes clear that there really isn't anyone of value to be gleaned from it at all. It becomes the thing it despises, another throwaway cash grab, filled with lies and empty promises.

Hardline Mike wrote on May 22, 2022, 11:48:
It seems to me all the meaning is right there on the surface. Matrix Resurrections is blatantly a meta commentary on needless sequels and nostalgia. They make no attempt to hide it.

Precisely this. Resurrections wasn't much of an action movie, but as a satire of contemporary popular culture it was kind of brilliant: if you're the kind of movie goer that got really excited when the "You'll be dead" alien showed up in Rogue One, Matrix: Resurrections is mocking you and your tastes.

Lol, the level of copium these writers are huffing these days. Yeah, suuuuure, the movie wasn't bad, we the moviegoers just "hate ourselves" so much that we can't admire your beautiful storytelling.

Talk about blaming the audience for your bad performance. Hell, somehow the special effects were even worse than the original movie.

Man, that's a good response

Cutter wrote on May 22, 2022, 12:18:
That's the worst kind of communist crap that fails to acknowledge that some people/things are exceptional in certain areas of life. And thank fucking god for exceptionalism. We'd still be living in caves banging rocks together if we were all a bunch of equally dumb apes.

Cutter has me on ignore, I am sure, but this is for everyone else.

Don't make asinine, ignorant statements that are the exact opposite of scientific evidence. Humanity's progression has less to do with individual "exceptionalism" and more to do with human collectivism. Person A has an idea and implements it. Person B refines that idea and makes it better. Person C finds new applications for it. Person D takes it somewhere else and introduces it to a whole new society/culture that then finds even more uses for the idea, adapts it, adds to it, and creates even more human knowledge.

However, as with most things, Cutter is factually and scientifically wrong about his interpretation of human history. We as a species survived because we relied on the group and promoted the group. We started with families, went to tribes, then city-states, and finally on to nations. We promoted exchanging ideas and knowledge and teaching skills for the betterment of ourselves. Skills that survive are those that benefit the individual and the group.

Take his example of Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers can throw a football. That is not a useful survival or technical skill. Outside of the US and Canada, it doesn't even have value as an entertainment skill. So when looked at through the lens of a skill that benefits humanity, it is a completely useless skill. That is the very antithesis of exceptional.

Heinlein said it best "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

You can always tell who the true snowflake is by how much they cry about things on internet messageboards where they pretend to be tough but they're constantly outraged and terrified.

It bombed because it was just more woke BS. And it wasn't even about female empowerment so much as we're all special little snowflakes who can be Neo's, if just for one day. That's the worst kind of communist crap that fails to acknowledge that some people/things are exceptional in certain areas of life. And thank fucking god for exceptionalism. We'd still be living in caves banging rocks together if we were all a bunch of equally dumb apes.

I wish I could play football like Aaron Rodgers but I can't. There's nothing inherently fair or unfair about that. And the looney left telling everyone they can do/be anything is just more lying feel good empty platitude bullshit. You can't. Learn to deal with it already. Little Vicky said it best....

Vicky Valentine: I'm sorry, Lisa, but giving everyone an equal part when they're clearly not equal is called what again, class?
The Class: Communism!

The Flying Penguin wrote on May 22, 2022, 09:46:
I think that article is spending WAY too much time analyzing Matrix Resurrections. Sometimes there is no deep meaning buried in the script. Sometimes it's just a cash grab.

It seems to me all the meaning is right there on the surface. Matrix Resurrections is blatantly a meta commentary on needless sequels and nostalgia. They make no attempt to hide it.

I think that article is spending WAY too much time analyzing Matrix Resurrections. Sometimes there is no deep meaning buried in the script. Sometimes it's just a cash grab.

Shit.
Wordle 336 3/6

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