1341

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - contains spoilers

« on: July 11, 2018, 04:16:38 AM »

The weird backlash from an angry contingent of SW fanboys against this movie is still going strong several months later, to the degree that poor Kelly Marie Tran has fled social media, presumably due to constant abuse. It's insane, and I say this as somebody who had some pretty big issues with the movie. Look at this stupid shit, for example:



Nobody gives a shit about Ackbar as a character. He's a meme who's known for saying that funny line once. The ramming scene wouldn't have been nearly as poignant with a stupid fishman puppet starring in it.

1342

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 07, 2018, 12:53:20 PM »

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/06/politics/bill-shine-fox-news-donald-trump/index.html

The troll president strikes again. At least Scott Pruitt is finally gone.

1343

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Witcher 3 - Contains spoilers

« on: July 03, 2018, 07:22:11 PM »

I meant to comment on this after the E3 coverage. I can't help but feel a little bit disappointed by two revelations about the game. One is that it would be first-person, which just doesn't feel right for a game like this. Maybe if we had gotten to see some of the gameplay, rather than it only being shown (for some baffling reason) to the journalists there, I might have understood why they chose that format. The other thing that bothers me, to a somewhat bigger degree, is the fact that contrary to what I said earlier in the thread, there are only going to be three classes for you to mix and match skills from - solo, techie, and netrunner. To put it another way, your only choice of role is as a solo, one who has the option of maybe hacking a few computers or fixing a few machines along the way. How boring!

The trailer does look hella sweet, though:

1344

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 28, 2018, 03:45:41 PM »

Is anyone going to even read the article to see what all the fuss is about?

https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/opinions/clinton-email-server-ig-report-opinion-cox/index.html

The line in question is intentionally provocative, and the rest of the article is spent explaining the apparent paradox. It's also extremely critical of Hillary. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the author's take, it's pretty disingenuous to simply present the line out of context and crow about how this is what CNN really believes.

1345

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 28, 2018, 05:18:33 AM »

I agree with pretty much everything after your first sentence. If you watched the last election you would know that he pretty much thumbed his nose at the media and got away with it.

Which is not the same thing as "[turning] the media's own dishonest tactics against them." Trump is not a satirist or social critic in the vein of Socrates or Voltaire. He's just a shameless liar with selfish motivations. I'm stressing this point because I can't stand this whole "what's bad for the establishment is good for me!" idea that Trump undoubtedly owes much of his popularity to. It's such a childish, sophomoric view that simply isn't an accurate reflection of the world. There are some things about the media and the establishment that need to be called out forcefully and torn down, obviously. But the relevance of fact-checking and the notion of yielding (or at least modifying one's position or argument) in the face of overwhelming contradictory factual evidence are not among them.

https://www.axios.com/trump-effect-92-percent-republicans-media-fake-news-9c1bbf70-0054-41dd-b506-0869bb10f08c.html

92% of Republicans think media intentionally reports fake news

53% of Democrats believe the same.

The absolute state of journalism in the country is that the majority of people believe some or all outlets are intentionally distributing outright falsehoods to support their given narrative.

Some of them definitely are spreading lies. It's virtually impossible for them not to be when there are this many of them.

1346

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 27, 2018, 08:14:04 PM »

I would prefer if the media were honest and the President wasn't Trump. But given the situation we have, I kind of enjoy watching him turn the media's own dishonest tactics against them. (It takes a crook to expose a crook?)

But he's not doing anything of the sort. All he does is yell "Fake news!" whenever a story that makes him look bad comes out. There's no clever strategy involved, no artful playing of his opponents, it's all just shameless denials that anyone who isn't a part of his devoted fanbase knows are simply further lies. That Trump frustrates the media and that you dislike the media don't combine to turn him into him some kind of admirable revolutionary.

1347

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 27, 2018, 04:30:52 PM »

I don't even know what to say about Trump. He's a schmuck. I absolutely agree that he lies, but he's not lying every time mainstream media says he is. And not every single solitary thing he does is awful, evil and bad.

What embarrassingly faint praise. It's become so generally accepted now that the President of the United States is an utterly foul person and an enormous liar that we've sunk to simply trying to find a few exceptions to defend him. Not literally everything he does is bad! Not literally everything he says is a lie!

I do like Jordan Peterson

Dafuq? You like Professor Incel? Fucking why?

1348

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 26, 2018, 03:39:51 PM »

Tom "supports" Trump only because most people here don't. Which doesn't mean that any points he raises are automatically invalid, of course, but there's no point in trying to sincerely connect with him or find any common ground.

1349

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 20, 2018, 04:55:39 PM »

Illegal immigrants get the option to apply for asylum as well, it's just a longer process because they broke the law.

Again, this is not what we're talking about. What's happening here is Trump inventing a problem that most people would agree is morally horrific to try and win concessions from Congress in exchange for the problem being solved. Asylum has nothing to do with it. Trump almost certainly has no idea how the asylum process even works.

Congress is set to pass the witty and clever legislation tomorrow.

whooosh

1350

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 20, 2018, 03:13:27 PM »

Illegal immigrants who choose to return to their country are reunited with their families in short order. Also, families who apply for asylum at legal ports of entry do not get separated. The only families who are being separated for any length of time are those who crossed the border illegally, but still choose to apply for asylum once caught. By law (Flores) these children cannot be held in detention with their parents while their parents asylum claim is being processed.

I'm not talking about applying for asylum; I'm talking about them being charged with illegal entry and prosecuted, which is what the Trump Administration is now doing.

How anybody could defend not agreeing to this simple amendment is beyond me.

I'm sure this sounded very witty and clever in your head.

1351

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 20, 2018, 04:30:10 AM »

The reason why we let illegal immigrants stay with their families has nothing to do with some arbitrary gesture of magnanimity that we logically could extend to other criminals but choose not to for moral reasons. It's because the end goal of dealing with an illegal immigrant is to deport them, which has nothing to do with the justice system. There's no benefit to spending the time and money to prosecute illegal immigrants for illegal entry and have them serve their short stints in jail, only to then deport them. This policy of prosecuting illegal immigrants was put into place with the express intention of separating kids from their parents. It's not an unintended consequence; it's the goal. And if this were being done with the idea behind it being to deter illegal immigration - don't come here illegally or you could lose your kids! - it would be bad enough, but it isn't. This is a bargaining chip to be used against Congress - give me what I want or I'll continue to be the biggest asshole in the world to vulnerable families! How anybody could defend that is beyond me.

1352

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 18, 2018, 05:46:19 PM »

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/ben-sasse-will-hurd-susan-collins-push-trump-to-stop-immigrant-family-separation.html

Trump’s lies on this subject seem especially feeble, not that it matters to his fans. I'd prefer him to build the wall then keep up this cartoonishly evil policy.

1353

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Snupes' Must-Listen-To List (Recommend me albums!)

« on: June 16, 2018, 03:00:47 AM »

sorry who are you

1354

Technology & Information / Re: The Flat Earth Society official IRC chat

« on: June 14, 2018, 07:44:53 PM »

Yeah, yeah.

1355

Technology & Information / Re: The Flat Earth Society official IRC chat

« on: June 14, 2018, 07:35:48 PM »

In this case, I'd say it's more like opening your front door when you already know perfectly well who's on the other side.

1356

Technology & Information / Re: The Flat Earth Society official IRC chat

« on: June 14, 2018, 04:03:57 PM »

Well, that cleared everything up. Thanks for explaining.

1357

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Now Playing (the Video Game Version)

« on: June 14, 2018, 03:57:25 PM »

They probably just wanted to show off scenery that they thought would look impressive, and so they settled on mountains. Showing off a desert or swamp or whatever wouldn't have the same impact.

1358

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 14, 2018, 03:27:04 PM »

Trump is very easily manipulated by anyone who says the right things. No doubt Kim came prepared and flattered Trump, bashed the media, and so on.

1359

Technology & Information / Re: The Flat Earth Society official IRC chat

« on: June 14, 2018, 04:35:20 AM »

It worked for me. If I wasn't being clear, I was addressing Crudblud. I wasn't trying to make a technical suggestion on how the website or the chat ought to be run.

1360

Technology & Information / Re: The Flat Earth Society official IRC chat

« on: June 13, 2018, 04:14:44 PM »

There should be an option to set the network to accept invalid SSL certificates.