Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

LOL

[K1power]

‘Dune 2’ Officially Announced With 2023 Release Date

www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/dune-2-officially-announced-with-2023-release-date-thr-news/

Well, it's happening. One way shy of exactly 2 years from now.

[miscmisc]

Cool, cool.

It's going to be politically harder in the second part of the story, though. Will they ever use the word "Jihad", which is a central part of the Dune lexicon? Will they try to tone it down a lot for the Chinese market and a few others?

We'll see!

[miscmisc]

Truly random bragging time:

In Japan people frequently discuss a concept called "Galapagos-ka", which would be "Galapagosization" in English. It means that something is so local, indigenous and void of any kind of universality that it develops in its own peculiar way in Japan without ever crossing the seas surrounding the Japanese islands. Like, you know, those unique creatures on the Galapagos Islands.

20 years ago, twelve or so of us, all Japanese, made some predictions on a bunch of Japanese things, whether they will be Galapagosized or spread to other cultures, for a now-defunct little Japanese magazine.

And I was the only one who called emoji to become popular and widely used outside Japan in the future.

[miscmisc]

One of the biggest problems with native-English-speaking people is that a vast majority of them haven't even heard of Axel Springer.

You simply don't understand the world if you haven't even heard of Axel Springer.

[miscmisc]

Hahahaha.

These four happen to be the most popular parts of the bill according to the polls. A tiny, tiny minority of Democrats managed to kill them off.

You wonder what the point of voting is after shit like this, and the answer is tribalism. You root for your team, and that's all there's to it. These's nothing else. It's all about a culture war.

Because Congress can't legislate anymore. Such a wildly popular bill can be destroyed by two Democratic Senators, in Manchin and Sinema, and several corrupt House Democrats. They are only 3% of Democrats, but it's their world. You have that on top of the problem of Republicans. What that means is that legislation, in the true sense of the word, is impossible.

Congress is just a cultural battlefield. Nothing more, nothing less. American democracy isn't working. It really, really needs to get rid of the Senate, but of course that won't happen until dictatorship.

[miscmisc]

New Covid cases began to skyrocket in Russia and Eastern Europe around early September, and those countries have been engulfed in a huge wave since then. They have been absolutely battered largely because of their low vaccination rates. People are dying over there, on a massive scale.

And now it seems to be Central Europe's turn. Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium (particularly the Eastern half of the country) seem to be on the cusp of another mountain. The vaccination rates in Czechia, Poland, Austria, and even Germany and the Netherlands, although not nearly as low as in Eastern Europe, still seem too low given the possible magnitude of the next wave.

[miscmisc]

What has been happening in countries like Bulgaria and Romania breaks my heart. I see so many premature, avoidable deaths. Behind those numbers are actual people and their families.

They are both EU countries who have had access to the top-performing vaccines.

You can distrust authority all you want, but vaccine skepticism is pretty much the dumbest, most childish manifestation of that. What has been happening in those countries is mass suicide.

[miscmisc]

Senator Sinema's narcissism just makes me feel physically ill. She's like the embodiment of what has been wrong with USA for the last few decades.

Thanks, Arizona, for electing such idiocy.

[miscmisc]

The biggest problem with this article is that its fundamental assumption/premise is misguided.

Why China Is the World’s Last ‘Zero Covid’ Holdout
The government has staked its political legitimacy on controlling the virus better than other countries, especially its geopolitical rivals.
www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/world/asia/china-zero-covid-virus.html

"The government has staked its political legitimacy on controlling the virus better than other countries, especially its geopolitical rivals."

No it hasn't. It has staked its political legitimacy on controlling the virus, period. "Better than other countries, especially its geopolitical rivals" is an afterthought at best, and there is nothing wrong with that as a measure of legitimacy anyway.

This tacit idea that China should've relaxed and followed other countries examples is demented as fuck, since that would be almost equivalent to saying that China should've let 5 million people die of Covid. Of course the article doesn't say that outright, but that tone is unmistakably there.

Most countries in the world couldn't do what China did, namely hard lockdowns and suspension of freedom. But China simply did what she could do, to save people's lives AND their political system. You might not like the system, as I don't, but it's definitely not something that anyone should be mad at in this particular case.

[miscmisc]

There are actually people out there who believe bullshit like this. That explains a LOT of things, you know.

FYI, "evolutionary behavioral scientist," which this creep is, means someone who makes stupid shit up for a living.

[K1power]

The first name that popped up into my head reading that was Jordan Peterson and wouldn't you know it he's this guy's profile pic lol.

[gols]

I watched Dune. Overall I liked it, although I can see where miscmisc is coming from to an extent. I have read the book so could follow it easily, but I did get the feeling that it was a procession of scenes that could be easily identified to anyone familiar with the story, but didn't have enough context for those who weren't. I think it needed more actual conversations between characters to get some of the background across, but then it would've needed to be even longer than its already fairly long run time.

Also pretty much agree about the Baron. Apart from making him a bit of a generic bad guy, they have really toned down his appearance too - in the book he is a totally grotesque fat monster, not just an overwieght guy (who also lifts some weights).

I'm not really surprised that they left out most of the religious and philosophical stuff. A lot of it is fairly impenetrable, don't see anyone giving the budget to a version that included all that.

[miscmisc]

Oct 28, 2021 18:43:00 GMT 1 K1power said:

The first name that popped up into my head reading that was Jordan Peterson and wouldn't you know it he's this guy's profile pic lol.

Those third-rate "thinkers" are all dime a dozen, really.

[miscmisc]

Oct 29, 2021 15:37:18 GMT 1 gols said:

I watched Dune. Overall I liked it, although I can see where miscmisc is coming from to an extent. I have read the book so could follow it easily, but I did get the feeling that it was a procession of scenes that could be easily identified to anyone familiar with the story, but didn't have enough context for those who weren't. I think it needed more actual conversations between characters to get some of the background across, but then it would've needed to be even longer than its already fairly long run time.

Also pretty much agree about the Baron. Apart from making him a bit of a generic bad guy, they have really toned down his appearance too - in the book he is a totally grotesque fat monster, not just an overwieght guy (who also lifts some weights).

I'm not really surprised that they left out most of the religious and philosophical stuff. A lot of it is fairly impenetrable, don't see anyone giving the budget to a version that included all that.

Your review is in its essence very close to the average/median one that I've heard from the people that I know. Very common sensical and reasonable!

It would've been nice if there were three parts ala the LotR actually. My issue with the movie wouldn't be exactly solved that way as I have a serious problem with Villeneuve's style itself, but that's just me, and I do feel the story would've flown better with three parts.

What happened with the LotR - meaning the fact that they were made at all - was pretty much a miracle, so it's definitely the case of easier said than done on steroids, though.