I rate art on artistic merit. Movies are able to be either, much in the same way airport fiction is going to struggle when judged as literature and a lot of literature is going to struggle when judged by those who like dumb fun books. I generally dislike pulp fantasy, meanwhile it took me so long to get through the lord of the rings in high school, but it still lives rent free in my head in my 30s.

And I think it’s worth comparing it to another movie recently shown to me by the same friend: Tokyo Godfathers. It’s a fun and artistically valuable movie, and while it’s often uncomfortable, it has points to its discomfort whether in the form of social commentary or to enable the characters to grow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better depiction of the type of homeless people who are neither transiently homeless nor severely mentally ill. It’s also an interesting insight into Christianity and Christian symbolism in Japanese culture. It’s ultimately about how even fuck ups who’ve crashed out of society have goodness in them. And it manages to be fun and exciting the entire time. I highly recommend it

I recently watched a movie that was absolutely excellent, a masterclass in telling a story without having an overt plot and use of symbolism and behavioral patterns and changes to depict a deeply human situation. Did I have fun? No, it was uncomfortable as hell as it’s the story of a relationship in which both parties are bad for each other with one pushing for more and more and the other increasingly pulling back and not into it. It reminded me of many of my worst insecurities and my worst relationships, especially those with people with bpd that wasn’t under control.

Movie is the Duke of Burgundy if anyone is interested, cw bugs and bdsm.

You’re a sad confused little man aren’t you

Early Carmen episodes were amazing especially for how they still hold up

Wait, half have 4k‽

Your old school was lame then

Even the cultural milieu of that combined with having a reason to hide gave me damage because I was on edge that my privacy might be being invaded without my knowledge

In America you get canceled for even implying that

Don’t you know that arresting officer is a tipped position in America‽

Do not bring your ID

Also, I love that they’re just acknowledging peaceful protests involve getting pepper sprayed nowadays

I’m American ex catholic and yeah that was my childhood church. That said we also have a lot of people who convert to catholicism for the aesthetics and to crusade larp, and one of them insisted on arguing with the previous pope about basic doctrine as the old man was dying…

So yeah, you’re supposed to listen to the pope but nobody does.

Oh yikes…

Yeah Japan has uncomfortable cultural quirks at times, and they’ve gotten away with a fair bit in the whole “pretending they weren’t evil in the 30s-40s” sphere, but like they’re not doing that much in the extremely bad category at the moment beyond the yakuza (and organized crime is outside government control by definition).

If you want to know who can get away with real bad shit it’s Saudi Arabia and it’s because the us financially benefits from their regime

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But it should also be noted, teenagers are particularly targeted by and vulnerable to such messaging. In my 30s I can look around and see the evidence against such comparisons, but at 16 I was just some kid who worried she’d never be attractive or well liked. Had I been in spaces that encouraged such attitudes such as Instagram or 4chan I would have been really vulnerable to it.

Young people are often overly worried about such things because adolescence is a difficult and transitory stage where these worries are developmentally appropriate. They’re supposed to have adults who can help them deal with this, and peers that they can learn by interacting with, but it’s normal to not believe your parents on such issues and interactions with peers has been moved online with social media and there’s little interaction with adults. This has led room for teenagers to be preyed on by algorithms that encourage their worst instincts and online communities that teach anything from antisocial behavior to masochistic epistemology.

Yeah there was a period where it noticed I watched a few trans youtubers and so it started promoting anti trans content, it was around the election (I forget if before or after), but either way it disgusted me that they’d do that

That’s what the police training has been teaching them to do. Learning about it was extremely scary, because seriously why the fuck would you teach cops of all fucking people to shoot at the first twinge of fear and that everyone is out to get them!

Some movie theaters have something similar if you ask. Others just do subtitle screenings.

Yeah, going slow, feeling the slip into the distance you expected to. I’m not a good driver, but I lose a lot less driving ability on ice than most people because I’m acutely aware of how my car will act on it. That said I live in the PNW these days so no more lake effect snow, not much freezing temps, and my ice driving skills only apply on flat land, fuck driving on snowy mountains.