Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are unfairly treated

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T23:48:24+00:00

On the one hand, characters being dumb is a time honored tradition of horror...on the other hand, that's mostly slasher horror.

Alien and Aliens were better than that, which is part of why people adore them to this day. The characters were characters first, cannon fodder second. Prometheus, and Ridley Scott, forgot that.

Prometheus has some great and heady concepts, is shot exquisitely, but the human element is definitely missing.

I have nothing nice to say about Covenant.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T23:21:51+00:00

I understand your viewpoint, but this is just argumentation/debate 101. Hell, it's how all of us are taught to write essays from middle school onwards.

No "I think," or "in my opinion," etc.... It makes you sound unsure and wishy-washy. Argumentation is about stating your case strongly, which means sounding confident.

I will say that there's a thin line between confidence and smugness, though, which is difficult to walk and many, and I mean many, end up on the wrong side of that line.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T23:16:04+00:00

I like the podcast, even if it I find it a frustrating listen as often as I enjoy it.

I completely agree with the implicit premise, that no bands should be held sacred, that deifying the past, particularly at the expense of the present, is wrongheaded. No band or artist is without sin, or above criticism. Sure, completely on board with that. It's also fun as a thought experiment to make arguments for why any band, even the most celebrated, actually suck. They're also often funny, though just a little too pleased with themselves in the process.

It helps that I have a good sense of humor about things. Smashing Pumpkins are arguably my "favorite" band, at least in the sense that they were my favorite band growing up and I'll never have that emotional level of attachment to any band ever again, no matter how much I still enjoy music. I still loved that episode. My only complaint was that I could have done a better job roasting them. No one knows Billy Corgan's shortcomings as a performer and a person better than a Smashing Pumpkins fan (The comparison to Ted Nugent's Stranglehold was on point, though. Don't think I'd have dug that up).

I guess what rubs me the wrong way is how much it follow the right-leaning radio/podcast format. Not that I'm calling them right wing, I have zero idea of what their politics are, but it definitely follows that grating format; Smug host with sycophantic yes man, steamrolling any argument to the contrary.

Tyler: This band sucks, and if you disagree you have to admit you don't care about music at all!
Mark: Yeah, I mean it's so obvious, if you like this band you don't care about music.

I'm not even knocking it, it's proven successful, but it grates on me.

Also the fact that there's no logical consistency to their arguments...which yeah, isn't the point. They aren't trying for logical consistency, I think all their arguments are meant to exist in a vacuum...but it bothers me that they can take a line of argument in one episode to "prove" a band sucks, and then take the exact opposite line of argumentation in another to "prove" a different band sucks. Again, not the point, but it still annoys me. Like, your guys JUST said last episode that this is NOT a reason why a band sucks. Dudes!

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T22:54:04+00:00

Or...and actually I think I'd hate this, Hwoarang teams up with Kazuya just to get his rival match against Jin.

Again, I think I'd hate this, but that's at least one other way to give Hwoarang an actual arc in the story.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T22:50:57+00:00

Agreed, with all of what you say here, but it doesn't make his arc any less sad, even if it is self-inflicted. In Dragon Ball, as a young man, he still had drive, but he loses that over the course of Z. Maybe you can only get your ass kicked so many times before it takes something out of you.

And I guess what really bothered me in Super, is that it was the first time the show really seemed to treat him like a punchline, like it was encouraging the audience to laugh at him, but it just made me feel bad for him instead.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T22:33:31+00:00

most of his masters save all the good stuff for Goku.

I'll never understand why King Kai didn't teach the rest of the team the Kaioken.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T22:30:11+00:00

I think calling the legitimacy of the poll itself is entirely reasonable, but also a different question than the one I was answering. I certainly hope things are more optimistic than this poll suggests, but I'm also tempering my expectations, given that this Oklahoma.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T01:57:34+00:00

Did we actually see that he had poor living conditions?

We don't see a lot of his apartment in Super, but when watching this time I definitely noticed all the walls had cracks in them, which isn't a good sign, and the furnishings are sparse. You're right that he's always had baseball, but maybe he's blown all of his money? That would fit, thematically.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T00:42:39+00:00

Chance of winning and confirmed candidate vote percentages are not the same thing.

To put it another way, for Hoffmeister to win, she'd need nearly 100% of the undecided vote to swing her way. That is....unlikely. The pollsters are saying there is probably a 6% chance of that happening, while there is a 93% chance of that vote swinging enough in Stitt's favor that he will win.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-10T00:09:04+00:00

That is one of my top 5 fights in all of dragon ball!

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-08T02:47:28+00:00

It's a good streaming service for good people, you know, that whole spiel.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-08T02:08:24+00:00

I know all of us get to have a big ol' "ain't this guy a hypocrite" party at every turn in this, and countless other cases. Here's the thing. The evangelicals don't care. You'd think they would, but they don't. If you corner one, they'll tell you how concerning it is and how they need to search their soul and pray on it, but they don't actually care.

It's fascinating. The most "morally" motivated voters don't care about the morals of their elected officials, but it is also pretty easily explained.

To satisfy the religious, forgiveness is built in to born-again-ism. Just be born again. Say you made mistakes and later accepted jesus into your heart, boom, forgiven. So many of them, like all humans, made mistakes. Then as they got older, found religion and got all born again, boom, all forgiven! It's woven into the makeup of their ideology. Worth noting these same people despise catholicism and the whole confession/say some hail mary and be forgiven thing.

The other, frankly more important, aspect is....they don't care. They don't. Especially not as long as the above gives them plausible deniability. What they care about is whether a candidate will further their agenda, and as long as they think that candidate will, they will do whatever mental gymnastics required to support them. The pragmatism within a framework of ideological extremism is almost admirable. Fascinating even. They don't care, or at least can move around, how morally bankrupt any candidate is, as long they think that candidate will vote the right way. They'd vote for Satan himself if he promised to ban abortion and gay marriage. The agenda is what is important, power is what is important, winning is what is important. Who cares how?

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-04T02:15:47+00:00

And 6 wasn't even that detailed to begin with!

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-03T02:29:57+00:00

Yeah...but there's a point it stops being fun for the audience.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-10-01T01:54:54+00:00

Timeless is an interesting word.

This isn't just an album that was popular in the late sixties, it was revered, in fact the "legend" grew for decades. The whole lo-fi 60s throwback indie/garage/psych throwback scene of the sixties, notably literally every band involved in the Elephant 6 Collective, was absolutely in love with this album. I think this lionization continues into the 2000s.

Now, yeah, it seems less impressive and important, but that's fifty years later. This album had a life span.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T02:21:31+00:00

I try.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T00:55:44+00:00

Until he's remembered primarily as the cgi ghost endorsing god knows what.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T00:54:23+00:00

And clearly he doesn't give a shit about his "reputation," or legacy, or any of that....I get it to an extent, but I really don't think I could make the same choice...not that anyone is going to be offering me millions for rights to my likeness, obviously....but from this point forward they can do anything with his likeness. Promote any product, helpful or harmful, promote any message...I get it that he's going to be dead and not care, but if I died not knowing whether my likeness were going to be used to promote causes/products that were antithetical to my beliefs in life, well, it wouldn't be an peaceful passing for me.

I guess he really doesn't care about any of that, though.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T00:44:09+00:00

I mean, doesn't he have enough money? I don't know his finances, but I'd guess he's already leaving millions.

Even then, it's his life, his likeness, his family, and his choice, and I won't criticize it, but I won't pretend I understand it either. I guess I'll just say that I respect wanting leave your family taken care of...but selling your legacy...your very identity in perpetuity, to leave your kids 4 instead of 3 million a piece doesn't compute with me.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T00:36:02+00:00

First, I'm not advocating for the continuation of the grocery tax, at all, but I am definitely expressing concern that the burden will be shifted to an equally regressive increase on the lower brackets of the income tax....which given our leadership is the most likely scenario should they attempt to replace the revenue loss at all (most likely scenario being: they don't. And education and public services take a further step towards collapse.)

What I want is an abolition of the grocery tax and revenue replaced by progressive taxation, with the burden placed on the highest income brackets, property taxes, capital gains, etc....but that's not going to happen, and we all know it.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-30T00:31:57+00:00

I'm familiar with how the tax works, and I'm not in any way opposed to the abolition of the grocery tax, as I stated elsewhere. In fact I support it.

My concern is that the revenue loss will either not be made up at all (likely), or that the burden will be shifted disproportionately onto lower income brackets (also likely should they even choose to replace the revenue loss).

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-28T23:51:40+00:00

Yes, income tax is graduated, but how the brackets are taxed is still set by the legislature, I'm not confident at all that the offset, if they increase taxes at all (which is doubtful given that it takes a supermajority in Oklahoma to raise taxes), would be placed on the higher brackets. More likely, they'd increase the amount paid by the lower and middle brackets.

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-28T23:47:07+00:00

Yes....but you're assuming the burden won't still be shifted to lower brackets. How brackets are taxed is set by legislature, and if you think the burden won't be shifted to the lower brackets by this legislature, well...

Richard_Sauce · 2022-09-28T23:17:09+00:00

No...but at least it is a shared tax. It's regressive in that it affects the poor and working class more, and that's bad, and why it should be abolished, but transferring the burden to an equally regressive income tax isn't the best solution.

If we're going to shift from grocery tax, it should be weighted towards the higher income brackets, property taxes, and yes, capital gains.

I'm not confident that that's what will happen.

Richard_Sauce

TROPHY CASE

Welcome to Reddit,