Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Maybe...but it seems you want this information so you can tell them why they are wrong. That's a sad life to live.....

 

No, I don't really think anyone is wrong. I travel around talking to people about their positions, generally with more tact than this. I've talked to a couple thousand people at this point about all sorts of things, at length. I talk to people because I find that everyone knows something I don't, and it's valuable to integrate how they look at things. I understand and accept how that's a perfectly reasonable conclusion given the short interaction you've had with me here, though. I'd probably make the same call in your position. Admittedly, I am very stressed out these past few days. Sorry if that somehow came out at you in any way.

 

I like Lower Deck, definitely better than Discovery and Picard, combined

 

Really? I find that hard to believe... or maybe I've just been exposed to too many scummy people.

I have met very racist people over the years. Those who would quip that it was a shame such'n'such couldn't be "cleaned" off the streets. So much of it is institutionalized/generational hate, but there's so much "new" hate too that it almost seems fashionable.

I used to work with a guy who was so homophobic that he believed getting a blowjob from his wife was gay because that meant if he kissed her his lips would be touching penis secondhand. This same guy laughed about how the police would "protect" the gays in his home country during pride parades then turn around and stone them, and wishing he could join in.

I want to believe that people are good as a whole, but I don't have a very high viewpoint of humanity these days. Actually in a way the pandemic has been good for that, because I just deal with less people overall now and see less of the hate except for the crap online which frankly isn't healthy for anyone in the first place.

 

I for one think that your statement tells us more about you than Soliloqueen‘s real intentions. I find hervcontributions in this thread a breath of fresh air. The amount of words with capital letters and those ending in -ism tend to give me a headache. Yet to find an -ism or an organisation starting with a capital letter which I could wholeheartedly trust.

 

Random Reactions...

I wasn't there, but I think UK, when they got around to it, had fairly strict lockdown.

I was there, and India lockdown, at least at first was a bit totalitarian! Cops were beating people up for going out! Even now, we are having daft lockdown, like only on Sunday and night curfew.

Are you saying that they were not taken seriously? My real knowledge of history is very poor, but in plague days, didn't whole villages close to outsiders? Weren't people quite serious in the flu pandemic about 100 years ago, but made the mistake of thinking it was all over when it wasn't?
I'm not sure: historians please correct.

My theory about what makes this plague, pandemic, or whatever name one wants to call it, different is: internet and social media. Blessing and Curse: what, equally? How do people rate that?

Ethics doesn't need religion, and never did. The urge to be better needs definition of good.

But some people are monsters! Not just the famous ones; lots of ordinary, every-day monsters about.

(I do believe that people are basically good, or, at least, not bad.)

I do agree with the comments about existing! And my personal belief is that, having decided to come here, if one route closed, we'd just have found another one.

I'm adopted too. 1950s Britain, where single mothers could be committed to mental institutions for the mental illness of loose morals (or something like that, they called it). Yes, I'm glad that someone gave birth to me; yes, I'm delighted that a great couple then took on the task of being my effective mother and father after that.

Very true.

A cow is going to die because of you! Monster!

( I'm a meat eater too)

 

That's, really, all I was saying.

 

Going to post this from the film thread about the "wokeness" in entertainment. Credit goes to @ColtMrFire. Article from the link does have some interesting reader comments.

 

It's just a powder keg ready to blow.

 

I didn't read the comments or the article for that matter - just the snippet @ColtMrFire posted, but I'm not surprised. I have a "you made your bed, now you have to lie in it" attitude. It's a problem with heterogeneous cultures, they usually become purity cultures sooner or later.

 

Mo' Yeoh is always good.

 

Since your post is about context, it’s worth considering the context in which Reagan is lionized. Ask survivors of the AIDS epidemic what they think of Reagan and the context is suddenly very different.

 

People talk about woke casting but I have to ask if it isn't failing to write good characters. I don't think anyone has a problem with characters of any background or orientation when the writing is solid. Things fail when a bland, inoffensive character is written and a casting choice designed to help stakeholders avoid criticism is plugged in. It's like the Joss Whedon quote where someone asked "Why do you write strong female characters?" and his reply was something to the effect of "Why do you write weak female characters?"

 

From Anthony Bourdain's New Yorker article that jumpstarted his writing career:

People who order their meat well-done perform a valuable service for those of us in the business who are cost-conscious: they pay for the privilege of eating our garbage. In many kitchens, there’s a time-honored practice called “save for well-done.” When one of the cooks finds a particularly unlovely piece of steak—tough, riddled with nerve and connective tissue, off the hip end of the loin, and maybe a little stinky from age—he’ll dangle it in the air and say, “Hey, Chef, whaddya want me to do with this?” Now, the chef has three options. He can tell the cook to throw the offending item into the trash, but that means a total loss, and in the restaurant business every item of cut, fabricated, or prepared food should earn at least three times the amount it originally cost if the chef is to make his correct food-cost percentage. Or he can decide to serve that steak to “the family”—that is, the floor staff—though that, economically, is the same as throwing it out. But no. What he’s going to do is repeat the mantra of cost-conscious chefs everywhere: “Save for well-done.” The way he figures it, the philistine who orders his food well-done is not likely to notice the difference between food and flotsam.​

 

Well fine, but I just don't like my meat bloody!

In fact, I'm not even a steak eater, except perhaps in a pie, when it's going to be rough bits anyway. But disconcerted by this spread of see the blood to lamb, which according to me really, really needs to be well done.

But hey, it's all personal taste. Raw or singed --- enjoy!