BF2S Forums Pandemic thread

i have no problem admitting that WoW was a youthful excitement.

where am i being defensive? you seem to struggle to make a point. 

it’s the marvel dweebs who want to make out that being invested in ‘thanos’ is a totally normal thing for adults. too. ‘well ackshually the writing is very adult and has humour aimed specifically at the discerning middle-aged man with disposable income ...’. lol. i can freely admit that playing a video game is a childish and escapist thing to do. marvel and star wars fans gotta try and make out like their childish wish-fulfilment fantasies and good vs evil crap is somehow suitable for adults. it isn’t, it’s silly.

DesertFox- wrote:

I take exception to the snide remarks because I don't think I saw any of the movies with CGI purple man!

I saw Captain America Civil War because I was familiar with the comic book story in which Captain America literally dies at the end. I was hoping that the movie would be as brave but nope. Literally no one dies in the movie. Not even the villain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_(comics)
I was unsurprised when they rewrote the Infinity War story but mortified that they actually made Thanos objective to kill half the universe into a debate about the question of overpopulation instead of complete insanity like in the comics. I never watched either Thanos movie.

I saw Guardian of the Galaxy 2 because it was in the background of a place I was hanging out at. I saw Captain Marvel because I wanted to see what the Social Justice controversy was about. I was unimpressed with the movie and the social justice stuff. In fact that anti-Captain Marvel people are really dumb to be angry at that really dumb movie.

I haven't watched any other movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I also skipped the last two X-Men movies and the critics agree that I made the right choice. I really don't like Sophie Turner.

both gaming and comic book movies are really silly cultures now. if you don’t look at it in the main and feel too old, then you need to get a grip. people talking fondly about how ‘awsmmmm the avengers movies are — if you’re over about 15, get a damn grip son!

Last edited by uziq (2020-09-22 18:20:23)

his messaging is still outright dangerous. he wants to make out that they made heroic decisions to stem a lethal disease. and at the same time he wants to get people back to work and schools. well what is it?

I often hear "all of the people who died were in their 90's and already sick. they were going to die anyway."

I got one look at Thanos from trailers and memes and just decided these were not movies for me. Lotta friends love those movies. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy at a friends house and, well, tastelessness is a real issue in society. But I accept those friends who are completely absorbed in video games and comic movies for who they are. I’d love to be able to have a deeper connection with them, but I’ll settle for bullshitting and shooting dice.

All this entertainment does subvert peoples attention from common sense in regards to covid-69. Folks really sucking down white claws and endless amounts of highly processed junk food while courageously masking up at 2am while the street is basically empty- for example.

Certainly I don’t connect covid denialism with comic movie watching. Those particular friends of mine are some of the most fearful of the coronal mass ejaculation. But that kind of consumption of cookie cutter art steals attention from potentially learning something about real life. Like knowing everything about every anime character that ever was but not having heard of certain countries for possible example.

You won’t see another Idiocracy because nowadays it would be offensive to the masses. Not a speculation on the possible future of America, but the holding of a mirror up to present. Narcissists hate that kind of thing.

I grew up a big Star Wars fan, inheriting the love for it from my eldest brother who was a kid when the originals came out. But I can easily admit that Star Wars officially sucks now. I saw all the new movies out of hope but was gravely disappointed.

Last edited by Superior Mind (2020-09-23 05:34:45)

In response to some dumb piece by NBC (?) about how she's dividing the Dems by endorsing Biden or whatever, AOC did mention something to the effect that people should invest more attention away from clickbait, sensationalist journalism and into subscription-model investigative journalism (with attention paid to the names of the writers) instead.

You can imagine how well-received that was by Republicans (haha AOC, what a lightweight!), who would have been drooling all over it had something to the effect been penned by a Republican politician.

News as entertainment can probably be fairly lumped in with the dumbing down of media and entertainment, but I think there are a lot of tenuous connections unfairly drawn in this group. I'm not necessarily going to judge someone's qualifications, education, and broader interests based on whether or not they watched a Goku fight. That person could be a fry cook or a lab researcher, on any corner of the political spectrum, with or without interests in more challenging entertainment.

I blame some of this on schooling. I think some people were alienated against subjects by the cram & test cycle, or given some of the most mind-numbingly awful "classics" to read.

Slightly related, I remember tutoring one person up to about pre-algebra. A series of abusive teachers and followup punishments at home for not excelling basically turned their recollection of math into swiss cheese. I had to start at the beginning, find the missing portions, and discover a way to explain it without triggering learning-fear and locking their brain. Horrible stuff.

uziq wrote:

i don't connect people consuming comic movies with covid denialism or anything like that. i do associate it with widespread generational infantilism, though, which is probably connected in some way to deeper currents of anti-intellectualism and other tendencies that enable populism. we live in an age of cheap consumable culture. a people who aren't willing to put in work to expose themselves to challenging or nuanced culture, which is there to raise questions, after all, are probably also grazing on received political wisdom and the usual social media/tabloid churn.

star wars and marvel movies want to paint the world in manichean black and white, which i think could lead people easily enough to believe in or seek 'simple' solutions to complex real-world issues. where is the 'team america' or even, dilb's favourite, the 'idiocracy' of 2020? all these franchise movies just reflect really dumb typical superhero-genre projections/fears.

Missing the mark here really. Of course this strain of pop culture is somewhat dumbed down, but it is also fantastical and doesn't pretend to be anything else. You yourself are falling into the trap of analysing the public through pop culture without recognising that to probably most consumers it is simply entertainment. Big ooh-aah special effects, lots of jokes, a predictable story arc and the knoweldge that in the end the heroes will always win anyway. It's a refined version of a typical story formula that can be traced back all the way to antiquity. Take a moment to realise you referenced manichaeism to describe contemporary culture.

But if we are to judge today's 'infantile generations' through their pop culture I suppose it would only really be possible if it were laid side-to-side with past pop culture. Look at James Bond, the dozens of garbage films made by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, or even in a more serious vein the comically villainous portrayal of the Soviets in the 50s-60s. Is it really true that generations today lack nuance and realism in their view on the world? If we contrast Marvel and star wars with all the other examples what you see is that pop culture seems to increasingly disassociate from reality: it's fantasy space wars and imaginary heroes with superpowers. Perhaps pop culture is now is focused to be an insulating bubble away from reality?

It is also more complicated than just Marvel. You referenced Nolan as well, which would be a step-up in movies that at the very least attempt to capture human emotion and relations in a little more realistic manner. While I don't find his work particularly rewatchable and often somewhat derivative, I don't understand why you insist on scowling at the name. Dunkirk for one was definitely a good film, is it the obvious comparison to Hitchcock's The Birds which makes it less palatable? Or is it just your default revulsion of anything that receives populair acclaim speaking? Are Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick also garbage in that sense?

my guy. ridley scott and stanley kubrick are not even in the same universe.  no, i do not hate what is popular. that’s a dilbert-level understanding of culture. nobody thinks the rarer or less known something is, the more it’s worth. i don’t think even try hard 19 year old sophomores think this way.

uziq wrote:

my guy. ridley scott and stanley kubrick are not even in the same universe.  no, i do not hate what is popular. that’s a dilbert-level understanding of culture. nobody thinks the rarer or less known something is, the more it’s worth. i don’t think even try hard 19 year old sophomores think this way.

Curiously you do often act like you think that way uziq. It would surprise me immensely if there's anything pop culture you're not dismissive about. You're even snobby about academia.

Does denis villeneuve tick the right box?