Friday Ephemera

one woman’s point of view
She’s Chinese. Interesting.

The dangers of railway tunnels…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/qsz4ix/this_is_why_you_should_never_stay_near_the_exit/

Morning, all.
She’s over the target.
The line about box office results is, I think, an overstatement, but the rest is pretty solid. And it implies quite a lot about the mindset of the people currently employed to write so many of Marvel’s projects. As I said on Twitter, you could think of it as a how-to guide for alienating a huge chunk of your audience while applauding yourself. And then admiring yourself even more when the customer complains or simply loses interest.
Oh. My. God.
It’s a genre of pornography I was previously unaware of. But remember, it never, ever happens. And when it does, it’s a good thing, you bigot. I don’t often find myself in alignment with strident feminists, but on this point, it’s difficult to demur.

She’s Chinese. Interesting.
How so?
I did appreciate her illustrating the connection between wokeness and incompetence – specifically, bad writing. A point that can’t be made often enough.
[ Added: ]
Baggage Claim also touches on the self-regarding and rather anxious in-group culture, often noted here, in which the incompetent are largely shielded from normal feedback, and from many of the normal consequences. And so, if you, an outsider, explain why a given project is poorly written, or tone-deaf, or fundamentally misconceived, you may find yourself being dismissed as merely hating women, or brown people, or gay people or whatever. The incompetents in question will then double-down and claim to be vindicated by your failure to enthuse – because, by hating women and brown people, you’re a bad person. And the incompetents, being impervious, will be given another project, which will also be underwhelming and result in a further alienation of the audience.
Rinse and repeat. Until something gives.

The progressive retail experience, parts 440, 441, 442, and 443.
I found 443 interesting as technically the UK doesn’t have, or at least to my knowledge it doesn’t have, anything like the $950-dollar bar which has in effect decriminalised occasional daylight robbery.
Then I remembered this news item from the end of last month – Seven in ten Met Police officers failed to make a single arrest in an entire YEAR, new figures reveal – as crime hits highest level in two decades – and it seemed rather less of a surprise.
Still, they have far more important things to be doing as discussed here and here.

As our host often says, ‘Always respect the Media’.
Headline in The Guardian from 05 August 2022:

Police racial bias played role in UK Covid fines regime, says report

Headline immediately followed by this subheading:

Researchers say institutional racism probably contributed to ‘differential approach’ to enforcement of powers

Which in turn is immediately followed by this first line:

Bias in policing at least partly explains why minority ethnic people were more likely to receive fines for Covid breaches than their white counterparts, research says.

Also later in the report:

An author of the study says the findings show institutional racism probably affected how the pandemic powers were executed in some instances.

Because if there’s one thing we’ve been lacking over the past few years, it’s not enough media reporting provoking racial animus in the general population.

while we get used to the idea that whatever wrong was done to us will most likely go unpunished
There’s a discussion of pretty much exactly in the Triggernometry interview with Harry Miller.
It starts here, at 31.36, when Francis Foster describes the Police response, or rather the lack of it, to a distressing break-in and burglary at his elderly parents home.
I fear that Miller’s advice for what to do in that situation is only partly an exaggeration.

She doesn’t appear to be
I’m curious what her background is then, because her accent is exactly in line with native Chinese speakers that have trained extensively to speak English. There’s a particular set of English phonemes and dipthongs Mandarin/Cantonese doesn’t have, and native Chinese speakers never quite get them idiomatically correct.
I note she mentions something I’ve pointed out repeatedly: male heroes get The Hero’s Journey plots, female heroes get Cinderella plots. This isn’t just MarDisVelNey, just about every Grrrl Powahhh TVshow or film does this. There’s also the Half as Hard, Twice as Good trope, in which a female hero is lauded for achieving fairly mediocre results compared to the male counterparts. I enjoy pointing out that the Frog Brothers have a higher vampire kill to screen time ratio than Buffy Sommers, and that Jim Carrey and William Ragsdale killed master vampires without the benefit of superpowers or a cleanup crew of superpowered sidekicks.
It’s a good video, but I think there’s a forest and trees problem here. You can sum up Phase IV the same way you can sum up Star Wars and most long form television made in the last five years: these properties are aimed at women. What you’re seeing in Phase IV (and Star Wars, and Prey, and just about everything else Disney does) is the 90s-family-sitcom-ization of these properties. Dad dumb, sloppy, stupid/malicious; Mom heroic, smart, contemptuous; kids cool, witty, disrespectful. Those sitcoms were watched overwhelmingly by divorced moms and their children and the writers pandered to their target demographic’s vanities. Same dynamic is now in play. You think Phase IV is bad, watch any episode of Reba or According to Jim.
That works for TV because TV is about selling ad time and women control the majority of household spending. It doesn’t seem to be working for movies, probably because each moviegoer buys their own ticket and alienating half your audience isn’t a good sales strategy.

when Francis Foster describes the Police response, or rather the lack of it, to a distressing break-in and burglary at his elderly parents home.
Again, wokeness and incompetence. With needless, low-effort, often facile activities undertaken, and loudly boasted of on social media, seemingly at the expense of basic and necessary functions. And this is the demoralising arrangement to which those supposedly being served – but clearly not – are expected to resign themselves.

how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
“We have to stop telling men that there is no difference between competence and misogyny”
That.

I’ll just leave this here and bubble-wrap the breakables.

One does wonder if that individual misread the name on the poster, and thought it was the Edinburgh Cringe festival.
I saw several activists tweeting about how the failure to enthuse was damning evidence of “transphobia” and the audience’s general wickedness. Rather than the – perhaps more obvious – fact that the set was terrible.

Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.

arrogant fucking narcissists

Everytime I see this sort of bullshit I think of this:

Spray and wait until the cops show up. I wonder if it’s available in smaller can format.

I would be perfectly happy to laugh at a set from a transgender comedian.
As were the audience, clearly. It’s just that a comedian didn’t turn up.

Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
It should be legal to immediately resort to violence to stop such crimes. And escalate if the criminals resist.

“Reported for transphobia.”

Or, When you’re arguing with people who are mentally ill.

“Reported for transphobia.”
I want that on a t-shirt. 😀

I want that on a t-shirt.
It does, I think, touch on the nub of the issue. And it illustrates, in a fairly tidy way, the dynamic of countless other exchanges on the topic.

Marvel: they already made a movie focused on black characters– Black Panther– which was a huge success and even popular in Africa. They already had strong female characters. But the new directors and writers want to replace men as action heroes. Sorry, you misread your audience. This is where feminism goes when it goes off the rails: hatred of men is not attractive to everyone. And getting rid of standards (in this case for movie-making) does not produce billion dollar blockbusters.

One of these days they will do it at the wrong location, with the wrong petrol station owner.
Yeah. I highly doubt that. Do you understand that with every viral like this video it becomes clearer, it reinforces the understanding that they can do whatever TF they want and you just have to accept it? They can walk into your house and take your stuff, they can put you out of business, they can assault and batter you, put you in the hospital and then blame you, charge you for causing the original confrontation. If they can cut the penises off little boys and perform hysterectomies on little girls and nobody doe a damn thing. Doctors either go along or are too afraid to speak up. Doctors. People society actually needs. You are just a worthless piece of nothing compared to them. I guarantee you that if the “wrong petrol station owner” lifts a finger by doing anything “wrong” to these people, he will pay a much higher price than they will.

as if it were a magical incantation
If you keep saying it, it keeps the suicidal impulses at bay.
Remember that it’s all just a self-destructive coping mechanism created by a damaged psyche to stave off suicide. They’re trying to convince themselves as much as anyone.

how Marvel shat the bed – one woman’s point of view.
If as opposed to arguing that life is difficult for men and women in different ways, they’re sexually differentiated and it’s ok for them to have sexually differentiated aspirations and standards, the premise is granted that women can and should be equal to men in traditionally male high-status occupations (superhero, quarterback, CEO), then the implication is that we’ve been doing it wrong for all of history, that an enormous wrong has been done to countless generations of girls denied the opportunity that their brothers had to dream of being superheroes or quarterbacks.
If that historical scandal is granted, then the desire for score-settling is understandable and it seems petty to argue that the pendulum has swung too far for a few years compared to thousands of years of oppression. Within that belief system, equality IS superiority: any woman who performs equally to her male peers is actually superior to them because of her additional handicap of stereotype threat/backwards in heels/have to work twice as hard to get half as far/emotional labor of being a representative of my minority and so on.

Hey, I need that t-shirt! I was reported (well, robo-reported) on Reddit for using a bad word. In a discussion about performance cars, used the word “tranny” in reference to an auto transmission.

I have questions about that celebrated English courtesy.

used the word “tranny” in reference to an auto transmission
Tranny fluid by law must be treated as hazardous waste.

One for the ladies.

Still, they have far more important things to be doing…
I’m about 30 minutes into the latter youtube video “Arrested for a meme” and I had to stop here at the 24:07 mark where Harry Miller, in response to the question “how did we get here?” muses that he thinks the start begins with the oath UK LEOs take changing in 2002 from an oath ” To keep the Queen’s peace and uphold the law” to “keep the Queen’s peace, uphold the law and human rights“. As Miller further says

Hold on a minute. That’s sounds good, but why do we need to have this addition of “and human rights” in the oath? What’s wrong with simply “the law” because if there’s a human right, that if the human right is within the law then we don’t need to say “and human rights” — and if the human rights are outside the law, then, by definition, it’s contested and it’s therefore political.

This is where the UK is and where the US may be headed, that “human rights organizations” have the power to see extrajudicial actions taken against their ideological enemies via state agents.
Hence, police at your door for causing an unknown victim “anxiety”.

I’m not sure if it’s the gyrations or what appears to be a complete lack of body hair that’s more disturbing.
[ Puts down tarpaulin in case of womanly juices. ]

The Other Half has been rummaging, for quite some time, in a small, little-used kitchen cupboard. He was digging deep, apparently in search of hidden treats. At one point I feared he would end up in Narnia. He emerged, eventually, clutching a bag of flour. The expiry date is September 2013.

Speaking, as we often do, of arrogant fucking narcissists.
Too bad some nearby customer didn’t start hosing down those a**hole with gas while loudly calling for a match.

The Critical Drinker from three years ago.
But can it really be him? He didn’t finish by telling us “now go away.”

He emerged, eventually, clutching a bag of flour. The expiry date is September 2013.
Been there. Moved last year and found some interesting things. One cupboard shelf was filled with items expired in 2001. I think it was our Y2K stash.

At one point I feared he would end up in Narnia. He emerged, eventually, clutching a bag of flour
Still better than anything Guy Kay ever wrote.
But can it really be him?
It’s been fun watching him refine the persona and the style over time. There’s a WWII/military history YouTuber named Lazerpig who’s aping the style with enough of his own flair to be amusing.
Now I wonder what Yahtzee’s been up to in the five years since I watched any of the Zero Punctuation videos.

“The primary mission of the university should be ‘social justice’.” I kind of wish that Harlan Ellison were still alive, just so he could get canceled and humiliated by the offspring of the deranged leftist “make education relevant” campaign that he so loudly supported.

“One for the Ladies”
Speedo called, they want their suit back…..dry cleaned

It’s official. The White House has declared me and, at least, 74 million other 2020 voters, per definition,“fascist” and the “enemies of democracy.”

It’s official. The White House has declared me and, at least, 74 million other 2020 voters, per definition,”fascist” and the “enemies of democracy.”
Shrug. Liberal “friends” have been calling me a fascist for decades. I have only myself to blame for openly advocating for smaller, weaker government.

Shrug. Liberal “friends” have been calling me a fascist for decades.
Sure, I live in CA have endured it for years. But those leftwing acquaintances could, at best, do little more than not send me a Christmas card and gossip about me amongst their friends over white wine spritzers.
But as Sam Harris observed, anything extrajudicial by the state is perfectly warranted when one is dealing with an enemy of the state like Trump.
Such as the latest “oh, look, a leak!” done by the IRS.

Yahtzee’s on the U.S. West coast? And he’s been zombified? Damn.

Black pudding pizza? Here I thought those were shots from the Webb telescope…maybe very dense galaxies (or dark matter!) floating in the foreground of a gigantic red star….

I have only myself to blame for openly advocating for smaller, weaker government.
How Ron DeSantis responded to Charlie Crist calling him a dictator. This is how it is done. Push back, push back hard, and take no prisoners.

I’m an Indian woman
Fascinating. I wonder what region of India, because that’s not a typical Indian accent.
Yahtzee’s on the U.S. West coast? And he’s been zombified? Damn.
He’s always been a typical lefty Brit – his hatred for ps3/360 era FPSes is based mostly on the fact that they’re pro-American military – but now he’s just squeezing in random comments about feeling guilty for playing Pressure Washer Simulator because he lives in California. He’s lost his edge, which all edgy comedians eventually do. It’s just sad he went in such a tediously typical way.

and now inserts typical left coast talking points into every single review.
I can think of several YouTubers whose views on books, films, adaptations, etc., used to be interesting or worth the occasional peek, but who’ve since become faintly aggravating, and less insightful, because of a compulsion to signal their supposedly ‘progressive’ politics at every conceivable opportunity. And so, a game of spotting-the-racism/sexism/thing-we-now-disapprove-of often overshadows more pertinent details and seems to inspire the greatest enthusiasm, if only for the one playing the game. Personally, I find it hard to pretend to be indignant about a science-fiction story written in 1957 using the word Eskimo.

Hence, police at your door for causing an unknown victim “anxiety”.
Being of cynical disposition I suspect the unknown victim is in fact another police officer. Cuts out the middle man and saves time.

I wonder what region of India, because that’s not a typical Indian accent
Daniel, judging by her features and some signs from her accent, most probably North India, Punjab or maybe the large state of Uttar Pradesh.
I suspect most second generation Indians converge towards that kind of “softened” accent. Culturally, for immigrants from India, fitting in with the law/culture etc and learning the language is considered positive. Same kind of thinking that drives the ridiculous spelling bee stats. My own daughter has English as her first language, and she has a “propah” Brit accent that my wife can’t follow!

Isn’t it *all* pretending?
Well, the political signalling introduces an air of bad faith and grating contrivance. To take the example above… Among the general public, at least outside of Canada and Alaska, the term Inuit started to replace Eskimo decades after the book in question was written. (And if memory serves, many of the Yupik still prefer Eskimo as a general term.) But it seems that mere anachronism mustn’t inhibit the tutting and wagging of fingers.

♪♫…a pretty girl is like a melody…♪♫

[ Puts down tarpaulin in case of womanly juices. ]
I thought you had the tarpaulins down permanently for the benefit of the henchlesbians.

…the term Inuit started to replace Eskimo decades after the book in question was written. (And if memory serves, many of the Yupik still prefer Eskimo as a general term.)
Kevin Williamson, whose career in journalism began in Bombay, explaining why he resists subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) attempts to correct his usage from calling the city Bombay, to calling it Mumbai instead:

’So it was the Shiv Sena, when they came to power, who insisted on changing the official name of Bombay to Mumbai and insisted the people used it. And the reason they did that was, one, that’s the Marathi word, but two, it’s also a religious name [for Hindus] … So it’s basically a way for this angry, Fascist political party full of right-wing political zealots to raise their middle finger at the national government and religious minorities, and ethnic minorities, and linguistic minorities, and foreigners, and especially to Muslims.
‘And so of course all the enlightened, sensitive, politically correct people in the West now adopt this language [i.e. Mumbai for Bombay] because, you know, we want to be nice.
‘So when you say ‘Mumbai’, in a sense you accept and adopt their agenda whether you know it or not.’