CuriousCat Archive Page 15 of 202

  1. Settle the debate once and for all: is film noir a genre? A style? A movement? A collective fever-dream???

    so this is the question almost every essay about film noir devotes at least a paragraph to, and I've come around to the opinion that it Doesn't. Fucking. Matter. there are no "genre analysis tools" that you're not allowed to use on film noir because AKSHUALLY it's a style. inasmuch as such tools exist, there are many noirs and neo-noirs where it would be outright foolish not to use them. I don't think Chinatown is even comprehensible if you don't consider it an evolution of a genre. but, also, "genre" is not a term with fixed borders; it's a human concept that we use when it's helpful to use it. I find it helpful to think of noir like a genre sometimes, and unhelpful to debate whether that is "technically" accurate (which presumes technics even exist).

  2. Thoughts on thoughts?

    constantly

  3. Were you the fastest sperm?

    the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all

  4. Is Call of Duty propaganda for the military industrial complex?

    among other things, yes

  5. Is trump being convicted of falsifying business records a good thing?

    yeah. dunno HOW good, but it is definitely some percent good.

  6. How many of those 700000 death were directly or indirectly due to the people who refused to get vaccinated? Biden tried a vaccine mandate and the Supreme Court overturned it. Short of arresting people who refused to get vaccinated what else could have he done there?

    in response to How so? Was it more monstrous than any other recent presidency?

    extending work-from-home and remote schooling, continued stimulus payments, widespread installing of ventilation in enclosed spaces per the CDC's recommendation, more free testing sites, more free testing kits, continued mask mandates, continued contact tracing, earlier reporting of wastewater data for infection rates when home tests and self-quarantining replaced doctor tests the CDC could trace, keeping the recommended self-quarantine period at the CDC's recommendation instead of halving it, forcing the pharmaceutical companies to not copyright the vaccines, and that's just off the top of my head.

    also, y'know, if the reason he HAD to let 700k people die is the hostile conservative Supreme Court, maybe he shouldn't have declared he wouldn't do anything about the hostile conservative Supreme Court.

    when liberals say "we've done all we can do," PLEASE don't take their word for it.

  7. How so? Was it more monstrous than any other recent presidency?

    in response to What would you think of Biden’s presidency if the Gaza war hadn’t happened?

    most people don't let 700,000 people die of an infectious disease, especially when they campaigned on addressing that problem better than the fucking fascist who still managed a quarantine, mask mandates, and multiple stimulus payments. Biden is fucking GARBAGE.

  8. What do you use ChatGPT for?

    I don't

  9. What would you think of Biden’s presidency if the Gaza war hadn’t happened?

    it was more passively monstrous

  10. Why has money been seemingly so important for every major society in history?

    it hasn't

    good talk

  11. Are you ever too old to go to waterparks?

    I hope not

  12. Do you think most people who flee nominally socialist countries are doing so because of authoritarianism? Totally not asking because my family is Cuban or anything.

    in response to How do you define authoritarianism, and is it always bad?

    people flee places like Cuba for all kinds of reasons. some fled because they were queer and Cuba was (at least at one point) pretty fuckin homophobic. some fled because of authoritarianism. a LOT fled because they were capitalists.

    I'm not an expert on Cuba.

  13. I'm curious if you lift bruh but in a chill Exercise Can Be Nice way

    yeah

  14. In a polyamorous relationship do you love some people more than others?

    sort of? I have anchor partners that I have much longer and deeper connections with than the cutie I send flirty texts to. but within those anchor partners there isn't a hierarchy. I love them differently, but not one ~more~ than another.

  15. Now that’s some time has passed what were your thoughts on the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial?

    I stand with Amber

  16. Have you called out white people for being racist in scenarios like that? If yes, what happened?

    in response to What's the most racist thing you've seen in real life?

    at the time I was too chickenshit, so I think I just glared at them and said "you'll be fine." I don't know if the world has changed or if people clock me different now, but that kind of "presumed white solidarity" hasn't cropped up in a while, at least not so explicitly.

  17. What's the most racist thing you've seen in real life?

    I counter-protested Trump's inauguration and the Boston Free Speech Rally that was supposed to be the Alt-Right's follow-up to Charlottesville, so I've seen some virulently racist stuff from a medium distance.

    for shit that happened right in front of me, I had white people in Oakland say shit to me like "could you watch my bike? there's a lot of Black people around here..."

  18. Speak any languages?

    ...

  19. favorite "big" artist

    in response to favorite "lil" artist

    john

  20. Why is he consistently ranked in the upper-tier of U.S. presidents then? Not asking in bad faith.

    in response to name one good thing Reagan did

    to conservatives he's basically Jesus and liberals have embraced his legacy out of political necessity and/or moral bankruptcy

  21. That’s just what’s someone controlled by a fungus would say!

    in response to Not even like 0.00000000000001%?

    I don't think clickers use the internet

  23. favorite "lil" artist

    jon

  24. (Yet another anon) Tangentially related: Now that we've had some time that's passed and given how an alarming number of polls show Trump leading, do you think there's merit to the argument that if COVID hadn't happened in 2020, Trump would've won that election? Because I'm starting to think the way things are going now that we've decided to ignore COVID, that might have merit.

    in response to Different anon. Also, if trump wins, there won’t be any future candidates because there won’t be any future elections.

    I don't know. he could've won. he could've still lost, but the margin would be smaller. I'm not a polls expert. I can vouch that Biden doing basically nothing he promised to do and doing a lot of the kinds things we were worried Trump would do, ah... kind of undermines the reason people voted for him? poor re-election strategy, that one.

  25. (diff anon) Maybe not super relevant here, but the idea of different learning styles has repeatedly been empirically disproven (i.e. matching a teaching style with a preferred learning style doesn't yield better results). Obviously, illustrations are still useful, but not specifically for visual learners, as those don't seem to really exist.

    in response to Any advice on how to speak with better clarity? It's a problem I've run into repeatedly, and younseem like you know how to make what you say reasonably comprehensible to people who aren't used to the way that you speak.

    I mean... I don't know what to call it that my partner can listen to a video in the background and follow it but I need regular visual information, and I make allowances for people like me. we both have combined-type ADHD so it's not that!

  26. Biden - don’t go into raffia this is the final straw or else I’ll start blocking some weapons.
    Israel - we will do “limited operation”
    Biden- ok
    Israel- lol lmao we’re rolling tanks into the city and massacring people
    Biden………………… we will defund the world food program killing random people around the world if Palestinian statehood passes in the UN

    Bro I can’t fucking stand this guy what do we do?

    I dunno bro, shit's real bad

  27. Any advice on how to speak with better clarity? It's a problem I've run into repeatedly, and younseem like you know how to make what you say reasonably comprehensible to people who aren't used to the way that you speak.

    - put abstract concepts into practice with examples/hypotheticals/metaphors
    - illustrate abstract concepts for visual learners
    - avoid jargon where possible; it's more important that people understand an idea than that they learn the word academics use for it
    - feel free to use ten-cent words but try to make them deducible from context so people don't have to look things up
    - a good joke or evocative phrase will stick in people's minds, so it's good, after expending a lot of words on something, to give a punchy summary that people can hold onto
    - I don't know quite how to explain this but try to have a THROUGHLINE. you don't wanna just dump related information on people, you wanna structure it like a story with beginning, middle, and end, because that's how people internalize information; if you feel like you're saying something important but have drifted from your main point, redraft to make sure it relates to the central theme or cut that bit and save for a later argument
    - enthusiasm is infectious so take a genuine interest in what you're discussing and try to connect with why it interests you
    - pay attention to how you engage with the media you consume; what grabs your attention? where does your focus drift? what rhythms and cadences make someone enjoyable to listen to? try to think about why and apply that knowledge.

  29. holy shit this video is three months old and has literally two views and i think they're both me why haven't you shown this to anyone

    in response to for one, you don't look and/or sound like a literal muppet

    it's an unlisted backup of a thing I posted to Twitter originally

  32. Matt Mercer, Troy Baker, or Nolan North?

    Jennifer Hale

  33. Diff Anon:
    I know your material is more uh- "polished" than what those two tend to produce, but you can, in general, keep a thread of thought without going off into a digression about... Whatever is driving you mad.
    Maybe that's your mistake?

    in response to (diff anon) But to some extent you DID choose to not make a bunch of money. You chose not to be a grifter, as an example. You chose not to push others down to lift yourself up the way that capitalism is designed.

    my skills are entirely about making reasoned arguments. I have exhibited zero faculty in emotional manipulation.

    and it's the same deal: grift is no more a meritocracy than any other part of capitalism. at any given time there are THOUSANDS of people trying to be the next Shapiro or Rogan or Tate and most fail. most of those guys are successful because they come from money and have wealthy benefactors. I have neither.

  34. Different anon. Also, if trump wins, there won’t be any future candidates because there won’t be any future elections.

    in response to Do you think punishing Biden in the election might be the better option in the longterm sins it will teach the democrats you can’t just support genocide? Resulting in better future candidates.

    that is alarmingly possible, yes. I stop short of saying that will definitely happen - he is very flighty and promised a lot of things in the last campaign he didn't actually try to do, and the Republican Party is extremely dysfunctional and I don't know that they could succeed in their "install fascism after the next election" plan.

    we're at the level of "ok yes one candidate is promising to end democracy, his Party is supporting him, and if he wins we're just praying he screws the idea up or get bored." that is a VERY bad place to be.

  35. Can you spell the b-word that means of the opposite of "proletariat" without searching it up?

    bourgeoisie

  36. (diff anon) But to some extent you DID choose to not make a bunch of money. You chose not to be a grifter, as an example. You chose not to push others down to lift yourself up the way that capitalism is designed.

    in response to What I don't like about anticapitalists is that you're all poor! Why would I listen to you? It's not even that you're disadvantaged. Like you, IS, are clearly a great marketer and have great social skills and you are smart enough to learn stuff to make a bunch of money, yet you don't. I'd rather listen to some guy who makes a bunch of money and plays golf every day

    I agree that I would not choose those things, but I don't know that I would succeed if I tried. I'm flattered you think I'd be a good grifter, but my set of skills are somewhat different from Jordan Peterson's and Andrew Tate's.

  37. What do you think of slogans tha go along the lines of "No such thing as unskilled labour"? While I get the gist of what it implies, I stil don't really know if I agree even as a very leftist person. I feel that we can advocate for better treatment of all workers without denying that some jobs can be taught in a day and others take years

    well, I have generally taken the phrase to mean "all labor is valuable," because "unskilled labor" means labor that commands lower pay. but just because the work is quick to pick up doesn't mean it's unimportant, or that the laborer has less need to eat. so what capitalism MEANS by "unskilled labor" doesn't exist.

    but even the way you're reading it (which may well be the correct way), I think I would stand by it. skill is not defined by how quickly the entry-level skill can be acquired; you can be skilled at flipping burgers. some jobs require more skill than others; there aren't any jobs that require NO skill. do anything for a length of time, you will get good at it. "unskilled" just means there is a low enough skill floor that a worker can be replaced by someone worse but passable.

  38. They actually are real. The cordyceps in TLoU are based on the real life fungus that does what it does in the games, just to ants instead of humans.

    Fungal zombies exist, they're just ants.

    in response to Not even like 0.00000000000001%?

    I know what cordyceps is (are?). infected ants do not turn into murderous zombies killing other ants, there is no evidence cordyceps can cross the species barrier, and it does not spread such that it has collapsed ant culture worldwide (that would not be evolutionarily advantageous for cordyceps). these three facts are unlikely to change.

  39. What would you do if The Last of Us Part 2 happened irl? i.e. someone shows up to assault you with a golf club

    in response to What would you do if The Last of Us happened irl?

    whoa spoilers

  40. Do you think punishing Biden in the election might be the better option in the longterm sins it will teach the democrats you can’t just support genocide? Resulting in better future candidates.

    Dems never learn anything from losing elections. they wouldn't have run Biden if they'd learned anything from Hillary.

  41. What I don't like about anticapitalists is that you're all poor! Why would I listen to you? It's not even that you're disadvantaged. Like you, IS, are clearly a great marketer and have great social skills and you are smart enough to learn stuff to make a bunch of money, yet you don't. I'd rather listen to some guy who makes a bunch of money and plays golf every day

    I didn't CHOOSE not to make a bunch of money, dude. I have all the skills and resources to succeed under capitalism but I don't, and when you realize that skills don't mean dick when capitalism can only make a finite number of people successful, and you're not one of the lucky ones, you start to REALLY FUCKING HATE capitalism.

  42. Is Last of Us the one where... "Man's is the real monster"???? But also super-cordyceps??????

    I don't want to say I don't respect your time... But... Even with the delay, this is better than googling right now.

    in response to How likely is The Last of Us to happen irl?

    god, we used to say "google is your friend" when people asked us shit they could look up, but it's not even true anymore. this literally IS better than googling now.

    yes The Last of Us is the fungal zombie one

  44. Not even like 0.00000000000001%?

    in response to How likely is The Last of Us to happen irl?

    no I don't think fungal zombies are real, and I'm not afraid to say it

  45. If you had to make one change to Hollow Knight for the better, what would it be?

    probably let Maddy from the Celeste team tweak the platforming so it doesn't feel like butt in the White Palace

  47. What would you do if The Last of Us happened irl?

    well, thanks to the pandemic, I know PRECISELY who in my circles I can trust in a zombie outbreak, and have some friends in the boonies I could hole up with

  48. Have you seen the A24 Civil War movie, and if so do you have thoughts?

    no. before it came out my opinion was "Garland is many things but he's not a coward" and then I heard the pitch after release and realized I might be wrong.

  50. How so? Do you mean in terms of response from the general public?

    in response to Is there a difference in practice?

    no I mean my life got worse

  51. Are you worried about bird flu?

    I'm worried about the turtle flu

  52. get a monitor in the mix too, that's what finally got me into gaming for real

    in response to Also Keyboard?

    y'all are full of good ideas

  53. Is there a difference in practice?

    in response to Are u atheist or agnostic

    having gone from agnostic to atheist, I can confirm: yes. atheists have it worse.

  54. He has generously provided the people of Simi Valley, CA with an open-air gender-neutral public bathroom.

    in response to name one good thing Reagan did

  55. Are u atheist or agnostic

    atheist

  58. Planning on seeing the Furiosa film?

    just saw it, it's great

  59. name one good thing Reagan did

    he died

  60. (diff anon) I think the problem you're running into here is that you seem to be presenting yourself as an authority on the subject. When you, in fact, are white. Arguing the meaning of the phrase "stay woke", and its ubiquity among the entire African-American population, when you yourself are *not* African-American, comes off more than a bit disingenuous.

    in response to Do most non-white people have a different definition of racism than most white people? That's the core question here. If it was true I don't think it would be difficult to prove. My claim is an assumption I was open about that, I could be wrong. You stated yours as if it was fact I wanted to know why you thought that, what evidence convinced you of that?

    fuck off dude, I kept pointing people to Black primary sources and they insisted I give the answer myself, and I've made it very clear I am just repeating what those Black primary sources say. don't tell me I've no right to answer a question y'all asked and I tried to redirect repeatedly.

  61. Do you use gyro aim when using a controller for shooty games?

    I play shooty games with a mouse

  62. What'd be Unethical Monogamy do ya think?

    in response to Is ethical nonmonogamy the same thing as an open marriage?

    I guess the period where divorce was legal but there wasn't a no-fault divorce yet, so people couldn't leave a spouse for being unhappy but would lose all rights in a divorce if they cheated. monogamy was state-enforced at that time.

  63. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, or Damian Wayne?

    I was always a bigger fan of Keenan Ivory Wayne

  64. Do most non-white people have a different definition of racism than most white people? That's the core question here. If it was true I don't think it would be difficult to prove. My claim is an assumption I was open about that, I could be wrong. You stated yours as if it was fact I wanted to know why you thought that, what evidence convinced you of that?

    in response to "most people" aren't white, and understand the correct definition of racism because the experience it." This is the quote that started the whole discussion and i am asking if you have any evidence to back up this claim. You are the one who started with the strong claim. I am trying to figure out if you have anything based in reality to back it up or if this is just ideology. I feel like if you had concrete evidence you would have just posted it already.

    ok, will you accept this as evidence?

    "be aware that racism is an institution" is roughly what "stay woke" means, and it is a phrase that was widely recognized throughout the entire African-American population.

  65. I know there is a lot of overlap, but SZA isn’t really a rapper, she's an R&B singer-songwriter.

    in response to Who are your favourite rappers?

    fam if Post Malone is rap then SZA is rap

  66. Do you miss Blockbuster?

    I didn't grow up with Blockbuster. we had small, local video stores. we eventually got a Hollywood Video after I was grown up, but that was shortly before Netflix killed all the chains.

    the best video store in the area was called Movie Magic, and my first job was a corner Beverage & Video that rented movies and sold liquor.

  67. "most people" aren't white, and understand the correct definition of racism because the experience it." This is the quote that started the whole discussion and i am asking if you have any evidence to back up this claim. You are the one who started with the strong claim. I am trying to figure out if you have anything based in reality to back it up or if this is just ideology. I feel like if you had concrete evidence you would have just posted it already.

    in response to I am asking for evidence for the specific claim that most non-white people have a different definition of racism than most white people do. I will lay out my claim here just so you know, i would personally bet that if you asked most non-white people do define racism they would come up with a definition pretty similar to the oxford dictionary one. here is the quote "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized." I am asking you for evidence that would disprove my claim.

    the claim is only strong if you are claiming it clashes with what is already accepted. you are begging the question of whether what you have already accepted was ever demonstrated in the first place. the burden of proof is not on me if your position was never proven to begin with.

    for the concrete evidence, I already recommended an entire book on the subject. I also made an entire video about institutional racism that cited five books and a number of articles.

    like... just bear with me here. ENTERTAIN the notion that this might be true. not as a "the guy I'm arguing with might win the argument," but that racism IS, if you dig into it, not just a set of prejudices but a system of power, and that the majority of people who experience racism are, to some extent, aware of that fact. is that something you would want to verify? is that something you have genuine curiosity about? and, if so, do you feel a white guy on Curious Cat writing with a 3000 character limit could possibly summarize it well? could he possibly be the right person to ask?

    if you do not accept the video, do not want to read the articles or the books, do not want to google the subject yourself, but will ONLY entertain the idea if I walk you to the door and summarize 600 years of history for you... I'm sorry, there is nothing I can give you. there is no "evidence" that meets that criteria.

    there is a MASSIVE amount of information on this subject, entire university programs teaching the thing I described, entire political movements trying to ban books on the subject. you can't just sit there in willful ignorance and say "yeah, but did YOU in specific prove it?" it's just dishonest. it is not any kind of engagement with the subject. I'm not trying to convince you because I don't think you're interested in understanding.

  68. That's fair. I guess it comes down to the feelings. But also, you want to be you, and when you're dead there's no more you to want things, so it doesn't have to matter.

    in response to (diff anon) why do you fear death? If we assume there's no afterlife, death is just kind of a neutral state, where it's not good or bad, cause there's no you to experience anything. I personally find that neat.

    yeah, it won't matter THEN, but it matters to me NOW.

  69. Ok, I kinda get where ur coming from. But still the lives of all those marginalised people have improved substantially even in the last 30 years. The fact that h and m is selling gay t shirts doesn’t really change the fact that a gay person living today is going to have an easier safer, and less stressful life than a gay person living 30 years ago. I would call that a victory for anyone who cares about those groups whether liberal or leftist.

    I just hate this narrative that none of the progress actually matters because capitalism Still exists. Bro capitalism existed back then too at least the lives of people living under it can and has been improved and that’s worth CELEBRATING. This kind of mentality turns people off from fighting for progress because it makes them feel paralysed.

    in response to Ya know your not really attracting a lot of people to your ideology with this kind of attitude. Many people become conservatives just because it feels like they’re winning all the time. Conservatives revel in their victories and try to ignore their failures as much as possible. While many leftist like you try to downplay and even dismiss EVERY SINGLE STEP FORWARD it’s depressing. people like to feel good about themselves if u don’t give them that u won’t win people over.

    sure, and if people are celebrating with the nuance that, hey, there is still work to do, and in some ways the things we did to make that progress are going to make future progress harder, and things were given up along the way, and not everyone involved agreed to those sacrifices... sure, I would still celebrate something that is a net gain.

    where I take issue is that this "celebration" is so rarely nuanced, and it's seen as an unambiguous good thing that the Gay Rights Movement finally got mainstreamed enough to legalize marriage and be broadly accepted in the eyes of liberals, with no mention that the flashpoint of the Gay Rights Movement was the Stonewall Riots, which were kicked off by a Black trans woman, whose face and actions have been smoothed out of the narrative to make it more appealing to mainstream sensibilities, and that trans people have in fact LOST rights in recent years, and that the whitewashed Gay Rights Movement has often thrown them under the bus.

    like, let's celebrate the gains, but let's have the celebration be as nuanced as the critique, yeah? I don't like that some people act as though the Gay Rights Movement has accomplished nothing, but ffs why do it's defenders have to pretend nothing was sacrificed in the process? let's ALL just talk about complex things with the complexity they require.

  70. I have a more nuanced view of this conflict than some leftists, but it's abundantly clear to me that the goal of this assault for Netanyahu is to intimidate Hamas into an unconditional surrender, and force Gaza to fully submit to Israeli rule. Barring that nigh impossible scenario, the strikes won't stop until he can roll his cart and plow over the bones of the dead, and annex the ashes.

    in response to But they will stop bombing them if they do that and lay down their arms.

    the goal of Netanyahu is to keep the conflict going as long as possible because he knows his political career is over as soon as it ends, and he will reject even unconditional surrender because he needs the conflict to last a little longer. it's also why he's starting shit with Iran.

    and also he does not see Palestinians as people and even if they surrender they will still EXIST on the land, and it is better for him that the land be completely depopulated.

    that's my read on the situation, anyway.

  71. Are you Hades2ing?

    ain't even Hades1'd yet. I can tell it will be compulsively playable and I have not been in a space where I am ready to devote that time.

  72. (diff anon) why do you fear death? If we assume there's no afterlife, death is just kind of a neutral state, where it's not good or bad, cause there's no you to experience anything. I personally find that neat.

    in response to What feels more despondent, baldness or grayness? Personally I like the idea of a silver fox

    I know my fear of death is not entirely rational, which is also why it's hard to reason my way out of it. what you say makes a kind of sense, but my nervous system doesn't care! it's scary.

    but, also: the idea of there being no me to experience anything is terrifying. I am a me who experiences things. it's all that I am. every fiber of me wants to keep experiencing things. death would be, in some ways, less scary if I thought it was floating in an empty void forever. but I won't even be there to remember my life. from my subjective experience, it will be as if I never existed. there will be no me. I want to be me.

  73. Who are your favourite rappers?

    I'm not as plugged into hip-hop these days as I was in my twenties. I have a general appreciation of Kendrick Lamar, Megan thee Stallion, SZA, and Snow tha Product, but I haven't delved deep into any of their albums. I cut my teeth on a lot of indie/East Bay art rap, so I carry a fondness for Doseone and Atmosphere. I still deeply love Jonny 5's Onomatopoeia, though I have complicated feelings about it now. I have a playlist called "bugshit" that is just WEIRD rap, with stuff like clipping., JPEGMAFIA, Death Grips, and AKWEAKE on it.

    I dunno, stuff.

  75. I am asking for evidence for the specific claim that most non-white people have a different definition of racism than most white people do. I will lay out my claim here just so you know, i would personally bet that if you asked most non-white people do define racism they would come up with a definition pretty similar to the oxford dictionary one. here is the quote "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized." I am asking you for evidence that would disprove my claim.

    in response to Do you have any evidence for this claim?

    ok two questions:

    1) what would you accept as evidence?
    2) what evidence do you have for your claim that most non-white people have the same definition as the dictionary?

    cuz I'm not SUPER interested in providing counter-evidence for an assumption

Anon commented:
Ian replied: