CuriousCat Archive Page 78 of 202

  2. Have you seen any films by Andrey Tarkovsky? If so, what do you think?

    I was sort of a film major for a while so I've seen bits and pieces of several, but nothing all the way through.

    his cinematography is incredible. like, my cinematography teachers said "no one has ever compared to Tarkovsky."

  4. ever play mtg? i'd probably never play it physically cause of cost of entry but mtg arena is fun

    in elementary school

  7. Can you elaborate on that a bit? I stopped playing midway through and would be curious what you thought - except if it was so boring you don't have a strong opinion.

    in response to Was it because it had a high bar to cross set by TWD?

    I mean, TWD was a huge departure for Telltale. before that they had mostly been making very old-school adventure games, mostly goofy comedies with inventory and order-of-operations puzzles. then they do this choice-based drama thing with TWD that wins a billion awards and sells a trillion copies. and The Wolf Among Us just felt like a different team trying to do the same thing TWD did but clearly not having the same vision for it, so everything's glowery and it's full of quicktime action sequences that are just sort of obligatory and tedious, and it's a mystery plot which would lend itself to actual deduction puzzles but they go with TWD's model of "plot keeps moving, never stopping, but you can nudge it left or right" and largely avoids puzzles at all. I found several characters interesting in premise but not in execution, the plot wasn't engrossing and the payoff didn't affect me. made me think the comics are probably pretty good, but the game itself did nothing for me.

  8. Thoughts on Alex Garland?

    ummm... I really liked The Beach in high school (the book, not so much the movie), and found the Tesseract (the novel again) really compelling even if I didn't get it at the time. 28 Days Later is a good movie, though the behind-the-scenes stuff reveals a lot of dramatically different second halves that make me question whether there was any actual vision behind it other than "zombies but faster this time."

    Sunshine is one of those movies where I would watch a 2-hour version of the first 20 minutes before the plot kicks in but it gets dull and silly fast. Ex Machina is frequently interesting but not as deep as it thinks it is. I genuinely think Annihilation is great; I think he does better when he adapts other people's work because he's got themes and ideas but isn't great with characters or endings, so he does well when he can poach them.

    in general, he's smart and knows it, and he makes heady stuff that we don't see much of these days, which is probably why I've read/seen almost everything he's had his name attached to. but he's not as smart or as deep as he thinks he is and his stuff an be infuriatingly shallow at times. Devs was a protracted exercise in frustration for me, because thinking even CURSORILY about its themes raised questions that would be REALLY EASY to pose within its premise that it just didn't. like, Nick Offerman straight up saying "what if we did X, what would happen," and Alison Pill just says "it couldn't happen" when it's like... VERY easy for them to check, to the point where I cannot fathom no one doing it. and that's the Alex Garland experience in a nutshell: good ideas, profound themes, medium execution, weak characters, no endings.

  9. is there any consistent pattern for when the right decides to naysay a progressive proposal with "yeah it's a cute idea but its not feasible" rather than "its the work of commie socialist satanists" ?

    a portion of the Right will say the former and a different portion will say the latter for pretty much everything the Left does

  10. Do you think that doing stuff like burning Confederate flags in campaign ads is an effective strategy for getting left-leaning people to vote? (Regardless of how based it is.)

    let's try it and find out

  11. Wall E or Up?

    in response to settle an argument: wall-e or ratatouille?

    much tighter race but I gotta go with Wall-E. that movie is pure cinema.

  12. Is the neo- in neo-noir only an indicator of what year the noir was made, or does it mean an entirely different style of noir?

    in response to Haven't seen any discussion of this, so - is Drive (2011) noir?

    good question! as far as Wikipedia is concerned, any noir made after 1958 is neo-, though I think that's more a matter of simplicity than a cogent argument. it is generally considered an evolution of the genre. the most obvious differences are a) neo-noir is (usually) in color and widescreen, and b) neo-noir made after the fall of the Hays Code, so all the blood sex and cussing is put back in, and criminals are allowed to go unpunished. this things in and of themselves have far reaching effects on the genre, but many other evolutions are simply products of being made in a different time. evolving political mores means neo-noir is often more sociological and less overtly misogynist, differences in markets means noir is often more action-packed, shifts in how we think about noir means there are a lot more detectives now than before because detectives stories have become the standard bearer of classic noir even though they weren't the most common. one of the biggest shifts is that the term "film noir" wasn't coined in France until halfway through the classic noir cycle and the relevant essays weren't translated into English until after the cycle had ended, meaning neo-noir is the only noir that *knows* it's noir.

    I could go on, but I may make a video on this at some point and don't want to blow all my content here.

  13. If someone offer to give you $100,000 to get f**ked in the ass by another guy, would you accept it?

    who's the guy?

  14. Can most of the left’s problems be boiled down to a collective action problem? Why doesn’t this exist on the right? Is it because individual right-wingers tend to be more powerful?

    I don't think the left's problems can be boiled down to any one issue, but the Right *is* better at acting as a unified block right now. the reason for this is straightforward: the Right is authoritarian. authoritarians come in two flavors: a small percentage of leaders and a large number of followers. when an authoritarian leader gives a directive, like "vote for this party" or "call this politician daily until they sign this bill," their followers do it. pure and simple. whereas the Left has lots of dissent, discourse, people thinking for themselves and asking questions and having different long-term goals and ideas about acceptable praxis. and this is good! we don't want to be a party of sheep. but the current political environment isn't built for that. first-past-the-post elections incentivize everyone falling under one of two banners, rather than supporting a wide plurality of opinions. mass demonstrations with a wide diversity of tactics have proven ineffective against a heavily militarized police force. deep discussions of complex issues are hard to fit into the models of ad-driven news networks and click-driven social media. it's hard to break up a hierarchy from *inside* the hierarchy.

  15. What do you think of voter of colour overwhelmingly voting for Biden instead of Bernie?

    not sure my white opinion on that is very useful

  16. you said in the most recent script that Samuel R Delany calls misogyny the oldest oppression-- why does he think so?

    he didn't elaborate in the interview I heard, but misogyny predates monarchy, capitalism, the conception of race, governments, large-scale warfare, transphobia, and homophobia

    you could make a case that xenophobia is older, but I don't know that much else is in the running

  17. how's the back doing?

    no problems for a while. my trainer says my core has come a long way.

  18. Haven't seen any discussion of this, so - is Drive (2011) noir?

    neo-noir, yeah

  19. Was it because it had a high bar to cross set by TWD?

    in response to are you excited for twau 2

    no it was just boring

  20. Ditto to getting fucked in the vagina, many men have vaginas and women have penises

    in response to Nothing gay about getting fucked in the ass

    hell yeah they do!

  21. are you excited for twau 2

    I didn't really enjoy the first Wolf Among Us, sorry

  23. I'm aware of prostate orgasms which supposedly feel like women's G-spot orgasms, but I'm hetero, and really uncomfortable with butt stuff. I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. Believe me, I've tried.

    in response to So this guy might not be up on the vagaries of orgasms, but to any cis guys watching your CC who agree with the question you should know you can get there too, with your butt, that's not a joke either, go VERY slow exploring this but you can do it! Also sorry to soapbox your CC mr danskin, and also sorry for this: why do cis guys as a class really take a bath on actually being good or knowing about sex when sex is seen as this thing you MUST wsnt and MUST be good at getting?

    pegging is very hetero

  24. Is there a meaningful difference between Facism and Authoritarianism?

    fascism, in practice, is a subset of authoritarianism

  25. How does it feel knowing Bob Altemeyer is a self proclaimed moderate?

    once you read his book, you get the sense that "moderate" means something different to him than to the rest of us

  26. Does this mean the video is coming soon?

    in response to I don't know if this helps you, but a patron I wanted to to say that the new script you shared was really great and felt as relevant and exciting as the rest of them. If you didn't know, there even was a hype-post on /r/breadtube where someone shared the first paragraph of your new script. It's currently the top post of the week and generated a lot of positive feedback and anticipation ( https://www.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/smwst8/ian_innuendo_studios_has_completed_the_script_for ). Of course I don't want to change your mind or anything, I'm just saying that we the audience still very much look forward to new TARP videos and your analysis.

    no

  27. Let's get specific: what's some stuff you want from a hypothetical new entry in a video game series you enjoy?

    Sonic the Hedgehog: A Telltale Original Series

  28. I don't know if this helps you, but a patron I wanted to to say that the new script you shared was really great and felt as relevant and exciting as the rest of them.

    If you didn't know, there even was a hype-post on /r/breadtube where someone shared the first paragraph of your new script. It's currently the top post of the week and generated a lot of positive feedback and anticipation ( https://www.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/smwst8/ian_innuendo_studios_has_completed_the_script_for ).

    Of course I don't want to change your mind or anything, I'm just saying that we the audience still very much look forward to new TARP videos and your analysis.

    in response to I get the sense that "How to radicalize a normie" is widely considered your magnum opus. Do you feel the same way about it?

    thankssss :)

    disheartening to see that "Ian is a Warrenite" is still a meme on Reddit no matter how many times I clarify my position

  29. So this guy might not be up on the vagaries of orgasms, but to any cis guys watching your CC who agree with the question you should know you can get there too, with your butt, that's not a joke either, go VERY slow exploring this but you can do it!

    Also sorry to soapbox your CC mr danskin, and also sorry for this: why do cis guys as a class really take a bath on actually being good or knowing about sex when sex is seen as this thing you MUST wsnt and MUST be good at getting?

    in response to Do you ever get envious of female orgasms? They seem so intense and can happen multiple times, it feels like us men are missing out.

    being good at sex demands giving a shit about the other person's happiness, and people who treat sex as transactional and try to trick women into having it with them are, uh, bad at that

    and I'm not going to get autobiographical about butt stuff but I know what I'm about

  30. What's some stuff that you want?

    look fam I just need a good pair of headphones and a diet dr pepper and I'm alright

  31. I get the sense that "How to radicalize a normie" is widely considered your magnum opus. Do you feel the same way about it?

    Yes. It's actually kind of a problem, because it was the last *new* idea I had for the series. Everything remaining is the list of topics I already had planned and researched, I just haven't gotten them out yet. Stumbling onto something that feels like a culmination of the series well before it's done has kind of sucked the energy out of finishing the rest. I'm no longer learning new things, just getting things I've already learned out of my head.

    Really wish the final videos had been the culmination so I would still have momentum!

  32. 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘟 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵

    in response to You are bad at computers

    Press F to go to town on some poonanny

  33. If you could redesign the Supreme Court nomination system so as to avoid You Go High, We Go Low situations, how would you change it? And would you change the life-long terms that justices serve?

    I don't feel confident that I could pitch a good, long-term structure for the Supreme Court, but as to fixing the nomination process: just go with the thing I mentioned in the video, where, if one Party simply refuses to convene a vote, you take that as abdicating their right to hold one and appoint the judge without their approval.

    But I want to stress: the method McConnell and the Republicans used was not some function of government that exists for a reason and they just exploited it. They invented it on the fly. They refused to do their job in such a way that the people who wrote the laws didn't anticipate. It was never intended that appointments would be broken in this way. So, understand, if we "fix" the problem, they will invent a new one, because, at this point, the law is no more than a gentleman's agreement for the lawmakers.

  34. You ever think about how weird it would be that if socialism took off in the United States, history books covering the 20th-21th centuries would describe something like:

    "during the 1930s there was moral panic over fear of communists threatening the American way of life. Then for almost the rest of the century the US had a rivalry with another global superpower of capitalism VS communism; involving going to wars on the other side of the planet to stem the spread of communism, overthrowing the governments of many socialist countries in Latin America, and almost sparking WW3."

    "In the 21st century however, the US did a complete 180 degree change in their political leaning, adopting the economic system that they previously killed hundreds of thousands of people against."

    sure, but, like, I imagine Russia's history books are similar jagged

  35. Instead of having multiple CPUs do it, why not just bring a chimpanzee? The randomness is guaranteed, and you won't have to burn down a fraction of rainforests

    in response to How are NFT’s and crypto bad for the environment? Aren’t they digital?

    that would be

    (•_•)
    ( •_•)>⌐■-■
    (⌐■_■)

    one bored ape

  38. Incendies or Oldboy in terms of the twist toward the end?

    haven't seen Incendies, don't like the Oldboy twist

  39. How are NFT’s and crypto bad for the environment? Aren’t they digital?

    so every NFT has a unique code, and each NFT minted has a more complex code than the last, to the point where, after several hundred of a run have been minted, it takes an entire datacenter of CPUs just to generate the next code. Bitcoin alone currently draws more electricity than a small country.

  41. Is Iron Giant the one Brad Bird film that doesn't really fit in with the "objectivism" theme his other works have?

    in response to I can see that with The Incredibles, but couldn’t you interpret Ratatouille in a “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs” type way? That’s probably not what Bird intended, but “Death of the Author” and all that.

    I mean, it's still very much about a superhero, but, yeah, it's not as up-front.

  42. I can see that with The Incredibles, but couldn’t you interpret Ratatouille in a “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs” type way? That’s probably not what Bird intended, but “Death of the Author” and all that.

    in response to I mean, take out the "special positions of power" part and this would be a perfectly fine philosophy, I'd put stake on it, everyone is talented at something, and they should be able to use their talent in the highest order

    regardless it gives Remy tons of ability that no one else in the film has

  43. I mean, take out the "special positions of power" part and this would be a perfectly fine philosophy, I'd put stake on it, everyone is talented at something, and they should be able to use their talent in the highest order

    in response to Is Ratatouille secretly right-wing or Randian propaganda?

    oh no, Bird's angle is that only a handful of people are TRULY special, that holds true for most of his work. people who think everyone should be special are the villains in his movies.

  44. ? I don't understand what you mean by vaginal orgasms. As opposed to clitoral orgasms? Only women can have either of those. Also if you read about trans women who take estrogen by HRT they say that their orgasms feel like waves of pleasure throughout their entire body and they're more in control of their own libido instead of just getting randomly horny with testosterone, which makes me incredibly jealous. But hey at least I'm able to go to Egypt safely as a man, I guess. Sorry if I sound whiny.

    in response to Do you ever get envious of female orgasms? They seem so intense and can happen multiple times, it feels like us men are missing out.

    I said "vaginal orgasms" because not everyone with a vagina/clitoris is female

  45. Might I ask why the asking not?

    in response to There's a French channel that is translating and adapting The Alt-Right Playbook to the French political context. Did they ask you nicely for permission?

    I don't want people putting my work on their own channels in a language I can't speak so I can't tell whether they're putting things I wouldn't say into my mouth.

    Looking at the videos in question, it appears to be its own thing heavily inspired by my videos but with their own art and scripts and being transparent that they're adaptations, so I'm less concerned in this instance.

  46. Imagine dating someone who doesn't know what an NFT is

    most people who like NFTs don't know what they are

  47. Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin outlines several proposals for doing exactly this in chapter 2 of Anarchism and the Black Revolution. His particular focus is on sectors that Black workers tend to be employed in, but his program offers an embarrassment of riches for non-Black leftists to learn from as well
    https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lorenzo-kom-boa-ervin-anarchism-and-the-black-revolution

    in response to Do you think that workers could pressure the federal government to do stuff were they to strike in massive numbers in vital roles? For example, airport workers and other transportation workers striking to pressure the government into addressing climate change Something like a fusion of the George Floyd protests and the numerous strikes in 2021.

    thanks!

  48. What is the balance between addressing an obvious structural problem like lead paint, and the fact that it will reduce the disabled population? I understand obtuse to call that a form of eugenics, but don’t these run up closely with each other?

    in response to Different poster-no there aren’t, but there are disabled people who say the way we talk about the effects of lead poisoning is ableist. This is a controversy within disabled-rights communities. Most people with disabilities want to get rid of what caused their disability, but some people say people advocate for that in problematic ways.

    again, I don't think any disabled people are saying we should keep using lead paint, we should just be sensitive in how we talk about it

    if you want to play safe, just give them the microphone

  49. Am I imagining things, or are conservatives less able to grasp the idea that two people can perceive the same thing and take different meanings away from it? And if it's true, what is it about conservatism that causes this?

    I think conservatism understands this all too well. "Some people think the Earth is many millions or billions of years old; I think it's very young. You should make up your own mind." Conservatives believe in moral relativism to the extent that it compels liberals to tolerate their (inaccurate, often immoral) beliefs. "Hey, you don't want to condemn someone just for seeing things differently, do you?"

    The issue is they believe one's own position should be imposed on those who disagree, that this is what all beliefs are doing, and that they must win at all costs.

    I do admire them for seeing two competing perceptions and not thinking both are equally valid, a flaw I see in liberalism, but the moral calculus by which they determine theirs the right one is fucked.

  52. Is Ratatouille secretly right-wing or Randian propaganda?

    in response to You have sixty seconds to explain yourself before we nuclear bomb your district

    it's not that secret!

    I kid, I kid. Brad Bird's "benevolent objectivism" doesn't qualify as "Randian propaganda," I don't think. like Rand he believes some people are just specialer than everyone else, and that they should be put in special positions of power and influence to live out their dreams. but, unlike Rand, he believes they should be altruists, putting their skills to use for the good - or, at least, the pleasure - of others. Remi brings joy to the stoniest heart with his cooking. The Incredibles use their powers to save lives. Tomorrowland is basically "what if Galt's Gulch was devoted to saving the world?"

    this is still chauvinistic and antidemocratic, but it's less of a concern than most objectivism.

  53. what do you like and not like about the kingsman secret service movies, all of whom from matthew vaughn?

    I've only seen the first one and it might as well have been called Kingsman: The Master's Tools

    the fact that the movie's position is, unequivocally, that climate change is real and cataclysmic, but the only person saying so is an evil techbro whose only method of dealing with it involves killing lots of people, so they kill him and stop his plan, but it's clear his plan WOULD have stopped climate change, and WOULD have killed fewer people than climate change would, and they are back to having no plan for addressing climate change, is...

    also Eggsy fully embraces the Kingsmen's classist belief in high culture being synonymous with tailored suits and good manners (shibboleths that serve no function but to signify that you have money). he doesn't question the validity of the pyramid, he just thinks it was wrong that he wasn't allowed entrance to the top until now.

  55. Do you ever get envious of female orgasms? They seem so intense and can happen multiple times, it feels like us men are missing out.

    ^vaginal orgasms

  57. Different poster-no there aren’t, but there are disabled people who say the way we talk about the effects of lead poisoning is ableist. This is a controversy within disabled-rights communities. Most people with disabilities want to get rid of what caused their disability, but some people say people advocate for that in problematic ways.

    in response to Is there a way to advocate for getting rid of lead paint where it still exists that is not rooted in ableism? I ask not because I think that, but because I find it hard to articulate a solution that doesn’t touch on the fact that if we began to address this problem there’d be fewer disabled people over time.

    that's what I figured

  58. What percentage of the new Dan Olson video did you understand? Because while I got, and agree with, the gist of it (crypto absolutely fucking terrible), it was pretty hard keeping up at times

    there were points in the back half where I had trouble following, but that's most (probable) ADHD and a 2-hour talking head video than anything Dan did wrong

  59. There's a French channel that is translating and adapting The Alt-Right Playbook to the French political context. Did they ask you nicely for permission?

    everyone who has asked me if they can remake my work in another language I have told them to please not

    so, no, they did not ask me

  60. Who would win: five Brie Larsons or wall-e and ratatouille working together?

    in response to settle an argument: wall-e or ratatouille?

    a single Brie Larson can push a one-ton truck up an incline, I think five can handle a rat and a roomba

  61. Is there a way to advocate for getting rid of lead paint where it still exists that is not rooted in ableism?

    I ask not because I think that, but because I find it hard to articulate a solution that doesn’t touch on the fact that if we began to address this problem there’d be fewer disabled people over time.

    are there disabled people asking us to keep using lead paint?

  62. This is really one of those where it hurts to pick either one because it means abandoning the other

    in response to settle an argument: wall-e or ratatouille?

    Ratatouille isn't that good

  63. What do you think about billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who pledge to give away ~99% of their wealth to charitable causes?

    Bill Gates can give away 99% of his money and still be a billionaire, so why hasn't he already done it, is my question

  64. How many times have you rewatched Blade Runner 2049?

    I've seen it twice, plus all the pieces I rewatched when I made a video about it.

  65. Look, I know it's not that significant of a victory, but that would still be a net benefit, therefore worth engaging in on some level, right?

    Maybe what you mean by "the way forward" is "the only way forward", where dunking on reactionaries online is obviously not that.

    But at some level, the idea that "convincing bystanders through discourse when facing political opponents is important" is why your The Alt-Right Playbook Series matters.

    in response to I mean, it could be other people soundly defeating reactionaries online, I guess?

    one of the central points of the final videos is that debunking a reactionary and persuading them are two different tasks that require entirely different methods, and an argument with a stranger in digital space is a very ineffective way to do either. I will share what I've learned about both, and try to outline optimal ways of doing them, but I'm also going to stress that the payoff for winning an argument is minimal, your time is valuable, and I have a list of more effective places you could put that energy.

  66. settle an argument: wall-e or ratatouille?

    wall-e

  67. Thanos is attacking earth, you can choose five heroes or villains from marvel or dc to team up and stop him. Who do you pick?

    I choose five Bries Larson

  68. Favorite Raymond Chandler works?

    the 1973 adaptation of The Long Goodbye, but I also quite enjoyed the 1998 adaptation of Poodle Springs

  70. How would it require dems blocking a judge? They can’t block one if a Republican President refuses to select one.

    I thought the premise is that they would only refuse to select one because they thought Dems would block it. why else wouldn't they select one?

  71. I would hope that your solutions would be backed up by some real world examples and not just “in theory this will work” you gotta show us visual learners how to do it.

    yes, but do you think the "it" in question is winning arguments?

  72. I just discovered your video "Ass Danced Off by Danskin" for the first time.

    Explain.

    I feel it speaks for itself

  73. Gots Emulator Opinions?

    I used ZSnes

  74. Favorite Dashiell Hammett works?

    Favorite Hammett novel? I've only read Red Harvest but it's a lot of fun.

    Favorite Hammett adaptation? Probably The Thin Man.

    Favorite unofficial Hammett adaptation? Yojimbo.

    Favorite unofficial adaptation of Yojimbo? A Fistful of Dollars.

    Favorite work cribbing liberally from Hammett? Brick, with some respect for Miller's Crossing.

  75. When you do the solutions segment of TARP will you show us some “field work?” Basically screencaps of you demonstrating it online against reactionaries.

    do you think the solutions part is going to be me winning arguments on Twitter?

Anon commented:
Ian replied: