Cylusthevirus

“Before you dismiss me as a curmudgeonly millennial in nostalgia-colored glasses, realize that I am not implying that art that falls closer to the “challenging” side of the accessibility spectrum has gone away, or that it has a smaller market share (though it wouldn’t surprise me) only that it does not bleed into the mainstream as often as it once did.”

This appears to be the thesis statement of the piece, but considering you’ve not defined what constitutes “mainstream” in any meaningful way or offered any evidence that the content of creative works entering this hypothetical “mainstream” are fundamentally more “safe” (another questionably valid construct) now than before 2008, all this whole thing really boils down to is anxiety over social media algorithms.

In order for your thesis to work, you’re going to have to explain why “algorithms” (who’s, exactly?) are going to lead artists to make worse stuff than what was approved by the average MBA nepotism hire that used to be responsible for gatekeeping what made it onto TV in the 90s. Because uh … we’ve seen a lot of that guy and an algo’s taste could hardly be worse. At least the algo can be influenced by what I like.

Also this image? Yeesh dude. A lot to unpack here. But suffice to say, people don’t make deeply challenging art because they crave clicks. They make it because they have to. Because it speaks to their soul or gives voice to their trauma. That’s not going to stop because they’re aware that shitty hotel art made with goofy materials gets more views on the TikToks. The phrase “spiritual growth in society becomes stunted” isn’t just jumping to conclusions; it’s multi-stage rocket launching to conclusions.

Ps. AirBnB literally never existed to provide a “rich cultural experience.” Come on.

Well you see, the shooter runs through the detector, their guns are detected, and then we ask them politely, but firmly, to leave. Mass shooting averted!

It’s all in the 3 ring binder.

My workplace has a nepotism policy. It generally applies to managing or hiring people who you know personally (household members, close family, etc). It does not refer to name recognition.

You’re misusing the term.

Well being President is sort of like being a Star. And as well all know, if you’re a Star they let you do it. Orange Julius was talking about underage pageant contestants at the time, but I think the same principle applies here.

I have some news for you on that front.

Sometimes I wonder if the admin is just … waiting for the Israelis to finish it. Like, they’ve decided that this is going to be an eternal conflict until someone decisively “wins.” Unfortunately the winning condition for both Likud and Hamas appears to be 100% enemy casualties.

Everyone’s backed into a corner here. The various Arab nations that have hated Israel since its’ modern inception and hated Jews for a LONG time before that want Israel gone, Likud seems to want Hamas and most Palestinians gone.

There’s no way out of this until everyone agrees everyone else gets to live.

If the US just washes its hands of the whole thing tomorrow we might have another regional war that could escalate unpredictably. If they pressure Israel to cease-fire, the various PACs start throwing money around (though I think they have less power than politicians are afraid of, honestly - money can only do so much).

I have no idea how you even begin to negotiate with Hamas or whoever’s running the show in the West Bank. The whole thing is a massive clusterfuck and anybody with a neat, simple solution is either a genocidal maniac or delusional.

How would you be “pushed?” Who would do it?

What does a random surgery being “pushed” on you have to do with this conversation? Did it have anything to do with gender? What do you mean by this?

I’m asking all these questions in attempt to discuss this in good faith.

Nobody ever mentions Africa is what’s weird to me.

Fans don’t make business decisions for multi-million dollar corporations.

My local huge park, pool, and sports complex is .7 miles. I have multiple stores and restaurants .5 miles away. Our library is also about .7 miles away. My burb is relatively walkable and perfectly bike-able.

Our grid has its own problems and is completely unsafe for cyclists a lot of the time. I know; I work there. My city has removed lanes from streets to create space for bikes and people still get killed by idiots in cars. Still inadequate public transit. Only more walkable than my own burb in certain, hyper expensive neighborhoods. Cheaper areas have homeless problems (warmer climate) resulting in tons of property crimes (mostly stolen bikes and break-ins). Many encounters with bonk-shit crazy guys yelling at stop signs (and people). Some of them have large, aggressive dogs. Oh, and then there’s the fires they start by attempting to cook or warm themselves and then getting high or drunk.

Frankly I would be stoked to live in a townhouse or condo or something on the grid. All my favorite restaurants are down there, lots to do, etc. But it’s shit for kids and the schools are rough as fuck.

If we started now, we’d be ready in a couple decades in all but the most compact metro areas. And that’s after we build the requisite political will. The US fucked itself hard leaning into cars as transport.

But that’s reality for most of us living in the burbs where the schools are better and the neighborhoods are better for kid stuff.

If you’re being fiscally responsible there’s no way to buy most new cars. People are too used to living well above their means. How these Army recruits straight out of boot camp are dropping 80k on a truck that’ll never even see a sheet of plywood or drywall assuming the bed is even big enough is beyond me.

I haven’t paid more than 18k on a car and even that felt like too much. And I’m well above the median household income for my region.

Frankly I wish I didn’t need a car at all, but it’ll be decades before our infrastructure can support that lifestyle if ever. Unless you’re willing to give up an additional 2 to 3 hours per day on travel … and I’m not.

Shareholders. Not fans.

They’re still in Europe, and I said Europe, not the EU. Also Brexit was in 2020 and I’m relatively certain those pipes were there before that.

You obviously don’t understand

I assure you I am fully aware of the many ways lead has made its way into water in both Europe and the US including literal lead pipes. Actual lead pipes have been banned in the US since 1986 as per my link but of course many remain.

Denmark appears to be ahead of most of Europe, but it’s not just former soviet countries that struggle. England and Wales have lead pipes running to an estimated 25% of households and don’t expect that problem to be cleared up by 2040 or later.

At what level though and how was the lead content assessed?

High levels of lead has been illegal to use in US water systems since 1986. Regulations have gotten more and more strict since then. The EPA’s current goal is ZERO lead, but we still have too much in the water.

It just doesn’t appear to be that much better in the EU, if at all.

I have a theory that moral traits, like many other things in nature, follow a normal distribution. If I’m right, we can make some estimates of who would violate social rules given the chance. The bottom 5% of the distribution are going to do some terrible things. About 45% are going to be kind of shit, maybe not terrible. The remainder will be some level of decent to pretty well behaved, actually. Admittedly, that depends on what we think the mean level of morality really is. Having observed many a group of kids playing, I don’t think it’s that bad. Honestly that’s why so many teenage edgelords and doomers get told to go touch grass; reality will almost never be as bleak as we think it will be. There’s a well documented cognitive bias towards negative events, but it IS a bias.

The Boys isn’t realistic so much as it’s a deliberate deconstruction of the genre and a bit of speculative fiction (“What if Superman was a sociopath” seems to be the question it asks). It has elements of satire too, so it’s not really concerned with being fair so much as creating the story conditions that allow it to show us its narrative.

If you want a more “realistic” superhero show I think the 2012 movie Chronicle is more plausible. And yeah it does go badly for some but not for others.

Aren’t most farms corporate operations now?

Prepare to be even more shocked.