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Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 7th, 2023
  • TheShadowKnows@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Democrats tiptoe around Biden’s comfort running on abortion in 2024
    331·
    10 months ago

    Abortion is a religiously mediated litmus test for politicians. As a Catholic, Biden’s personal religious delusions conflict with truly supporting the pro-choice stance. This isn’t something that will change soon. Voting Americans hate atheist/agnostic morality, and we are likely to get every single other denomination of president before we have an atheist one or even an agnostic one. (Wormald, 2014) The big issue is that abortion was not a political litmus test until subversive alt-right groups made it one after they failed to succeed with their segregationist ideologies. Just know that it all links back to creating a caste system where white, rich, and religious individuals are at the top. (Stewart, 2022)

    Stewart, K. (2022). The power worshippers: Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism. Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Wormald, B. (2014, July 16). How Americans feel about religious groups. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/

  • TheShadowKnows@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Federal judge blocks Montana's TikTok ban before it takes effect
    1·
    10 months ago

    After reading Four Battlegrounds, by Paul Scharre, and Surveillance Capitalism, by Shoshana Zubuff, I have no faith that our government can protect us from the CCP or Silicon Valley. The CCP wants to have all of our biometric data so that it can profile us within it’s social credit system and thus stiffle our political opposition to authoritarianism. Silicon Valley tech companies exercise their unethical behavior modification techniques at scale to drive consumerist behaviors and as an offshoot they also drive massive amounts of people toward extremism. There seems to be no technically savvy intellectuals in government that can thwart these changes and I foresee a crisis event being the only wakeup call for us to drive change.

  • TheShadowKnows@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•A doctor tried to renew his passport. Now he’s no longer a citizen.
    111·
    10 months ago

    You are correct that the US is more xenophobic than the government depicted in StarShip Troopers. That being said the US isn’t the government on display in either the movie or book, it is the Terran Federation. The Terran Federation also isn’t fascist. It is a secular militaristic limited democracy. Every single person who wishes to become a citizen may do so through voluntary service. Unlike our current military recruitment which limits based on country of origin, physical ability, and other qualifiers anyone can join. Stephan Hawkings would have been turned down for service in America, while the Terran Federation would have found a place for him. There are also harsher judicial punishments for those who gain citizenship if they break the law than non-citizens so that citizenships is a privilege and a duty. This hierarchy diminishes the strength of oligarchy, because money has no bearing on voting. Only those who display and demonstrate their true public service affect how the federation operates. Many people who read the book come away thinking that Heinlein was some fascist militarist, but they overlook his criticism of the hypothetical system of government he proposes in the book. He was a Navy officer before being a writer and his righting reflects his admiration for his families long history of public service. There are thinly veiled critiques of the military throughout that my go unnoticed by non-veterans. The psychological manipulation of Rico is definitely something that Heinlein hammers. The movie recast the Phillipino Rico for the hyper Caucasian Casper Van Dien, so while the movie was trying to critique the book if fell flatly on its face white washing the diversity on display in the book, it also more than the book enhances the glory of blind militarism, while is not the type of militarism from the book. All in all both the movie and book’s Terran Federation are forms of government that are better than the shadow fascist oligarchical governments that we enjoy across multiple countries in 2023.

  • TheShadowKnows@lemmy.worldtoMovies and TV Shows@lemmy.film•Oppenhimer review: 3 out of 5 starz. Go see it in theaters, but lower your expectations.English
    2·
    1 year ago

    The movie’s nonlinear story telling is the worst part of the film. Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing was a good place to anchor the movie, but it did not even attempt to set up its antagonist until the last quarter of the movie. Why should it have been a ah-ha moment that Strauss was against Oppenheimer. A better editor would have more effectively placed all of the scenes into a coherent narrative.

    The sex scene was just bad. “Christopher, how do intelligent people have sex?” “Well, they can only be aroused by reading ancient languages that foreshadow their grandiose future achievements.”

    When Oppenheimer, allegedly poisoned Blackett’s apple, it should have been a scene about his mental health issues at the time. Rather than a completely fabricated suspense scene. People who were aware of the incident questioned if it ever really happened. It would have been more impactful to have a scene where Oppenheimer meets with his analyst from that period. The movie decides to simply say that it happened and for some reason interjected Bohr.

    The portrayals of characters was a highlight of the film. Most of the acting was great. It was, however, overly stuffed with high profile actors, which turned the film into a distracting cameo bingo game.

    The physical and psychological aftermath of the atomic booms dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not adequately portrayed. It did not show well enough the psychological toll it took on the scientists on the project or portray the horrific physical toll it inflicted on the Japanese people. The slide reel scene not showing a single image of the attack was a poor choice. It demonstrates that Hollywood is completely ok with an R rating for showing nudity, but not for confronting people with the horrors of human cruelty.