What's on your mind?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

You need to read without pre-judgement, just because I offered reasons doesn't automatically make those reasons opinion. You've assumed opinion because the reasons don't 100% agree with your way of thinking. Not everything expressed has to be an opinion or something believed as fact. "We can't do X because of Y", is a statement, "I think we can't do X because of Y", is an opinion, the way it's written makes a difference.

No, it's all opinion regardless of how it's written. I see people phrase their opinions as statements every day. I do this myself as you've pointed out several times in the past. And that's my opinion regardless of whether I bother to preface every god damned statement with "I think" or "imo." It would seem to be true that most of us would like to believe our opinions are as good as facts, but that doesn't change the fact that they're just our opinions.

[AlSymerz]

If stating facts is opinion then a lot of people are really dumb fucks.

 

 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Just now, AlSymerz said:

If stating facts is opinion then a lot of people are really dumb fucks.

Perfect example. You stated that as a fact, and I would even agree with you that a lot of people are dumb fucks, but that's still just our opinion.

[AlSymerz]

Statement of fact: Our last PM was not a good PM

Statement of opinion: Our last PM was the best ever

Alternate state of opinion: Our last PM was a terrible PM.

The fact is true and has been proven by many who studied his tenure, however both opinions can be spoken as either fact or fiction depending on the way the conversation is spoken. Therefore not every opinion is fact.

And on that note I'm going to bed, and that is fact!

 

[Dead1]

6 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

You need to read without pre-judgement, just because I offered reasons doesn't automatically make those reasons opinion. You've assumed opinion because the reasons don't 100% agree with your way of thinking. Not everything expressed has to be an opinion or something believed as fact. "We can't do X because of Y", is a statement, "I think we can't do X because of Y", is an opinion, the way it's written makes a difference.

Fair enough.

 

I am well aware of why things won't change.  Indeed 18 years as a public servant and all I am seeing is things get worse.

[markm]

Affordable housing is a huge problem in the U.S. also.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, markm said:

Affordable housing is a huge problem in the U.S. also.

He talks about a nationwide shortage of 50,000 homes in Australia, but here in the good ole USA every large metropolitan area has a shortfall of a quarter million homes or more, with the Los Angeles area being the most hard up at more than half a million homes needed.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

6 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Statement of fact: Our last PM was not a good PM

Statement of opinion: Our last PM was the best ever

Alternate state of opinion: Our last PM was a terrible PM.

The fact is true and has been proven by many who studied his tenure, however both opinions can be spoken as either fact or fiction depending on the way the conversation is spoken. Therefore not every opinion is fact.

You're completely missing the point Orca. All three of those statements are examples of opinions. Quite obviously not every opinion is fact (did you think that was some kind of revelation?) but the thing is just because something might be true, doesn't mean it's not an opinion. Even an opinion shared by many is not necessarily a fact, much as you'd like it to be.

Facts are indisputable things that aren't open for interpretation or debate, like: 2+2=4. The sun rises in the east. Sunrise here this morning was at 6:22 am. My son was born January 27th 2014. Post a link to your album outside the Promote Yourself section and you'll get the boot.

Any statements that are judgements of quality, no matter if they're concerning an economic course of action or a band or an album or a PM or a movie or a restaurant are by definition opinions, no matter how many people might share those opinions.

Opinion: I find it strange that Orca and I went to bed around the same time last night given our time zone differences with him being 15 hours ahead of me. So if the two of us lived in the same country I'd be going to bed after he's already gotten up in the morning. Seems he goes to bed before I've eaten my dinner.

[AlSymerz]

I didn't go immediately to bed, but yes I was in bed by 9, up by 3 and in the last 3 and a half hours I've walked nearly 10ks, checked the fences, checked the cows, caught up on the local and national news and now I'm considering what I'll have for breakfast at about 7am

 

[Dead1]

GG, Actually even your son being born on 27th January 2014 is not necessarily true as calendars are a human construct and still vary to this day even amongst Christian countries.. According to Orthodox Christians your son was born on 28 January. According to Islam he was born in rhe year 1435 and according to Judaism 5775.

 

He was certainly born at a specific point in time assuming our understanding of time is correct.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

3 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

GG, Actually even your son being born on 27th January 2014 is not necessarily true as calendars are a human construct and still vary to this day even amongst Christian countries.. According to Orthodox Christians your son was born on 28 January. According to Islam he was born in rhe year 1435 and according to Judaism 5775.

He was certainly born at a specific point in time assuming our understanding of time is correct.

True, I didn't even think to add according to the Gregorian calendar. He was born right on our bed at exactly 12 noon here on the 27th which was 6am the 28th in Auckland when we called to tell the grandparents and other assorted Kiwis.

I always have trouble remembering which day my wife died because she was in New Zealand at the time and I was in Denver with the boy. My father in law told me the doctor had said I should probably get the first flight I could, so I was actually stuffing shit into our suitcase getting ready to leave for the airport when she expired about 12:30pm October 18th my time, 7:30 am 19 October her time. No one told me she had passed so I flew all the way down there with the three year old in tow, in hopes of saying our goodbyes. But it's a 24 hour trip so I got there 24 hours too late. Or 25 hours actually because we would have had to drive about an hour up to the hospice in Whangaparaoa. So she died on the 19th local Auckland time which was the 18th here, and I only found out on the morning of the 20th in Auckland Airport after going through customs. So when people ask me when she died I literally have to look up the October 2017 calendar because I always forget which date it was, 18-19-20 but for some reason I clearly remember it was Wednesday for us here and Thursday for them over there.

Coincidentally my next door neighbor here where I live now in New Jersey's wife also died of cancer, on the very same day four years later, October 19, 2021. But of course his wife was in her mid 70's at the time and mine was only 33. Poor old dude is completely fucking lost without her, they'd been married over 50 years. I feel so bad for him every time I see him out doing yard work and he waves, then invariably walks over to talk with me. I forget not to ask him how he's doing because then I have to watch him get all teary eyed when he says he misses her. I never know what to say to him. So glad I'm well past that stage where everyone feels the need to tell me how sorry they are. Yes it was tragic, but it's been 5.5 years, life goes on.

[MacabreEternal]

Got out early doors and got up to the Lake District this morning to get some miles in on a hike.  Glorious weather today as well so even had the sunscreen on.  Mrs Macabre flaked early and went on a lake cruise boat for a couple of hours leaving me to explore off grid a bit.  Dumbass that I am, I went off with nothing in my stomach (not even water which I left in the car) so ended up with a steaming headache but still was a great morning (largely) away from humanity.

[Dead1]

I dreamed I stumbled across a Buzzcocks gig but it was really the Melvins doing a weird avant garde jam session where they played some Sunn 0))) meets grunge with a splash of black metal and then bantered with the audience in between jammng.  I was having witty interplay with Buzz Osborne over his supposed dislike of classic heavy metal (no idea if this is the case in real life).  Except Buzz Osborne looked like a younger obese version of J Mascis of Dinosaur Jnr fame and played drums instead of guitar.

 

All very strange as I am not really a fan of any of these bands (I don't mind a bit of Dinosaur Jnr).

[DeathMetalBangers]

11 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

garde jam session where they played some Sunn 0))) meets grunge with a splash of black metal

I wish I had dreams like this, bwahaha…I like The Melvins. Blackened Melvins sounds interesting. I never could get into Dino Jr for some reason. 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Took a nasty spill the other day after tripping on something I did see, I know shocker. The blind man missed something right? Anyway, the net result is a concussion, whiplash, and a badly bruised nose… So you know I’ve had worse, barely.

[Dead1]

Back to the topic of casting especially in historical contexts this is the latest saga:

 

Egyptians are pissed off because Netflix portrayed the most famous Egyptian, Cleopatra as Sub Saharan African.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/egypt-furious-over-netflixs-blackwashing-of-cleopatra/news-story/ab2cd44e16ae03b1e3c6bd79c00cc625

 

Modern Egyptians aren't the same as subSaharan Africans.  And the evidence points to ancient Egyptians being more similar to people living n Middle East than SubSaharan Africa (as they are now).

 

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/were-the-ancient-egyptians-black-or-white-scientists-now-know/

 

Plus Cleopatra herself had at least some Greek (Macedonian but not same as current Macedonians who are Slavs) heritage as her family were descended from Greeks who fought alongside Alexander the Great.

 

We have gone from white washing to black washing where British Queens and famous white characters such as Anne Boleyn  are now cast as black.

 

Surely cultural  appropriation goes all ways.

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

12 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Back to the topic of casting especially in historical contexts this is the latest saga:

 

Egyptians are pissed off because Netflix portrayed the most famous Egyptian, Cleopatra as Sub Saharan African.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/egypt-furious-over-netflixs-blackwashing-of-cleopatra/news-story/ab2cd44e16ae03b1e3c6bd79c00cc625

 

Modern Egyptians aren't the same as subSaharan Africans.  And the evidence points to ancient Egyptians being more similar to people living n Middle East than SubSaharan Africa (as they are now).

 

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/were-the-ancient-egyptians-black-or-white-scientists-now-know/

 

Plus Cleopatra herself had at least some Greek (Macedonian but not same as current Macedonians who are Slavs) heritage as her family were descended from Greeks who fought alongside Alexander the Great.

 

We have gone from white washing to black washing where British Queens and famous white characters such as Anne Boleyn  are now cast as black.

 

Surely cultural  appropriation goes all ways.

 

There was a time in Elizabethan England when only men were allowed to be thespians. A tradition dating back to ancient Greece. All parts in all stage productions were played by white men. They expected audiences to suspend their disbelief, and for the most part I believe they did. That was well before modern times obviously, so I wasn't there to witness this first hand. But generally speaking my attitude is, it's their production, let them cast whoever they want. I'll either adapt, or if I can't then I don't have to watch. Is it really that important that they get every last little detail of a historical character's appearance absolutely perfect? In a world where we're supposed to be cool with pictures of white boy Jesus with light brown hair when the real dude (if he ever actually existed) would have been Middle Eastern looking, I say who gives a shit? It's acting. They're not just being themselves, they're trying to portray a character. Whether they succeed or fail will likely have very little to do with skin color and other various outward physical characteristics and a lot more to do with their acting abilities.

Just my two cents. I'm going to listen to Reload now since apparently in Australia that's the finest Metllica album money can buy. 

[RelentlessOblivion]

I quite literally don’t care, I mean if historical accuracy is so damn important to those people shouldn’t they also be insisting the production exclusively use the language spoken at the time? It’s the Internet. Everybody is always outraged about something.

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I quite literally don’t care

This to the max.

[AlSymerz]

17 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

This to the max.

OMG the rage in that statement is off the scale!!

[Dead1]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

There was a time in Elizabethan England when only men were allowed to be thespians. A tradition dating back to ancient Greece. All parts in all stage productions were played by white men. They expected audiences to suspend their disbelief, and for the most part I believe they did. That was well before modern times obviously, so I wasn't there to witness this first hand. But generally speaking my attitude is, it's their production, let them cast whoever they want. I'll either adapt, or if I can't then I don't have to watch. Is it really that important that they get every last little detail of a historical character's appearance absolutely perfect? In a world where we're supposed to be cool with pictures of white boy Jesus with light brown hair when the real dude (if he ever actually existed) would have been Middle Eastern looking, I say who gives a shit? It's acting. They're not just being themselves, they're trying to portray a character. Whether they succeed or fail will likely have very little to do with skin color and other various outward physical characteristics and a lot more to do with their acting abilities.

Just my two cents. I'm going to listen to Reload now since apparently in Australia that's the finest Metllica album money can buy. 

 

The issue is the same as portraying Martin Luther King as a white blond guy.

Cleopatra is the most famous Egyptian of all time.  Hence folks in Egypt want her to look them.  She means more to them than to westerners.

Note people are already offended by all the whitewashing that has happened in the past (ie replacing coloured roles with whites).

 

So fair enough for some Middle Eastern types being offended by blackwashing (I also found it ridiculous Anne Boleyn was depicted as black in a historical drama. 

 

 

And Reload is a god level album.  Only those who have touched by God (inappropriate or otherwise) would understand it's brilliance.

[SurgicalBrute]

19 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I quite literally don’t care, I mean if historical accuracy is so damn important to those people shouldn’t they also be insisting the production exclusively use the language spoken at the time? It’s the Internet. Everybody is always outraged about something.

Well, for one, I believe it's being solicited as a documentary, not just a movie, so there should probably be some standards regarding authenticity when you're supposedly presenting factual information. I think the bigger issue, though, is just the sheer hypocrisy regarding the double standards when it comes to things like casting or cries about "cultural appropriation" in current times. If people are fine with things like colorblind casting and openly borrowing stories/history/etc from cultures they have no claim to, I'm completely willing to accept that...but be fucking consistent. That door needs to go both ways and no one better say a goddamn thing when Hollywood goes back to doing stupid shit like casting John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Instead though, we're going to continue dealing with bullshit where the same people who support the director of this Cleopatra flick telling actual Egyptians to sit the fuck down about their own culture, are also throwing a complete shit-fit over the girl cast in the live action Lilo and Stitch movie because she's apparently the wrong shade of Hawaiian.    

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Well, for one, I believe it's being solicited as a documentary, not just a movie, so there should probably be some standards regarding authenticity when you're supposedly presenting factual information. I think the bigger issue, though, is just the sheer hypocrisy regarding the double standards when it comes to things like casting or cries about "cultural appropriation" in current times. If people are fine with things like colorblind casting and openly borrowing stories/history/etc from cultures they have no claim to, I'm completely willing to accept that...but be fucking consistent. That door needs to go both ways and no one better say a goddamn thing when Hollywood goes back to doing stupid shit like casting John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Instead though, we're going to continue dealing with bullshit where the same people who support the director of this Cleopatra flick telling actual Egyptians to sit the fuck down about their own culture, are also throwing a complete shit-fit over the girl cast in the live action Lilo and Stitch movie because she's apparently the wrong shade of Hawaiian.    

Not saying hypocrisy and inconsistency doesn't exist, but I think the bigger problem is different people have very different issues. While some people seem to be quite concerned with Hollywood casting decisions reflecting cultural accuracy as closely as possible, others are much more concerned with there not being enough good quality roles for people of color (especially women of color) as well as for other various underrepresented minority groups in Hollywood. As Blivvie points out we're talking about the internet here, which is not an individual but hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide. Even various demographic groups which one might like to think would be largely in agreement on certain things are in reality far from unified in their thoughts. So I'm sure you can see there will simply never be any possible way to satisfy everyone.

If you're a large company in the business of making movies for public consumption hoping to maximize your profit potential and rake in billions, no matter what artistic choices you make I can all but guarantee there will be some segment of the internet who will be triggered and bitch about it. The consistency you ask for cannot possible in the age of social media where everyone around the globe with an internet connection and a device has a public platform to voice their personal complaints. Literally hundreds of millions of people. It's a no-win situation for the studios where they're always gonna be damned if they do and damned if they don't. The only thing left for them to do is tune out most of the noise by either ignoring social media completely, or they'll just have to grow thicker skin in order to let all these millions of complaints roll off like water from a duck's back. You can't please all of the people all the time. They do try though, but usually fail badly, which is why in the modern era mainstream Hollywood is a complete shit show producing very little I have any intereest in seeing.

[Dead1]

In addition to covering up for paedophiles, my employer kills people including babies.  It is supposedly a hospital, not a narco cartel or ISIS.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-02/baby-died-after-launceston-general-hospital-failures-coroner/102287910

 

This is the fifth death due to negligence in 2 years.  Several years ago there was a documentary about 14 wrongful deaths.  Nothing was done then and I doubt anything will be done now.  

 

Perhaps doctors and nurses who contribute to the death of a patient through negligence should be charged with manslaughter?

[RelentlessOblivion]

That I agree with, when I was studying law medical negligence was its own sub-category. I distinctly recall being horrified learning that amputating the wrong limb does, in fact, not reach the gross incompetence threshold required to prove negligence.