I don’t disagree.

We just need thousands more little steps. It all adds up. Like the whole plastic straws debacle. While mocked, it’s one more little step.

Then they add ads to the feature. Then charge more for ad-free.

The president we should have had.

Vampire gone vegetarian?

Right? My first thought is that there’d be a long line of repressed Republican WASPs, officials and regular people, lined up for this place.

OpenVPN into my own LAN. Stream from there to my device.

You could certainly skip the third. I hate to say it, the movies would probably be better without Ren and Rey.

I hate going into a movie with expectations. That’s the quickest way to end up hating it. Even if I might be a fan and am looking forward to a particular film’s release. It’s far easier just to go in to a film with few expectations. Things that make a movie “bad” for me are: bad acting, bad writing, bad effects, or bad plot contrivances. IOW, something so egregious it pulls me out of enjoying what I’m watching and draws my attention to it.

For example - the new Star Wars films. They were fine for a cast of relative unknowns. Yeah, they had some heavy handed writing in spots that was bad, the worst being the pointless casino and kid scenes in the last one. But regardless it was fun. The previous three otoh had a stellar cast yet some of the worst wooden acting, writing, and the abuse of digital SFX was offensive.

(Best SW film made was Rogue One, IMO, tied with ANH because that introduced us to the franchise and had no baggage.)

Of course this is all movie dependent. Spoofs and the like or comedy are entirely different vs something like a drama. One won’t be held to a high standard, the other will need it to keep the audience engaged.

One seat.

Two tires.

Part of an air conditioning kit.

Not much really. Expensive hobby.

The joy of when that Big Screen movie that you never got to see finally comes to the TV. With ad breaks. You absolutely didn’t care about the ads because they were normal at the time. And you had to be there on time to watch it, and make sure nobody else in the house was going to try to watch something at the same time. While I appreciate the huge variety and the ability to binge some great series today, it’s still the same old shit even with all the streaming services: A lot of bad TV, lots of uninteresting TV, with a few bright spots and plenty of ads.

We essentially have an oligarchy, or at least a growing list of authoritarian leaders. Kings in many ways except by name. Kings have been perfectly willing to destroy countries in furtherance of their egos, profits or other. Wellbeing of their citizens be damned.

Hah, yes. This is a good take.

It’s like buying a knighthood from an organization that claims to have rights to grant such things. Even though the title is meaningless.

Mensa is the same.

IOW it’s an organization designed to take your money for a title. They get money, you get a meaningless membership.

The citizens, in general, don’t. We want to do the same thing every other country’s people want - live our lives and hopefully give our kids a good or better one.

I have no fucking clue what the government is doing to make these decisions.

I’m not as mad at the 32% that elected trump as I am at the ones that sat at home and let it happen.

Crosses.

99% chance it’s performative.

Might be a few generations. If ever.

Dead internet here we come.

This is the direction Reddit has been pointed in for years now.

They could be. But then they would be a dictator’s military - all about looks and shitty at everything else. The kind that gets conscripted to be thrown at enemy combatants as cannon fodder to die for the glory of their leader. The US military is a logistical fighting force, that’s what they’re good at. Not dressing up and goose-stepping polished and pretty for nationalistic display.