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Rippounet

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  1. A small French force has been in Romania since 2022. See the official website. As far as the the French media is concerned (I never watch or listen to the fucker myself), nothing new was announced tonight (lots of empty declarations, as usual). Macron's positions are widely believed to be linked to the coming European elections, because the Le Pens are generally considered to be pro-Russian, so talking big is a good way to attack the far-right. Of course, something might actually happen in the end, but I wouldn't expect much.
  2. It's deliciously ironic that Noam Chomsky's life work was pointing out how selective outrage in the media reflects the decision-makers' agenda and/or the dominant ideology, but people will -unironically- express outrage at the facts he got wrong. Just like it's ironic that a guy commits suicide to protest against a genocide, but people are seemingly shocked that his positions were radical. Or the idea that one should be wary of change because you might end up worse off... ? Seemingly forgetting that there are lots of people already struggling to survive. Gods, I'm getting too old for this shit.
  3. Well played. I am forced to admit that either my radicalism blinded me to facts, or that I really applied my radicalism selectively, out of bias or fear, as I am accusing others of doing. I am inclined to believe the latter, which means to admit that I was a coward - not morally but materially. The best way to end the Ukrainian war swiftly was to ignore the threat of Russian nukes and to advocate for full-blown NATO intervention from the start to ensure that the Russian forces were crushed and the war ended right away - obviously, it was a mistake to leave Putin a fighting chance. So the lesson here is that you can only be a radical humanist if you are able to cast away the fears you have for your own life ; if one wants to defend the moral strength of positive radicalism, one must be prepared to actually put their life on the line. This is useful, thank you.
  4. And yet, in this case as in many others, the ones who "blind [themselves] to important truths" are not the radicals ; the radicals are the ones using hard facts wheras the "others" (the moderates and the cynics) mainly spend their time disputing or downplaying them. We've had... (checks) 16 threads of that, and now (oddly enough) there are no more... So who is blinding themselves here? And yet, in this case as in many others, the "radical" harmed no one but himself in the defense of his cause ; he literally sacrificed his life for the sake of others who are suffering. But apparently that's... "violent ? The fallacy here is to equate radical thought with extremist action, when the two are so obviously different. Extremist activists are often course almost aways radicals ; pretending that the reverse is true, i.e. that radical action is extremist by nature, is absolute bollocks. When the facts don't match the theory, then the theory must be wrong. And the big idea that humility or moderation are so good and great, wheras radicalism is so dangerous and inefficient does not match reality. It fact, it arguably doesn't match the historical record either, since the heroes of today were almost all considered radical in the past. The hard truth is that moderation and cynicism are two sides of the same coin, whereas "humility" ends up in false equivalency, apathy, and stagation at best - slow degradation most of the time. What's so great about "humility" when human lives are at stake? I've seen little "humility" in the Ukrainian thread, and yet there's this curious idea that if we switch the topic, radicalism is suddenly evil, and "humility" is in order. The selective outrage is ridiculous, the hypocrisy astounding. Or to sum up: This can only be true is the status quo is -morally or materially- sustainable ; if it isn't, then those who would do as little as possible are the ones doing harm, and radicals the ones who might improve things and save lives. And in the near future, I'm pretty certain that we're going to need a lot more radicalism than most people here can stomach.
  5. I shouldn't, but I have to point out that Macron is now widely considered a joke in France, precisely because he increasingly tends to throw wild ideas and propositions out there - often in an attempt to distract from something else (in this case, huge budget cuts that were recently announced, I reckon). His proposal of sending troops to Ukraine was shot down hours later by the minister of Defense addressing Parliament. Not a single opposition figure supported Macron, and many openly suggested he should think twice before spouting out that kind of thing. Whatever you think of the proposal itself, the dumbass didn't do the work to make anything out of it, it was all political theatre, an empty idea from a lame-duck president. Something I pointed out at least a year ago, but I vaguely remember that underlining how cynical the Western strategy was proved quite unpopular at the time. Though to be fair, the strategy makes sense if you take Russian nukes seriously.
  6. Radicalism, pretty much by definition, means that you are 100% convinced of what you believe in. Extreme events will beget extreme beliefs, and vice-versa. Confronted with the unprecedented, is the radical crazier than the one arguing for relativism or moderation? I wouldn't be so sure...
  7. He didn't change *your* opinion. You dont speak for the world.
  8. Widespread and unabashed lack of empathy and cynicism is precisely what will drive deeply moral individuals to extremist actions in a desperate attempt to reject the insanity of living in a world where morality seems absent. The fact that this young man found the immorality of US politics unbearable shows his exemplary sense of morality ; those who are trying to downplay or ridicule his sacrifice expose their lack thereof. The fact that he could go this far out of principle means his death is a sore loss for us all. It is unfortunate that, by definition, exemplary humans will always be quicker to give up their life for a cause.
  9. The inability to understand why someone might sacrifice themselves for a cause is telling, as is the oft repeated mantra that only some forms of protest are worthy of respect.
  10. It's absolutely not weird or uncommon in real life, but it would nonetheless have been risk-taking for a big-budget show aiming for a young-ish target audience.
  11. Finished it tonight. Episode 6 was one of the better ones, with the Zuko storyline being decently executed ; this one and episode 2 were the ones I kinda enjoyed. Sadly these were the only ones. Episode 7 had a few good ideas, but after the opening shots (which managed to give a bit of wonder), I could never get into it. Episode 8 was criminally underwhelming. I'd hoped that with a big budget, they'd at least have managed a few good fight scenes, but the battle and the duels were a miss for me. I feel that of all the things to screw up, the show managed to fail at conveying the power of bending. I went back to the cartoon as a palate cleanser, and yep, although it feels old on the technical side, by the end of season 1 it had achieved a sense of its own mysticism and provided a fair view of what balance or imbalance meant. By contrast, I feel the show toned down its spiritual dimension/meaning. It's there, but at the same time I didn't get the message that power itself is something to be feared ; instead they added some grimness to be blamed on war. It could be seen as a minor tonal difference, but it's exactly the kind of change one could have dreaded, because it undermines the show as a whole. Given the mediocrity of the execution, I'm not inclined to forgive this type of mistake. This first season was a hard miss for me. Even if the actors could get better, the writing so far doesn't live up to the original (in part because it tries too hard to mimick it). A good soundtrack is also sorely missing - good music can elevate even average shows. And as several people have pointed out, it would have been easier to excuse all the flaws if One Piece hadn't just achieved the successful adaptation of a story that was at least as challenging to adapt ; the comparison hurts pretty bad.
  12. So I was really pleasantly surprised by episode 2, and kept watching a bit to find that feeling again. And... it didn't happen. I wouldn't be too hard on the show, I feel that it does its best to live up to the original. But all too often, the scenes have made me think of the theater play in the final season. The pacing isn't always great, but honestly, I'd say the main problem is that the acting is bad. The actors try so hard to stick to a cartoonish style that they never seem to be genuinely having fun (even in "goofy" scenes), they don't take ownership of the characters, and few moments land. Everyone seems super intense all the time. The second episode stood out because the actresses playing Suki and her mother were better than the rest of the cast imho, but also because they spoke and behaved rather normally. By contrast, the rest of the scenes often feel like a school play trying to imitate the original cartoon instead of a professional show. The actors try too damn hard to emote all the time instead of just trying to be natural. Maybe Ian Ousley as Sokka is the closest to someone actually behaving like a normal person - which is really ironic, given that one of the main reasons ATLA was so good was precisely because the characters all felt like real kids rather than fictional characters. I find it hard to pinpoint what doesn't work, whether the lines just don't do it for live action or whether it's the delivery that's the problem, or perhaps there's a lack of lighter scenes, but I'd say that, if anything, perhaps this adaptation takes the original too seriously - more seriously than it took itself - and it ends up going against the very spirit of the original. It would be easy to blame it on the child actors, but in truth Tamlyn Tomita as Yukari and Ken Leung as Zhao are the only adults that seemed to truly "embody" their characters - Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh has his moments, but it's not quite there yet. One good thing about the first episodes was also that they had some nice wider shots that gave a bit of life to the world instead of always focusing on the characters. It added a bit of wonder - though a memorable music piece would have helped. I'm not sure whether I should go on, because I'm getting a bit too old for hate-watching ; perhaps I'll finish this season and ignore the next one.
  13. It seemed fairly obvious to me that attacking "Big pharma" meant attacking a specific economic structure/model, rather than the pharmaceutical products themselves. Surely you can't blame me for assuming that anyone with a functioning brain would want to keep the drugs. Thanks for clarifying though. To be clear: I've never met, heard, or read anyone who would treat modern medicine as part of the problem (1). I suppose Ivan Illich comes dangerously close to that, but that's precisely an aspect of his writings that I disagree with. (1) Ok, I did meet once this influencer who married my uncle-in-law who thinks everything can be cured with essential oils, but everyone in the family treats her as the lunatic that she is.
  14. I watched the first 20 or 30 minutes of this (up to Zuko's appearance) and found it mediocre. It was a good idea to show stuff that wasn't shown in the original cartoon, but all in all it was poorly done, mostly because the acting is poor. And no, I'm not just thinking about the kids, Gyatso really didn't work for me. One detail that struck me: I remember thinking it was good to have the monks' robes be worn out. And then, when we switch to the South Pole, Katara and Sokka's outfits when not only too clean, but visibly artificial in nature (i.e. it was obvious they weren't made of animal fur). This kind of details gets me out of a show at warp speed. I'll try finishing episoed 1 tonight, but so far I'm not impressed. And yeah, on a different note, Maisie Williams totally rocked in GoT.
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