• FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    As the one perfect Communist, I have never enjoyed anything

    I sit in a cave, eating a simple diet of grain, beans and berries and entertain myself with shadow puppetry

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    well most people here seem to hate Don't Look Up, which I enjoyed lol. I guess it was kind of lib with its poking fun at Trump and MAGA hogs, and the writing was cringe at times, but it at least went as far as showing that rich psychos teaming up with status quo politicians is one of the biggest hurdles towards societal progress we face, which is a lot better than most movies coming out of :amerikkka:.

    One other smaller thing I liked about it: outside of leftist circles, nobody ever talks about how "the elites want us to be divided, man! we gotta team up bro" rhetoric is never a sincere attempt at unifying the proletariat and is pretty much always a coded way of saying "if you're politically on the fence, you better side with us libertarians, otherwise you're one of those overly-woke sensitive snowflake purple hair SJWs" which, with the way Americans are conditioned, would pressure most to simply fall in line with the reactionaries (to be clear I don't have a problem with people who could be described as SJWs).

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      my chud cousins talk about how the elites want to keep us divided, but when they say elite they mean an imaginary trans professor living in San Fransisco who teaches media studies and when they say us they mean to say everyone on the fence should unite with white small business owners who own large trucks

      • ToastGhost [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        throwback to that redditor who said they consider members of the local school board as ruling class and elon musk as working class

    • Speaker [e/em/eir]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I legitimately had to lie down for two hours after watching that movie because of how much climate rage it stirred up in me.

    • Spike [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      How much of the movie is full of attempts at being witty/cool? The trailer makes it look like that's 90% of the film, which is what made me bored during the Big Short. But if they tone that down then I will give it a go.

      • buh [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        imma be honest, it's like 70% of the film. they make the jennifer lawrence character an alt girl who likes smoking big doinks and listening to 90s style hip hop(?) though they kind drop it halfway through, but bring it back again towards the end, but in a more "punk rawk" way.

        • Spike [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Ahh that's probably gonna be something I'll find annoying. But I am alone with time off and covid cases are going up so I'll probably end up watching it anyway.

      • disco [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It doesn't really have the smirky asides that the director used in The Big Short and Vice, if that's what you mean.

        • Speaker [e/em/eir]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The recurring bit about the snacks was kind of good, honestly.

          • mittens [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            That bit had Iannucci vibes, I'm sure Veep had a big influence there

        • Spike [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Yeah those were probably the biggest things I found annoying. I didn't watch Vice though, because both the premise seems lib and I was expecting more of those smirky asides.

  • budoguytenkaichi [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Almost anything mainstream and popular lol.

    "The contrarian leftist who hates fun and only likes obscure arthouse shit no one cares about" is a stereotype with some truth to it imo.

    • disco [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      The one true leftist is not so selfish as to experience the sensation called "pleasure" by the bourgeois.

      • machiabelly [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        to feel pleasure is akin to feeling satisfaction, and to be satisfied is, without any doubt, to identify with the ruling class and the greater status quo

        :read-theory:

    • AtomPunk [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      See: the whole thread on here dedicated to posting half-true/half-fake spoilers for spiderman

      • Theblarglereflargle [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        LOL the Spider-Man shit was hilarious because that movie did a lot to address the “complaints” many people on here had about cape movies, only they then got mad that it fixed it TOO MUCH. It was the seed bell scene from Simpsons performed by a bunch of jaded leftists.

    • gofer300 [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I often wonder if I don't like a lot of the mainstream movies subconsciously just to be contrarian. I don't believe I do but I feel like something is wrong with me when everybody around loves something that I think is complete garbage.

    • MerryChristmas [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I honestly think that a lot of the hate that show gets is from people who refuse to engage in self-reflection. Obviously nobody wants to be like Bojack, but I saw a lot of negatice traits in the character that were reflected to a lesser degree in myself and loved ones. I think if they were honest with themselves, most people would say the same, and that is what makes the show so uncomfortable. It makes this objectively cruel, self-centered character relatable and somewhat sympathetic - you aren't rooting for his success but for his rehabilitation. Underneath the grim plotlines, there is actually a ton of empathy and hope.

      • TrudeauCastroson [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The characters around bojack are flawed in more interesting ways than bojack.

        I can see why people are annoyed though, bojack is a jerk and sort of self reflects and then doesn't fix it. So it is a lot of woe-is-me. I still like the show, but I can't blame people for not liking a show because they don't care for the main character.

      • spectre [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Honestly I kinda hate the bit personally, but god damn do I respect it. The execution gets me far more often than it should.

  • Theblarglereflargle [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I feel like there’s always a group that hates everything so I could really choose anything. Things that come to my mind in particular was I remember a WEIRDLY huge anger against She Ra back on the old sub for a little. Like a small but vocal group of probably stupidpols. Also remember a Lot of butt hurt over Death of Stalin mixed with a lot of approval that was weird

    But if I REALLY want to cause a struggle sesh and be hated. I still enjoy watching Last Week Tonight every now and then. Its still the best late night show of its type, and I still find Oliver funny and his delivery great.

    Also it is STILL the easiest show to start radicalizing with because, despite the (sadly ever growing) lib shit like trump or the growing number of China segments he still does touch on important shit no one else ever would. His video on Union busting was great and seems to have REALLY had a positive effect. I know at least ten people who’s path to socialism began with his report on trailer park homes. And I know many of you won’t admit it but your journey started with his stuff.

    Better your friends and family watch him then Samantha Bee call Bernie a pedo for the thousandth time

    • disco [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Last Week Tonight is great, as long as it sticks to domestic US politics and environmental issues.

      • Theblarglereflargle [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Agreed. Which from everything I have heard and read is what Oliver WANTS it to be. A few years ago I listened to an NPR interview where they asked him the report that he was proudest of to which he responded the chicken one. And the way he talked about it and the anger he showed over how hard they had to fight to make that the top story. You could tell THATS where his passion was.

        Hell he said he started the show to talk about how lobbyists are destroying the country from both sides.

      • riley
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        deleted by creator

        • Mardoniush [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          That's true, but also foreign policy is the one thing the US can still do in a functioning way. Like the Roman Empire in 400CE, the Frontiers are still mostly intact but the interior is rotten.

            • Vncredleader
              ·
              3 years ago

              Well said. This is honestly where Chapo and Felix specifically helped radicalize me further. His harping on about how the one thing that is off the table no matter what is empire, you talk about unions, you can talk about medicare for all, but you cannot even mention the empire. That shit really has become the focus of my politics, not just mild criticism of how expensive our military is, but actually fighting against our military and everything it stands for.

              My comrades are whoever looks at the most radical reforms Bernie offered and said "not fucking good enough" because it leaves the empire intact. We have to question 9/11 ruthlessly, and our actions as more than a mistake, but a willful crime

    • gofer300 [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's really good, even the last season has some cool episodes. I really like Dan Harmon and his writing, but I would love to see him do something live action again.

      Also hot take, the Rick and Morty fanbase isn't any worse than fans for any other popular media. They are probably better since they mostly embraced the "very high IQ" meme and are pretty pretty self conscious.

    • spectre [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I hate the people (the fanbase) that took away my enjoyment of what really is a great show

    • prismaTK
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

    • FidelCashflow [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      He has better politics than the liberals.

      He predicted government would use a plauge to wipe out the population to consolidate their power and look what covid is doing. Yet another win for our large wet friend. :bird-bouncy:

    • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I have a very high threshold for what other people consider unwatchable trash. Like I thought the live action Cowboy Bebop wasn't that bad.

        • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I know Vicious wasn't the best character, but I enjoyed Julia having more agency as more than just an object for Spike to strive towards. They also did a lot more fleshing out the characters than the original ever did, and I thought the episode with Faye's "mom" was a lot of fun.

  • MockingTurd [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Not specific to this place but basically all media just gets shit on for a month after it's out. I'll watch a super hero movie or whatever idc. It's fine. I'm not expecting a life changing experience from a movie or a show. I'll just play the "oh what we're they in" game if I get bored. I guess cowboy bebop is the most recent one that comes to mind

          • AlexandairBabeuf [they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            i don't think that's a bad thing. ruining enjoyment from cowboy films about shooting indians is good. ruining enjoyment from misogynist & creepy treatments of sex in film is good. ruining enjoyment from advertisement & propaganda is good.

            that we do it all the time is an expression of how ineffectual we are but :shrug-outta-hecks:

          • SuperNovaCouchGuy [any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            evaluating the movie on criteria that have nothing to do with how enjoyable it is to watch

            Being a critic means evaluating a piece of media based on all criteria, including enjoyability. Part of the reason why people are more "negative" about films these days is because they are often viewed through streaming services/based piracy at home, detached from the inherently enjoyable communal buzz and the enhanced audiovisual experience of seeing a film in theatre on the big screen.

        • Vncredleader
          ·
          3 years ago

          Or you could not gamify your viewing habits. Optimizing the quality of what you are going to watch can make sense, but also is not what I would call healthy. You are creating expectations of your downtime

            • Vncredleader
              ·
              3 years ago

              Media habits are not the same as eating healthy. Watching shlock is not going to give you diabetes. Media is media, you don't need to pressure yourself to view everything you consume as a missed opportunity to consume something else. That goes for life in general, don't treat failures or imperfect experiences as a mistake and psych yourself out. Watching Iron Man when you could watch Godfather is not a waste of time, you cannot calculate if you would have enjoyed one instead of the other in that moment. just enjoy what you feel like in that 2 hours and dont fret about it. You would enjoy very little if you considered each tv episode you watched or film based on if objectively there is a more enjoyable or "better" classic you could be watching instead.

              Decisions around recreational activates can be done spur of the moment or without much consideration or pressure from what is "better". Your logic is not how everyone else approaches recreation, if they enjoy what they enjoy then so be it. Nothing wrong with watching dumbshit instead of superior classics if thats what you want to do.

      • MockingTurd [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        I think that was my advantage i really didn't remember most of the original other than it was a thing I enjoyed. People who were really unto it seemed mad. I don't think I could've handled an Ed season 2 like they wanted. that character was rough in the live action

          • MockingTurd [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            They set it up for season 2 being the Ed season so you mostly got the spike and faye storyline this season with a little Ed towards the end

    • RION [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      deadpan to camera

      my sister turned it on recently for the Christmas episodes and it is actually pretty funny for the most part. I imagine people here just get annoyed when people make it their whole personality, which, to be fair, is annoying for pretty much any media

    • CthulhusIntern [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I find it weird how much people love Jim and Pam, even though they're easily the most boring characters on the show. All of the other characters are what really drive the show.

    • Phillipkdink [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The Office is good. The US one is better than the UK one, but the UK one is excellent too just much more painful.

      • WhatAnOddUsername [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        For me, Steve Carell > Ricky Gervais, but Martin Freeman > John Krasinski.

        • Phillipkdink [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I'll go you one step further - Gervais did it better too. But the US show really takes it a step further, the show has a lot more heart. Like it becomes more about family, and how you can learn to love people who are also fucked up, like it's really nice honestly.

  • Civility [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of Crusader Kings II.

    I think there's a kneejerk reaction against paradox g@m3rs in general because the online HOI and EU are so infested with fash, and a lot of the people vocal online CKII fandom isn't great there's the eastern european/generally islamophobic fash "I WANT TO KKKILLLLLL ALL THE MUSLIMS DESU VULT CRUSADE NOW" people, the "haha hi reddit so i cheated on my mother-wife with my sister-daughter-aunt and our first child was an inbred r-slur but our second child was a genius how do i kill my own kid" epic THE ARISTOCRATS g@m3r bois, and more than a few unironic misogynists or monarchists who like the world the game portrays. Those people do exist, but from my experience finding and chatting to other CKII players out in the real world they're a tiny minority (<20% combined) of the overall playerbase and while the game does let you do those things, from my 1000 odd hours of playing it I've found it's not at all what it guides you towards.

    Crusader Kings II first and foremost a game about emergent storytelling, it populates the world with a cast of thousands of characters just detailed enough to feel real, gives you (and them!) an incredibly complex toolbox to interact with them and then tells you to go nuts and have fun. There isn't a set victory condition. There are soft loss conditions, if all of your family dies the game will kick you out, but you can reload the save and continue playing as any other character in that world if you're attached, and soft victory conditions (surviving until the end, steam achievements, dynasty prestige, conquering THE WHOLE MAP as quickly as possible) but the game never really pushes you towards any of them and most people tend to make their own game out of it. At its heart Crusader Kings II is a story generator and if you talk to most CKII players what they'll want to tell you about isn't the fucked up shit the game let them do or how they killed ALL THE MUSLIMS, they'll want to tell you about the story of their last game, how the characters in the game translated to people in their mind, and what those people did and the world did to those people.

    Crusader Kings 2 is a game that does address sexism, homophobia, religious and cultural persecution, feudal exploitation and a lot of other ills of the time period it's set in, but it doesn't portray them in any way positively. Mechanically, misogyny is more often than not an obstacle that needs to be overcame than anything else. The only mechanical disadvantages female characters face are social ones, they are born with and acquire skills and traits and attributes in exactly the same way as male characters and to a mechanically minded player that's constantly chafing, "yeah I could appoint this 14 stewardship man to collect taxes but that lady has 21 stewardship and is midas touched", "sick my daughters a genius, how can I fuck with my succession to make her the heir" are extremely common gameplay experiences. One of the most powerful lines of technology and legal reforms to pursue are "tolerance" and "status of women" because they double the pool of characters available to do anything you may want to do might want them to do and cultures or religious groups that have that from the start have are far more powerful as a result. I've never known a game that hammers home "diversity is strength" as a learned realisation so powerfully & consistently as Crusader Kings. And, even if you don't go seeking it out, sooner or later, under most of the "default" (the ones included at launch) succession laws the game will put you in the role of a, usually young woman inheriting the throne after a plague or a war or just because your parent only had one child and in my experience from most (especially newer) CKII players that story, the story of their first female ruler who took the throne at 14, lived till 80 and became a certified badass, is one of the very first they want to tell you.

    Religious and cultural conflict does play a part in the game, nobles have by default (traits, techs, and some religions and cultures can increase or (more commonly) decrease it) -20?ish "foreigner" opinion debuff (opinion can range from -100 to +100 and is, combined with traits, the prime indicator to how an AI is going to respond to actions you take towards them and how they choose to act towards you) towards characters of different culture groups and another -20 on top of that towards rulers of different culture groups, but, as CKII does an excellent job of demonstrating, everyone is equally people, those people from different cultures act according to the same motivations and for the same reasons as people of your culture and while the "foreigner" debuff makes them a little more negatively disposed to you, it's not nearly as much as towards characters you actually have a reason to dislike or conflict with closer to home and more often than not that "foreigner" debuff is again something that you're trying to overcome and build a barrier across because the mongolian Khan's daughter has good traits and you DESPERATELY want a non-aggression pact with the horde rather than anything you ever want to play into.

    Crusader Kings 2 takes its name from wars of religion but for that, it's remarkable how good a job it does of showing that the crusades were barely about religion at all. When rulers go to war, it's almost always for fear, money, power, glory, family or some combination of the 4. You need a "casus belli" to declare a war that determines the nominal reason for the fighting, how far you have to go to finish the war and what will change hands at the end of it, but in the eyes of most players (and the AI) that's almost always just an excuse. There are genuine "zealots" (it's a trait) who really will go to war for religious purposes, but they're at most 10% of the game's population, and they're the only ones who will even factor religion into their decision making (aside, of course from a -10 or -20 opinion penalty about the other character being the wrong religion). How religion does factor into consideration in war decision making is that A) a war against rulers of different religions is always available there need be no other casus belli, so opportunity and fear (getting them before they're big enough to get me!) are factors, and the clergy, who can have their own power and draw their power from religious peasants, will almost always be advocating for religious wars because they directly expand their wealth and power.

    CKII is a wonderfully materialist game, the three reasons characters do anything are their relationships with others, their own traits, and power, and while the first two vary greatly from character to character the third remains constant and so is the deepest force shaping the world. Similarly, the class relations between rulers, vassals, merchants, kings and peasants are wonderfully and materially portrayed. Nobles (and the player) don't really give a shit about the land or people they're ruling and by focusing on the people (feudal lords and their families) rather than nations CKII does a really good job of portraying that. Lands and peasants ruled are a means of gaining wealth and power and that's pretty much it. Which lands and peasants are being ruled is almost irrelevant compared to how many and how wealthy they are. English counts will happily jump to being Italian dukes with glee at a moments notice, leaving behind their old people, cultures and systems at a moments notice for a taste of a little more power and one of the game's biggest learning experiences is when you player (often accidentally) inherit a much larger realm halfway across the world and have to adapt to it. Nationalist and bootlicking notions of rulers loving or protecting or being loyal to the land are constantly challenged and quickly dispelled by gameplay experiences. As the player taking the role of a ruler you very quickly realise the only reason you're protecting anything is because its YOURS and fuck anyone trying to take it to you and in doing so and trying to take more land and power off other nobles, you're continuously killing peasants by the hundreds and thousands for wars started purely for your (not their, the game does a very good job of showing this) empowerment or pettiness and destroying the lands (war's bad for everyone) just so you can own them. Cultures and religions have some effect but nations and empires are entirely arbitrary and serve only as a sort of gameboard for struggles between nobles. And nobles have class solidarity. Peasant rebellions happen frequently and any noble will help put down another's peasant rebellion, even if they're at war, because if the peasants win that's not good for anyone, one of the few things that can turn most nobles against a character is if you're being unecesarily cruel to the peasants in a way that can inspire rebellion. Merchants have solidarity with each other (when they're not fighting each other for trade posts) and so do (radicalised peasants). Peasant rebels will never fight each other and will often support each other even if one group is radical christian rebels and another is radical islamic rebels if they've gotten to the point where they've taken up arms against you they know who their true enemy is.

    • Civility [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      The gameplay in CKII is a little strange. Most of your playtime is spent clicking through various menus and information lists, making decisions on events, occaisonally sending armies out to war but mainly just watching and letting the stories develop and the years roll by. Mechanically, crusader kings rewards, long term thinking, reading and synthesising a lot of information, using your systems understanding to turn that information into plans, following through with multiple plans at once on a micro and macro level and being able to adapt those plans and even mid to short term goals as opportunities come and go. If you can do those things well you'll be able to more consistently accomplish what you want to accomplish and drive the story in directions you want it to go, but so long as you're able to able to keep your head above water the game's fun at pretty much any skill and intensity level, and personally I even find it more fun when I'm not trying too hard to accomplish any one thing in particular.

      I've written a lot, and I could write a lot more but I think I'll end it here.

      Crusader Kings is a game about the stories of families and individuals, their quirks, their desires, their passions their loves and their losses, told against a backdrop of grand materialist history. I've spent a thousand hours delving deep into alternate what ifs and the stories of imaginary people in my computer and my mind, I've probably spent that again thinking about it. I don't regret my time spent with crusader kings and I'll probably play that again. If you love emergent stories from deeply complex systems, history and the stories of people in history and don't mind drawing them from numbers, cg portraits and little snippets of text I strongly recommend you give it a try. It's fun, it tends to slowly deepen both empathy and an intuitive materialist understanding of history in the people who play it, it's beautiful and its free.

    • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Hell yeah, my final CKII playthrough was a Norse Matriarchy world conquest. I put so many hours into CKII, but the sequel just doesn't hit the same way