Mischief in the Arthouse (Triggered over 'Rings of Power' review)

Essentially I don't even know why I'm so invested, or angered, over this - because, I'm not even that familiar with Tolkiens works; And up unto a certain point it was fair enough for me to think that I'm anyway getting at this the wrong way. I wasn't too impressed by the Lord of the Rings - and everyone liked it - but I did enjoy the Hobbit - and everyone hated it. But weird be what weird is - or whatever.

But so did we see the trailers to the Rings of Power, everyone hated it, but eventually it became this weird shitshow over 'diversity in the cast'; With a handful of people finding the straw to point out that the Dwarven women didn't have beards. Well.
I've seen the trailer too - and ... it didn't strike me as something that could live up to any kind of positive expectation. As it has been back then with Ghostbusters. Eventually however things calmed down - probably because people who felt like me figured that it wouldn't go anywhere but down shit-creek; And so, here we are ... in the aftermath to that.

It is probably a good thing then, that the review in question is quite snarky and ... uhm. Well. My immediate action to the intro was something along the lines of "I said so" and "hmm ... what does that tell us then? ... hmmm?". In that regard - I however don't want to comment much just yet - where, if you want to, here it is:



There is however quite a lot that tends to trigger me with "these" people. Overall I like the review - though I got to say: "what did you expect?" - or "soooo close!" ... "almost there!". But I guess it's difficult. Maybe I shouldn't care to have more sympathy with "these people" than what I have for conservatives - as "presentism" is really just the opposite extreme to "traditionalism". Both are blind to a reality they claim to care about - and subsequently fail the reality check on some of the instances of where it would have mattered.

It is in deed somewhat racist or progressive - whichever thing it is they hate - though not for good. On the one side there's this weird idea that we must have been born pure with divine wisdom and infinite foresight; And everyone who fails at that is a corrupt soul that might just be in a dire need to be put out of its misery. On the other side there's this weird idea that reality must bend around tradition and where it doesn't, tradition is obviously meant to be as fire to the woodwork; But in so doing all the torching and pitchforking obviously one cannot uphold all of tradition - so ... one is to be progressive, as to move with the times.

From the left I can however expect the occasional good insight or critical take on things - although it really fails HARRRRD, with a hard R, on being self-critical. But so do conservatives.

It's complicated - and I'll admit, maybe somewhat necessary. Though ... the word 'necessary' is doing quite some work there.
It's like saying that Hitler was necessary. And yea. The effect may be similar. So to the ears and hearts it resonates with. Well, with ... sure ... "minor" differences. Though do I think people are still leaning way too far out of the window to see what's around the corner. But yea, so do I - as, at this point, any kind of detachedness from reality is "literally Fascism".

And so I'm gonna hide my head back into my shell for now.
Good day!

2023-03-19

But I can't help it. Being triggered by these SJW types. I'm willing to admit that I may be wrong ... in some sense at least ... and I'm willing to put up with the narratives and constructs put forth by them - as for the lack of a better alternative. And yea, to me this issue goes way back when I was just a wee little gamer, proud at the good we could do as a collective. That was ... back when TB, who to some apparently is this mad anti-SJW figure-head, was still alive.

Total Biscuit, R.I.P. ... . I mean, it's almost as if gaming died with him. Gaming was as sick and thus riddled with affliction as he was; But while he eventually passed on, gaming was kept alive ... being this weird, abstract corpse thing that depends on ... like the sacrifice of a thousand souls each day to keep on going.

If there was a particular game or experience or point in time where I woke up to this, it was Twilight Princess for the Wii. My Brother had a Wii, I played it at his for a bit, beat it, ... and I didn't get it. I was baffled or perplexed even, wondering about what just happened. What I had played there. It's not the story or anyhting. It's that ... it was so much on the rails. It's go here, do thing, go there, cute cutscene, move on, move on - and woops - now you're done. It didn't have what I wanted out of a Zelda game - and since then I've walked back on my opinion on Ocarina of Time, understanding that Twilight Princess was really just an iteration on the flaws and faults that had been established back then.

In that regard I praise the Dark Souls games (1, 3 and Bloodbourne) for being like the true spiritual successors to the OG Zelda games I enjoyed, though ... it's also a stretch. "The better Zelda game" wouldn't be Dark Souls or like Dark Souls, but to me it sure as [] isn't Twilight Princess either.
And so I learned - well, that there is this Machine. Maybe it wouldn't have amounted to much, but - "we've all seen it" - at countless occasions, how games are doing better and better, in terms of revenue, the worse they get. But oh no, we have to fight Feminists now, oh no, we have to band together and be gamers. Yea ... I don't know. To me it was just an extension of all things wrong with gaming; Though not in the sense that was proposed by those feminists. It was just some odd thing by which I ought to be motivated to suck up to the machine. To find my identity through engaging with it - being either hyped when feminists were owned or really upset when things got too woke - or whatever. I ... never really got into that.
So, people dunking on Feminists, to me, was just the same as people dunking over malpractice in the gaming industry at large. Yet another front, yet another enemy, encroaching on "paradise", and for all I cared - everyone who would stand in either of their ways would be an ally. Which is why I let a lot that Jim Sterling says slip while otherwise I'd be more pissed about it. But yea, I don't know what upsets me so much about modern day SJWs. I mean, I suppose I do - but, I don't see the point in it. And I guess that's what pisses me off.

I mean, there is this:


And 9 minutes in I had to stop it - and now I guess find myself defending white supremacists that undermine the LGBTQIA+PoC community by sharing Racist dogwhistles. Though that's not even what I want to do. I think it's fair that such critique is being made; As inevitably we're at a cultural turning point - give or take, here and there - and in as far as there only are two sides, I know what side I'm on.
Though I there sure agree with Vaush in that ... what "we" are doing does seem kinda stupid and pointless ... to say counter-productive ... such that I have to wonder who the real racists are if you catch my drift.

I mean, you should. I've just written about it previously.

In a sense one might wonder, even, who actually got brainwashed into doing what by whom. But then again I don't think it's all that complicated. Or at least it doesn't - or shouldn't - matter all that much. For as we begin to categorize people like that, we have to be careful not to overextend - as to produce tribes with associated properties that don't allow for life to happen in a good way.

As for me - I do it to highlight properties of concepts that people adhere to. And I think, at first, that's what all of us do. Group X believes in Y, believing in Y is bad, hence group X is problematic. There's nothing intrinsically bad about that formula; I'd argue; But it's easy to slip a little fascism into that. Then a bit more ... and whatever.
The problem with my position is that ... it's difficult to rely on the open marketplace of idea when or where fascism has established itself. And that's not about republicans or democrats or conservatives or progressives. It's that when money can be dumped into a system to re-enforce a stubborn mindset that isn't open for discussion - the odds will be skewed in favor of that, simply by virtue of unity or the lack thereof.

So, eventually the best position is one that settles in apathy while holding on to the good things - while playing 'whack a mole' against conservatives.

Or maybe not. I mean, sure. Be Gnostic.


Which yea - is that. There's something deeply flawed when criticizing people over appearances, but I understand that sometimes it's just easier to say what you got to say - without always rolling out the ever growing disclaimer of nuance.
There however the problem is, that people get into things from different places and mindsets and all that; And hence catch up on different things based on a variety of underlying conditions - and by the time you'd have an educated understanding of the situation we're dealing with, it may have easily shifted entirely or you at the very least wasted years on understanding something you should have known from the outset.

Hmm ... short term Presentism! How dare you not have known [5 years] ago what you only learned yesterday?

Sure, some things should be self-understood. But so is the whole issue with Systemic Racism, the Patriarchy, Toxic Masculinity, Privilege and all that, that there's some kind of cultural blindness that we're inevitably wound up in; Until something snaps us out of it. And that ... getting snapped out of it, is what the term 'woke' originally referred to, as I understand it.

So would the average person not think of themselves as racist or toxic or what have you - as they're merely trying to be a good person within the confines of the society they grew up in. Gandhi would be one example of a person that ended up standing for something that fundamentally changed how people viewed the World - though when speaking of Gandhi in the contemporary context ... well ... we have to understand that he too was a deeply flawed person worth of condemnation and cancellation.
And what people might miss out on is, that Gandhi didn't achieve what he did on his own. Or ... out of the goodness of his own heart. That sure was part of it - yet I think he couldn't have done what he did, if he wasn't convinced that there is good in people. That people could change. That people could fathom the virtue behind his determination. For, what ... realistically ... is one unarmed man to accomplish against ... I don't know ... let's call it the Royal Guard of the British Empire? Go full on Neo on their ass? John Whicking it up to the Queen?

And yea. Unpopular Opinion, but: I'm not so sure if the people of Hong Kong share this popular anti-colonialist sentiment that has grown here in the west. Which - to my understanding - is also somewhat incomprehensive. I mean, look at the UK. Being anti-colonialist is to beat down on a mutilated war veteran just for having been in Vietnam. There are ... more important fights to fight.
Like so, I'm not sure what people mean by 'colonialism' in that sense - because - I think the trend of recent decades has been decisively anti-colonialist just by virtue of globalization. And if we're talking about taking away everything "the colonizer" has, to give it to "the colonized" - I'd say we're talking of a fever dream that only plays into the hands of the anti-globalist agenda of hyper-capitalist entities.

I mean, there seems to be this sentiment that ever since the Allied Forces invaded Germany, nobody has ever done any good. The invasion of Germany is only exempt from that because ... most people agree that Nazi Germany was bad ... but it certainly feels like ... that's what it comes down to. That History wasn't supposed to go that way. That all this "liberal woke nonsense" that the Nazi's were so adamantly opposed to ... shouldn't be a thing. And so, whatever good has been done was either not good enough or way too much. Either way we hate everything that happened since ... and as such we chew away at everything we've accomplished in the meantime.
And like so we take the sentiments we grew up with or in for granted - possibly forgetting or not realizing that millions had to loose their lives for us to get to this point.

Was it necessary?

Make no mistake! You don't know for sure. But looking back at history reveals, that our understanding had to - and did - evolve to where it is today. If you find yourself raising the torches and pitchforks on twitter, you may think to yourself that you're not actually harming anyone. But take that very same energy back ... 100 ... 200 ... 300 years or so - and you might find yourself standing there amongst a crowd of people yelling "burn that witch!".

The modern day tells us, that witchcraft turned out to be bogus. That adds context to what happened back when people were genuinely and intrinsically more superstitious. Where that lady smoking pot in her cottage in the woods ... aroused suspicion of a magnitude most people today would consider absurd.

And ... I can't tell you where this will take us. I mean, how people in a 100 years will look back at online cancel culture. If there will be some lesson from history that has entered the Zeitgeist to form a profoundly mundane understanding that people take for granted, making the world an overall better place. Chances are that we would now think of it as too much confined in our own contemporary worldview. As such we don't know what had to happen, for the things we're not getting just yet to have sunken in. What I do realize though is, that the Truth is an excellent ally. Though which truths? And how to work with them?

While we can't tell - I find "more=better" to be a good bet. For wrong is just wrong and yea, having known better ... demands the knowledge that would have led to that.

And sure. First and foremost ... these lessons we're talking about ... they for the most part direct themselves against the conservative mind. I'm certain. To that end cancel culture will have been the right thing to do, give or take, but ... yea - not so; I'd argue; Unless conservative minds can come around to adopting those virtues. And as it's already happened here and there - the outcome isn't neccessarily 'more cancel culture', but actually less of it.


So ... I'm ... stuck ... somehow. Perhaps in the past or up my own asshole. Who doesn't like the smell of their own farts, am I right?
But yes. Repetence is for the individual - but, for it to work we also have to give each other the chance to do so.

That said - there certainly is a point to ... well ... studying Political Correctness - or how to put it. Or to so ... give it space to grow and unfold. Because ... why not? It obviously is a thing that people care about - that we deem valuable - and is worth supporting. How else could we ever come to a point where we could claim, as a society, that we're ... doing what we can to do the right thing?

And so, all I have to say here ... I assume ... boils down to saying that we may have to yet learn a thing or two before that could even be a thing.
And that it can only work as a collective effort. As it also has to be free from biases. And that ... yea, is probably the core of my issues here.

So - yea. Color Blind Politics are maybe not the way to go. Some people however are color blind - hence we have to consider accessibility options. Sotospeak. That is its own thing. But well.

I'm gonna let this simmer for a while.

Hyper Modernity

I made ... no, I'm making a point by making these points here. That review that started this - had me say to myself: That I will watch it - to the end - and then I'm going to make a point on it. Not necessarily in that order.
That point however does have fairly little to do with this whole SJW vs anti-SJW nonsense.

So in essence the point goes back to my issues with Twilight Princess. So, I would argue that it primed me in a certain way. Whenever one would highlight Twilight Princess as their favourite entry to the franchise - it also meant something. It added a bit to the understanding that I might not be all that good at knowing what sells or is going to be popular - but in as far as I couldn't really sympathize with their perspective, it added a lot more to the "people will buy into all sorts of BS" side of the coin. That media, as it has and yet was about to evolve, is like its own beast - a Matrix if you so will, that people are hooked up to for one reason or another. But not quite as bleak. More as in the Movies where the Matrix is still this cool thing that we'd eventually want to experience for ourselves - to say: It has potential - but for more or less obvious reasons it's not without its problems.

I mean, Twilight Princess is a farce. And having thought some more about it, I realize that that extends beyond being merely "not my type of Zelda game". I mean, I liked to put it that way: When looking at the map of Ocarina of Time, it somehow extends as a spider-web, but without a lot of links between the individual spines. So the game boils down to: Go down one way, solve a bunch of puzzles, return to the hub, go down the other way, solve a bunch of puzzles - rinse and repeat. And that formula has been maintained to the point that Zelda nowadays is more of a puzzle game than it is an action adventure. Also has it become visually unappealing to me, which goes hand in hand with ... well, it's not for me.
I certainly would have loved it to lean more into the darker, Link's Adventures-esque aesthetics.
But the point is that the concept of exploring an unknown world, possibly tainted in the darkness of an emergent evil, was only window dressing. In Twilight Princess. So you'd run into a shadow wall, collect a bunch of stuff and then you unlocked a new part of the map. So yea, TECHNICALLY there is that ... but that's how games, and movies even, have become more and more like Theme Parks. It's what rubs me wrong whenever the conversation of skills in games and easy-mode in Dark Souls comes up. Or why the modern X-Com games are so flawed to me. It's like they only simulate the experience one seeks, thus cheapening it. So is there this term "Star Warsy" - or "Electable" - speaking to just that. The impression, the flavor or flair, however hijacked and removed from the depth this feeling is to invoke.

So does the concept of an easy mode in Dark Souls insult me as all the other dull takes on [media I enjoyed]. That because to me it reads such as ... what's it? Uncharted. Games that essentially play themselves so it becomes more challenging to loose than to survive, so that in the end one can say that they played or even beat Dark Souls. It's like these ... I'll call them: Wannabe Mt. Everest Climbers/Climbing expeditions - where someone who maybe never set a foot on a mountain is somehow shepherded to its top just so they can say that they climbed Mount Everest.
Yes, says I as someone who only has second hand appreciation for Tolkien and his works.
As with a lot of things.

And sure. I guess that makes me a Nerd. Old School. A.k.a.: Someone who would spend way too much time with a piece of medium without really getting a whole lot other than useless knowledge out of it - while thereby then and yet failing to meet external expectations.

So I'd say that the Zelda Franchise should be a prime example of this - where, by games become more like every other game - there isn't really ... much of a point to it, other than whatever draws "normal people" into them. And nowadays, in the age of Open World Games, the Zelda Franchise should be capable of returning to its roots - but - it yet somehow maintains its fractured nature.
So, it has lost its identity.
It merely talks to sugar addicts and people who got nothing better to do.

I would argue that FOMO is a symptom thereof. Or so: FOMO only exists because our lives have become so shallow, so meaningless, so ... utterly depressing, that we're afraid to miss out on even the tiniest bit of pleasure that is to be found somewhere. It does however not last very long. And so the chase begins anew.
And so people eventually turn towards games that merely exist to bombard their brains with dopamine triggers.
Because, what's the point? Or so: Why pretend it's anything but ... that?

Well, because it IS more. But so people hate it when that rug is pulled from under them. Then they got to stand up and somehow make sense of it. Then they end up slowly finding ways to sympathize with it, because, well, at the end of they day they still care about their fix ... and that all the high artsy standards and such ... they're too stressfull to deal with it. I get it, hence I blame the producers and not the consumers; As ... what else is one to do in this world but to beat their head into a wall?

Thinking back, there was something funny about playing Twilight Princess. I got into it with the expectation of playing a Zelda game of course. Whatever little that meant back then. So, I played the game - and the first blip of feeling something was off came after that ... what was it? Some weird fire demon boss thing. It was like: "Hey! I beat the boss!" - followed by a hint of ... "wait a second ..." ... like "did I actually do anything to get here?". So, entering the hub area I did an attempt at exploration at first - saw that there was a target for a hookshot somewhere - which I suppose only lead to a chest - and by the time I got the hookshot I couldn't care less to return to that point. So - overall, I was anticipating there to be a point when the game might open up ... like: "Wait for it! Any time now!" - and bam - the end.

Dark Souls does a lot better job at that despite effectively being just as linear. For, at some point, they just aren't strictly linear anymore. Even if - and I want to make clear that these games to me aren't the champions of non-linear gameplay - it's just barely not-linear, it opens up the experience. For me they certainly evoked that feeling of "what if I'm going down the wrong path?" - which only adds to the overall flair of the games. So, being truly what one might call an 'action'->Adventure. Add to that the constant reminder of mortality, to put it that way, and you are certainly put into those shoes ... navigating a dark world, uncertain of what lurks around the corner - yet somehow required ... give or take ... to move on.

You're doing things. Even so, per chance, dealing with your fear. Balancing between patience and impatience. Such that these bonfires have become this iconic symbol (of rest and perseverance). Being overall ... more than just checkpoints.

2023-03-21
She who shall not be named

If you think you know where this is going, maybe you're right. But maybe not. I'm on a bit of a rant here - and whily my intention isn't to attack "the left" - there sure is this confusion, I'd argue, over ... which is even which.

For this section however, I want to re-up on one of the older statements I've made. The thought is, that unification is going to change your tastes. It is an inevitability - as of which you ... well. You'll not see the world as you used to - period.
So, when it comes to Harry Potter, I won't say that I saw "it" comming - for whatever "it" is - because I didn't. But I do in fact remember vaguely when Harry Potter made its first appearance in my periphery - and ... somehow, deep within myself, I knew that it was evil. More evil than I was able to fathom at the time - but the sense, it lingered there and I assume strongly influenced how I look at media just in general. To say, as what I ... . So, there was this girl in class who wanted to promote the book; And the teacher supported it because reading is good. So she did a little into - Harry Potter cool - and my immediate reaction was: "Shill!". From my heart I so believed that Harry Potter was an invasive Franchise and that this girl was one of its agents. Something along those lines. Not so in a way that was meaningful in any way, but like so was I unable to sympathize with this girl on any Level - so I guess she's the first time I looked at someone as "one of those", and Harry Potter was just this thing that ... was there, such as visible corruption.

I have to emphasize, once again, that it may sound more extreme than it was - as, it was just a subtle feeling that I however couldn't shake - but because I also wasn't exposed to it all that much, it really didn't matter for the most part. The point so being: It was as if there was something inside of me telling me that I wouldn't like it.

This is thereby also just the most extreme example. And when doing a checklist and weighing how much of this and that - it may have overall been more harmful, as ... I so was pre-disposed to react to new media on an emotional basis if I didn't have a more intellectual connection to it, as so by genre for instance. Dark Souls would be the prime example. To be fair - my ... feelings on it may still be considered as accurate; Which is to say that it has a cringe fanbase that thinks way too highly of itself - but, that be a matter of perspective. I'd even argue that it's a deception that people might be falling for - but - one has to play and like the games to understand that. So ... it's neither here nor there I assume.

So - there is however also that side of the coin.
As for the core argument, the thing I understand to put into focus is, that this "change in tastes" wasn't all that huge for me. Which makes sense. If on the one side I had someone telling me what to be careful of - and on the other had lifetimes to hone my tastes (not in doing art, but by accumulating spiritual maturity that would then further inform what kinds of things I would enjoy) - there is overall not that much potential for me to ... have that much of a ... let's call it "divergent taste". But so to somehow double down on aforementioned emphasis: I don't mean to be an authority on these things. You do you.

But so then is the point. As your mind adjusts to the Light, there just are internal faults that will change for good - and around that shift you will - or can - then no longer enjoy things that you did as aligned to those faults. Maybe there will be something that was good about it, hence there may be some nostaligia of one kind or another, but some things will just fundamentally ... change.

So do we here have three items on the desk. The one is ... divine guidance. Simple. To me at least. The other is somewhere between Astair and Clairvoyance. I suppose it might be worth thinking of those two in context to each other. What I mean by Astair should be understood - and Clairvoyance at first, so the way I relate to it, would be the ability to read it; But more so to see beyond the smokescreen perhaps? Is it a thing? Or just the same thing with a different coating? Well. I don't know right now. Third item: Ideology driven tastes.

Between all these, I pretty much grew up understanding that people can be into stupid shit - and ... while I had a phase of sorts where I really cared about that, I eventually grew out of that. Not to say that I wouldn't voice my opinions, but ... to the point that I had realized that people are very adamant about the stupid shit they enjoy ... I didn't really know and curbed my expectations.

But so we get to things like the Hobbit. I've watched that multi-part YouTube series by that LoTR fangirl on why the movies suck; And sure - I ... I get it, I dig it, I sympathize with it, there are things I can't unsee; But I can't bring myself to hate on those movies. Which ... takes me to another thing. There are movies that are just good. By which I mean that I can rewatch them. Dredd for instance. It just is. A great movie. For whatever reason, I ... don't think about too much. I just happened to watch it multiple times. Then there are movies I'll say are good - but ... I couldn't bring myself to watch them ... maybe even a second time. Batman v Superman comes to mind, but also ... well ... Matrix 4 to some extent. And maybe the the Hobbit movies also. But I also think that rewatchability isn't necessarily a good metric. I mean, the Hobbit movies were to me a treat. They came out at a point in my life that got me really stoked for a more or less dull no BS adventure journey - and I got that out of those movies. No strings attached, just ... unadulterated fun - I'd say. So they were good. Good fun. But ... as for what they satisfied ... I guess I have to acknowledge that that's now the past. To say that I won't be able to enjoy them the way I did ... anymore. And ... like so I'm glad that I could enjoy the Matrix 4 without all the nonsense of being critical about it.

But so I would need to be on the side where we hate the Hobbit due to the injustices that tainted its condition. And I have to wonder why I don't care here - while when it comes to Star Wars it's all I care about. One answer would be that the Star Wars sequels just legitimately suck and that I don't have much sympathy for Disney as such doesn't help that either. But when we wanna talk about things I or we perpetuate by supporting certain things ... well. We can. And should. I think. This whole rant, in as far as it is a swipe against "the Left", shouldn't discourage people from that - if you care about what I have to say that is. But other than meaningfully raising awareness ... I'm not sure if there's much of a point to whatever might come of it. So, when it comes to the Hobbit, fair. It seems like it was a journey full of lessons to be learned - with enough of a chance for that to even matter somehow. When it comes to BvS ... I don't know. I don't get it. Everyone was saying "Martha" - and I suppose a lot of people these days are really bad at catching subtle hints and need everything spelled out for them. It's basically its own topic - where we talk about 'realistic emotional responses and actions they trigger' versus movie tropes. And I hate it when people lean so much into the latter, that they begin to imply that the former is bad. Maybe there's a point to that; Because ... when we get to the former we're talking of a Character's implied emotional intellect, which at times isn't explicitly established, so that their actions might appear unprompted or erratic or irrational. But sure. People had other problems with that movie - and about that I don't care - and have since stopped to bother.
It was however certainly more fresh and novel than what Marvel ... err ... Disney ... put out during that time ... . In my opinion.
What was it? Civil War?
One of the last Marvel movies I bothered to watch. Was in theaters for that? I don't remember ... .

But well. Yea. Raising awareness. Some might call it Brainwashing. Which is a whole other discussion. But to make an analogy on the red pill, there's more to it than meets the eye. But for once, I think it's fair to say that it is to open ones mind to the greater truth - as it were. With that however comes the issue, that ... not taking much of any specific context into consideration - so, keeping things broad and generalized - opening up to one thing often implies shutting down to another. In that sense, Morpheus is some kind of tragic hero - as his life has essentially been a lie. Except it wasn't. But by the design and intentions of the Machines - still pretty much a lie. So is there this whole reveal at the end of Matrix Reloaded which people certainly have taken note of, that implies as much. That the Red Pill ... while opening people's eyes to the truth as it were, yet kept them blinded unto the deeper truth of it all.
The argument then goes, that one cannot merely intuit what that deeper truth is. One does not know the exact number of corners one has to look around - from one's current position - to arrive at the 'right' take. It needs to be spelled out - and even then things aren't all that easy. So was it clear to the Architect that he gave Neo a binary choice between the perpetuation of the human race and its demise. Neo chose its demise; And in doing so actually paved the way for its salvation.

At that point it is irrelevant what the movies imply, what that right choice would be or boil down to. They could try - certainly - digging deeper and deeper into the esoteric concepts of existentialism or whatever - for it can at the end ever only be symbolical. "Believe in Yourself" - but still ... "do the right thing, actually". So is there that struggle between knowing what the right thing is and just thinking it. Or believing. Do you believe right? Or wrong? So do the movies eventually build up to the finale - to say: Choice upon choice upon choice - that had to be made just right - and guiding it, some deeper determination ... "to get to the bottom of it" perhaps. At the end of the day, I guess quoting Morpheus might do best: "Unfortunately one cannot be told what the Matrix is". Or however that line went.



And there's more. Even if just a little. But, I guess in short: In our ignorance any kind of determination may seem justified. That's just how 'reason' - as in: The mental ability - works. And with it, well, comes responsibility. We can remind ourselves of it, but ever so often it seems like people have different foundations from which it is approached. Well, duh. And ... at times - giga-duh - that leads to skewed outcomes. Sometimes more, other times less.

And because it'd be weird for me to change ... well ... let's call it the nuance of my framing ... I'm going to maintain that. That is - as for my own filter. It is fair to say that the modern Conservative movement is the bastard child between the old anti-SJW movement and right wing dimwits. Sure. And something has always annoyed me. So was I maintaining the position, that Nerds, or Gamers, are effectively a minority. Well - that's how I'd word it these days. Or ... did. Just there. I mean, history lessons: We were the loosers.

And girls were left out of it. And that's something to possibly ponder about.

I mean - by the time I was reading Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the magazines that Girls would read ... I don't know. I only remember horses. So, possibly nothing too fascinating. Then skip ahead into puberty. Here girls were handing around the latest "Bravo" - some ... teen centric Lifestyle/Pop-culture type of thing. And what did I do? I studied Star Wars Blueprints and Star Trek Technobabble. I was the type of person that knew of Episodes I-III back when nobody would believe it. And to round it off - was there that moment. My Brother was about to go out do some real life social stuff - but I had just bought Metroid Prime. And as I arrived in Phendrana ... I was struck by some weird melancholy, perhaps sadness, but it felt ... right.

But I guess the story then is as with Dwarves. Which is as with Diverse groups in general. There are these and those.

It didn't take a TB to convince me of anything. I felt like most of us were on in about the same page. And would have things gone a little different - people might be calling us the groomers. Well, I guess I'm in for it one way or the other, but well.

I mean, how often have we heard it? And is it really over? Games bad this and games bad that?
Well - irony. There sure is a growing crowd of gamers that be like: Yea you know what? THEY BAD! But ... "that one" is actually ... hmmm.

And ... politics has kindof become this thing that makes us hate each other. And believe it or not, that was the based anti-SJW position from the start. Well, give or take. I mean, it's this outrage over ... well, that was prior to cancel culture. prior to woke. Calling everything we did or partook in sexist and homophobic. From that came attempts from corporations to 'cleanse' themselves in a way, which is basically the precursor to what would today be considered "wokeness". To say: A weird conspiracy theory where passivity and an inability or unwillingness to challenge "the crazy feminists" eventually turned into an outright war against "the american culture".
And I'm sure Harry Potter was somewhere in there too.

About that: I'm of the opinion that people who didn't have 'real adventure', 'real magic' in their lives - eventually turned to Harry Potter for that. Like, I'ma be real with you: I think I was better off exploring Hyrule. Thank you!

Maybe that's mean, but ... I have no sympathies for ... it's difficult to put it into words. Let's call it: Putting up with uninspired dreck.

Maybe that's "racist" - but so, let's have a little TED talk on cultural relativization.


I'm no expert on the matter, but I'm certain, that each and everyone of you out there has roots of greatness. If you so will - we are the decendants of survivors. So, what I'm saying is, that it doesn't what continent you're from or what color your skin is. At some point in time ... and let's say the modern day is mixed for where else are WE gonna fit in? ... there was something ... in the veins of what Legends are made of ... back in your past. Was it so for sure? I don't know. It's not important. The important part is, that along with the great, there's possibly also some ... not so great. And whatever remains of it today ... is maybe neither here nor there. And there's probably no point to holding on to that glorious past either. Maybe it wasn't really all that glorious anyway. But there is that ... that we ... somehow romanticize it nonetheless. And that is something we can focus on. Hold on to. To try and materialize it. To take what is good, or could have been good - and try to enrich our lives with it.

Maybe. Thanks for listening to my TED talk.


Anyway. So is the modern gamer ... well ... "gamer" ... bamboozled into a Christo-Fascist Death Cult where they'll be brainwashed to hate games and everything they may have otherwise loved - just to run around in hideous colors LARPing like they're John McClane, though then left wondering why nobody likes them; While probably growing numb to the difference between beer and piss - all the while promised Bombshell Chicks and A-List Cars - but still gonna whine each time they run themselves into a wall like nobody told them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And I'm convinced: Half or more than half of those so called Alpha's are what we here in germany would call "Milchbubis". Whic almost literally translates into "Soy Boy", just with slightly different connotation, probably due to time and culture they emerged in respectively. And the rest are just raging psychopaths.

And with that on the rise - everything is just going to suck more and more. Inevitably. They be in our faces like we did something wrong; And while we just existed ... the issue yet demands for one to give up. That's the fucked up thing about it. Though even more fucked up is when you consider that it all started because some no-name person on the internet wrote an allegedly dishonest game review.

Well - sure - there was a lot of doubling down and quadrupling down to actually turn that into more of a thing ... to say, or argue, that the spark didn't just ... so happen to land on explosives and dry foilage and such ... but that an effort was made that that it could just so happen ... eventually.

But that's just a theory. A Game Theory?


So, let me tell you: Emotions matter. They might just be the closest thing we have ... that links us to our divine origins. But they are no simple matter. Every Terminally Online person should know - and the Veterans keep telling you so while the proverbial Sith try to ignore it, watching that hatred within you grow until the day they might yield it - that ever so often: You have had too much internet and you should take a break - "touch grass" as it were - calm down, recenter, find your inner peace or Zen or what you wanna call it, and be above the Chaos.

It is quite literally, I wouldn't know what else might be, the source of all Evil. At least so in a world in which we are free. The alternative would be something like the Matrix, I'm sure - in which we'd be stuck until ... our questions outgrow its confines.

We ARE responsible for our own selves; And only when you understand that responsibility, can you safely tell others to shove it - to be gone - as you are reluctant to see the point of loosing any nerve over it. Give or take?

Anyhow, I have to say: After having given it a thorough try, I must say that patriotism kinda sucks. Don't get me wrong - it's ... cool ... as ... we don't live in a vacuum and it's uplifting to have some resonance with the greater environment, as it were. But at the end of the day it's also somewhat limiting. It's like ... you're stuck to this idea, however great it may be, that can however barely outgrow itself as you hold on to the matters that keep it in its place. Sotospeak. I'm not asking you to not be patriotic, I'm telling you that there's something greater that entails it for what it's worth.

2023-03-22

But - oh oh. I mean, it's difficult to maintain this anti-SJW attitude ... the more and closer we get to today or real world issues. The best I can give you is that whole Harry Potter bit and what's implied once you expand the idea and extrapolate from the concepts. But even there it's ... easy to get caught up in nonsense.

So, when we talk about the death of creativity, or good art, I will possibly agree with a lot that can be or is to be said there; But that also depends on what data-points we're looking at. Or how we're looking at it. In a ... perfect world let's say ... in which art is uncorrupted ... every piece of art is a unique expression of a unique individual rooted in a unique time in their lives. And as unique as the supply is the demand. Or rather: The appreciation. There is a difference - one possibly worth talking about.

And so is there the concern with A.I.. That however is really just at the long end of aforementioned expansion of the idea and extrapolation from the concepts. Where, thinking of that hypothetically perfect world, the issue isn't with human creativity, but what so ... rises to the top and so we're back talking about money; And subsequently the 'demand' side of what art "ought to be".

And there's certainly truth to that. That's kinda how this whole thing started. To say, some 'art' extends beyond the point of individual expression. So, entertainment. Entertainment that is here and there serialized. Or somewhat episodic, whether there are clear beginnings and ends to it or not.
Therein is clear structure, although there is not. I called it "the art of the medium".
Like so - following a great success there will be copycats, then come the offshoots (derivative works, "inspired by") - which become more and more distant to the original the more things evolve, eventually they mix with others - so and so - and occasionally in the midst of the ever expanding homogeneity of it all there will be this or that that does it differently. What then, in all of that, turns into the next success is everyone's best bet - though I guess we can all agree that the Star Wars sequels sucked and that the prequels were good actually. Except, maybe, we can't.

And sure - eventually we also have to consider that a lot of it are collective efforts. Maybe even to the point that something that sucks can also be ... decent at least ... given whatever slice of the pie you're looking at. I think it's important - as - if there's something about me, that I'm aware of "sucks" - err ... . I mean, when I ramble on and about - I naturally (?) tend to generalize a bit too much here and there - and when looking at things that are team-efforts and treating them as though they're not ... I certainly feel like I'm ... being at least a little bit unfair. Like so when we talk about corporations ... that issue is put on steroids.

Obviously, I suppose, there will be that "what the higher ups want" met or opposed by "what the artists can do with it". Or "can get away with". But naturally, so or so, there will be those restraints thrust onto the artist who can then only do so much to actually ... do art. As opposed to ... "crafts" I guess. It's fair enough though I would prefer a negatively connotated term.
And that to me is where A.I. comes into play. For, I wouldn't be surprised if this "art on demand" part of that story eventually leads to tensions. Technically that's why you'd have an art director or whoever takes the creative lead - but whether or not that actually means anything depends ... . But so to me there is this "fairy tale land" full of unicorns that cen get along and make something awesome ... . Which I think isn't a fairy tale; But well. To argue that these tensions shouldn't exist - like - generally speaking. But add money, so you increase egoism, so on and so forth. If it's not just ... too vastly differing opinions.
Whatever.

So, wouldn't it be nice (no it wouldn't) ... .

Which is where or how we eventually come to talk about propaganda. But yea, I don't want to get into the whole "whether A.I. art is theft" side of the issue - because it depends. Now, if we take the A.I. and feed it with all the arts just so that we can then move on to unemploy artists - sure, it's theft and more. At that point someone is creating a device of sorts to make other people kill themselves. Effectively. Which is the funny ... well ... give or take ... direction into which this discussion has evolved. So, the concept of people working on their own obsolesence, possibly in an environment that doesn't give a shit about the individual/human being.

But to so take it back to the Harry Potter thing: Let's say that there is A.I. art and similar to that is the human version thereof: NPC art.

To me, there isn't really much of a difference. That isn't to say that there aren't a lot of differences and nuances and what not - but for the things I'm concerned about, the things I look at that get my system working, it's basically identical.
But, well. I also wouldn't say that Harry Potter is NPC art per se. If we can so accept the premise that it's evil - just for the sake of argument - the idea wouldn't be that it's the product of an evil person telling the author to make it evil - but an evil author writing children books, perhaps even just mostly out of their own interest.

Though there so are differences more pronounced - I generally see it as along the lines of A.I. and NPC art. To say that I'm scared of or worried about "evil man in the shadows" and how these things further perpetuate the capitalistic hellscape we live in.

So is also the thing with trans-lingual spaghetti. On the surface level and for the most of what matters - it's generally not an issue. Beyond that, it's merely just fun. Quirky trivia. There comes a point however, when things start to get weird. How ... certain concepts ... just vanish in a different language. Or at the very least get more or heavily skewed into the one or the other direction. So that sometimes it's difficult to be on point. There sure is a conspiracy theory that can be crafted therefrom. And other than that, it's just culture. So - to say that as people broke off from the main land to settle in the wilds, only so much cultural identity came along with them. So a unique culture got born, having its own ... this' and thats ... but as it so would become its own thing, well, ... . Hmm ... it would do so in absence of what we might call 'intrinsic cultural censorship'. Or ... relationships. Whether it's a good thing or not.

Capitalism does in about the same. So will salty fanboys eventually make the case that what they're a fan of sold a lot better than whatever it is they don't like. If we however thought that way of food - and got rid of all the "bad" food - we'd ... possibly only be left with the worse food.
To say as much as that there are internal forces - which, yea, we might say: Inhibit our freedom to the best possible extent. At least - idealistically speaking. It's ... the societal version of the free market. Yea, call it cancel culture if you will.
Except it's not always to the best, in as far as material power and attitudes aligned with it - can, well, go a long way in overriding ... what we might describe as "the will of the people".

And that's that.
And I think I'll end this here. ...