Discussion questions:

What TV shows or films have you watched recently?

What subscription services are you subscribed to, if any?

Question of the week:

What movies are you anticipating in 2023?

Question of the week is the same as last time since 2023 has barely started.

  • ButtigiegMineralMap@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been Overdosing on Liberal Media and tbh I’m feeling comfortably numb. I watched the new Bill Maher (guest is a 60 yr old black dude who is fighting for Ukraine, one of the most liberal ass Dems you can imagine, and a moderate Republican) and some of The West Wing. Idk why I’m doing this to myself, it’s just that the liberals have such a simple clear-cut black and white world of “successful” and not, “smart” and not, “qualified” and not, “progressive” and not to the point that I almost see those shows as fantasy in the same vain as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars

    • lxvi@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      I remember West Wing. At the time of watching I remember thinking that they were trying to show everyone as honest acting, trying to do the best they can in a complicated but well-intentioned push-pull. I still found the show enjoyable at the time, but it was clear that I was watching a romantic depiction of how liberals would like to view politics.

      I think that it’s actually an interesting show to look back on because of how it couldn’t be made today. That show represented the civility that was believed to exist in American Politics and how the US political system was broadly viewed by the people of the US and beyond. At about the same time I think I did believe Europe to be a bastion of Western Civilization rather than the colonial play thing of the US.

      Today we have AOC accusing nondescript Republican protesters of attempting to gang-rap her in the streets. For me that was just such an extraordinary low exertion to be made out of thin-air. It’s unpleasant to live in a climate where you can’t even pretend civility and anything goes.

      If nothing else, West-Wing shows us how far we’ve fallen. In the early 2000’s we were already living through the beginning of the end. We’re sill living in the wake of the post-2001 wars. We haven’t moved on to a new stage. We’ve only just begun to reach the end of what started back then, but the Bush/Obama years were still seen as a time where the US displayed itself as an unassailable force of confidence and competence.

      The ship is half-sunk: it isn’t that weird to reminisce about when it was just coming off the ship-yard. People endlessly watch Friends. People are trapped in the 2000’s and before even when they were never personally there.

        • lxvi@lemmygrad.ml
          1·
          2 years ago

          So while George Bush was Governor of Texas he was pushing hard for the death penalty. He personally ordered the execution of this one removed guy be pushed forward and watched the execution take place. He was recounting this to the interviewer who said that Bush was laughing about it. He was laughing about how the man cried for his mother and mocked his frightened pleas, “Mommy! Mommy” Laughing, Mocking.

          I tried to find the citation, but I can’t even remember the book I read that from. It was written by the interviewer. I read it when Obama was President, probably second term. Could have been a “Nation” article too. Hopefully a passer-by can provide it.

          The two of them were a much greater evil that they will ever get credit for.

          Here’s this for good measure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bgbHlqa8mg