Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[Hindsight was 2020]

New age atheism like Dawkins, Harris, the late Hitchens, Bill Maher, etc.. seem to becoming an increasingly right wing reactionary group in this day and age as opposed to the liberals they were branded as in the 2000s

[Hindsight was 2020]

New age atheism like Dawkins, Harris, the late Hitchens, Bill Maher, etc.. seem to becoming an increasingly right wing reactionary group in this day and age as opposed to the liberals they were branded as in the 2000s

I would imagine if you did a poll atheists would demonstrate much more liberal views (at least on social issues) than religious people. There are probably more right wing atheists now just because there are more atheists. Obviously religious conservatives are not going to be atheists so they are going to be other right wing groups like libertarians or the alt right.

Atheists in the US do skew left, but most atheists aren't Dawkinsist-Harrisists. People who were "New Atheists" a decade ago have definitely found common cause with the right in terms of attitudes towards non-Western immigrants and refugees, and many are now also adopting increasingly reactionary views on issues between men and women, even though most of them are still pro-choice and pro-SSM.

This. I wasn’t referring to atheists in general but to this brand of atheism that poped up in the 2000s that was big in being snobby, in your face, and anti-Bush/evangelist. But many of these people developed a hardon for Muslims to the point they became alt-right gateways. Like Sam Harris who went from “pwning” Affleck on Islam to now inviting Charles Murray onto his podcast to legitimately discuss the Bell Curve   

[Hindsight was 2020]

George McGovern and Michael Dukakis would be strong general election candidates in today’s enivorment

[Hindsight was 2020]

The reason AOC generates so much reaction is most rw men think she’s hot

[Hindsight was 2020]

I don’t think Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick solely because Juanita doesn’t act like a rape victim at all. When she showed up at Trump’s side when the Hollywood Access taped dropped I could understand it to a degree but she and Paula Jones have made a habit of being shields for Republicans who get in trouble. They showed up constantly on Fox during the Roy Moore scandal to make whataboutism case. Hell Juanita even made fun of E. Jean Carroll’s looks on Twitter when she made her allegation against Trump. Granted not all victims act and think the same but I have never seen a legitimate rape victim try to use the fact they never got justice to be used as a shield for another alleged sexual predator. Heck they even have been on Fox recently to make the argument that their cases mean the whistleblower should be outed

[Hindsight was 2020]

Here’s a hot one. Game of thrones was ruined all the way back in S5 with the changes to Stannis storyline. If you look at the complaints about Dany’s downfall almost beat for beat you’ll see the same writing issues with Stannis downfall. But it wasn’t noticed because he wasn’t a popular mainstream character like Dany. So when D&D got away the first time with these troupes they thought they could do it again.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Here’s a hot one. Game of thrones was ruined all the way back in S5 with the changes to Stannis storyline. If you look at the complaints about Dany’s downfall almost beat for beat you’ll see the same writing issues with Stannis downfall. But it wasn’t noticed because he wasn’t a popular mainstream character like Dany. So when D&D got away the first time with these troupes they thought they could do it again.

r/freefolk is leagues ahead of you in saying that the decline was in S5.

Those people don’t kneel. Well at least until Emilia Clarke publicly acknowledged them in which case they kneeled hard

[Hindsight was 2020]

Here’s a hot one. Game of thrones was ruined all the way back in S5 with the changes to Stannis storyline. If you look at the complaints about Dany’s downfall almost beat for beat you’ll see the same writing issues with Stannis downfall. But it wasn’t noticed because he wasn’t a popular mainstream character like Dany. So when D&D got away the first time with these troupes they thought they could do it again.

r/freefolk is leagues ahead of you in saying that the decline was in S5.

Season 5 was when they got out of all the good book material and were left without much intrigue to work with.

I mean look at how all the storylines fell apart.

Tyrion S4:  Joffrey murder plotline, tons of great moments and dialogue with impact on the plot
Tyrion S5:  He's whisked about with little agency before finally ending up with Danaerys, where he's boring and impotent.

Jon Snow S4:  Putting down the rebellion at Craster's Keep and battling Mance Rayder at the Battle of Castle Black.
Jon Snow S5:  Hardhome, which is by far the best moment of S5, but other than that it's eight episodes of him sitting around Castle Black playing politics.

Cersei and Jaime S4:  They're in the capital, plotting, having impact, interacting with characters, doing fun things.
Cersei and Jaime S5:  They're split up.  Jaime is in Dorne (awful), Cersei is listening to endless High Sparrow monologues.

Arya S4:  She's riding around with The Hound killing people and having a ball.
Arya S5:  She's scrubbing floors at the House of Black and White (yawn)

Sansa S4:  Marries Tyrion, escapes King's Landing, plays a role in Littlefinger's takeover at the Vale
Sansa S5:  Is married to Ramsay, for most people's least favorite plotline in GOT

and so on.  The show also lost its two best villains, Joffrey and Tywin, and we're left with Ramsay, who's flawlessly evil and sits around in dark rooms with no music getting exactly what he wants 100% of the time.

Honestly you could make the argument that the books had a similar excitement dropoff but they at least had interesting twists and side plots that kept you engaged. I mean the S5 Dorne plot seriously suffered from the decision to scrape FAegon and by proxy the Doran twist. Heck same with the WF plot. The book had a similar Ramsay rape plot but it a) involved another character who wasnt illogical forced into the plot like Sansa and b) had a side plot involving interesting characters like Wyman, Lady Dustin, and the Umber uncles that they book fans are obsessed with on forums. Without them we just got the miserable plot with Ramsay that served nothing but shock value

[Hindsight was 2020]

People who couldn't see Dany was going to go insane are terrible at actually paying attention to the show.

This is in no way a defense of the inexplicably awful writing of Season 8, of course.

Both of these takes are correct. It was the logical course for the character and she was always a terrible person. It's just that the execution of it was terrible.

I was never a big Dany but there is a massive logic leap from the more questionable stuff she did like crucifing the slavers and nuking a civilian population like that

[Hindsight was 2020]

Austria-Hungary actually had a legit beef with Serbia over Ferdinand’s assassination. Most history books give off the impression that Austria unfairly blamed Serbia over the murder but members of their military did organize the assassination with the black hand and was suppling other terrorist groups in Bosnia

[Hindsight was 2020]

Cheese pizza ing sucks

This is haram

[Hindsight was 2020]

Star Wars fans are to blame for Last Jedi. Some might forget but there was time when Force Awakens was completely toxic on the Internet with endless YouTube hot takes on how it’s worse than the prequels because it was so safe and corporate over the quaint charm of a one man directors vision. Well they clearly tried to address this by giving Rian Johnson full control and look how that went

[Hindsight was 2020]

Even a Jerry Brown/Jesse Jackson ticket would of won in 92

[Hindsight was 2020]

I enjoy crapping all over how poorly written Season 8 of Game of Thrones was as much as the next person, but the complaining over the last three episodes/what happens with the Iron Throne is very overrated and misplaced, IMO.  The series crossed the point of no return and had no redeemable future as soon as 1) the White Walkers' motivation was "explained" in a rushed, let's-get-this-BS-over-with-so-we-can-get-to-Kings-Landing manner by Bran in Episode 2 and 2) the Night King was killed off with zero back story, twist, "other-worldly" element, etc.  The series spent seven seasons doing two things that set it apart from generic fantasy or generic BBC-style historical dramas, neither of which ever have the mass appeal GoT had:

1) Introducing an existential threat in the first scene that was slowly undermining the petty human political squabbling ... this had reached a climax by Season 8, and the series HAD to deliver on a satisfying (enough) conclusion, or it would fail.

2) Building up a sense of mystery and hinting at a huge plot twist regarding the White Walkers, and specifically the connection between the Night King and Bran.  D&D chickened out in the eleventh hour, because this was out of their comfort zone.  They abandoned the tone and overall messaging of the series when it was too late to do so, and they tried to go back to "the battle for the Iron Throne," which was always going to seem pathetically hollow and a massive letdown.

You just can't spend so much effort and time telling us the political intrigue is ultimately meaningless in favor of a much more existential and interesting threat only to quickly dispatch of it and return to the same old stuff.  Imagine House of Cards but there is a giant asteroid coming for Earth, and the series is trying to show us that this political maneuvering is actually meaningless, and the characters have to come together to survive ... but then the asteroid misses by total luck, and the finale is a Presidential Election, haha.  That is the BS we got.

GoT died after Season 8, Episode 3.  Everything after was bound to disappoint no matter what.

Testify brother! Honestly as I’ve said on this thread before I think GOT was mortally wounded back in S5 while S6 and 7 were just a valiant effort to bandage it up until the inevitable fate in S8

[Hindsight was 2020]

Bit of a dated topic but in hindsight the ending to the Sopranos was brilliant. Even if you don’t buy into the theory Tony got shot by the guy in the members only jacket his story was over. Just the prior scene Tony was informed that Carlo had flipped and the feds were about to indict him. So really the story is over he either dies or goes to jail so all that is left is black nothingness

[Hindsight was 2020]

How TFA handled the First Order vs Resistance and the Starkiller Base sabotaged the trilogy going forward. The setup made no sense until you read the later released books and destroying the base took away a main thrust heading into TLJ. The problem boils down too was the First Order was treated just like the empire and that makes no sense. The empire is a centralized government with control over entire solar systems while the Order is a military junta that controls some systems in the unknown regions yet can field a bigger army and better weapons. In hindsight the First Order should of been a group of empire worshipping rebels on some ice planet while Leia, Poe, and the rest are the standing Republic army and at end of TFA when they go to attack the planet its reveled they turned it into Starkiller Base leading to a setup in TLJ with the First Order having this weapon that let’s them go on an offensive against the Republic
Edit:
Also the funny thing is most of TFA would stay as is with only the nuking of the 3 planets coming in TLJ and the obvious ending change so it’s not like my proposal would change TFA that much

[Hindsight was 2020]

Jordan Peterson is almost incredibly misunderstood (and more likely intentionally misrepresented), and he very clearly is not a member of the Alt Right.  He’s a kind, thoughtful world class thinker who’s passionate about a variety of issues that have nothing to do with politics, and he’s awesome.

Considering he launched his career being a dick to trans people I’d like to challenge the bolded part

[Hindsight was 2020]

Bit of a random issue but I’ve noticed in documentaries about the French Revolution that there is an uncomfortable amount of leftists academics that completely support the reign of terror and subscribe to the Leninist idea that no revolution can be made without mass violence and state terror. In particular there is a documentary on Robespierre were Slavoj Zizek comes off like a blood thirsty madman

[Hindsight was 2020]

In kind of keeping with my previous revolutions hot take theme I also would like to say that people I feel generally don’t appreciate how unique of a revolution our country had. So many times throughout history revolutions see one dictatorship just be replaced by another because said revolution was just an organic groundswell against the current regime with no idea of what comes after resulting in a momentary time a crisis that strongmen can exploit. But by 1776 (less than a year into the war) our founders actually had (very) rough idea of what type of government we’d have if we won. The fact there was a game plan shows the founding fathers deserve the praise they get for their brilliance

[Hindsight was 2020]

The gospel according to Mark is the most interesting read of the four gospels from a literary standpoint. Jesus doesn’t come off as divine as in the other 3 so when it’s revealed he comes back from the dead it’s treated as this big shocking reveal. So from a pure reading standpoint you’d actually feel more at stake when goes into his passion

[Hindsight was 2020]

BLM and the Ferguson riots are what really sped up the WWC movement to Trump

[Hindsight was 2020]

I’m pretty sure Whacking Day was actually started in 1924 as an excuse to beat the Irish

[Hindsight was 2020]

BLM and the Ferguson riots are what really sped up the WWC movement to Trump

They did...

but BLM and Ferguson rioters have some damn good points.

Though I oppose their tactics.

Oh they did I’m not saying what I did as a condemnation I’m saying that is probably a big factor in why WWC went MAGA but is not covered at all by the press (probably because they’re afraid of what they’ll find)

[Hindsight was 2020]

Gamergate caused Trump and the alt-right. Almost all the mythology and tactics that young reactionary white men on social preach and use got started with that event.

[Hindsight was 2020]

If 1992 Jerry Brown was running today he’d probably be destroying the field and probably a strong favorite to beat Trump. His campaign back then would kill with today’s millennials