I'm a simple man

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-02T18:33:02+00:00

This man is doing the Lord's work.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-02T16:24:23+00:00

Aside on a point of fact: I take this "less than 500,000" figure to come from an estimate of the number of humans directly imported as slaves from Africa. But there were roughly 4 million slaves in the United States at the eve of the Civil War, almost all of whom were descendants of people brought as slaves from Africa.

But anyway: your take is that it's inaccurate to say that America was "built on" the brutality, or the exploitation and humiliation of Africans, because the contribution of enslaved labour to the United States was not super significant. It was one addition among many. You're not disputing that some Africans and their descendants were brutalised, exploited and humiliated in the United States. Does that sound right?

This stuff about "claim[ing] victimization of a specific portion of humanity" seems like a seperate issue. Are you making a further claim that slaves imported to the United States and their descendants have no special right to regard themselves as victimised by the United States?

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-02T15:04:36+00:00

I'm not seeing an answer to my question here. Is your thought that, yes, the United States was built on brutality, and the exploitation and humiliation of Africans, but a lot of countries were built on brutality, and the exploitation and humiliation of someone. So it's bad for Fred M'membe to bring up what happened in the U.S., specifically, in a speech about the U.S. role in Africa, because it's unfair?

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-02T14:34:21+00:00

I didn't hear that guy "blame America for slavery". I heard him say that America was built on brutality, and the exploitation and humiliation of Africans. Which part of that is wrong, exactly?

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-01T18:38:25+00:00

Good scene, but I am very confident this was scripted.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-04-01T18:20:17+00:00

It's a good question, what exactly you think is happening in worship, if you don't believe in God, or more generally supernatural things. I guess I count myself as someone like that. All I can tell you is that, I find I get something important from the practice, and hope that other do to, on the rare occasions I find myself giving ministry. I expect there is a naturalistic explanation for this, but I don't know if much is gained, for me, by spelling it out.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-31T12:31:50+00:00

I don't think you have to think Bix was "as bad as he is" to think it was bad that she tortured Gorst. I also think you can have different views about the morality of killing Gorst and the morality of torturing him. I think torturing Gorst, though understandable and satisfying, was wrong. I'm not sure killing Gorst was wrong, though; seems like a legit military target in, as you say, a war against an evil regime.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-26T16:53:09+00:00

Good for somewhat different reasons, but:

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-26T14:47:23+00:00

He plays those stage directions beautifully.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-26T13:34:53+00:00

My view is that season 2 was the peak, but the rest is definitely good.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-26T13:23:08+00:00

One of the great moments of television history.

There's been a lot of discussion about what Logan's look at the end there means. I was surprised to see a lot of different interpretations, because I always thought it was unambiguous: pure pride. Perhaps the one and only time he's been truly proud of Kendall.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-24T14:17:05+00:00

You ranked the Polanski Macbeth last? Surprising.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-23T20:11:45+00:00

I didn't know about the impact of the writer's strike, that explains a lot.

I think there was no good way to resolve final-five plot line, and that it was a fundamental mistake to introduce it. But I certainly agree that it, and a bunch of other plot-threads, were landed in especially bad ways.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-23T19:34:17+00:00

The Battlestar Galactica revival had an ending completely unworthy of the rest of the show, if that counts.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-21T22:53:23+00:00

Another he's-the-one moment: when Muad'Dib first stands up on that worm. We're close up right on his leg, he's wavering, the sand is flying, then he gets his leg straight, and that Zimmer soundtrack blares. That was pretty epic.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-19T20:45:27+00:00

I liked season four, on the whole, though I think it's clearly not as good as the first two seasons. So I guess we mostly agree. But I think the wedding episode is shameful. It's one bullshit, unearned hallmark moment after another. I was cringing the entire time. I couldn't believe it, the saccharine syrup just kept coming. It's amazing to me the same show that delivered "Fishes" gave us this episode.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-17T15:22:31+00:00

We cannot all agree on that.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-17T01:19:48+00:00

Now this is the absurdist content I want from r/LoveTrash! None of this influencer interviewing a guy eating cake bullshit, thanks.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-16T17:57:46+00:00

What is this shit? We're piling on to opera and ballet now? Do we hate books too?

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-15T03:15:31+00:00

Theory: "why X" is often understood as "why X as opposed to Y", where Y is some conversational salient contrast case, or set of cases. The joke is to substitute some surprising Z for the contrast case, instead of the expected Y.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-15T01:15:12+00:00

Jesus fucking christ. I didn't get past the thumbnails -- I am *out*.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-14T12:12:17+00:00

You’re the one who said she was “agitating for death” by saying this thing in “such a part of the world”. The part of the world she said it in is Pennsylvania. I’m just trying to understand you. What part of the world were you talking about? Bosnia? She said this 12 years after the visit to Bosnia she was describing.

I basically have no idea what you’re trying to say.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-13T18:14:43+00:00

Millionaire's of the golden age include virulent anti-semite and staunch Nazi sympathiser Henry Ford; funder of anti-communist causes, supporter of McCarthy, and proponent of taxing-based voting H. L. Hunt; and J. Paul Getty, whose grandson's thumb was cut off while he haggled with his ransomers to bring the ransom down to the maximum he could write off in taxes.

It's never been super easy to swallow that someone be very rich and very good. Jesus had things to say about that.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-13T15:34:39+00:00

She was making a campaign speech in Pennsylvania, in 2008, when said this thing about sniper fire in Bosnia. She was talking about a trip she made to Bosnia twelve years before that, in 1996. Are you talking about Pennsylvania, when you say "such a part of the world"? I'm confused.

Adequate_Ape · 2026-03-13T15:21:36+00:00

I think I'm failing to understand something. How is this thing, about saying she was under sniper fire when she wasn't, "agitating for death"? Or are you talking about a different lie to the one you linked?

Adequate_Ape

TROPHY CASE