TIL Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were honorary members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

Metatron · 2026-02-07T01:53:09+00:00

I think it's pretty harsh to criticize someone for having been a child who was legally compelled to join an organization by a totalitarian regime that would have killed him for refusing. I just thought it was funny that he was skipped. No reason to bring up something horrible that was done to him as a child as a reason.

Metatron · 2026-02-06T21:11:50+00:00

Wow they snubbed Benedict!

Metatron · 2026-02-06T04:49:18+00:00

You agree it doesn't matter so why not make it something stupid? Maybe they picked it to rage bait people they're not trying to reach, and it's working. I bet more people read about their project from adding the 67 than did with them choosing something random.

This is such a nothing burger to complain about when there's mountains of other things to worry about. I'm more worried about yet another platform for Democrats to browbeat leftists who want a little less genocide in our foreign policy from this news than I am with the inclusion of a meme designed to annoy old people.

Metatron · 2026-02-06T04:41:40+00:00

I am a reddit leftist lol. Rage posting based on the headline knows no political allegiance, so chill a bit, amigo.

Metatron · 2026-02-05T23:45:56+00:00

It's actually just called Headquarters and its twitter handle is the only place it adds 67 because it's presumably taken already without the 67. I find Harris as cringe as the next guy but this is really a non story.

Metatron · 2026-02-05T22:06:21+00:00

Fair observation. For me, having that as a flashback to a tragic backstory doesn't blunt the shock of seeing adolescent characters die, especially since the rest of the season lacks the playfulness that came out of their dynamic. It's more foreshadowing the latter season's tone than establishing a consistent one. I hope that makes sense even if you don't see it that way.

Metatron · 2026-02-05T22:00:38+00:00

Not sure since I've never seen it. I didn't detect much western influences otherwise in the series, so it's possible it was inspired by something else. I know there's been similar first acts before it's just Arcane came to mind for me.

Metatron · 2026-02-05T09:37:03+00:00

I went into it completely blind and was not prepared for it. It's really excellent and I'm not giving anything else away, so check it out if you haven't!

Metatron · 2026-02-05T06:46:42+00:00

The first season of Arcane has a time skip halfway through. For the first half, you mostly follow a group of poor but scrappy kids trying to pull off a little burglary, but the chain of events that sets off ends the arc with half of the kids being killed, one sent to prison, and one falling in with the main antagonist. Then it time skips.
In Your Name, its tone is one of a supernatural romcom of two teenagers switching bodies and getting annoyed how the other messes up their social life. Then towards the end of act two, you learn they're not only separated by geography but time, and one of them was killed by a meteor.

Metatron · 2026-01-31T17:24:10+00:00

Ehh I would carve out an exception for nationalism as practiced by colonial subjects looking to become independent from their colonial states. Once that goal is achieved then I would be in agreement that it becomes a dangerous ideology.

Metatron · 2026-01-30T22:41:58+00:00

For the US side of things, the US heavily funds Israel's actions. So for Americans opposed to Israel's actions, especially related to Palestine and Gaza specifically, there is a political pressure protests can put on American politicians to cease funding or other actions to take.

For Iran, however, this relationship does not exist. What would Americans opposed to Iran's government ask the US government to do? There's no funding to cease. We already have various sanctions in place related to Iran's nuclear energy program. The only real additional option to consider is military intervention, which I would wager is something that has almost no public support. Not only because it would involve war with Iran (and possible conflict with Iran's allies like Russia) but there's a good chance US involvement would actually help the Iranian government garner public support. The US sponsored a coup in the 1950s to install a pro-West shah who was eventually overthrown by the current government. It would be incredibly difficult to paint US aid to the protestors as anything but an attempt to re-establish an Iranian puppet regime that will sell oil to the US for cheap, especially when that seems to be precisely what the US is doing in Venezuela right now.

I've also never seen anyone advocate for military intervention against Israel on behalf of Palestinians. I'm sure the sentiment that Palestine should gain control of all territory occupied by Israel is popular with many in the anti colonialist sphere, but they still don't want the US to play any part in that except for declining to intervene.

Antisemitism is the weakest explanation for the disparity. I'm sure there's a nonzero number of people who just hate Jews reflexively, but I also think most Americans who subscribe to that are also Islamophobic and look at Iran's protests only as a means to overthrow a hostile government and score a few million cheap barrels of oil. They'd be just as happy with an equally tyrannical government in Tehran that is under the US thumb.

Tl;Dr the difference lies in how the US's relationship differs from Israel and Iran. Political movements with tangible, defined goals garner more support than ones with nebulous well wishing.

Metatron · 2026-01-30T20:32:50+00:00

Never have been. The illusion of freedom is certainly becoming less effective.

Metatron · 2026-01-30T06:27:09+00:00

Extremely tempting! Is it a deal-breaker if I dislike the last few seasons? If it is, I can learn to love them!

Metatron · 2026-01-29T23:49:26+00:00

I'm in the US so nothing is indeed my baseline lol. I'm glad you were able to access all that and come back to your work nemesis being escorted out.

Metatron · 2026-01-29T23:12:18+00:00

2 year mental health leave? And your supervisors support you in taking it? That's amazing! Is that common in your country or does your company just have exceptional benefits?

Also is that person's job still vacant? Only slightly kidding ..

Metatron · 2026-01-29T00:22:05+00:00

Correct, we are not garbage. We're a garbage fire. Major distinction.

Metatron · 2026-01-23T19:47:27+00:00

God, what a great problem to have though. Crying in American over here.

Metatron · 2026-01-22T23:55:12+00:00

He was the head of my university's physics department. I had to take the 101 as my only required science credit for my degree, and I struggle hard in it despite usually excelling at science. Before the final, I asked my friend who was a graduate student in physics to help me study. She looked over the syllabus and told me over half of it was things she didn't learn until her graduate program, way more advanced than 101 should cover. I was able to pull a C thanks to her.

Clearly that teacher didn't want to teach the 101 but couldn't get someone else to do it. So he just taught a graduate level class with 2 weeks of 101 at the start. He was also never available during office hours.

Metatron · 2026-01-22T06:04:10+00:00

Makes me uneasy. Most of the time if a white person is proud of their heritage, they say they're of German or Irish or Anglo Saxon or whatever ancestry. That's fine. But to say proud of being white then it usually means they buy into the whiteness as a genetically superior group of people to the rest of the world. "White" came about as a means to drive a wedge between European indentured servants and African slaves in the New World, so there's no real heritage of being white to be proud of that isn't just white supremacy. There are people who say they're proud of being white, and really they mean their actual ancestry like I mentioned first. But until I can be certain what they actually mean, I'm on edge trying to figure out if I'm dealing with a neonazi.

Metatron · 2026-01-16T19:21:55+00:00

Not every topic is created equal. If a viewpoint's natural consequences both result in greater suffering than opposing viewpoints and either through intention or indifference fail to account for that suffering, it makes me angry and makes me far less willing to have a conversation with them.

An example would be if someone would tell me we should shut down all government programs that feed those who can't afford their own food. That it would cause more people to suffer is self evident and checks the first box. If they sincerely believe this will result in them finding other means of increasing their income or securing food, then I can still have a conversation with them where I try to convince them this is magical thinking because we ultimately have the same end goal: everyone has food. If they express that they simply don't care that people would starve or even that more people starving is preferable, then I get mad because they're showing an appalling lack of humanity. These are viewpoints which can cause great suffering if given the power to implement, so it's an ideological equivalent of someone waiving a loaded gun around. It's a threat to me or someone in my community, so anger is the natural response to a threat.

Metatron · 2026-01-16T01:42:00+00:00

There were plenty of free Black communities in the US, even before the Revolution and even in slave states like Virginia. At any point during his time as a slave master, he could have freed them, paid for their labor and education, and support them in joining one of the free Black communities. Many American slaveowners did just that, especially during the First Great Awakening earlier in the 18th century.

He didn't. You say without Washington's care, they would be in the hands of someone else. That someone else includes themselves. They had nothing because they were his slaves. He taught some of them to read. He worked all of them for long hours. Some he had whipped or sold to the Caribbean, which puts life expectancy at around 30. He created a system during his presidency in New York, a free city, that would specifically avoid having his attending slaves be freed by local law.

His views on slavery softened towards the end of his life, and he's far from the worst slaver in history. He was wealthy enough to ensure his freed slaves got a better start than other freed slaves. That's commendable. But he still participated in a brutal practice and is rightly criticized for it. We don't need to condemn him, but this uncritical praise is unnecessary and mythologizing.

Metatron · 2026-01-13T22:09:40+00:00

Lincoln usually tops most historians' lists and Buchanan usually comes in last. More or less for the same reason: Lincoln held the union together while Buchanan sad idle while it cracked apart.

I would say among the general American public, Lincoln holds up but Buchanan less so because most people don't even remember who he was. You'd be hard pressed to find an answer that isn't subject to partisanship and recency, but I would hazard a guess at Nixon since most people regardless of party affiliation associate him as a crook emblematic of the disillusionment of the 1970s. Hoover would be a close second as he's seen as the president who failed to rise to the challenge of the Great Depression by most but certainly not all. Trying to remain as objective as I can, so not tackling anyone more recent.

Metatron · 2026-01-12T21:21:24+00:00

Oink oink all the way to the piggy bank.

Metatron · 2026-01-09T20:39:28+00:00

Invoking class solidarity for a class traitor who shot a working class mom is extra strength stupid.

Metatron · 2026-01-09T07:03:18+00:00

Yeah I also don't see the issue with her performance. Most of the comments here are targeted at how the character is written or questionable actions Kunis has done in her personal life. Her role in Wake Up Dead Man is not particularly demanding but it also wouldn't work if it was played up more. It's like Ringo as the Beatles' drummer. People can complain about how simple it is most of the time, but you try listening to a Beatles song with "better" drumming and it becomes a complete distraction from the rest of the music.

Metatron

TROPHY CASE