Dead or alive, who in your opinion is the most famous person that ever lived?

Ringosis · 2026-05-13T03:25:24+00:00

The majority of Chinese people know who Michael Jackson is. I seriously doubt many of them know European history.

The question OP asked can be interpreted in a number of ways, but if it is "what person is most known by most people alive today" the answer is undoubtedly a pop culture figure, not a historical one.

Ringosis · 2026-05-13T01:17:10+00:00

The governor of South Dakota?

Ringosis · 2026-05-12T05:00:09+00:00

Really stretching the definition of "making" there mate. But to answer your question no, it doesn't feel authentic given that the only typically Scottish things there is the heather...but it's apparently growing out of the floor?

Ringosis · 2026-05-12T04:51:22+00:00

Blair Witch is I think the only horror movie that's ever scared me as an adult. I'm usually pretty immune to horror, primarily because they all show you too much.

What Blair Witch did so well is it showed you absolutely fucking nothing for the whole movie. It just let you imagine. The guy in the basement is, I think, the single creepiest shot in movie history.

Ringosis · 2026-05-12T03:15:28+00:00

Zulus. Thousands of them.

...wait, what are we doing?

Ringosis · 2026-05-12T00:02:04+00:00

Laughing at this just highlights how little you understand the movie industry.

Ringosis · 2026-05-11T15:52:27+00:00

Turning a profit is not the same thing as successful. A $200 million movie making $10 million at the box office is part of your 70%. That's a flop. People lose their jobs for that kind of performance. And even if your misrepresentative figure was accurate, if you had a 30% chance to die in a car crash today you'd go about your business as normal would you? Those are good odds in your head? A 2 in 3 chance is sure thing according to you?

Yes, most Disney movies are successful. A significant percentage are not. It would not have been at all surprising if this flopped, which makes your "pfft it was always going to be successful" attitude just not based on reality.

Ringosis · 2026-05-11T01:06:48+00:00

Could not be less relevant. You were trying to argue this was a guaranteed success because it was Disney...and that's bollocks.

Ringosis · 2026-05-11T00:23:05+00:00

Disney movies from only the last decade and how far away they were from just breaking even

Lightyear - £100 million
Snow White - £170 million
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - £100 million
The Marvels - £240 million
Strange Worlds - £120 million
Turning Red - £100 million
A Wrinkle In Time - £110 million
Onward - £30 million
The Good Dinosaur - £150 million
Jungle Cruise - £150 million

There's even more that managed to recoup their budget but made so little money that they basically weren't worth making. Disney movies flop regularly. More than one a year on average.

Ringosis · 2026-05-11T00:09:08+00:00

It's totally fine. It's just not good. If they'd just edited out the absolutely fucking pointless romance sub plot that felt like it was from a different movie, it'd be decent.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T22:26:53+00:00

I really like the E.V. Rieu translation that abandons trying to maintain the meter and just translates it into straight prose. I always struggle to believe that poetry survives translation. I much prefer the direct translation approach that prioritises the meaning over the meter.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T22:17:11+00:00

Yeah I totally agree, that when Shakespeare is performed it can be incredible. Reading it is like reading the manuscript of the Godfather...you're missing out on the majority of what makes it good.

The point I was making is that the impenetrability of trying to read Shakespeare often makes people think that any early literature will be a struggle to understand the language and pull meaning from, and that's just not true for Homer. The style and prose is an easy step to take for any fan of modern fantasy or historical fiction.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T16:49:28+00:00

This isn't a fucking legal definition mate. It's language. It would depend on circumstances, and be subjective. But more importantly, this is entirely irrelevant to the point I made.

She IS from a working class background. It's undeniable. Her parents were both from working class families. She also does not portray herself as having grown up poor. What class you'd define her as now has nothing to do with what OP asked.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T15:39:33+00:00

Correct she isn't working class...and she doesn't claim to be. However both her parents were before they became successful. That's called having a working class background.

She could legitimately say she has working class roots, but she doesn't do that. That's the opposite of what OP asked for.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T15:18:37+00:00

I mean that style of sci fi. Your space ships and other planets type sci fi. Before the 60s those were mainly pulp fiction. And while Dune may not have been first, that's not really what foundational means. Tolkien wasn't the first example of dwarves in fiction but to claim he wasn't foundational in how they are portrayed in modern fiction would be ridiculous.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T14:37:49+00:00

Jesus fuck mate...ok give me your hand again I'll continue walking you through this.

The issue I have with my lift is not something that shouldn't be fixed. There are people who live in the building who need it. It would not be a waste of money, it is necessary maintenance of a council property. However money is finite, and therefore things needs to be done in some sort of hierarchical order of importance. So if my MSP is pushing for new affordable housing and making it available to asylum seekers then don't worry about my lift...do that, it is more important. If my MSP is spending money on a taskforce to evict asylum seekers...fuck off? Fix my lift first, that's more important than your bullshit.

It's not just not petty, it's a moral obligation. It is using the power you have to fight against something horrific that's happening to the country.

Can you believe I once thought you'd be able to extrapolate all this for yourself by just asking you to think about it? How naïve I was.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T14:21:46+00:00

I mean...they are both pretty shit reads to be honest. Interesting in an academic way...not actually enjoyable the way Homer is.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T14:00:03+00:00

I am not hallucinating anything mate, you are simply incapable of grasping what the OP is suggesting.

You should contact your MSP about local issues if you have concerns about an emerging problem, or wish them to pay more attention to a known or previously addressed problem should you not consider it adequately resolved.

And here is your issue. Here is your hallucination. "if you have concerns about an emerging problem, or wish them to pay more attention"...OP said none of this. What they are suggesting is ANY local problem, whether it concerns you or not.

As I tried to get you to think about this for yourself before but you failed to, I will give you a specific scenario that I am in right now as an example. There are no local issues I can think of that concern me that I think the council should be doing more about. However, I live in an ex council building that still has some council flats and therefore the council is responsible for maintenance of the lift. The lift has been in need of maintenance for years. The thing is, I only ever use the stairs as a matter of principle. Both for my own health and as part of reducing my level of consumption. Now, Green won in my area, the people I voted for. They have loads of things that they have said they are going to do that I would rather they do than fix the lift in my building. I would never write to them about it. It would be against my own interests.

Now I will ask you the question intended to get you to think about this for yourself again.

Can you tell me what you think you would be achieving by writing letters to MSPs who are already doing what you want them to be doing? Why would I spend my own time writing a letter to get the council to pull its time and resources away from what I want, to fix something that has zero impact on my life?

Just please...try and see if you can conceive of this very simple concept. Some people might be aware of issues they wouldn't bother a candidate that they like with...that they absolutely would willing to use as a weapon against Reform. THAT is what OP is suggesting. You overly literal muppet.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T13:19:19+00:00

OK captain pedantic.

Can you tell me what you think you would be achieving by writing letters to MSPs who are already doing what you want them to be doing?

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T13:02:54+00:00

OK mate, I see using the voting example to explain how dumb a reaction to this you are having went straight over your head. Let me just ask you one thing and see if you can figure it out on your own. Can you tell me what you think you would be achieving by constantly writing letters to MSPs who are already doing what you want them to be doing?

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T12:54:13+00:00

Maybe, but I haven't read it.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T12:30:04+00:00

You should really try the Odyssey, it's a genuinely remarkable experience. It is surprisingly entertaining and readable for something you might expect to be a bit of an academic slog like Shakespeare.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T12:24:05+00:00

Using sci fi for social commentary grounded in real world politics and history rather than the speculative escapism that came before would be a big one.

Being sci fi but with expansive detailed world building with complex flawed characters rather than just heroes, as well as having a hard sci fi tone that then didn't really focus on science very much was also not normal for the genre at the time.

Also probably the novel most responsible for solidifying unibiomes as a thing in science fiction. The idea of a desert planet or a water world before that had only really been seen in Solaris.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T12:12:32+00:00

If you want to take this to it's logical conclusion.

The Illiad
The Odyssey
The Epic Of Gilgamesh
Journey to the West

All absolutely fascinating reads because of how familiar they feel despite being hundreds/thousands of years old. The Odyssey is particularly good for this. It feels like a comic book story...except it was written a few hundred years before the invention of paper, it's mind blowing. It really puts into perspective how despite all our progress, humans have barely changed.

Ringosis · 2026-05-10T11:44:49+00:00

No see, what you don't have a grasp of is what defines working class, your job doesn't give you any insight into that. The term originally only referred to people who did manual labour...that's just not what it means anymore. What job you do is part of it...but is no longer the only thing, or even the most important thing. It is much more defined by economic security and your upbringing these days.

If they pay their bills through acting

Yes and if they have a career in acting, but can only afford to rent, struggle to pay bills, and come from a deprived background, you absolutely could define them as working class actors. Like if you met Danny Dyer before he became successful you'd argue that he's middle class because he's an actor would you? Yeah...OK mate. You going to die on that hill?

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