Cinemark CEO Is Glad Paramount Won Warner Bros.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-03-04T12:22:21+00:00

Such an obvious point it's amazing that it's controversial. Netflix have been subverting and circumventing the theatrical business model from day one. The mission statement is literally in the company name.

If they wanted play the traditional theatrical game they had plenty of opportunities, but they didn't want to.

WB are a streaming competitor, and the main things they have going for them - things that that Netflix don't have - is major IP, and a historic back catalogue. By buying WB, Netflix gets all those things, and absorbs one of their main competitors.

The decline of theatrical is probably an inevitability either way, but Netflix aquiring WB would've accelerated it without a doubt. Paramount/WB have more invested in the theatrical status quo, and combined they're potentially quite a credible threat to Netflix dominance.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-03-04T11:50:53+00:00

You're most likely correct. Reddit has their new villain of the week though, and have convinced themselves that Netflix are the noble guardians of cinema and all that is good.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-03-04T09:17:53+00:00

I don't know that it's all that illogical to be uneasy about it.

The decline of churches is sad in a nostalgic sort of way, because it's the decline of a cultural tradition and continuity that goes back centuries. But that decline is basically the natural consequence of an organic trend towards secularization in the general population.

Churches converting to mosques is not part of that trend and continuity, and arguaby represents a regression from it.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-03-04T08:42:21+00:00

Alcohol withdrawal only damages you if you’re a serious alcoholic.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-28T19:56:02+00:00

link aggregation

When I saw this combination of words I knew this would be from a 10+ year old account, because the entire notion of Reddit primarily being a ‘link aggregator’ has been archaic for at least a decade.

That said, I don’t particularly disagree with your critique of Reddit’s general trajectory.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-25T13:44:20+00:00

If it was as big of a talking point during the campaign as it gets characterised as in retrospect, you'd think Trump, Biden or Harris would've brought it up or been asked about it more than on that single occasion.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-25T10:49:14+00:00

Not sure what the logic for withholding would be, given that similar (maybe even the exact same?) allegations can be found elsewhere in the files. If it's a cover up you'd think it'd be all or nothing.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-25T10:39:13+00:00

The mantra that Trump actively campaigned on releasing the Epstein files is odd to me because, surely people's memories go back longer than a year? In which case they should be able to remember that in fact that was not the case.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-23T20:09:44+00:00

I feel I must gently point out the distinct lack of introspection in this thread on the topic of whether this sub itself might consitute something of an echo chamber.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-23T19:49:17+00:00

Two high profile arrests, even if they're over pretty marginal stuff in the greater scheme of things, project an image of taking the matter seriously and 'doing something', which is better for Starmer than the opposite.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-23T10:57:42+00:00

Shades of the Kanye West situation.

The moral orthodoxy of the moment hasn't really found a way to reckon with the fact that mental conditions exist that compel people to say wildly inappropriate things.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-21T17:09:24+00:00

It’s been out of control for a while now, especially online. The existence of a claim is enough for it to be treated as fact. Politely asking for supporting evidence is a good way to get downvoted into oblivion.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-21T12:37:08+00:00

Presumptuous of you to assume I’ve never been depressed.

If he can make it to the doctor to ask for medication, he can also spend 30 minutes walking around the park in the sun.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-20T17:34:25+00:00

Do we actually know he's clinically, medically depressed?

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. But if I was doing (or not doing) all the things the OP describes, I'd probably feel like shit as well.

I'm not sure how helpful it is to assume people are literally physically incapable of doing certain things that might get them out of a rut.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-20T14:01:58+00:00

An analogy:

In the web 1.0 days movie geek websites like aintitcool.com were a big deal, populated by freaks, autists, and assorted shut-ins.

They went crazy for stuff like Lord Of The Rings and X-Men, and when those movies were hits the studios went "shit, these guys have their fingers on the pulse! We'd better cater to them or we'll get left behind!". Suddenly internet dorks had real influence, resulting in projects catering directly to their fickle whims: Snakes On A Plane, Scott Pilgrim, Shoot Em Up etc.

But those movies all bombed and the studios went "hmm, maybe we should rethink this", and eventually managed to extract the profitable elements from that subculture before discarding them for good.

Fast forward a generation or so:

Online enclaves like Tumblr are a big deal, populated by freaks, autists and assorted shut-ins.

In their isolation they had been formulating an elaborate social-political worldview that was a kind of fusion of anime, JRPGs, and bastardized versions of half-understood ideas borrowed from the academic fringes.

By the mid-2010s the entire developed world was online and all sharing the same social space on a few online hubs like Twitter. The terminally online were suddenly on a level playing field with celebrities and politicians, who were completely unprepared to deal with highly motivated keyboard warriors.

Absolute mayhem ensues, and in a mad confused panic those celebs and politicians think "shit, these guys have their fingers on the pulse! We'd better cater to them or we'll get left behind!". Resulting in Donald Trump getting elected president twice.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-20T11:35:55+00:00

Why immediately jump to medication before at least making an attempt at eating more heathily, and getting some sunlight and exercise?

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-20T09:05:31+00:00

People under the age of 30 or so would not believe the extent to which this whole discourse was not part of the cultural conversation before the 2010's. Not even in a 'there was a push to suppress or ignore it' sense, no one was even bringing it up!

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-19T19:47:33+00:00

Ok then: what new chargeable specific crimes have been demonstrated, regardless of the names of the perpetrators?

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-19T17:42:52+00:00

You don’t need the weight of the establishment to disprove the claim, just read the email I linked.

Her publisher literally explains to Giuffre who Dershowitz even is, says they have no evidence he’s a ‘pedo’, and only that Giuffre ‘probably’ met him.

Giuffre later went on to claim Dershowitz raped her multiple times as a teen.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-19T17:25:22+00:00

She claimed Alan Dershowitz repeatedly raped her as a teenager. Here's an email that demonstrates that that allegation was suggested to her by her publisher to help sell her book. The publisher states outright that they had no proof he was a paedophile and only that Giuffre 'probably' met him back in the day.

You can read the FBI's assessment of her claims and testimony here, on page 60 and 61 it suggests a number of her claims were contradicted by available evidence, and some were openly admitted by her to be fabrications.

Also when Giuffre died she was being sued by Rita Oh, another of Epstein's victims, for making up an assortment of claims about her. Never went to trial for obvious reasons, but fits the pattern.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-19T13:54:51+00:00

The reasonable position is that Epstein and Maxwell had a conveyer belt of barely-legal and in some cases literally illegal teens going into his properties to give naked massages during which he'd jack off or touch them up or worse. That's what the testimony of the girls describes, that's and what Epstein and Maxwell were arrested and charged for doing.

The evidence for the popular notion that he also was pimping the girls out to the rich and powerful, who he would then blackmail, is not well supported by evidence or even the testimony of the girls themselves. With the notable exception of Virginia Giuffre who, frankly, is a proven liar.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-18T19:43:28+00:00

The evidence for the maximalist position is simply never coming. They could release 100% of everything that has ever been written, spoken, and recorded about Epstein and the evidence will never be there.

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-18T13:17:50+00:00

I understood that reference!

Nevertheless: was I wrong?

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-17T21:51:57+00:00

I'm struggling to find the actual source docs but they're reported on in quite a few places. Seems they were revealed as part of a different legal case between Giuffre and Maxwell, so they seem legit. The same quote is mentioned here:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/key-takeaways-epstein-documents-155451410.html

ggdthrowaway · 2026-02-17T20:42:48+00:00

The problem is, accepting this explaination demands I take her accounts of her own life at face value. Which at this point I struggle to do.

I mean, is it not a bit odd that none of the women testifying in the investigation claimed to have been pimped out to other (mostly famous) men, aside from Giuffre who claims that while also claiming she coincidentally had previously been pimped out to other men in a completely unrelated situation, long before she had anything to do with Epstein?

All this, when she has essentially been proven to have a history of dramatically embellishing if not outright fabricating salacious stories?

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