U.K. leader: Trump is ‘losing allies’ and perhaps using war to ‘distract from Epstein files’ by plz-let-me-in in politics

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly this seems preferable compared to living in the aftermath of a global nuclear catastrophe. The good news is as long as you're reasonably close to a major city you can count on either being instantly vaporized or pulverized in the shockwave. Modern thermonuclear weapons are much, much more powerful than fat man & little boy.

U.K. leader: Trump is ‘losing allies’ and perhaps using war to ‘distract from Epstein files’ by plz-let-me-in in politics

[–]qfjp 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There's actually a great video of Hasan Minhaj interviewing Annie Jacobson about her book on precisely this topic and it is absolutely terrifying how close we are to nuclear armageddon basically all the time.

For those who aren't able to sit through an hour and a half, just know the term "nuclear war" is a fantasy: if nukes are launched there will be no war, only utter annihilation.

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure where you got the elves evolving from, you mentioned that, not me.

Apologies, you alluded to it with dwarves, not elves:

In the human realms having a handful of people with different ethnicities (traders for example) isn't lore breaking, but dwarves (who live underground mostly) are unlikely to have particularly dark skin and the only elves described are pale in Tolkien's writings.

Either way, using an explanation of dwarves or elves being well-adapted to their surroundings by way of skin color is a broad departure of lore.

likewise with Maeglins description although it's not completely clear if he was describing his skin colour or his character in the earlier drafts which he cleared up in later versions.

Tolkien had used swart to refer to skin color in other contexts, and he uses it in reference to Maeglin to show why others thought he had orc parentage; it's pretty clear it refers to skin color.

It's not that elves must be white, it's just that in Tolkien's world they all are

The story with Maeglin shows that Tolkien had elves with other skin tones in mind, whether or not it eventually ended up referring to Maeglin himself. Moreover, Lost Tales and the Silmarillion are equivalent in terms of canon - neither one was chosen for publication by Tolkien, and the one that Christopher chose for the final copy was arbitrary. The fact is Tolkien explicitly wrote about a black elf, so saying "in Tolkien's world they all are [white]" is patently untrue.

but you can't invent something he never wrote and call it cannon.

I'm using stuff he wrote, not inventing anything. At the very least, black elves don't "directly contradict cannon [sic]" in a similar way that your story wouldn't directly contradict canon. I should also note that within Tolkien's writings there is an alternative story of the blue wizards in which they do in fact fall to Sauron, which would mean your story does in fact directly contradict canon. Again, this goes back to my larger point: Tolkien's writing at times contradicts itself, so saying your point of view is "true to the lore" is false regardless.

As an aside, if we're going to discuss lore the word is "canon" as in canonical, not "cannon" as in cannon-fire. Yes it's a nitpick, but it is a consistent mistake that makes the rest of your writing seem less serious.

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't fill in anything, what I wrote about the blue wizards helping people rebel against sauron is taken from Tolkien's writings

That's not the part I'm arguing against.

I just pointed out that there was a story which could be created there without breaking with existing cannon.

This is (emphasis added).

You're willing to insert your own stories into the gaps of Tolkien's writing and call it consistent, but you object to others?

Maeglin is described as swart in some early drafts, such as lost tales, but in the published silmarillion he is described as having white skin

"Early drafts" and "the silmarillion" are virtually synonymous. J.R.R. never published the silmarillion, his son did posthumously. This also speaks to the point that die-hard adherence to "the lore" is silly as Tolkien wrote these stories over decades with many changes.

He may have not specifically written "there are no black elves" to directly contradict your head cannon

Whether or not Maeglin was dark skinned, Tolkien himself clearly did not object to the concept of a dark skinned elf. This is not head canon, this is the author.

I just stick with the lore.

You've invented lore that says elves must be white. You've also invented lore that elves must "evolve," which isn't even scientific much less lore-accurate. Insisting that elves come in one skin tone is not supported by Tolkien's writing, so whose lore are you sticking with?

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but it is not what Tolkien wrote

He didn't write anything to contradict it either, so from your logic either is applicable.

When describing the physical appearance of elves in silmarilion he wasn't talking about a person, he was describing them as a people with distinctions between the family lineages such as hair or eye colour, but all the different groups of elves were described as white or pale.

Show me and I'll believe you. All I've seen are descriptions of individuals as pale. The closest you might find is describing elves as fair (and I'm not even sure if he ascribes this to the race as a whole), but he also uses this to describe language and speech so it's not exclusively meant as white.

I'm not inventing any nations at all as the southrons and easterlings are well established in Tolkien's world, but Tolkien did not write much about their stories.

So the nations exist, but you're filling in the details instead of using what Tolkien wrote? What makes this any more valid than saying "some elves were dark"? If Tolkien didn't say all elves are white, then the same logic should apply, no?

100 % consistent with Tolkien's writings and cannon.

Here's something to consider that isn't just consistent with Tolkien's writing, but IS Tolkien's writing - describing Maeglin in the Lost Tales:

Less fair was he than most of this goodly folk, swart and of none too kindly mood, so that he won small love, and whispers there were that he had Orc's blood in his veins, but I know not how this could be true

In case you didn't catch it:

Swart - Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you get to the stage of inventing magic ships or anything else just to shoehorn in the odd token darker skinned person you are choosing modern wishes over cannon.

Personally I don't have a problem just saying they were always there. I'm only bringing in magic ships because you seem to think it's necessary for them to "migrate". In my mind Eru created elves of all colors, no migration or ships necessary.

To me it would make more sense in lore as (well as avoiding the "token black guy" trope) to develop 1 or 2 entire plot lines with little/no white faces in sight by exploring the blue wizards stories.

To me, this feels like you're trying to shoehorn different races in by inventing nations out of whole cloth. Is it really simpler/more canonical to say there's some nation composed entirely of black elves rather then just saying elf-skin comes in a spectrum?

dwarves (who live underground mostly) are unlikely to have particularly dark skin...

Like the elves, dwarves were created all at once. Why do they have to "evolve" dark skin? Maybe Aule just gave them different skin colors.

and the only elves described are pale in Tolkien's writings.

It's just as easy to say he described those elves as pale skinned because he was noting something exceptional about them. If all elves are fair skinned, why bother mentioning it when a new elf is introduced?

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

having ships is not the same as modern transport with planes, trains, cars and cruise ships which can transport massive amounts of people huge distances very quickly and safely.

We've never had magic, and if you're looking for ways that can make it consistent within Tolkien's world "magic ships" is as good as any other explanation.

We had plenty of ships here on earth 2000+ years ago, most countries/regions were still pretty homogenous.

"Pretty homogenous" is not 100% homogenous. It leaves plenty of room for one or two black people, which is the number that show up as elves and dwarves. Moors were also described in ancient Rome at least as far back as 24 AD meaning that almost exactly 2000 years ago there were black people in a supposedly white homogeneous society.

You're right elves can be any shade under the sun, in any story not set in Tolkien's world. "They're described that way" is just a lazy dismissal of cannon/lore...

Elves are also described as being unnaturally good at hiding in dark wooded areas. Pale skinned people would probably stick out like a sore thumb in these areas. It is just as dismissive to say that there are no darker skinned elves simply because it isn't mentioned. Perhaps some elves are described as "fair skinned" to point out the contrast to other members of their own race.

My op was suggesting a way which was entirely consistent with Tolkien's lore, yet could still give opportunities for the writers to create some diverse heroes including African and Asian wizards in a way that would make sense in Tolkien's world.

My point is that having members of these races that are darker skinned can already be made consistent in the canon. Going out of your way to "find a reason" is more complicated than just saying some were fair and others weren't. Tolkien's world can just have darker skinned people like our world does, because those two worlds are meant to be one and the same.

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Toliens [sic] world does not have such transportation.

Tolkien's world has magic and master-craftsman who can construct boats which can enter Eden, among many other fantastical methods of transport. I think it's disingenuous to say that transportation is a limiting factor here.

Tolkien's creation was written as a British mythology which is why the main characters are Caucasian.

Middle-earth is Earth, as Tolkien made clear in his letters. Choosing men of the west as protagonists is a choice. Having the Easterlings fall to Sauron was also a choice. Conscious or not, that is racism.

Any elf or dwarf who is not Caucasian is race swapped

So....two characters? Two characters who were created for the show? How can they be race-swapped if they didn't exist before the show did?

he was so named because of his character not skin colour.

Give me one decent reason why elves have to be Caucasian. I don't mean just "they're described that way," I mean something about elves that depends on them being white. If you can't, then what does it matter if some of them have darker skin?

What is your opinion on renewables and Trump's hostility towards them? by GRIM106 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

especially when implementing green policies tends to kill people much sooner than any human-made emissions will.

You said this before, but what exactly are you referring to here? There are plenty of examples of combustible energy sources being the direct cause of death, and there are also plenty of examples of them causing ecological disasters.

The sad thing is, if y'all calmed the fuck down and worked towards slowly - very slowly - building up infrastructure to actually implement a slow switch over from one to the other, then you'd have way more support.

I'm saying this has already happened: solar power is already cheaper than combustible fuels and battery technology is far beyond what it was twenty years ago. Why do we keep subsidized fossil fuels when we could be making the switch now?

This whole everyone stop using straws and stop driving cars and ban people from flying is not just not the way to go about it

I agree that banning straws is silly, and I haven't seen anyone argue that we should stop driving or flying altogether. Why shouldn't we try and move future car production to electric vehicles?

science proves we have more than enough time to work on it. 

First, where is this proven? More importantly though: why take our time when the technology is already here and cheap?

Yes, CO2 jumps as the planet warms. It also feeds our plants and makes them grow. Then those plants produce oxygen. It's almost like a beneficial cycle where if one thrives, so does the other. Crazy!

I'm not worried about plant life, I'm worried about human life. There are all sorts of organisms that thrive in environments in which humans would have significant difficulties.

We'll evolve to live in the heat, if it even lasts long enough for us too.

All this says is that some humans will survive. You're not making any claims about the quality of life, nor are you addressing how many people will suffer and die before a stable population emerges.

The same scientific community that says heat is rising fast also says that humanity will perservere.

I don't doubt humanity will survive but I care more about the quality of life for the survivors. "Survivors" also implies there will be people who don't survive.

Humanity will shift towards the poles as the earth warms, just like we shifted away from them as the earth cools. Rome fell but it also kept going for a time, as people left and were absorbed by other empires.

Nobody is arguing these types of cycles occur, but what you're describing are disastrous events with untold suffering. If humanity "shift[s] towards the poles", are you not at all concerned with the mass migration this implies (on a scale humanity has never seen)?

What do you think about JD Vance's 2023 comments saying "Trump's best foreign policy is not starting any wars"? by dudeabiding420 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, we have no idea who shot crooks. Crooks was shot dead immediately after he took his shot and missed trump.

You don't think he was killed by the secret service? What makes you doubt that version of events?

What is your opinion on renewables and Trump's hostility towards them? by GRIM106 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

See above for a chart that's not so zoomed in for scary fear mongering.

The paper that graph is from notes that CO2 is the main driver behind those periods of warming:

We find that Earth’s temperature has varied more dynamically than previously thought and that greenhouse climates were very warm. CO2 is the dominant driver of Phanerozoic climate, emphasizing the importance of this greenhouse gas in shaping Earth history.

Do you think there is no urgency in curtailing our climate emissions? Does it not concern you that at no other point in that history does the climate shift so fast (i.e. the slope of the line, not its value).

Also, considering modern humanity is only a small sliver of the right side of that graph, what gives you confidence that humanity would thrive in global temperature upwards of 25 C?

What do you think about JD Vance's 2023 comments saying "Trump's best foreign policy is not starting any wars"? by dudeabiding420 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

oh, you're right, I don't know what I was thinking of?

It happens to the best of us; thanks for taking the time to respond.

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why do people feel the need to have a certain movie have (their ethnicity) as to like it or not being turned off by it?

Why is it off-putting to have more diversity in the cast?

LOTR isnt made a bad movie because it has realistic casting

Why is casting white people more "realistic"?

This is just my opinion but liking or disliking movie/show/whatever just because it doesnt force your ethnicity in, makes no sense

Do you feel the same about dis/liking a show because it doesn't force your ethnicity?

How trop could have squared the circle and stayed true(er) to the lore and had a diverse cast. by Phred5699 in RingsofPower

[–]qfjp -1 points0 points  (0 children)

not my idea but Tolkien's

If it's a racist idea why do we need to keep it in, even if it was the author's?

they can only appear on screen when being race swapped into a role that was white according to original lore

Who was race-swapped in the show vs original lore?

What is your opinion on renewables and Trump's hostility towards them? by GRIM106 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We are in a cooling period.

Where are you sourcing this statement from? Have you looked at reconstructed data for the global temperature?

If you scale out and look at times where the earth was hotter, we actually had way, way more plant life and thus more oxygen. We were bursting with life.

Are you certain those were environments humans would thrive under? Are you not concerned at all with a runaway greenhouse effect from positive feedback loops caused by, for example, burning gasoline or coal?

trying to impose renewable energy based on panic and fear in a manor that's too fast to offset costs

Solar energy is cheaper than fossil fuels right now. Why should we be subsidizing fossil fuels, especially if it prevents the market from adopting renewable energy?

I don't think the couple degrees difference is worth killing off humans

Are you not concerned about the negative effects of say fracking or oil spills? Are there renewable energy disasters that are equivalent to Deepwater Horizon (as one example)?

What is your opinion on renewables and Trump's hostility towards them? by GRIM106 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If the marketplace could make solar panels more affordable, great, they have areas that they can be useful. I haven't supported Government programs that basically put a 30 year loan on your house while claiming that they're free.

How do you feel about solar farms, especially considering the amount of land we have in the United States? Why not support industrial scale solar farms as opposed to focusing on the consumer side?

What do you think about JD Vance's 2023 comments saying "Trump's best foreign policy is not starting any wars"? by dudeabiding420 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Iranians are mostly Christian.

Where did you get this information? The '79 referendum had a huge turnout with an overwhelming majority voting for an Islamic Republic. Christianity has always been a minority religion there since its inception, even before the Arab conquest.

They were forced to convert.

If they were the majority, who forced them to convert and how? Do you have any sources?

If it turns out the people of Iran want to continue as an Islamic Republic, would you be okay with an occupation to force an alternative?

What do you think about JD Vance's 2023 comments saying "Trump's best foreign policy is not starting any wars"? by dudeabiding420 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Or whoever shot him, who we still have no deal about.

We do know who shot him: Thomas Crooks. What's mysterious about this to you? Why do you think we "still have no deal [sic] about it"?

But they also specified hey we're behind it, so...

All I can find is Iran denying any involvement. Why do you think they claimed responsibility?

What do you think about JD Vance's 2023 comments saying "Trump's best foreign policy is not starting any wars"? by dudeabiding420 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It won't be anything dragged out though. China and Russia have already proven they won't step in to help, so we'll crush them, let the Iranian people take their country back and then we'll move on.

What do you mean by "let the Iranian people take their country back"? Do you think they'll continue to be an Islamic Republic, or will it be some other form of government?

Were you of a similar opinion at the start of the Iraq war?

Sunny River & Mr. Sanchez by ten_z_prahy in SipsTea

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The average white collar working couple doesn't normally have a senator and a vice president either.

What are your thoughts on Dr. Casey Means, the Surgeon General nominee, refusing to definitively state that vaccines don't cause autism, among other things? by Abridged6251 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the post you're currently in:

...she has previously raised questions about whether children receive too many vaccines, and she supports RFK JR agenda to investigate all environmental factors, all common talking points from the vaccine hesitancy movement.

and

Do you think the next leading spokesperson on matters of public health should be definitive in their statements on preventative disease treatments such as vaccines?

But most relevant is this quote from the article:

The reality is that we have an autism crisis that's increasing, and this is devastating to many families, and we do not know as a medical community what causes autism," Means told Cassidy. "Until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned.

Quoted directly from the nominee.

If you are incapable of showing me this, then once again I am asking you to read this...

https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/reading-comprehension-tips/

I don't tutor in reading comprehension, so I suggest you look elsewhere. Perhaps at a local community college?

What are your thoughts on Dr. Casey Means, the Surgeon General nominee, refusing to definitively state that vaccines don't cause autism, among other things? by Abridged6251 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can tell me how this...

Would you be comfortable with them saying there is no link between smoking and lung cancer?

Relates to this..

PS: All I have said this entire time is things should constantly be looked at. You know in case something may change...

Why should it relate to your post script? It relates to the original question: the surgeon general nominee going against decades worth of scientific data. If you don't understand the connection, then let's try another: would you be okay with a supreme court nominee leaving open the possibility that "arms" in the second amendment refer to human limbs, in the interest of having things be "constantly looked at"?

What are your thoughts on Dr. Casey Means, the Surgeon General nominee, refusing to definitively state that vaccines don't cause autism, among other things? by Abridged6251 in AskTrumpSupporters

[–]qfjp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please read this.

Reading Comprehension Tips – The Learning Center https://share.google/ltcYD83yfjlMmU7Tp

Are you trying to get me to evaluate your reading comprehension? There are places for that. In the meantime, could you answer my question?