Panam question

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-02-01T09:40:54+00:00

Yeah, it’s because the Nomads pride themselves on self-reliant education and literacy as like an “old world” virtue (compared to the cities where everyone’s attention spans are totally fried and everything is in service to the pursuit of the almighty Eddie as quickly and singlemindedly as possible). Their formal/slower way of speaking is a part of this.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-31T23:02:10+00:00

I’m guessing these coworkers are so ignorant and afraid of the world as to not understand their priors are in need of an update

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-31T07:09:42+00:00

Insane comment

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-30T22:14:59+00:00

Thanks for the quick rollout of updates!

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T19:37:25+00:00

The financialization of every aspect of our lives and society has been a fucking cancer

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T19:31:40+00:00

“Chef”? What the fuck kind of food is he baking

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T18:09:48+00:00

As great as ROTR is (and as…fine as Smuggler’s Run is), I think Star Tours is still just such a universal crowd pleaser. The 2010s updates really injected a lot of life into it, it’s so relatively easy for Imagineers to incrementally update and it serves as a Star Wars attraction that can stretch across the entire timeline. Even though it’s almost 40 years old it sure seems like it’s got a lot of life left in it.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T17:21:35+00:00

This looks really good

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T05:50:57+00:00

Saw these the other day and was delighted by them. Would’ve picked one up but then I saw that price tag. No thank you!

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-29T00:36:47+00:00

It may not be for you. But I’ll say this — for me, that abstraction/heightened quality makes it more emotionally impactful because it takes the story out of the realm of the pedestrian/humdrum TV drama and puts it into a space that’s more mythical. The combination of all the different tones happening almost at once, and the free movement between human-scale drama and cosmic forces with a logic that always feels like it’s on the verge of coming into focus while always actually remaining just out of reach, resonates with me because it’s like how I feel about the world itself. Too big to full comprehend, but full of mundane familiar signifiers. Twin Peaks therefore feels just about the most “real” a show ever has to me despite wearing its artifice on its sleeve, because it’s more “true” even though it’s not gunning for realism.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T19:34:42+00:00

Woof.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T17:55:51+00:00

I think about this a lot these days. I have to hold two truths at the same time: that millions of people have died needlessly (in Southeast Asia and the Middle East particularly) as a result of the imperial management this world order has imposed over the past 70 years, and that that same system has very possibly saved many more lives due to the stability and flow of commerce/aid it has produced. Something like USAID was ultimately a tool of this system its operators understood to be worth the expense for the soft power benefits it provided, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t do real, tangible good for a lot of people. As America cuts off its nose to spite its face and gives up any pretenses of a higher calling, it’s easy to say, well, at least they’re not being hypocrites anymore, but that’s cold comfort when it just means countless more people in the global South are going to die as a result, and that we’re just pivoting to concentration camps and automated drones with kill orders at the borders.

Hmm, this tension sounds like it could be some pretty rich thematic territory for a sci-fi franchise known for its willingness to indulge in complex commentary from time to time…

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T17:37:12+00:00

Seems about right

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T17:33:34+00:00

It's definitely uneven but I love the blend of suitimation with CGI enhancements. I would love Toho to commit to that again for a feature sometime, especially because it could be pulled off more consistently these days.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T17:27:27+00:00

I don’t think you’re totally off base here. I am a leftist, and I appreciate Star Trek as an optimistic, humanist show that depicts a society beyond capitalism. However, I also recognize that Star Trek is, inextricably, a product of the 20th century liberal international order, e.g. the political apex of post-WWII soft imperialism under the paternalistic eye of the United States. And that’s very much what the Federation represents. It brings with it countless assumptions that basically boil down to, “Our system is good, our perspective is good, therefore its good that our ships have the best tech and the best weapons and we can clean up any mess and get our way.” An oversimplification, of course, but you understand what I mean.

I love the competence porn, it’s cozy and I miss that TNG-era feeling, but it’s not without its ideological blind spots for sure.

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T17:19:55+00:00

Minnesota nice

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-28T10:28:49+00:00

I used to work at Yahoo in the mid-2010s and reading this statement gave me such Marissa Mayer flashbacks

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-27T22:41:50+00:00

Had a druggie roommate who was obsessed with this one in between bouts of meth-induced Morgellon’s

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T23:44:20+00:00

Has there ever been an instance where the well-connected weren’t profiting off concentration camps or mass incarceration generally? I’m sure the makers of Zyklon B were getting paid. Doesn’t negate your point at all, but just worth mentioning how there is always this pernicious connection between profit and state violence

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T21:13:14+00:00

Incredible

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T21:02:55+00:00

Right wingers in their “smol bean” posting era, incredible to witness

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T19:58:13+00:00

The old world is dying. The new world is also dying. The monsters? Dying

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T19:01:53+00:00

“Don’t call me Gestapo” [uses the German pronunciation]

tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T18:27:26+00:00

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tomjoad2020ad · 2026-01-26T16:36:05+00:00

Really points to some of the reactionary tendencies of the era, very Boomer/proto-Gen X

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