Half way through the second series of Gangs of London and it’s even more mental than the last in terms of brutally killing every fucker in sight.
Half way through the second series of Gangs of London and it’s even more mental than the last in terms of brutally killing every fucker in sight.
Watched David Baddiel's Jews don't count and found it fascinating. Highlight was the not at all Jewish Bradley Cooper 'Jewing up' for a role in a recent film with a honking prosthetic nose.
The big nosed, exotic creature in the room is that the reason why anti-Semitism is seen as less serious than 'other forms of racism' is that Jews are seen to be white, and, consequently, anti-Semitism is more akin to saying the French are rude than making the sort of anti-black point that would see you drummed out of public life within minutes. His argument - that the relatively successful Jewish people can still be victims of racism because of historical oppression - only works if you accept that 1) white people can be victims of racism from non-white people; and 2) that historical conditions have little or no relevance to contemporary outcomes (which then requires him to answer what does). I don't think he believes either of those, so it just sounds like him pleading for extra victim points within a framework he ought to disregard, but can't because his mates might start assuming he votes UKIP.
Why does it follows he has to accept 2? (sorry it could be obvious, my brain is shot at this time of day)
If racism victim status is predominantly based in historical oppression, and the modern legacies of that oppression, then whatever explains contemporary Jewish success[es] must also explain the comparative failures experienced by other minority groups - be it culture, 'natural intelligence' (for lack of a better term), or whatever. If the explanation for the inferior life outcomes of black people is held to be institutional and/or structural racism, which it generally is by the sort of people who he is aiming his argument at, then the Jews have clearly not suffered in the same way, and, yeah, maybe anti-Semitism isn't as bad as 'other forms of racism'.
Aren't the children of African Immigrants the most likely group to go to university these days? With working class white British being the least likely.
Whatever the answer is to this stuff is - it's parenting, obviously - it isn't as simple as ethnicity, as the success of second generation African-British people is world's away from their Caribbean counterparts.
This sounds like a bad faith reading of whatever argument you are are parodying. History wasn’t one size fits all so any modern outcomes presenting would be different. People who recognize that bigotry is less a factor of so and so over there is evil than weird historical pressures should be able to make that distinction. And Baddiel is asking “if you can recognize that, why do we on the left so often not recognize anti-semitism?”Originally Posted by Lewis
Last edited by mikem; 07-12-2022 at 08:01 PM.
The Traitors is excellent, the amount of people's brains that have melted within days is quality
Parklife
How would you answer that question?
In regard to anti-semitism, specifically? People are not very analytical and don’t like questioning their priors or criticizing their friends.
Here is an example from the UK. From this Guardian editorial:
https://amp.theguardian.com/commenti...ts-2013-speech
Yesterday the Daily Mail showed footage of Corbyn addressing the conference, on the topic of British Zionists. He mentions an impassioned speech made at a meeting in parliament about the history of Palestine that was “dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience” (audience members he presumably knew nothing about). So far so bad. But it gets worse. He goes on to say that these unnamed Zionists in the audience “clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either … So I think they needed two lessons, which we can perhaps help them with.”
How do all my friends on the left read this and not see “probably all their lives” and somehow fundamentally unable to be English and not just go “umm Jeremy, what the fuck man?” You don’t have to get rid of him or say he is irredeemable, or whatever, but you have to say “that’s a fucking weird and racist statement man.” We all say dumb shit but people don’t like criticizing their friends.
Enjoying it too, they're playing with absolutely zero logic, just throwing shit at the wall.The Traitors is excellent, the amount of people's brains that have melted within days is quality
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But what are their priors and who are their friends in relation to not recognising anti-Semitism if not basically what I said - that they have blunt frameworks for what is and isn't racist, and Jews, being ostensibly white and powerful, don't fit them? I don't think there is a lack of analytical thinking being done. Quite the opposite. It takes a look more mental effort to craft an 'anti-Zionist' point about dual loyalty and the Israeli lobby than it does to call black people lazy criminals. It's just that Jews don't fit their frameworks, so it's easier to just exclude them or put them in the white and Western column than to re-think their wider worldview, which then makes them fair game for racism.
I will probably bore you all with more to back my argument up tomorrow, but baddiel is a disingenuous, dangerous idiot. I'm sure he has suffered antisemitic abuse, and obviously I sympathize, and there probably is a book and/or documentary to be made about how antisemitism gets sorta underplayed compared to other prejudices in the UK in the 21st century, but not by that idiot.
I read that it took him 20 years to apologise to Jason Lee for blacking up as him, but only apologised as promo for said programme.
Sounds like a right dickhead.
I thought it was common knowledge that he's a prick? The documentary is right that for some reason anti-Semitism is seen as a less severe form of racism (but there is a big problem with people associating pro-Palestine with anti-Semitism) but they could have picked a much more genuine person to do the documentary with. David Baddiel is the reason I haven't watched it.
There was an interview where he complained that the cast of Friday Night Dinner weren't all Jewish. Apart from Tom Rosenthal who is, but he isn't vocal enough about it so he can be disregarded. That's black footballer David Baddiel, author of Jews Don't Count.
He spent years setting up Frank Skinner for Jew jokes.
People complaining about the cast of things not being the same *insert identity category* as the characters they're playing really annoys me. Isn't the whole point of acting that you're pretending to be someone else? I would have thought it would promote understanding to inhabit the space of a different person.
Yeah, it's absolute nonsense, but the point Baddiel was making that no one cares about actors doing it with Jews yet all hell regularly breaks loose when another minority is involved.
As for anyone not liking Baddiel, I don't see that as a reason not to watch the documentary.
Why not? I already get the general gist of what the documentary is trying to get across (and I agree with it), but by not watching I don't have to see/listen to Baddiel, so win-win unless there's an unbelievable anecdote or some uncharacteristic wit in there.
Doesn't the suitability of non-Jews playing Jews depend on - for lack of a better term - how Jewish they are? Some Methodist nerd could play David Baddiel without incident, but the same person in a plasticine nose kvetching his way through a Woody Allen biopic might be an issue.
Jared Leto got to play an Italian.
That fella blacked up as an indian in Short Circuit.
And the guy who voiced Johnny 5 isn't even a robot, you couldn't make that film these days.
Ah, I think you are describing the Enlightenment thinkers like Locke and not most people. If you are writing tracks about the fundamental equality of man then you have to square the fact that you also invest in chattel slavery and write the Charter for the colony of South Carolina. Out come the calipers and the Enlightenment creates scientific racism. That group of people are engaging in what you describe as frameworks.
Most people are not engaging in thought at all because they ask no questions. They just take facts they “know” and jam them together into idiot sandwiches. They just know “Soros is a Jew”, “Soros is a banker”, “Jews like Jewish shit”, and “Israel is Jewish shit.”. Smash it all together in some bad pattern recognition and there you go. No questions like “how do 13 million people control all the newspapers, media companies, banks, and universities?” I mean, there are only about 4-5 million Jews who live outside of Israel. There simply are not enough of us to control all the shit that the majority of people just take for granted we do. No thought involved at all. Pattern recognition isn’t thought.
Now present people with something like Corbyn’s dumb statement or Kanye’s dumb shit and people just react instinctively. They are not engaging any framework they may claim. They actively don’t engage it because they get emotional about defending their friends, tribe, or whatever. If they did engage a framework it would all fall apart.
I've been thinking of having another pop at TWD. Initially dipped out halfway through S4 a few years back. Is it worth me going back to the beginning, or should I just crack on?
Did any TTHer watch it to the end (it's not still going is it?)? There was a lot of us watching at one point but I think we all gave up.
I dipped out halfway through season 8 and the only regret I have is not doing it sooner. Such a shame as it had so much promise.
I watched the first season and it wasn't for me, but for those who did like it what was it that killed it?
The main thing for me was it disappearing off to Disney+. With it on Sky I was still watching the odd episode when I could be arsed but thankfully they made the decision for me not to bother any more. I think stormtrooper lookalikes had just showed up so not sure how long ago that was but I must have held out longer than most.
Episode 24 of season 11 was aired in November apparently. Fuck me.
I watched it all. It starts off brilliantly then goes to shit around series 7-8 (when you have all The Kingdom people and the Junkyard dickheads) but then 9 and onwards are much better once Sam Morton turns up and is actually a menace. It actually ends pretty well (certainly no GoT-level tomfoolery).
There's a bunch of unfulfilled plot ideas that go nowhere and could have easily been the main thing (like where this all started and why), but it focusses mostly on the characters, of which there are some excellent ones. Ok, mostly Daryl
Has it finished?
I gave up when Negan (?) was torturing everyone. Nearly gave up when the Asian guy magically wasn't eaten when he was hiding in a bin.
Did Heath ever show back up? He just went away one day and was never mentioned again
Heath got kidnapped and traded by the Junkyard knobheads apparently, but I don't even remember him
Any fans of Dark? Binged S1 in the last few days. What an absolute mind fuck.
Just started to rewatch it but the dodgy box version I have is only English dubbed which is really annoying.
Dark is brilliant, but I had to keep a notepad of who was who whenever I was watching it.
I watched season 1. They created a great, tense atmosphere, but the ending leading into season 2 seemed like a load of nonsense, so I stopped watching right there.
I watched season one and loved it and by the time season two came around had forgotten almost completely the various intricacies of what the fuck was going on. I remember thinking at the time "I need to come back to this when it's completely done and just watch the whole thing ". But then have not thought about it again until right now. So I guess that is now on the agenda.
Has anyone watched orphan black? It's highly rated but been pretty questionable so far.
I thought it was pretty great. She's a terrific actress. It's trash but good trash.
Glad to see it wasn't just me in this boat.
Think season 2 had been out for ages before I realised, took long enough I think.
I liked it with Tatiana Maslany being brilliant but I stopped watching in season 3 I believe.
I really should pick it back up.
Just finished Bad Sisters. It's so good.
Just finished bingeing The Recruit on Netflix - loved it, like a less serious Homeland crossed with Bourne.
I've watched one episode of Peacemaker and I'll give it this: that's an unexpectedly great opening credits sequence.
It might be one of my favourite opening credits ever.
I loved Peacemaker, it's great.
Apparently Gunn said they wanted to make a credits scene no-one ever skipped.
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