Old Man Rants

I've been reading how Ridley Scott is receiving some flack for the casting of Exodus as well as his response to the controversy. I read thebtskink's post above mine and the part where he says 'Everyone is a fucking forensic expert now' made me laugh not because he was trying to make a joke but because how that idea applies to everything nowadays. Go read comments and commentary on Ridley's 'controversy' and they're loaded with 'Well Ancient Egyptians weren't physically similar to Africans in the way we know now' or 'Their bloodlines had Mediterranean in them' or some garbage. Everybody is suddenly an Egyptologist now. People talk about Christmas and say 'Well it's really ripped from paganism, more specifically the celebration of the solstice and Roman Saturnalia.' People read these blurbs off the Huffington Post and now they're experts on classical history and anthropology. This applies down the line with every.single.topic.

I love reading comments sections on articles yet the more I do the more I hate myself.

I heard that Dracula shut down the Mall of America. Congrats, man.

Yeah. I'm not sure this will result in anything other than annoying people. I get that there's a movement to "create awareness" but there's a fine line between social justice and social anarchy.

I always thought the same when people would want to boycott a movie or tv show because of something one guy did. If anything, that person has millions of dollars they can fall back on while the gaffer and cameraman need to look for new jobs.

In case you needed a reminder that it's 2015 and the 21st century, a "Vine star" and an "Instagram famous" girl made a sex video. He's 19 and she's 16 and people are debating if he should be charged with statutory rape. Can you imagine being these kids parents? I do not envy Frizzo the Clown and @dukeleto . You guys are test pilots facing challenges our parents could never anticipate. I wish you two the best of luck. Seriously.

When I was 16, the only "social media" we had was LiveJournal. Yeah, people posted inappropriate things but that never went beyond the group of friends. There was no smartphones back then. Most people still had dial-up. I remember a guy made a video of him giving his girlfriend a lap dance and posted it. Do you have any idea how long it took for that video to load?

Shit used to go viral back then too. We all remember that fat Star Wars kid with the lightsaber. But those were just a handful of videos. It's very different these days because it's WAY too easy to create and distribute content. Kids need much stricter supervision.

And why is there social media stars? When MySpace came along if someone would have said that there would be MySpace fame, people would have laughed. Dane Cook and Tila Tequila were the most "popular" people we got back then. It was a joke. But now? It's very serious and should be scrutinized. There's no reason for a sex video of two teenagers to be floating around the MAINSTREAM Internet just because they're "social media famous."

NOTE: Yes, Ramplate. I'm aware it's not a simple "sex video" and there's a larger issue here. But that's a discussion for another day.

There's Google in the South. I don't think pussy troll's are gonna work anymore.

All those years at IBM paid off.

Bill Cosby, in the 1960's, starred in the action series, I Spy. At the time, there was no Black stuntmen, so white stuntmen in blackface had to double for him. Cosby objected, and for the first time in television history, a Black stuntman was hired.

Now, a documentary about black stuntmen has removed Cosby from the film.

Um... rape is bad, but you can't pretend Bill Cosby didn't exist and erase him from history. The man has done awful things but he's also done great things. Life isn't black & white. You have to accept the complexities of it.

"Black Lives Matter" is a great slogan, and their ultimate goal is certainly worthy, but I don't know if anyone really knows how to get there. Aside from maybe increasing the use of body-cams and making Internal Affairs investigations/proceedings more transparent I haven't heard much of anything in the way of actual policy proposals from that crowd. Maybe they should try actually running a candidate instead of just shouting and tweeting.

Yeah, but the Tea Party also destroyed the Republicans. When you see Donald Trump leading the polls, that's not a good thing. Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter may have their flaws but it didn't affect the Democrats or the re-election of Obama or the fact that Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders will most likely become President if the Republicans can't find someone who doesn't cater to the extremists. 

Democrats lose mid-term elections because young liberals are too stupid to know that mid-term elections are a thing.



And yet, all those things happened because the majority of the American public wants them. That's why the Republicans struggle to re-capture the White House. Their main candidates are too busy catering to the extremists. They only win mid-term elections because people don't pay attention to it.