There’s a special kind of superiority for evangelicals like the people who raised me. There’s the hatred of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia- those are often easy to identify at first glance or figure out quickly. They want their white Christian America, and a substantial percentage of Mormons and Catholics are white and “Christian enough” when they need voter and public support. I think Catholics and Mormons have forgotten that the people they’ve been breaking bread with are the descendants of the people who terrorized the Irish and Italian immigrants and ran the Mormons out of New York, the Missouri, and tried to run them out of Idaho. Given time they’d probably turn on each other over Lutherans vs Baptists. They don’t actually want broad white evangelical supremacy, they want themselves alone to be supreme and to be able to tread on anyone else to have their way. They’ll always find an excuse to justify their personal “betterness”, but in fact are just empowering the oligarch class who will always reap the benefits of being above the law.

I realized as I got older how much of our history, the parts they have to acknowledge, are treated like they’re a singular moment in the past, resolved, and somehow could never resurface in a different form.

The push to frame the Civil Rights or Women’s Suffrage movements as the “correct” form of how American citizens call out inequality is also sanitized to the point it becomes toothless. We’re given a version where people just gather, speak out, sometimes get beaten to a pulp/jailed/killed but so long as they remain non-violent, eventually society will feel bad and someone with the power to change things will do so.

There are times where large scale protests are beneficial because it rallies and shows the scale of opposition. Sometimes witnessing the violence of the oppressors against peaceful people shocks and horrifies. But we’re at a point where watching cops, ICE, and Proud Boys brutalize others is fetish porn for MAGAts, and mass gatherings for the sake of showing up but not networking and continuing the movement during the weeks in-between is futile. They have no reason to see us as a threat if all we do is show up for a few hours one weekend every six weeks and hold signs.

And to my fellow dissatisfied leftists, if your aversion to anything more direct is rooted in the idea that previous protests were successful because they stayed “peaceful” and took their lumps, you’re protesting the way the machine wants you to. Just enough liberty to feel like you’re standing up to oppression but not doing anything that actually challenges the oppressor.

Given the replies in here, I’m pretty sure the odds she could walk up to a random stranger, leash them without saying a word, and have 100% compliance is high.

As an American raised by evangelical nationalists, I always knew it would go down like this. There’s enough tolerance to function in day to day life but the behind closed doors contempt and downright hate, not for the theology or the scandals that come up, but the plain hate for people being different was instilled almost daily. They’d accept a kindness from a Catholic or Mormon neighbor, smile to their face, then talk shit as soon as they left. The entitlement and sense of superiority while simultaneously being victims is phenomenal. The more they realize they don’t need to rely on a broad idea of “Christianity” to further their agenda the more they’ll turn on every sect that doesn’t fit their idea of “Christianity”. I hope the Mormons are taking notes about the cost of hitching wagons with the evangelicals, cus they really hate you guys.

On the scale of malignancy, I’d say the pineapple’s desire to digest us is pretty tame compared to the attitude of most gods. At least it’s tasty while it does so.

I say “pineapple”, because unlike God, pineapples are real. Also it confuses people.

As I said, practical first, digital secondary or to enhance seems to be the secret sauce of creating something stunning. Most of the intimate shots with Rexy and the kids are practical. When she busts through the sunroof and tries to eat them… terrifyingly real because there’s a “real” thing attacking them. LOTR is real for a different reason- physical armor, cast of thousands. Compare the Rohirrim and armies of Mordor in that movie to the unified CGI mess that is the Battle of Five Armies in the Hobbit. Even using physical miniature sets for the big locations like Minas Tirith gives them weight.

Leon Czolgosz 🤘

And ask former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg what happens when you ride union support to power but then go corporate.

Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, TMNT ‘89, Lord of the Rings.

Whatever the JP franchise is now, it will never go back to full scale animatronics, and without Stan Winston’s magic, it’ll never be quite what the first (and a bit of the second) were.

Cameron himself can’t recreate the magic of T2 even if his films make billions. He never risks having to “nail this in one shot” stunts.

As for TMNT. Nobody gives a shit they’re suits, we could suspend our disbelief and watched mindblowing performances by great stuntmen in some of the most advanced animatronics ever. Michael Bay can’t even fathom how much better that is.

The Hobbit was plagued by a lot of problems, but I don’t know if even Jackson could pull off the practical effects with digital overlay magic that was the first trilogy if he tried.

That era of Hollywood, practical first, digital to enhance (sparingly) is gone it seems. It’s sad Hollywood has forgotten that that boundary pushing era was what made those films iconic. Rexy had weight, she literally tore a car apart. You can see the chaos of the semi landing in the canal. The turtles hit. The Riders of Théoden truly rode for ruin. Tell me you don’t get giddy when you know that scene is about to hit.

Drivers are rude, such attitudes, but when I show my piece complaints cease. Something’s odd… Feel like I’m God… You stupid-dumb-shit-goddamn-MOTHERFUCKER!!!

I’m up in that area as well. Yeah, it does a little too well in the region. Despite having some benefits it can become a problem so probably worth letting them know. It’s not devastatingly invasive like some plants but it’s also not native North America.

“Found an old human in the parking lot and conned it into feeding and housing me. Suck it tree dwellers.”

Hi Eel!

Also, that looks like purple dead nettle. If it is, it’s good for pollinators and edible, but also will spread like wildfire if left unchecked and choke out what you might otherwise want to grow there. I keep a patch contained but it’s a constant battle to keep it in.

I do find the mental image of a panicked boogaloo begging his holster dog to recall as it chases squirrels. One less bigot, plus you go home with a free dog and gun!

I would guess the case could be made that any motorized vehicle doesn’t operate without a human actively making the choices about what the vehicle does, whereas a horse can take direction but will still “operate” even if the rider is blackout drunk. If you’re not on the road and not “operating” the horse, I think you could attempt to argue down to public intoxication or some other nuisance charge, especially if the horse was out of traffic and could be shown to reliably get you home without causing a disturbance. I’ll be interested to see how the courts deal with DUIs when a self-driving car is involved.

Technically one could in my state, but there was a case (granted, 20+ yrs ago) where an old timer got it tossed out because despite being drunk af, he wasn’t on the road but off on the shoulder and there were enough witnesses and history to testify the horse consistently took him home without posing a danger to road safety. A lot of factors went in to that win, old timer, small town, everybody knew him, judge didn’t see him as an issue, so I wouldn’t suggest it for everybody in every situation.

I’d challenge the idea that he’d be arrested. White privledge isn’t what it used to be if you’re female, a queer male, or identifiably not a MAGAt, but violent, straight, CIS white men harassing anyone in the outgroups in the name of dear leader often gets “a talking to” at best. I watched our local cops stand shoulder to shoulder with and backs turned to a crowd of armed boogaloos and patched outlaw MC bikers to stare down our much smaller BLM group. When one of their white boys decided to pop a shot into the ground to cause a panic, he was given a pass because “accidental discharge, his safety was off and he was only 16”. Meanwhile the 16yo punk girl who drew a small (A) symbol on the statehouse was a terrorist.

Cops or not, they go out looking to insight this kind of interaction. They drape themselves in body cams or bait it in front of uniformed police so that they can make themselves out to be the victim. So knowing that, either don’t take the bait, or if you do, make them find out what it’s actually like to be a “victim”.