Okay. Here are some excerpts from the New Discourses Translations from the Wokish of Critical Consciousness:

Critical consciousness is, in short, having adopted a critical mindset, in the sense of critical theories. It is to have taken on a worldview that sees society in terms of systems of power, privilege, dominance, oppression, and marginalization, and that has taken up an intention to become an activist against these problematics. To have developed a critical consciousness is to have become aware, in light of this worldview, that you are either oppressed or an oppressor--or, at least, complicit in oppression as a result of your socialization into an oppressive system. To have a critical consciousness is to be aware of - - and generally unhappy about - - your positionality in society, i.e., your relationship to systemic and institutional power as determined by Theory and based mostly on facts concerning what demographic groups you are a part of.

The term originated in the Portuguese . . from the post-Marxist Brazilian activist and educator Paulo Freire, usually deemed the father of critical pedagogy (that is, the application of critical theories to the theory of education). This Freire seems to have derived from the French psychoanalyst Frantz Fanon's concept of conscienciser in his early anti-colonialism book, Black Skin, White Masks. The "consciousness" that Fanon discussed mostly applies to the racial consciousness and consciousness of the colonized that would make people oppressed within colonial contexts seek to rebel and overthrow their oppressors. Freire, working mostly to achieve improvements in literacy in a postcolonial setting in Brazil while approaching the topic from a communist perspective, considered critical consciousness in a similar light, though less openly revolutionary than Fanon and more interested in reform.

This Freire guy seems to be EVERYWHERE in schools of education. Time to get kids out of government schools?

The grievance studies folks were not finished:

Critical theories, not least in education, have evolved considerably since the 1960s and 1970s when Freire developed these ideas, and, now, critical consciousness is typically reserved to mean the same kind of critical awareness or awakening, though with regard to issues of identity--like racism, sexism, and so on (see also, neo-Marxist)--and not so much through Marxist or Marxian analysis of economics or the systems that exist and/or support capitalism. (See: The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories by Isaac Gottesman.) In that sense, a critical consciousness, sometimes referred to as "critical literacy" or "social justice literacy" now (see examples below), refers essentially to assuming that society is constructed by systems of power that manifest dominance and oppression mostly in terms of "intersecting" demographic group identities. The slang term for this specific type of critical consciousness, arising since the Black Lives Matter movement propelled it to a widespread meme, is "wokeness."

Example:

AOC demonstrates how having critical consciousness impacts views on parents' rights. Everything critical consciousness opposes is "fascism." https://t.co/8YtCMmxctL

— James Lindsay, crying more (@ConceptualJames) March 24, 2023

Treating The Woke like hysterical women, redux

Do you remember this from troublemaker James Lindsay?

The Woke ideology is female. You can't respond to it with toxic masculine strength. That's punching a woman in the face. . . That's not how you deal with a hysterical woman; that's for an aggressive man.

Woke advances by summoning demons that barely exist so it can defeat them. . . It can be sidestepped with strength, tho.

What's happening in Nebraska?

Here's a challenging idea. Do you have any related ones?

procedural democracy selects & rewards & requires cluster-B, & instills it where it doesn't already exist

women like this are the natural apex predators of procedural democracy, they cannot be unseated within its rules https://t.co/CMGXO70Mrh

— Bennett's Phylactery (@extradeadjcb) March 25, 2023

Text

Cluster B personality disorders

I expect that "Histrionic" and "Narcissistic" might be especially relevant.

Some comments from down-thread:

Trump understands the power of being obnoxious, which is why he disgusts & horrifies liberals

but a coalition of psychologically healthy people will never operationalize that on the ground level the way genuinely mentally ill people can

we will never beat them at this game

This is why The Constitution specifies a minimum age to be President. Otherwise my 3 year old would be unstoppable

this lady really wants to cut off your sons balls pic.twitter.com/HXEdQ87ZTb

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) March 22, 2023

Apparently the State Senator has an 11 year old child who identifies as transgender. Perhaps it does not occur to her that current treatments for children actually harm them. Even though medical authorities in Europe are turning against them.

New Discourses, Genocide:

In the Theory and activism of Critical Social Justice, "genocide" frequently refers to the destruction by any means at all of a (politically relevant) identity group, especially a politically relevant identity group that can be understood as being marginalized, minoritized, or oppressed by systemic power, presently or historically. This destruction need involve zero deaths and could be the result of people no longer seeing themselves as a politicized identity or being removed from the circumstances in which that identity is relevant (e.g., by curing a condition like hearing loss).

This is difficult to understand, and one's mind may, at this point, immediately jump to an identity category like race and think that only a literal genocide could possibly qualify for the kind of destruction necessary to merit this use of the term. This is incorrect. As races, being socially constructed, are not seen in Theory as having any relationship to biology or, for that matter, physical reality, and are instead seen as political categories, one could "genocide" a race, in Theory, like blacks, simply by declaring race to be irrelevant. [1] (A savvy reader here will realize, then, that the elimination of racism through anything that looks like integrationist strategies or genuine colorblindness might be construed as a genocide and thus vigorously rejected and resisted, including with violence, by advocates of Critical Social Justice.) This is generally in keeping with the view in Critical Social Justice that identity groups and their cultures, not individuals, are the relevant object of interest, and those groups and cultures are inherently political (see also, identity).

In other words, if kids who "identify as trans" don't go on puberty blockers and decide later that they aren't trans (like Brangelina's lovely daughter), that's genocide. At the link, "genocide" of fat people through weight loss is described in "fat studies". GAINZZZ is genocide!

Critical Social Justice Genocide in International News

Waiting for action on actual genocide in the more powerful countries of the Middle East any day now.

Watch all of the “anti-colonialists” at the WaPo & NYT demand that the West use its political & economic power to make African *Christian nationalist* countries like Kenya & Uganda bend the knee to ‘Pride’. Narratives are about to get seriously scrambled.pic.twitter.com/jLxcMRdq09

— Delano Squires (@DelanoSquires) March 22, 2023

Free people from critical consciousness:

Critical Consciousness (Woke Ideology) causes mental illness. It also exploits mental illness. It's a psychiatric snake eating its own tail. https://t.co/CIMdL5eDuV

— James Lindsay, crying more (@ConceptualJames) March 19, 2023

Music

Some of the Streets of Bakersfield are flooded or closed due to recent flooding right now.

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, March 18, Medical Myth-teries

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List

Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.

Prayer Requests:

2/24 – Legally Sufficient asked for the Horde’s prayers as she undergoes total knee replacement surgery on 2/27. She asks for strength and continued faith. She also asked for prayers for her husband, and asks that God would provide him with strength and patience as he helps nurse her through this.
3/16 Update: Surgery went very well and there is very good progress in healing and movement. She sends her heartfelt thanks to the Horde for their prayers on their behalf. She and her husband felt lifted in prayer during those moments when they needed support the most. Her husband was an excellent partner in healing, who now looks forward to spring fishing (when and if spring ever comes)!

2/25 – J asked for prayers for a new trap-shooting club that is starting. He asks that it is successful for all the adults and children involved and doesn’t get attention outside of their pro-hunting community (if you know what I mean).

2/25 – Dr_No sends an update and thanks for the prayers for healing for his daughter Megan. We had prayed for her when she was going through chemotherapy for colon cancer 2 years ago. She just tested again, and is still cancer-free! He prays for blessings and healing for those still dealing with illness and loss.

2/25 – Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd sends prayers of thanks for his daughter’s turnaround. She had become alienated from her parents and from God, and now has come back more toward faith and is more kind and concerned toward them. This has also helped his wife’s faith, too, which has been struggling due to these troubles with their daughter.

3/1 – Inogame asked for prayers. He had come to the Horde after his wife miscarried 2 years ago, and appreciated our prayers and kindness. They were blessed with a little girl later that year. Now they are in the same situation. They have lost another baby and need prayers against the sorrow and depression.

3/7 - Pookysgirl sends a prayer of thanks that Pooky has been approved for SSDI benefits, and designated as 100% disabled by the VA, which doubles his monthly benefits. This means they are not in such a desperate financial situation, and it marks the end of a two+ year battle with bureaucracy.

3/11 – Jasonj asked for prayers for Barbara, his wife, to be added to the list. She had back surgery recently, and is healing well, but has a long road ahead. Also please add Alex, his son, who is a quadriplegic with a serious addiction to pain meds.

3/11 – Free Tibet asked for prayers for his friend JR, who is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer (neuroendocrine version). Thanks to the Horde for everything.

3/15 – Fenelon Spoke asks for prayers for the church she servers – that if it’s God’s will that their financial problems might be resolved through one of several options, so they can continue to be open to the Glory of God, the lifting up of Jesus Christ, and the support of the church community, some of whom have attended there for decades. She thanks the people who have prayed. She also asks for prayers for FenSon, who is having interviews for a college summer internship on 3/21. Prayers that he does his best and that someone would be open to his skills and interests. And prayers are still appreciated for Jessie, their dear church organist, for complete healing.
3/23 Update: There is hope that an organization may buy some of the church’s land, which would help their financial problems. Please keep praying for God’s will do be done in that situation. Also, Jessie is doing better. She hopes to be able to play some for Easter. Prayers are also needed for Ray, who broke his hip and is in rehab.

3/15 – NJ asked for prayers for his wife Christina. She had surgery in December which resulted in CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) in her right foot. The pain is interfering with her daily activities and preventing her from sleeping properly.

3/15 – Half Dozen asked for prayers from the Horde. One of her adult sons was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They are still evaluating him to decide next steps. It will probably involve brain surgery.
3/19 Update: Her son is in the hospital, and scheduled for surgery to remove the tumor that is at the point where the spinal cord connects into the brain. They have determined that the tumor has not spread to other areas of his body. Thanks for the prayers and friendship.

3/15 – Tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief asked for prayers for DH, who goes under the knife on Friday to remove an old stim from his spinal column. This will allow him to have an MRI, to figure out what to do about his 3 collapsed disks. Prayers, but optimistic prayers at this point.

3/16 – Cybersmythe continues to request prayers for his friend D.C., an occasional reader of the AoSHQ, who is in the hospital after having a stroke and some other health issues.

3/18 – Megthered asks that the Horde would keep her and her family in our thoughts and prayers. Her husband has to have open heart aortic valve replacement and her daughter has been diagnosed with lymphoma. They are being treated at Ohio State University and the family has rallied around them.

3/18 – gp asks for prayers for Al, who is homebound, needy, and lonely. He also asks for prayers for Brian, who is afflicted by the horrible maladies of old age.

3/20 – Ladyl asked for prayers for her son, who was hospitalized for a serious infection that happened after a minor injury.

3/22 – Sal asked for prayers for her- sister’s ex, who became very ill while away from home (at his daughter’s destination wedding). He is in ICU with sepsis and kidney function problems.

For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.

Romans 8:26-27
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Rules? Oh yeah, we have rules............

1) Opine and/or bloviate to your heart's content in this open thread.
2) Be kind to one another.
3) Running with sharp objects is frowned upon.
4) Have a fun filled weekend.

Tech News

• ChatGPT can write code - so long as it has seen the code before. (Twitter)
  
  It scored 10/10 solving problems it had been trained on, and 0/10 solving problems it had not.
  
  What's more, just as it does when asked for references to support its claims, ChatGPT will hallucinate when writing code and use APIs that do not actually exist.
  
  Which is rather like charging a customer $500 for replacing their blinker fluid.
  
  
  
• Big socket is big. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I've mentioned many times the capabilities of the latest server CPUs - over 100 cores, a gigabyte or even tens of gigabytes of cache, a dozen memory channels per socket, and so on.
  
  Something I haven't mentioned so often is that these chips are huge.
  
  
  
• Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and the man behind Moore's Law, has passed away at 94. (AnandTech)
  
  He retired in 1997 so he hasn't been active in the industry in a long time, but his contributions were huge.
  
  
  
• How dare you refer to the Chinese Communist Party as "communist"? That's racist! (The Verge)
  
  Sure, Congress is - as P. J. O'Rourke noted - a parliament of whores, but the CCP is communist and TikTok is a tool of the Chinese state, which is to say, a machine of a genocidal communist dictatorship.
  
  
  
  

This is a completely natural human reaction, and it's funny as hell

I don't need an investigation to know what happened: They're cowards

By the power vested in cocaine bear, I now pronounce you man and wife

15th century sleep timer

I just....can't

The smart kids speak up

Fido Friday: I'll save you...nooooooooo!

I don't think it's weird. I think it's great

Caliber chart

Applied robotics

Tonight's quiz

Give yourself 1 point for each food you absolutely will not eat.

My score is 0. There are a few things on there that I'm not super fond of, but nothing I absolutely won't eat

He's got a point

Wholesome content

The more I think about this, the less I can refute it

A small bit of tomfoolery

This makes me giggle

One of my friends is trying to trick me into killing his wife

Raise your hand if this has happened to you

Craftsmanship

Dapper

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Dads:

Is this real? If so, wow. If not, great CGI!

Minneapolis stopped building roads and poured money into trains, attempting to force drivers to take the train.

The trains have never been used much, but 20 years after being built the light rail is a cesspool. Literally: homeless people regularly pee and take dumps on the trains.

Leftists always wonder why Americans won't support public transportation or public pools like they do in Europe. Well, this is why: We know these things are not being built for the use of the taxpayers. We know every leftist "public" project isn't built for the public, but for the homeless drug addicts and criminals.

The Regime is worried that Bidenflation combined with inflation-fighting will crash the banks and steal their ill-gotten millions away. What else can account for Elizabeth Warren the Socialist Squaw calling for the government to backstop the deposits of millionaires?

That's all I have.

Tell me about yo' GAINZZZ -- and PLANZZZ, and PROJEXXX.

First day in the gym.

A parody of those annoying "A Full Day of Eating" videos.

Making Micky D's fit your macros.

It's an extremely goofy movie. The Tolkein movies attempted to portray a realistic world-- there is magic and there are fairy-tale races like Elves and Dwarves, but the books and movies are present all this in a plausible enough way that it feels real-ish.

That's not Dungeons & Dragons. The game is anything-goes, kitchen-sink homage -- or rip-off -- of Conan stories, John Carter Barsoom stories, Tolkein's mythology (the Tolkein estate threatened legal action), science fiction, Kung Fu movies, and whatever else interested the game's players in the 1970s, whether it fit in or was plausible or not. The movie apes the game's "It's just a game, don't think about it much" ethos and presents a world which is, essentially, the modern world with modern technology and modern modes of thinking and speaking, but the buildings are made of stone and roofs are made of sod or thatch so you know you're in "the mythic past."

Shakespeare's plays are sometimes done in modern dress, so they're ancient, medieval, or Renaissance stories but in modern day clothes. This is the opposite -- it's a thoroughly modern world, except people dress up like they're going to a Ren Faire (with a loose dress code that permits anachronisms). In one heist, each member of the team has magic "sending stones" allowing them to talk and hear their other team members at a distance. In other words, they're cell phones except they're rocks, and the team members just hold the rocks up to their faces and talk like they're teenagers at the mall.

"Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," and likewise, sufficiently plentiful magic is indistinguishable from technology.

At no point will you feel "transported to another world."

It's all very dumb and dopey but it's also good-natured. It's eager to please, and that's a rare thing nowadays. And, as one review said, "Chris Pine is the most Chris Pine in this movie than in any Chris Pine movie in recent memory." He's great, and I think that this kind of performance will make him a lot of money going forward. He's in Steve Trevor mode here, only sillier.

True to the spirit of the game, the movie rips off everything and just paints it with a light coating of "Dungeons and Dragons IP." The plot is lifted right from Guardians of the Galaxy -- a team of misfits and losers is assembled by a charismatic-but-flawed hero who still grieves the death of someone he loved. The movie even steals the "We're all losers, we've all lost" speech that Chris Pratt gives in that movie, and at about the same time in the film's running length. For a second they disguise it by having Chris Pine talk about being "failures" rather than "losers," but then nope, he starts talking about losing everything, just like Starlord did.

Oh, and it takes even more from Guardians of the Galaxy, introducing a warrior who does not understand idioms or irony. And there's a... special surprise I won't reveal connecting it still closer to Guardians of the Galaxy.

The goofy, half-winking tone and the colorful, completely-unconvincing sets and backgrounds are lifted right from Thor: Ragnarok. Including using Led Zeppelin in the trailer. I think Ragnarok used "The Immigrant Song," this uses "Whole Lotta Love."

Much like Thor: Ragnarok, this movie is just a comedy containing some action. It's not an action-comedy, just a comedy with some fighting. The comedy is too silly for there to be much concern about the effects of violence on a human's body.
The action is fun and it's all fast-paced, but you're not going to feel much in the way of suspense or thrills.

There's a magic implement that duplicates a beloved piece of technology from a beloved video game. It's a straight rip-off.

Just everything in this is pretty much stolen from something else, and it doesn't really matter, because Chris Pine is so funny in the lead as the Jim Rockford-style guy who gets by on charm and tries to avoid fighting. He's not a coward, exactly, he just knows his talents lay somewhere other than getting hit in the face.

Hugh Grant is also very funny, and at his Hugh-Grantiest, as the sleazy but charming conman "Forge." As in a superhero movie, he's Chris Pine's dark reflection. Chris Pine's character fell to thieving due to a moral lapse; Hugh Grant's character had no morals at all to lapse. One part of his character is wondering, and hoping, that somewhere inside of him is a good man. Spoiler: There's really not.

If you actually have played D&D, there's just reference upon reference and fan service upon fan service.

The movie name-drops or features a lot of stuff from the rulebooks -- particular spells, particular major personages -- and a lot of names from the Forgotten Realm settings, including all the places they made videogames about. It features a lot of the D&D "intellectual property" monsters, the weird gamey monsters the game made up (or from A.E. Van Vogt), rather than creatures from folklore or fantasy lore.

The movie takes the sensible position that you've already seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and there's no way this movie is going to beat Lord of the Rings, so they're not going to go classic, they're going to go weird.

The typical fantasy races of elves, dwarves, and halflings are only present in the background. One of the main characters is a half-elf; and he's half-black, so, twist. (His lineage is black on the human side.)

The main characters are not the typical Thief, Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, but Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer. Yeah for non-players it's pretty much just Thief, Fighter, Cleric, and Magic-User, but they're leaning into the stuff that makes D&D Legally Distinct from Tolkein.

The reference I got the most excited about comes near the end of Act 2. The heroes are forced to fight for their lives, and we quickly see another two groups of heroes in a similar position. One of those two groups will be highly recognizable to anyone who grew up geek in the 80s.

But you have to be sharp eyed, because they're shown very quickly. Spoiler-- don't click on this if you want to be surprised during the movie. But if you're curious, here is that other group of adventurers.

I mean, it's exact. (I never even watched that, but I've seen their likenesses.)

Given that that group was a big D&D inside joke, I'm wondering who the other group was. One of them was a dwarf. Maybe they're characters from the D&D videogames? I dunno, I never played those.

Anyway, a surprisingly fun and even competent movie. It succeeds at doing the things it sets out to do.

I would recommend it...

except for all the reasons I would hold back that recommendation:

Hasbro, the corporation that owns Dungeons and Dragons and is getting a fee for this movie and counting on this movie to expand the brand, is woke and leftwing. Hasbro even gets a production credit through E-One entertainment, which is a Hasbro company.

They're making money off it, and they don't deserve to. Over the past five or seven years they've embraced every single woke demand that lunatic activists on Twitter have demanded of them, including filling their quasi-Medieval game with gay and transgender characters, including specifications as to their preferred pronouns.

Woke Twitter activists told them that "orcs shouldn't be evil, no race is evil, to even suggest that is racist!" so now all the traditional enemy races in the game aren't evil, but range from good to neutral to evil, and are really just misunderstood and maybe victimized by evil humans and their human-like kin.

Twitter activists also told them to get rid of racial adjustments -- like, that halflings take a -2 to strength because they're the size of children -- so now every race can do everything, and halflings can be as strong as Conan, because it would be racist to suggest that some fantasy races have any traits that differentiate them from any other race.

Crap like that. And if you complain about it, well, you're a troglodyte. But don't worry, troglodytes aren't evil any more, and they're also not stupid. Don't make any assumptions about troglodytes, Bigot.

#DoBetter, bigot. #DoBetter.

Another reason you might not want to patronize Hasbro is that, despite posing as progressive leftwingers who really care about social justice, Get This, Hasbro are actually a greedy soulless corporation filled with virtue-signalling shit-libs who want to shake the public down for every red cent in their pockets.

I know, unbelievable, right?

They just tried to screw a large section of their player base because they felt that the game was "undermonetized," and were bothered that once you bought the rulebooks you just owned them and were no longer sending money to Hasbro.

They are trying to create a recurring-payment model for the game, where you keep paying them every month -- for a "virtual tabletop" service -- as some videogames do.

They also attempted to claw back their "Open Game License," which allows third parties to make adventures and rules supplements for the game without worrying about being sued for doing so. The OGL itself says that it's irrevocable; but Hasbro decided, well, we'll revoke it anyway, and replace it with a new OGL that gives us a cut out of sales for projects that make a lot of money. They saw people making a lot of money on Kickstarter for new adventures or monster books, and decided they would like some money now, please and thank you.

They also gave themselves the right to cancel anyone's project, if they, in their corporate wisdom, decided your project was bad for the image they were projecting. If you wrote a supplement in which there were no "preferred pronouns," maybe they'd send you a cease-and-desist. Who knows. Their power to terminate was without limits.

They also wrote up a new term in their open license which said that they could steal any content you yourself wrote. If you created a new type of giant, the new license gave them the right to just take it and add it to their own products without compensation. Now this last one was probably just put in for the same reasons movie studios make you sign a disclaimer saying you have no rights to sue them if they steal your script. They don't really want to steal your script (usually); but they don't want to be sued if they produce a script which has some similarities to yours. So they just make you sign over any right you have to sue for plagiarism.

I think the "we can steal your stuff" thing is just to avoid legal hassles if they independently came up with new giant like the new giant you made up. They want to just say, "you can't sue, we already own it, check the license."

But still.

By the way, in case you're thinking "They own the game, they can set whatever restrictions in their license that they like," well, the first OGL stated that it could not be replaced by a more restrictive one, because any user could opt into the terms of the first, very generous OGL. They said they could not do what they were now trying to do, to force you into an ungenerous license.

Also bear in mind, what can they sue for, exactly? It's established law that you can't sue for game rules, just the particularized expression of those game rules. You can't plagiarize their actual writing -- but you can steal game concepts and mechanics and the law says that's not stealing.

The OGL basically said that they wouldn't sue people for just using their rules to create compatible products, but in fact, this is barely even a concession: They probably couldn't sue for just making a compatible product. Or, they could sue, but they probably wouldn't win. The main legal threat here was just to file a suit which they couldn't win, but which would cost you money to fight.

D&D players rebelled against this corporate crap and began abandoning the game for alternatives and, in fact, threatening to boycott the Dungeons and Dragons movie itself, which really seemed to alarm Hasbro. Or it alarmed the studio, maybe, who then put the squeeze on Hasbro to stop f***ing everything up.

Hasbro did retract their plans to change the license, so everything is, allegedly, better now.

But they only relented under duress. When they thought they could just roll right over people, they were prepared to do just that.

I don't know. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Finally, in one of the worst own-goals I've ever seen from a team of Hollywood creatives, the directors decided to announce that their favorite part of the movie is how they "emasculate" the male leads.

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Directors Admit To "Emasculating" Film's Male Leads, Claims This Was Done "Not For Woke Reasons" But "Because It's Funny And Fun And Fresh"

Spencer Baculi
March 7, 2023

In this climate, with the male audience just sick to death of constant attacks from woke Hollywood, they announce that the main selling point of their movie is emasculating male characters?

Doing their part to continue one of the most uninspired entertainment in recent years, the directing duo of Johnathan Goldstein and Jon Daley have admitted their their upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves emasculates its male leads -- though they claim this was not done for "woke reasons", but because they thought the idea was "funny and fun and fresh".

Goldstein and Daley, perhaps best known as the screenwriters behind the titular web-slinger's first official MCU outing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, revealed their less-than-flattering approach to their film's male character during a recent interview with Variety's Adam B. Vary.

Following brief discussions regarding their own personal histories with the original game and their ostensibly-respectful-but-ultimately-cynical feelings towards working with established IPs, the pair were eventually met with an observation from Vary that "the lead female characters -- Michelle Rodriguez's Holga and Sophia Lillis' Doric -- are at the forefront of the action scenes, and the men are often hanging back."
Sophia Lillis plays Doric in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

"That was not an attempt at wokeness on our part," defended Goldstein in turn.

"Swear to God, it wasn't," Daley backed up his creative partner. "We liked that Holga is the bruiser that does the dirty work for Edgin, and he doesn't like to get his hands dirty. We also love emasculating leading men. "

"Just because it's funny and fun and fresh," said the former Bones star. "It was the dynamic we had with Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman's characters in [our previous co-directorial outing] Game Night."

Emasculating male characters is not "funny," and it's certainly not "fresh;" it's done in almost every single movie directed at a majority-male audience nowadays.

But here's why this is an own-goal: They don't really emasculate the male characters. They're accusing their movie of a woke provocation that it's actually not guilty of.

As I mentioned, the Chris Pine character is like Jim Rockford. Or Brett Maverick. Or the sheriff in Support Your Local Sheriff. Or any James Garner role not set in World War II. He's the charming guy who doesn't want to fight. He can fight -- a little -- but he'd prefer accomplishing things by wit or charisma.

This doesn't make him "emasculated." Yes, the Holga the Barbarian character played by Michelle Rodriguez is incredibly strong and gifted at fighting. I mean, she's a 120 pound woman in a male-targeted action movie; of course she can take out 220 pound stuntmen with ease. How could it be otherwise? Everyone knows how much more physically gifted women are then men, as all the women now losing to men in athletic competitions prove.

But that's just a stupid current year trope. I didn't really see this as "emasculating" him. He was the brains, she was the brawn. Both had their specialty. I'd say he was "emasculating" him if she disrespected him, talked down to him, insulted him, or if she proved that Girls Are Just Better Than Boys by also being better at his specialty, planning and leading, than he is.

But none of that happened. They're platonic best friends. They both respect what the other brings to the table. And Pine's character, while not really good at fighting except for what the game would call "sneak attacks," is actually good at planning. He's not shown as some buffoon. He's not an ineffectual man who has to be saved by smarter, more capable women.

All of his plans either work, or almost work, and fail just because you can't plan for every unexpected event. He's competent, in his particular niche.

The other male character who gets "emasculated" is the half-elven sorcerer who "has no confidence." The girl he likes, the Druid, doesn't like him back because he lacks confidence, and his lack of confidence makes him incompetent at magic.

Guess what his character arc is. I mean, is it "emasculating" to go through a character arc?

Anyway, it is true that the girls are the main combat strength of the group throughout most of the movie -- the Druid girl beats up things not in her human form, by shapeshifting into big dangerous animals -- but, despite this, it kinda made sense in context. It didn't feel that woke.

At least, not by current year standards.

Like I said, if Chris Pine's character were put down a lot and if his plans kept failing -- if he was just another worthless man (spit) that women don't need like fish don't need bicycles -- I'd say that's emasculating.

But he's not. He's the star of the movie and critical for the team's success.

Yes, the Druid does question his plan-making abilities:

But she just met him. She doesn't know that he's got a 16 Intelligence. (And a Wisdom of 8.)

It's just bizarre that the directors attempted to paint a movie which isn't really that bad as far as male characters as the typical woke piece-of-sh**.

So I don't know what the hell to tell you. On one hand, I had a great time watching it, and chuckled throughout.

On the other hand, Hasbro is a woke asshole corporation and the directors of the movie are selling it as woke.

Now here's a bit of wokeness you probably won't even notice:

The bad guy organization in this is called "The Red Wizards of Thay." They being a country.

But remember what I said? That lunatic Twitter activists have demanded that no race be evil?

Well, they couldn't let you think that all Thayans are bad so halfway through the movie they add a new character who is morally pure and upright Paladin, who is good at everything (better than the main characters, in fact) and who is Thayan.

Just so you don't think that all members of this fantasy country are bad.

It's weird, he's not a member of the main four characters, but shows up for an extended sequence in which he almost becomes the star, and then, once you learn your lesson (along with Chris Pine's character) not to hate all members of this fictitious country Thay, he just peaces out and is out of the movie.

The actor also appears to be Middle Eastern and speaks with a pseud-Arabic accent.

Are we being lectured about Islamophobia in a movie that takes place in another universe?

It's not a bad part of the movie, but it's... weird. What other movie introduces what seems like a Main Character Hero halfway through and then has him leave just before the climax?

Just to teach you not to be bigots towards Thay. Hashtag #ThayDidNothingWrong.

So you tell me. What the heck recommendation am I supposed to give?

The movie isn't really woke, but the corporation and the directors behind it are.

Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread.

Battery packs can cost tens of thousands of dollars and represent up to 50% of an EV's price tag, often making it uneconomical to replace them.

In Teslas, the problem isn’t just the exorbitant cost to replace a battery, it’s also due to the structure of the car.

The new, large 4680 cells in the Model Y made at Tesla's Austin, Texas, plant, are glued into a pack that forms part of the car's structure and cannot be easily removed or replaced, experts said.

Sending low-mileage EVs to the junk yard after a minor fender bender doesn’t sound very green, does it, considering all the energy and rare earth minerals that go into assembling one EV.

Lauterwasser [of Allianz Center for Technology] noted EV battery production emits far more CO2 than fossil-fuel models, meaning EVs must be driven for thousands of miles before they offset those extra emissions.

"If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you've lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions," he said.

Total losses also tend to have an unfavorable impact on your future auto insurance rate.

I get some criticism for being so persistently negative about EVs, so a little credit where credit is due. Electric vehicles are pranksters, and they can play funny gags on their drivers. As a British radio DJ found out, EVs will sometimes lock you in your own car! That’s hilarious, and you certainly don’t see gas-powered cars pulling that prank.

DJ Scott Mills Misses Holiday After Getting Locked in Car for Five Hours [The Independent – 02/28/2023]

Scott Mills has revealed that he had to cancel a holiday after being locked in his electric car for five hours. The BBC Radio 2 DJ shared the unfortunate anecdote with listeners during Monday’s instalment of his radio show.

Mills had set off on Friday, with his fiancé, Sam Vaughan, intending to spend the weekend together in Amsterdam.
However, a flat car battery meant that Mills and Vaughan were stuck inside his car near the BBC’s Wogan House studios.

“Get in the car. Car doesn’t start. In fact, nothing works. I go to get out of the car. I can’t get out. Sam tries his door. Nothing. Also cannot leave the car.”

According to Mills, he had charged the car’s main battery beforehand, but had allowed a secondary battery to run empty.

I thought spontaneous, un-extinguishable EV battery fires were terrifying enough before I read this story. God forbid your EV locks you inside it when it catches fire.

Speaking of EV battery fires…

Ford F-150 Lightning Production Halt Was Triggered By Vehicle Battery Fire [CNBC – 02/15/2023]

Ford Motor expects production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup to be down through at least the end of next week to address a potential battery issue that resulted in a vehicle fire on Feb. 4, the automaker said Wednesday.

The confirmation of the fire and updated timing comes a day after Ford confirmed production of the highly watched vehicle had been suspended at the beginning of last week.

Ford finally resumed production of the F150 Conflagration Lightning in mid-March.

So how is Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s EV boondoggle coming along? As you’ll recall, he got seduced by EV startup company Rivian into promising $1.5 billion in taxpayer funded incentives for a plant in Georgia.

The good news is that Rivian is doing so poorly that the proposed plant will likely never come to pass. In 2022 Rivian formed an alliance with Mercedes that fell apart in just three months. Most famously, Rivian announced that it would be providing 100,000 electric vans to Amazon. Now it wants out of that exclusive agreement. Why would it want out? It would appear that Amazon doesn’t want all those electric vans.

Rivian Wants Out of Exclusive Amazon Electric Van Deal [The Drive – 3/13/2023]

An exclusive agreement between Amazon and Rivian for 100,000 electric delivery vans is reportedly on its way to being scrapped. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Rivian is negotiating its way out of the deal after Amazon asked for only 10,000 electric vans this year

OK, so Rivian’s partnerships with other companies keep falling apart. But how is it doing financially?

Oh.

Rivian’s $6.4 Billion Cash Burn Might Be a Record for Startups [Wall Street Journal – 3/01/2023]

Rivian electric trucks don’t burn gas, but they sure do burn cash.

Free cash flow for 2022 ended up at a negative $6.4 billion, according to results posted late Tuesday, as Rivian lost money on each car it sold while also investing for the future.

A business that loses money on every unit sold doesn’t sound like it has a viable business plan to me, but then again, I’m no Brian Kemp.

Rivian Stuns Investors With Very Bad News [The Street – 03/07/2023]

The fear of many investors regarding Rivian is becoming a reality.

What is that fear? It’s the fear that stockholders will see their investments evaporate as the company has to keep raising more capital to outrun the cash burn the company is going through.

At the rate at which Rivian was burning cash, the question arises whether the firm will have to raise additional capital to finance its operations and expansion by the end of the year as the automaker is building a second plant in Eastern Georgia and plans to start production of a smaller, more affordable vehicle, the R2 series, in 2026.

But consumers are buying Rivians, right?

CEO RJ Scaringe was not reassuring when he admitted that the company, which manufactures the R1S SUV, the R1T pickup truck and the EDV van at its Normal, Ill., plant, may have a demand problem.

“Demand problem.” Heh.

For those who have bought Rivians, how are they doing?

Rivian Addresses Battery Issue Stranding Drivers [Teslarati – 3/22/2023]

Rivian has released an announcement regarding a battery issue that is leaving drivers stranded.

The problem was initially reported by owners on Reddit, with some being stranded by their trucks in less-than-ideal locations. Rivian announced its plan to address the issue in a Reddit post on the company’s subreddit.

I have little expectation that Rivian will still be around a decade from now. I’m most curious if there will be a big empty building in the Georgia countryside standing as a reminder of Brian Kemp’s great taxpayer fleecing, or whether Rivian will have gone under before ground is even broken.

Songs of the Season

The first day of Spring was earlier this week…and the temperature dropped down into the low 20s at my Tennessee home that day. Oh well, it looks like things are about to warm up.

To celebrate the arrival of Spring, here is a beautiful arrangement of the first movement of Vivaldi’s “Spring” as performed by the Classical Concert Chamber Orchestra.

Have a great weekend.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]