6 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

This is a very strange take. People have freedom which means they also have the right to not be associated with certain companies or individuals.

Considering that Spotify paid him crazy money and thus he constitutes a serious investment for them, they aren't going to boot Rogan off their platform.

Or it would take an artist of the current stature of Taylor Swift to threaten to pull her content. Which isn't going to happen.

But I don't see the issue if some people don't want to share a platform with Rogan.

 

A lot of the people who supposedly love freedom of expression are of the "freedom for me, not for thee" persuasion.

Rogan broadcasting anti-vax messages and Young & Mitchell not wanting to be associated with Spotify any more because of it are two expressions of an opinion. But apparently only one of those is allowed by the freedom of speech champions.

 

There's a big difference.

 

Bret says that Young is wrong (he doesn't want to censor him). Young says he wants to censor Rogan.

 

You're a smart guy, I'm sure you see the difference. The thing is that this left/right narrative destroys nuance and it makes people want to attack those they perceive as "the others".

 

Note that I mostly don't care about Rogan, you can criticize him if you want. I rarely watch his podcasts, except when I see scholars I appreciate, likee Jon Haidt (NYU professor, so not exactly a conspiracy theorist).

54 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

The funny thing to me that the last time I watched Joe Rogan he revealed that he takes testerone replacement therapy and recommends it for older men.  He does drugs of various types, gets synthetic hormones, on top of that possibly takes steriods/HGH but he won't get vaccinated.  Sometimes fishy here. this looks like bandwagon jumping 

 

TRT is crazy and the popularity of this treatment is very worrying.

 

Just like the "weigh reduction" pills. People want an easy way to "cheat life". But they reality is simple: to get a reward (e.g. weight loss or better physique), people gotta work (eat less crap, do some exercice, etc.)

 

Steroids have very detrimental effects in the short and long term.

5 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

Libertarianism is about questioning and criticizing the establishment and the government, which is conceptually very healthy. 

 

But today's form of libertarianism has deep dived into the rabbit hole of poorly educated, poorly sourced conspiracy theories with low accuracy.  Challenging the establishment and the government should require standards and proof.  Conspiracy theories that don't harm people in real life are more easy to ignore.   I can understand why some people are anti-Rogan as they know his platform has power of influencing the minds of his followers and the misinformation spread by Rogan can get people killed by COVID-19.

 

 

I agree that questioning requires high standards, but I'm not sure there are more morons nowadays, it's just that the internet makes them visible.

 

Also, most morons in their basements are harmless. What's more harmful is poorly sourced media (and that's most US mainstream media, sorry to tell you). Luckily, in France, we have better media (though not perfect), and above all more interesting scientists (they don't paint everything as black and white). If US media were trustworthy, they'd tell the population to lose weight (which is the most useful medical advice - with stopping cigarette and booze).

 

I only listen to French scientists (and specifically immunologists and epidemiologists - other doctors are less relevant).  They people are more nuanced than anything I see from North American media (sorry to criticize your country, but you gotta admit that it's become more and more Manichean )

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/a0831-obesity-data-maps.html

 

This is what the US Media should be talking non stop. It's interesting that the CDC chose the color green for "[20; 25%] obesity".

 

25% is enormous (and that's just the obesity rate, you also gotta consider the overweight people that are numerous).

 

I don't want to "stigmatize" people (everybody should be treated with respect), but you gotta admit that this is a real issue.

On 1/26/2022 at 5:49 PM, Enrico_sw said:

I don't get why Wikipedia says Catharsis is particularly about pity and fear, because it can also work with anger, sadness, compassion, etc.

 

I actually think that anger and fear can be purged through video games (at least that's the case for me). Killing monsters in the Witcher or shooting bad guys in a FPS or even kicking mobsters' asses in Batman games really help young'uns regulate their passions.

 

Teaching about Greek tragedy and its relation to cartharsis is part of the university canon.  For the Greeks, tragic plays were a national institution. 

 

 I also think that it misses a lot of other emotions.  Fiction can bring out that part of ourselves that is submerged through the day to day prison of routine life and help us reconnect with our true selves.   Tolkein's "On Fairy Stories" essay also discusses how Fantasy is liberating to the human heart.

 

The theories of psychologist Carl Jung/ mythologist Campbell I think hit the nail on the head (so did George Lucas, who was influenced by his ideas to create Star Wars) that world religion and myth have a lot of shared components, meaning that these story structures are inspiring to people and work.

 

I think the character of Geralt of Riveria is the best male character in fiction, at least from what I've seen.  Men like James Bond but I think Geralt (between the novels and games) is far better, a more complete and full life & a complex personality.

 

I liked Tom Hardy's passion project, Taboo season 1 (unfortunately Season 2 may never happen).  It's on youtube.  In this character Hardy combined a lot of classic characters into one to make a very intriguing performance.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcTlEYPYY-80d3TfDf-iQb5rerhYHKfUf

 

'I’d just played Bill Sikes in “Oliver Twist.” I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a Bill Sikes who was well-spoken? Maybe he could be like Heathcliff. With a little bit of Hannibal Lecter, a little bit of Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps also some Oedipus. And then maybe a little bit of Jack the Ripper. And imagine he was a restitution agent and ex-army and had come back and was now irredeemable in society. And my dad said, “Tom, this is an awful lot to put into one character,” and he sent me out of the room. About a year later, he came back to me with a treatment he’d written."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/arts/television/tom-hardy-taboo-fx.html

 

In another interview he talked also of Marlow from "Heart of Darkness" (Also the Captain from Apocalypse Now).

 

43 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

I think the character of Geralt of Riveria is the best male character in fiction, at least from what I've seen.  Men like James Bond but I think Geralt (between the novels and games) is far better, a more complete and full life & a complex personality.

 

Geralt is an awesome character. Way better that Bond. Geralt is a soldier (which is what most men aspire to be), but he's also a detective, magician, lover (and a guy who controls his emotions but at the same time embraces them)

 

One of my favorite characters too. Possibly the best. I also like Luke Skywalker, Ezio Auditore and Bayek of Siwa.

 

Arthur Morgan is really good too, but he's more of a tragic character (his story definitely fits the Greek tragedy). The music people chose to portray him definitely reflect that (like here)

 

54 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

I liked Tom Hardy's passion project, Taboo season 1 (unfortunately Season 2 may never happen).  It's on youtube. 

 

I never watched it. I might give it a try (but I have so many things to watch/do).

10 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

There's a big difference.

 

Bret says that Young is wrong (he doesn't want to censor him). Young says he wants to censor Rogan.

 

You're a smart guy, I'm sure you see the difference. The thing is that this left/right narrative destroys nuance and it makes people want to attack those they perceive as "the others".

 

Note that I mostly don't care about Rogan, you can criticize him if you want. I rarely watch his podcasts, except when I see scholars I appreciate, likee Jon Haidt (NYU professor, so not exactly a conspiracy theorist).

 

He doesn't want to censor Rogan, he just doesn't want to share a platform with him.

 

I don't care about Rogan either, I just think Young not wanting to be on Spotify any more because he does not like being associated with Rogan is valid.

 

Let me put it this way, lets say that Rogan started each and every one of his podcasts by saying "Fuck Neil Young!". Would Young still not have the right to have his music pulled from Spotify? He has to stay on there regardless?

 

Young is no idiot, he knows he hasn't got the clout to truly get Rogan off Spotify.

I'm pretty sure that Rogan has an ironclad contract, which means that if they throw him off their platform, he will likely still be entitled to most or all of his 100 million dollar deal. Kind of like how Megyn Kelly walked away with most of the money in her 60+ million dollar deal with MSNBC, after they pulled the plug on her show after only a few months.

9 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/a0831-obesity-data-maps.html

 

This is what the US Media should be talking non stop. It's interesting that the CDC chose the color green for "[20; 25%] obesity".

 

25% is enormous (and that's just the obesity rate, you also gotta consider the overweight people that are numerous).

 

I don't want to "stigmatize" people (everybody should be treated with respect), but you gotta admit that this is a real issue.

 

I have talked about this many times on here. It's one of the things that bothers me about the body positivity movement.

 

I can agree with them that people shouldn't be made to feel shitty about how they look. That is fine, kindness is pretty much what we should all aspire to.

 

Where they lose me is the fact that I can no longer publicly say that being obese is very bad for your health... Apparently that is also considered an "aggression" on overweight people? 😕

But then if you exhaustively apply that same logic to everything, I can no longer tell smokers that smoking is bad for them, or people who drink excessively that alcohol is bad for them, ... Because that is also an "aggression" then?

 

Also, that map is super-shocking. So there are barely any places in the U.S. where the amount of obese people is below 25%?

4 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

Also, that map is super-shocking. So there are barely any places in the U.S. where the amount of obese people is below 25%?

 

From my personal experience (I commute and travel a lot on the East Coast), these obesity numbers make no sense at all.  Americans are nowhere as fat as these figures.  In highly populated NY metro (NYC, northern NJ) area I would estimate that 30% of adults are significantly overweight, and a small portion of this are obese.  Maybe 5% of adults are obese.   

 

However less populated areas- particularly in the countryside in the NE or sleepy towns have way more obesity than the other suburbs/cities.  Literally you can see obese people quite often.

25 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

 

From my personal experience (I commute and travel a lot on the East Coast), these obesity numbers make no sense at all.  Americans are nowhere as fat as these figures.  In highly populated NY metro (NYC, northern NJ) area I would estimate that 30% of adults are significantly overweight, and a small portion of this are obese.  Maybe 5% of adults are obese.   

 

However less populated areas- particularly in the countryside in the NE or sleepy towns have way more obesity than the other suburbs/cities.  Literally you can see obese people quite often.

 

What exactly was the metric for these stats?

I think the official definition is a BMI of greater than 30? That's why I was so shocked by those numbers.

Someone my height would need to weigh over 103 kg to qualify as obese. So it's weird to think of a situation where at least 25% of people you encounter weigh that much.

 

Basically overweight (per BMI, last I checked) is roughly equivalent to being "chubby".  

 

Obese however is real fat-ass, like the average SI Swimsuit model  : D

19 minutes ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

What exactly was the metric for these stats?

I think the official definition is a BMI of greater than 30? That's why I was so shocked by those numbers.

Someone my height would need to weigh over 103 kg to qualify as obese. So it's weird to think of a situation where at least 25% of people you encounter weigh that much.

 

 

Yes, that's how the CDC defines it: for them, obesity means BMI > 30. And severe obestiy means BMI > 40.

 

The data/map I posted are from the CDC.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm

 

Yes, it's worrying

I would question how they are gathering this data.

 

The only time I've seen 30-35% obese people were in town fairs in rural PA.  It was weird enough for me to remember it.

8 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

I would question how they are gathering this data.

 

The only time I've seen 30-35% obese people were in town fairs in rural PA.  It was weird enough for me to remember it.

 

I have friends who vacation in Florida each year and they too talk about the great amount of very overweight people but I never got the idea they meant like one in three or one in four people.

I don't vacation though, I live here LOL, travel all the time.  I should have more knowledge than a tourist.

 

Maybe these figures are exaggerated by the CDC to promote their own institutional agendas?  

22 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

 

Geralt is an awesome character. Way better that Bond. Geralt is a soldier (which is what most men aspire to be), but he's also a detective, magician, lover (and a guy who controls his emotions but at the same time embraces them)

,

One of my favorite characters too. Possibly the best. I also like Luke Skywalker, Ezio Auditore and Bayek of Siwa.

 

Arthur Morgan is really good too, but he's more of a tragic character (his story definitely fits the Greek tragedy). The music people chose to portray him definitely reflect that (like here)

 

I never watched it. I might give it a try (but I have so many things to watch/do).

 

There is also the wisdom and sharp wit of Geralt, besides the high character so evident in the games.  In this case I can believe that he is a 100 year old man in a superhuman body.  And devotion to lovers, friends and family, and the fellowship that results from it.

 

I really like how both the novels and games expand his story massively, and then conclude it in a satisfying way.  Also as you play the game his experience becomes your experience, so there's that shared connection.  I have not encountered anything else in fiction quite like it.  

 

The James Delaney (Taboo) character is extremely badass and interesting (in the Taboo series), one of the best- if not the best male anti-hero I've ever seen.

 

Arthur Morgan has a very good redemption story, really outstanding and not often seen.  

 

The hero of Ghost of T is also very good and outstanding.

On 1/26/2022 at 5:55 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

Fair points.

 

You should write a letter to Netflix (I'm serious BTW, I think fans should send reasonable, well argumented critics to writers). In fact, given how disconnected "official critics" (from newspapers / cable news) are from the general audience, companies like Netflix could really benefit from a more organized feedback from their audience (not just the like/dislike button, cause it really takes people for fools ).

 

The director Lauren S is very aware of this criticism and much more (there are people far more knowledgeable than me on the Witcher lore that have engaged with her on social media).  This has been going on since the release of Season 1.

 

Ultimately it seems to have fallen on deaf ears, the Witcher show had to be woke, and had to be mostly non-book based. 

 

 

Basically he said that: He was the only pole on staff and only he was familar with the Witcher- the rest of the writers were not.  It is revealing however how different the people who are working on the show are compared to Poles that did the CDPR games.

 

The Netflix business is strange in that they greenlight a lot of shows just to generate streaming content, but a lot of their shows fail in 1-2 seasons.  A very quantity over quality approach, and if a show doesn't hit the numbers they cancel it.

 

I prefer the approach of having fewer shows but higher quality.

 

Him talking about how he wanted the show to appeal to the "idiot" Zoomers /social media generation..

 

@Enrico_sw @SympathysSilhouette @Cult Icon Hey there guys, in fact know what i think? we have to stand against those crap SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) and problaby against their bullshit agenda forcing gender-change and globalist-leftists threat, i am from Brazil and here a time ago our system education was being trash and only teaching kids things shouldn't be teached like kit gay/gender change and things like that its not acceptable for children, but this is already older news and have been removed from schools, everyone may know that it's biological man born man and women born women, there is not other gender in it and no disrespect homosexuality but nowadays its all fucked, with trash system education and other things, worse are those modern leftists liberals who only do shit and keep putting subjects who makes nonsense to what we live in our world, we need have good sense and be respectful when needs, nobody need be forced to accept something just because someone says its good or whatever, and if gays wants respect they first need be respectful and not force their sexually in something, same to everyone, we lives in a world make by bad politics cause those leftists globalists and liberals who dont do nothing and only have to worse, but we have to be strong and positive.