General gaming talk

[SympathysSilhouette]

8 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

You're a CRT and gender theory follower, right? You know that the leaders of these cults demand you judge western men harshly (and even harsher if they are cisgender heterosexual white slim country men and other nonsensical criteria they invent every day to tear people apart with hateful rhetoric)  

 

I hadn't even heard of CRT until maybe like a year ago. And since then, I have mostly learned that the people angry about its existence can barely formulate its definition.

[SympathysSilhouette]

8 hours ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

There are civilian losses in the movie, but it's not the main topic of the movie.

 

 

If I watch a movie about a conflict that had a significant amount of civilian losses, I expect to see that portrayed on screen.

 

Would you watch a movie about the Malmedy massacre in which the Nazis treat their American POWs with respect (instead of slaughtering them)?

 

Would you watch a WWII era movie about Oradour-sur-Glane that did not portray the massacre?

 

What is omitted from these films tells its own story.

[Cult Icon]

Black Hawk Down isn't a balanced documentary or history book.  There is no requirement to present all sides of a complex situation in a 2 hr movie. Frankly there is not enough time, if they were to do this it would require a mini-series!

 

[Cult Icon]

6 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

Would you watch a movie about the Malmedy massacre in which the Nazis treat their American POWs with respect (instead of slaughtering them)?

 

 

This and Oradour are very well studied by historians.  The German motives for perpetuating the massacre are very interesting on themselves.  I doubt that any filmmaker would portray the German side particuarly well due to political correctness (rather than historical accuracy).

 

The majority of American POWs taken by the 1.SS Panzer-division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" were actually processed and sent into the German rear.  A small portion was executed.  This unit had an old reputation of killing POWs when it was inconvienient (insecure lines of communication, not willing to portion off personnel to escort so many POWs into the rear).

 

War films are almost never well balanced.

[SympathysSilhouette]

48 minutes ago, Cult Icon said:

Black Hawk Down isn't a balanced documentary or history book.  There is no requirement to present all sides of a complex situation in a 2 hr movie. Frankly there is not enough time, if they were to do this it would require a mini-series!

 

 

It isn't as if the depiction of civilian casualties would greatly increase the runtime?

 

And yeah, there is never any obligation for any movie to be historically accurate. But in a world where people complain about the wrong kind of gun being used, or Tiger Tanks not really being Tigers but instead disguised T-34s, or other such stuff, I think it's fair game to also criticize a war movie for utterly failing to portray the civilian cost of a battle.

[Cult Icon]

They did portray civilian casualties in BHD though...?  Remember the scene with the old man carrying the dead boy, dead civilian bodies, the woman & child, etc.  They just didn't focus on it, they paid lip service to it along with other topics.  The real focus was really on the comradeship between American soldiers in crisis, to honor them.

 

There are a lot of perspectives missing from BHD too, even in the American camp.  For instance they did not extensively show the operational planning or criticize it for being too high risk, etc.  

 

If you want military history go read the history books.

[Cult Icon]

On 2/8/2022 at 6:29 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

I also think that BHD is an awesome movie. Sure, there's a form of promilitary discourse in the movie. But we're not talking about Iraq (where the American screwed everything from A to Z). In Somalia, things were very complex and though all this operation turned out to be a stain on Clinton's work, I wouldn't judge the US very harshly for that period. I do understand why the US (and the UN) were here. Help was needed in Somalia. Children were really starving (a real famine).

 

When this movie was released, most young men in France loved the US. It was the country that made all the movies we liked (Star Wars, Predator, Terminator, basically all the good sci-fi and action movies).

 

In a way American half-assed pseudo-imperalism with many failures/moral confusion has shown that we as a country do not have the mettle to be a benevolent, expanding "empire" of a different sort than the past.  To be an empire that spreads western values & capitalism we have to be as ruthless as the British imperialists and be as they were until World War 1 destroyed them.   

 

Americans can't constantly pretend to be the "good guys" when there is always an agenda involved.

 

I recently read a bit of "The Lost City of Z" and watched the film.  I think it captures quite well the spirit of the British Victorian/imperalist man, concept of civilization, and their notions of manhood/contempt for death.  This spirit is what Americans really lack.  It is a dangerous spirit, lead to many great achievements throughout British history but also many terrible acts.  It is what made World war 1 what it was.

 

 

[Enrico_sw]

14 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

I hadn't even heard of CRT until maybe like a year ago. And since then, I have mostly learned that the people angry about its existence can barely formulate its definition.

 

Have you ever asked them its definition or did you just assume they don't know based on their anger/looks/perceived side of an argument?  People often underestimate the intelligence of their neighbours (or rivals).

 

If you took the sum of people's opinion about their neighbours' (or rivals') intelligence, you'd see a painting full of morons. If you took the sum of people's opinion about their own intelligence, the picture would be different... These type of biases are well documented actually (but people can also be harsh with themselves in other criteria/situations). Everybody has these type of biases.

 

-----

 

Anyway, regarding your question: CRT is a sociological theory, that has its roots in racist ideologies (the same as those formulated by Francis Galton). Unlike the name suggests, critical thinking is absent of this theory. In that respect, it's not really a theory (there's no falsifiability), but more of an ideology. Some of its proponents talk like cult leaders.

 

While it calls itself anti-racist, CRT postulates that most sociological phenomena can be explained through the prism of race, which is the definition of racism. So, it's a racist antiracist ideology.... while this seems to be a antilogy, the reality is that words aren't properly used by CRT's proponents.

 

Another fundamental axiom is that the world is divided between oppressors and oppressed. For CRT's leaders, the oppressors need to be recognized by an easy sign (it's need to appease the tension generated by the fear-mongering axiom). For them, the sign is skin color, which again makes it a racist theory. This is coated with highly moral content, which makes the pill easier to swallow for many.

 

I can go on, if you're interested.

[Enrico_sw]

15 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

If I watch a movie about a conflict that had a significant amount of civilian losses, I expect to see that portrayed on screen.

 

Would you watch a movie about the Malmedy massacre in which the Nazis treat their American POWs with respect (instead of slaughtering them)?

 

Would you watch a WWII era movie about Oradour-sur-Glane that did not portray the massacre?

 

What is omitted from these films tells its own story.

 

You compare very different situations. As I said, Somalia was in shambles, with famines. To paint an accurate picture, you'd also have to show Somalian warlords stealing food from the population, shooting civilians and organising clan wars. Do you think they could show that? In 2 hours?

 

The subject of the movie is brotherhood. And the real story of these boys was a story of brotherhood. The civilian casualties are terrible, but Somalia was in shambles and needed the international help from the UN (and the US).

 

We can't compare the US army in Somalia to the nazis. That's just very very unfair.

 

[SympathysSilhouette]

8 minutes ago, Enrico_sw said:

 

Have you ever asked them its definition or did you just assume they don't know based on their anger/looks/perceived side of an argument?  People often underestimate the intelligence of their neighbours (or rivals).

 

 

 

People have rejected books about Ruby Bridges because of CRT! I can't really assume they understand what it's supposed to be based on that alone.

[Cult Icon]

On 2/9/2022 at 5:57 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

It's probably a speed run. I like to watch these. There are lots of speed run on DS3. They are impressive!

 

 

haha, this guy hacked the game to get the speed run to half an hour

 

always good to see Sekiro's bosses again

[Cult Icon]

On 2/9/2022 at 5:17 PM, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

I read about this. Don't they say that most people need like ten hours for their first playthrough?

I don't know.  I look at youtube and most youtubers are uploading 2-3 1/2 hours for their whole playthrough. 

[Cult Icon]

On 2/8/2022 at 6:36 PM, Enrico_sw said:

 

I agree, all of these events hit patriotism hard. It also hit "Western culture" which is now getting more hate from Westerners than outside the West.

 

This also goes back to a fundamental issue, is that the US military and foreign policy as a whole has lost its credibility due to so many failures and corrupt dealings by 2022.  However in the 1990s there was actually a decent level of crediblity and respect, but it was heavily tempered by confusion in the post- Soviet world as the real enemy was unclear.  So soldiers didn't actually know if their risk taking was really doing something worthwhile.  But they had more morale/belief in country's leadership even if they didn't care about what was going on.

 

I think this scene in Black Hawk Down sums it up (and sums up the theme of the whole movie in a way).  Basically Bana's character says "I don't give a shit about politics.  Why do I fight? Comradeship!!!" I think that the true front-line warrior mindset is a meaningful, higher risk life is much more important than a long, meaningless life.  These are older, more traditional and also ancient values.  That's why special forces and other men in high-risk occupations value honor among the fellowship so much.  I can only guess that they can't find this in civilian life, at least not easily.  It sounds like a strange way to find meaning, perhaps that's why the US professional military (professional officer and nco corps) is actually quite small compared to the American general population. And most of them are non-combat personnel.

 

But it also points out a fatal problem: That even if high comradeship maintains the morale in the elite troops, the morale could have been so much more if there was no political confusion at all- that every sacrifice would be valued by a grateful nation (or even humanity?!) , for eternalty.  It makes one wonder what the morale and motivation would be in such favorable conditions.

 

It is really cool to me, and still is, that Kojima's Metal Gear franchise was about diseffected soldiers from across the world, most of them American, coming together to join a mercenary company.  I think he "got" it.

 

 

[Cult Icon]

 

Aloy is a little less pretty in this one

[Cult Icon]

this game has been in development for years, and now finally:

 

 

[Enrico_sw]

On 2/11/2022 at 12:07 AM, SympathysSilhouette said:

 

People have rejected books about Ruby Bridges because of CRT! I can't really assume they understand what it's supposed to be based on that alone.

 

"People"? I'm curious to know who these "people" are. And in any case, it never hurts to ask other people's opinion.

[Enrico_sw]

10 hours ago, Cult Icon said:

 

Aloy is a little less pretty in this one

 

 

It looks good! I hope they improved the gameplay, because that's what was lagging behind in the first game.

[Enrico_sw]

 

[Enrico_sw]

 

[Matt!]

Halo Infinite was absolutely brilliant, gonna miss exploring the ring.