I was just called “mangina” 3x in a row by the same poster in the Chiefsplanet pitbull thread. Dude might have some issues.
Shit’s complicated, right? None of this is 100% black and white. Clint has spent his whole life in Hollywood, for sure he has worked with minorities constantly. George Takei and John Wayne were in a movie together, I’ll bet they got along. Shakespeare’s Othello is a deeply sympathetic character. Hell, even Shylock had a point.
I think Clint sees himself as a realist who loves all people but just really really hates libtards.
Left/right has become part of our tribal identities. Why doesn’t even matter anymore. WAAF.
My own pet theory is we’re a shit country that had a lot of run good, but now we’re regressing toward the mean.
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It would take a better writer and sociologist than me to pull it all together but it seems pretty apparent that much of America is going through a crisis of emasculation and loss of control in which the personal and national are intertwined. You haven’t won a real war in forever (the Gulf War barely counted) and it’s increasingly obvious that the limits of American power are contracting. There’s cultural upheaval at home, you can’t really control the southern border, people feel increasingly powerless in their day to day lives. I’m convinced this is what’s behind the mass shooter phenomenon, because the American cultural story of the correct response to failure and disempowerment is to grab a gun and go violently remedy the situation. That’s not the same elsewhere. In Japan, the culturally correct response is acceptance of blame and suicide. In the UK and Australia, it’s deep cynicism and the heaping of scorn on the rich and powerful, which you can’t do in the US because of cultural worship of the elite. I’m speaking in huge generalities, obviously, but I’m convinced there’s truth to this.
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Clint was my favorite actor growing up. I’m just blaming it on dementia. He was already over 80 during the Obama chair speech.
FoxNews is agar for dementia.
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More broadly I would say that almost all men have a basic level of insecurity and a legitimate need to express their masculinity and this can often become toxic. That’s part of the human condition. But, idk, I think Vietnam produced a kind of unique anxiety and insecurity in our culture. My grandfathers both served in WWII, they never felt the need to have guns in their house afterward. I have grandpa’s old scythe from when he worked on a farm, but none of them had civilian versions of an M1 rifle orfelt any real reason to own one. For sure, they would gripe about young people and long hair and my mom listening to the Beatles --I think old men complaining about youth culture is a constant of humanity, but the raw anger we see now on Fox News just seems like something uniquely hateful and unnatural.
I think all this is true. But I also think there’s a phenomenon where the pendulum gets stuck on one side due to some outside influence, and never swings back, as it normally might after a nation collectively realizes maybe it went too far in one direction.
I saw it happen with my Aunt when she went from being a drug-hippie to super religious. Once she hit that end of the pendulum, the church grabbed her and she was stuck for life.
I think the same thing is happening with modern politics. I keep bringing up country music is now politicized - but I don’t feel like people are grasping the significance. And it’s not just country music - it’s the “money matters” shows on the radio my parents listen. It’s all pervasive.
If I had to bet - I’d say a generation, which isn’t that old, is never going back or swinging the other way. Guns and hatred of libtards (signaled by the pejorative “California” is many many country songs) is part of their identity. It’s in their bones the way I have a visceral reaction to the city of St. Louis, or the Denver Broncos. It’s part of my identity. It’s entirely irrational.
Are there even enough non-identitarians left to swing they other way, like they did in 2008, to get us out of this - with Republicans putting their thumb on the voting scale as hard as they can?
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The only movies i like of Clints are his spaghetti westerns which were written by Italians or stolen from the Japanese by Italians…
Othello : Iago :: Obama : stable genius is worth exploring for like a midterm paper imo
I don’t disagree, but there’s still the question of: why so especially in your culture and not in other cultures with Vietnam vets?
Tangent: Curious what you guys think of this. It’s a classic rock song about Vietnam which is an unofficial Australian anthem, one of those songs where most people recognise it from the opening two notes and know every word. Cold Chisel were huge back in the day, probably bigger than AC/DC within Australia. I’d compare them in style to something like Springsteen. I’m interested in takes from people who have never heard the song. For some reason the version on Spotify isn’t the usually played version, this is the right one.
Not bad, kinda catchy. I’d put their style more as John Cougar than Bruce - but that’s splitting hairs.
I could see this making a random appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy III - like local midwest hit Lakeshore Drive did in GGII. I’m completely fascinated about how many of these catchy songs are out there that few know. I have a ton of songs that I just randomly heard one time, remembered, and downloaded in the heyday of mp3 torrents.
The Aussies were pretty badass in WWI and Vietnam when they didn’t have much to risk at all. WWII of course they had everything on the line.
For reference.
I hate fascists and hate the idea of the Dirty Harry character but I love that movie. I think Eastwood’s playing it straight in a movie that’s largely a pretty funny joke even if you just think about it being set in San Francisco. You know you can’t take it seriously as a piece of right wing propaganda when they have the scene with the serial killer saying ‘I have rights’. It would be like if Tucker Carlson tried to make a movie pwning the libs. If it was intended as right wing propaganda, it did a terrible job and just ended up being a really entertaining thriller.
You should really look at Eastwood’s filmography. You can’t be completely deplorable and tackle some of the subjects he has. Like Wayne was a raging racist, but Eastwood is more low key, probably more the casual racism of ‘what’s wrong with that?’ that you get from so many boomer/pre-boomers. I think most of his GOP stuff is performance art, because there’s no way he could have been serious with that stupid chair gag. I’m not saying he’s not at least deplorable adjacent, but like his movies he’s directed, I think he’s much more nuanced than being a straight deplorable.
The themes of many of his movies are, hmm, I went in with a preconceived notion, and when I dug in I realized I was maybe painting with way to wide of a brush. I think it’s pretty introspective on his part, and I just don’t think you can do that in ways that land if you’re a pure deplorable. I obviously could be wrong, but that would be a massive testament to his skill if he is a pure deplorable. People like John Milius always let their inner deplorable out in their movies, and I just don’t see it as much with Eastwood. I’m sure he has plenty of films without nuance, but his best ones almost always have a lot of nuance.
I’m like 99 percent certain you can’t direct a movie with dementia, so I’m labeling it performance art.
Quiet everyone! A Boomer is speaking.
WE MUST MAKE THE PAY SUCH THAT ONLY MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES CAN REPRESENT US!
I played with him at the WSOP for a few hours and he was a perfectly nice guy there. That was pre-Trump. I already knew about his political views but you couldn’t tell at the table.
I play with James a lot. He’s always very nice and generous at the table. So is my grandmother. They are both pieces of garbage though.
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