I don't agree, Sasha - the opposition by conservatives to the Bad Bunny halftime and woke silliness of the Odyssey movie are just reactions to the obscenities of our current culture. It's so artificial and disgusting that allowing us to be played has to be resisted. If that resistance caused the Lefties to waste their money and three hours of theater time, so be it.
The message that we are trying to get across is that we do in fact recognize pandering and falsity and obscenity when we see it and we will resist.
Quietly watching all of this happening without saying anything tells people pushing these cultural insults that we are quietly going along with it.
Some of the people here who disagreed with - and seem slightly outraged by - Sasha’s assessment missed what I think was one of her most important points: It’s not enough to fight hard; you have to fight smart. If we let them manipulate us into fighting their way, we’ll often lose. If we fight them with mockery and making fun of them, the wokesters will always become hysterical and make fools of themselves, because they’re basically humorless, thin-skinned children. That partly explains Trump’s success - he doesn’t yell at them; he mocks them until they fly into a rage. Then he owns them.
Remember the character, Joe Friday, from Dragnet? He supposedly tells someone he is interviewing "Just the facts, ma'am". Joe was a conservative. The women he interviews are libs, for sure. He patiently lets them know he is not interested in their hysteria. That is how I am. I provide the facts, and then might even chuckle when the defensive response is 100% irrational and emotional
Facts and truth is "the ticket", so to speak, so I would correct Sasha (very delicately, as she's brilliant) and say that if we just huff and puff like the leftists, that's not a good idea (probably self sabotaging), but if we humbly "bring the facts and truth" (which I try to do - but it takes a lot of time to read, do research, etc.), THAT will (and does) make a difference. Lastly, I do mock them sometimes too. Example: when "the (supposed) insurrection" comes up, I mention how I was driving in my car when it was first reported that some Democrats were calling it an "insurrection" and I LOL, robustly, because the idea was so entirely ridiculous. If they push back, then I'll ply them with the facts and truth.
You’re right, and there’s also the old adage to “Pick your battles.” Was “The Odyssey” really a worthwhile “casus belli? I mean Christopher Nolan cast the weird creature Eliot Page as an Ancient Greek warrior? Who cares? That may be a great reason to point and laugh, and avoid the movie, but if someone goes off the deep end with outrage, they just look fragile, easily triggered, and silly. It was not the hill to die on.
Also, as a matter of possible interest, way back when I was learning how to try murder cases when the death penalty was on the table, I devoured Sun Tzu. It was more valuable than any legal text I ever found, and if I had to sum up its essence in one sentence, it would be “Fight smart; not just hard.”
The right should also beware getting drawn into the battle by wolves in sheep’s clothing. When one of these flash points first pops up, I often see commenters stoking the fire who don’t seem to be all too conservative. It would do well to remember that the left is just one giant psy-op running 24/7/365 and the more they can whip the peasants into a frenzy over insignificant things, the less time that will be spent focusing on the important stuff. Good piece as always by Ms Stone.
Trump doesn’t own anybody but his mindless, bootlicking cultists like you. The rest of us with a functioning brain know he’s an idiot, who appeals only to other idiots, such as yourself.
No tantrum needed. I’m not your orange turd messiah. I’ll be laughing by the end of this year when the repubes lose congress and your dear leader has no more power lol. That’s worth celebrating : )
Any of us can dog-walk you retards whenever we want, because you’re all emotional cripples who grew up licking windiws and snacking on leaded paint chips, so you’re too dull-witted to actually argue about anything, and too cowardly to dish out any shit unless you’re safely anonymous and online. Leftists are all like monkeys, howling from the corners of their cages and hurling feces at all the people pointing at them and laughing.
Typical leftist pussy. Forces his way into a conversation that doesn’t concern him, with subject matter that he’s too stupid to understand. And then, because he’s too dumb and emotionally crippled to debate or argue, start the kind of tiny little shit talking that he’d never have the courage to do in person. Then, when someone slaps him down, he bursts into tears and runs away.
That’s pure projection. You call others what you know you are. You’re not even good at shit talking, let alone beating anybody. You couldn’t beat a pillow. Now it’s way past your bedtime junior. Your fat mama is calling you in bitch.
Also, as a matter of possible interest, way back when I was learning how to try murder cases when the death penalty was on the table, I devoured Sun Tzu. It was more valuable than any legal text I ever found, and if I had to sum up its essence in one sentence, it would be “Fight smart; not just hard.”
I have to agree with you. Remaining silent signals inherent approval. While I get Sasha’s point, I’m sick and tired of not being able to speak up and voice my opinion for fear of someone’s “meh feelings” being hurt. They sure don’t give a fig if they hurt my feelings. I’m just done with their hypocrisy. What’s good for the goose…
Thank you for saying this. I disagree with Sasha’s view on our reaction to this film. We must be loud to resist having this crap pushed in our face and Hollywood can go broke. Nolan pandering to Academy rules to be considered Best Picture is what made this film a DEI movie. Spending 250 million to accommodate every rule is not how they achieve success.
I don’t plan to ever watch their crap movies. I believe we do need to speak up. You do you, but I won’t be silent as they destroy a classical novel. I’m just sitting back waiting for Hollywood to go in the toilet and these celebrities go broke. Happy times
YES and honestly we need to throw our own parties and tell each other how great we are and just get away from them don't watch, buy or connect, there needs to be more conservative everything,,our own universe.
Make a true historical Greek drama. They are the liars and hurtful ones.
Would a director make a movieabout slavery and hire white canadian actors to play the slaves? NO!! WAs Helen of Troy from Africa ? NO
That's what I do. Just ignore it. I do write corporations when they put woke and unrealistic stuff in their ads. It's annoying and insulting that they seem to think that we can be manipulated by putting black actors in situations and venues that seem unlikely to happen in real life. Good for the blacks and getting a nice paycheck and I don't begrudge them that but it's actually become amusing to see the efforts they go to but maybe the ad agencies feel that they have to 'check the box' to signal their wokeness.
The existence of the Odyssey is not "pushing it in your face" because you don't have to watch any movie you don't want to. My own TDS mother was today years old when she even found out this Odyssey movie existed.
A sports show might be a bit closer, but even then no one is forcing anyone to watch halftime, no one is batting the rest of the game if you refuse to watch the middle, and creating an alternative halftime show elsewhere and letting the viewing numbers drop for Bad Bunny and promoting it as an alternative anyone is free to choose or not was probably a better option than just screaming about how people who aren't like you are abominations that should be eradicated.
I had not thought of the new Academy rules when thinking of the casting! Excellent point, Ruth!
A few years ago my wife and I attended some plays in Ashland, Oregon, at their Shakespeare Festival. They had a black actor playing Macbeth--not exactly a minor role, to say the least, so that was certainly not the same as with Helen in this current film. The actor was excellent and after a few seconds his skin color dropped from my mind, and I was able to enjoy the play and the production.
It is true that this type of casting generally goes only one direction, especially for Shakespeare and more historical works. Still, Nolan could have cast non-white actors in other roles, perhaps a general or two or some sirens, etc. I think choosing Helen was a high profile and direct assault for the race-based groups and generated the buzz he wanted.
It’s probably incorrect to assume classics like The Odyssey should be rendered with a British accent, but it’s a bit of a stretch to hear American actors who are usually less trained than Brits who take acting as an art form not a woke agenda. It’s easy to look beyond the bone thrown to the Academy Awards with Eliot Page and Lupita Nyongo who have bit parts, and the spectacle is worth the price of admission but expect the Odyssey to be more like Star Wars than Lawrence of Arabia. Since We still go to the movies on the big screen, Odyssey filled its 170 minutes enjoyably, but the bar is set exceptionally low based on recent American releases.
It does seem to move in one direction. I don't support all of this racial identification stuff and grew up believing in the Martin Luther King desire for a colorblind society. Having said that, it does seem to limit black actors options in Shakespeare and other older works.
I agree with you @USMCVet. One of the key factors that differentiates conservatives from liberals is rational / thoughtful reaction versus the emotional / theatrical reaction of liberals. It seems almost every liberal was a drama-class kid or a choir / glee kid. I did those things (choir and theatre) but I was not very good at them because I am wired to be a rational and thoughtful person. I do not emote adequately. And THAT is what creates such blowback from the Left: we conservatives just do not shed a lot of tears. We care, but we think about pros and cons. Not every emotional reaction is for the better. Illegal immigration is certainly like that. Yes, I can intellectually understand why people want to come to America, but no, I do not agree everyone that wants to come, can come, and certainly not without an invitation. The reasons are rational: We cannot afford to take in everyone who wants ECONOMIC asylum, which is the entire world. I can go through all the Left Wing wants, including "Abundance" and show if and how it can be done, rationally. But libs do not want facts and science, they just want to FEEL good. Attacking conservatives does that for them: it makes Leftists FEEL good
Interesting you claim conservatives are the rational and logical ones. Last I checked, you right wingers are the ones who believe in a sky fairy who’s magically watching over us every day. It’s the liberals who have the intelligence to know those are fairy tales and your imagination. So I’d rethink your claims of logical superiority and lack of emotional reactions. Atheists aren’t conservatives.
Ask yourself one question: will this action bring more independents to your side for voting purposes or not? If not, don't do it. You can worry about the rest when you become a dynasty because you have proven to the people you can govern for the good of the people.
I don’t believe Sasha said that the Right should be “quietly watching…without saying anything”, but to build and create which means knowing the rules of the game better than the opponent to win the battle.
Hell no, we won’t go! But Sasha’s analysis goes deeper than that. We need to pick our battles. Like she explained, all the pearl clutching that was stirred up launched the movie into the stratosphere. Undeservedly so.
We should have allowed it to rise or die on its own merits.
Remember the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. The less attention the left gets on irrelevant issues (Hollywood in particular) the faster it will die on the vine. The only reason leftist had to see this movie was to boost it's box office and give the right an insignificant "loss". If no one had reacted, it would have flopped.
Sasha, One of the most insightful analyses on this whole area that I have read. You have hit the nail on the head -- it is not a binary war (nothing in life is, for practical purposes) it is understanding the individual situation and dealing with it accordingly. As a doctor who teaches medical students, I fight a one man battle to note that health care is ONLY about individuals, and everyone who tries to pretend it is about groups or populations will end up being wrong enough often enough to kill lots of people. This article is a perfect analog to that in the arts/culture world. Kudos.
As someone who worked in both clinical patient care and then in corporate medical sales and development, I couldn't agree more with you in regards to "individual care". I watched as policies, practices, and expectations were developed based simply on what someone looked like that I became incredibly cynical regarding the care I was to provide. Moreover, on the corporate side, outside of process improvements, the massive turn to "everything AI" in medicine will absolutely, in my opinion, lead to poorer healthcare for many, and more deaths. I could go on in depth, but those of us who experience the change on a daily basis couldn't be more concerned.
Thank you Dr. K and danbfas. I too am a physician who taught medical students and residents for over 40 years. I too lament the trend to think of populations rather than the individual patient sitting before you, and the fraudulent camouflage of non-granular algorithm medicine disguised under the banner of "evidence based." The woke takeover of medical education at my university finally drove me away from the classroom and from seminars, though I continued to supervise residents.
Teaching a course in medical ethics to a combined class of medical students, dental students, and advanced nurse practitioner students I stated that those of my patients who accepted that they were at least partially architects of their own misery tended to do better than those who blamed all their issues on society and on others. For this I was attacked as ignoring racism, sexism, economic injustice, and climate change as the key factors in the lives of our patients, and after decades of teaching awards and high student ratings, got my first and only negative evaluations from students.
At this important cusp in our history and it is essential we not squander our remaining clout wrongly. This goes way beyond the Super Bowl and a current movie. If we are drawn into foolish skirmishes we will lose our effectiveness in the main battles looming before us. There are not that many remaining offramps as we hurtle down the freeway to losing the most important parts of our culture.
Similarly, Homer’s Odysseus seeks to rectify the consequences of his individual actions to be restored to his thrown as opposed to Nolan’s Odysseus, whose actions instead trigger the downfall of his civilization, which he must abandon (self-exile) to restore order…??
Both versions of Odysseus break Zeus’s Law toward stranger-hospitality (as do many other beings), but to severely different consequences: personal/rectifiable hell and redemption OR permanent guilt/ruining all of Greek society, which he is no longer to be a part of.
So Nolan’s film version (I saw Friday night) is not the personal story of Odysseus as it seems to be at first glance. It’s a story of fleeing and surrendering one’s culture because it’s not worthy of defending, also no actual possibility for redemption or restoring order.
Thank you doc for seeing through all the haze of what is considered health care today. My personal opinion is that Obama destroyed QUALITY healthcare.
Doctors cannot survive in a private practice. The requirement that all our records be electronic forced those who were trying to remain independent into a medical group. That destroyed everything.
Obamacare is unconstitutional, so there’s that also.
Nobody gives a damn about The Odyssey or Bad Bunny. You overestimate the level of caring people have for such nonsense.
You are giving far more credit to the left than they deserve. The tantrums, the meaningless protests, the baffoonish stupidity, the failed scams, the perversion of anti-science/anti-human policies, the entire con...IS NOT WINNING.
The shrieking and whining from irrelevant malcontents is nothing more than noise coming from a desperate party that's clinging to life support (look at the shitshow in Maine). The do-nothings should be completely relegated to the dusty corners of social media where the only people who care about those tragic losers are the ones who choose to give them time and attention. Stop giving them the time and the attention.
This is a truly conservative response. It is: who gives a rip?! That is how I feel about all things Leftist. The things the Left claim for themselves, they can have. I just want my stock market and male sports like football and basketball, things most libs hate. We can co-exist. The problem is the Marxist Left really ARE the NAZIs and don't want to let me be happy with my own life and pleasures. They want to control me and everyone else, just like Lenin, Mao and Stalin did.
Ugh, it's the relentless hash of never ending hysteria. I don't think there's one thing that the harpies have not attempted to undermine in the name of "social justice activisim". The cheering for failure at every turn is impossible to take seriously at this point. How can anyone support a party that seethes with resentment, deeply disturbing anger and self-loathing? The Party of Love Trumps Hate is imploding and I'm gonna stand back and watch it happen.
Why do you feel maga types throw tantrums, meaningless protest, are baffoonish and stupid, perpetuate failed scams, are anti science and love cons? Some of Trump’s scams rake him in billions bigummit.
The right needs to “[b]uild parallel culture”. They are building it, and his name is Taylor Sheridan. He has become a force to be reckoned with in film and television, and he (mostly) approaches woke culture with skepticism and satirical humor. The crème de la crème of actors are happy to work with him, and the Hollyrot establishment is so scared of him that they won’t allow his shows to be nominated for awards (No best actor nom for Billy Bob Thornton in Landman? Really??? No writing nom for Sheridan for Landman, either?).
One piece of that parallel culture is named Angel Studios. Their output is largely high quality, and never descends to the smut-trash Hollywood is enamored with.
The right is stupid. And I say that as a conservative independent. One part consistently dies on the wrong hills and the other part seems to be trying to equal the corruption on the left.
No, the Pro-freedom Right is Individualist, with everyone going in a different direction. While the Communazi Left is collectivist - a cult like hive like the 'Borg' all organized around one ideal - punishing those that dare stray outside the hive.
Well, I can't disagree, the right is stupid. However, "stupid" comes from the brain. The left, on the other hand is evil. And "evil" comes from the soul. I'll take the former.
Well, I can't disagree, the right is stupid. However, "stupid" comes from the brain. The left, on the other hand is evil. And "evil" comes from the soul. I'll take the former.
Steve, you’ll love this! My daughter’s copy of the ILiad from the early aughts has been sitting on my bookshelf these many years so with all this brouhaha about the Odyssey I decided to read it
My book group for August will read The Odyssey, I bought the Robert Fagles translation.
If anything about Nolan’s Odyssey it’s gotten some of us to revisit Homer and Greek mythology in general and that’s a good thing.
PS western Culture came from 3 places Jerusalem, Ancient Greece, Rome. This is why we are different (Better) than say India. You have to know something about hem or you're gonna be confused.
Sure and I have a couple of books that are close to that age. I have, tho, gone almost entirely to the Kindle versions for convenience. I have a library full of physical books that I will never read again and my poor kids will have to sort through them. The sons might keep the fishing, golf and outdoor books and the daughters might want some of the cookbooks but I guess most will go to the library sale or some other charity.
Sure, we lost the battle of the superbowl, but IDGAF; I didn't even watch this year. And not for nothing, Speileberg's Disclosure Day bombed relative to what was expected. And Supergirl got crushed in it's 2nd week by a George Washington biopic.
So Nolan's going to do OK w/this movie- great! Shapiro liked it: 9/10, so it's a good movie I guess.
I rarely go to the movies anymore: for what I can do at home it's simply not worth the money and the headache.
I suspect that people are just tired, man. Tired of the culture wars. I know I am. I picked my side, and I'm all in. I use less bandwidth this way. And as a result, my use of social media has seriously tapered off.
Interesting assessment.. The NFL administration has been woke garbage. Look what they wrote in the end zones, kneeling etc.
Numbers down, they tacked back to right.
Hollywood is going broke in every measurable way.
Odyssey may make money, but they lost another $1 billion they could have made. Don’t forget the story was changed to suit Emily Wilson’s feminazi worldview.
Hard for libs to understand. Trump is who pushed back on and took over the GOP, destroying the neoCon movement all by himself. The Left had controlled the American government since Bush Sr. in 1992. I don't give George Jr much credit for being a true Constitutional conservative. He was more like a centrist Democrat in his policies
If Trump is the resistance, is it in the sense that’s he’s resisting not raking in billions from stock trades this time while most of the rest of us outside money making big cities are having a hard time affording rent and food?
Build indeed. Angel Studios is an example of what non-woke well crafted movie making can be. The audience in the theater in which I saw “Young Washington” applauded enthusiastically at the end. I believe the reviews from both left and right commentators have been generally favorable.
"To the Left, any time they are invited to a culture war battle, it’s like this scene in Casablanca, where they have to sing louder to drown out the song by the Nazis."
Nope. It's those of us that love America, its traditions and values singing the Star Spangled Banner to drown out the Commie (Nazi) Left. Every Damn Time.
I'm not yet convinced The Odyssey will continue to be this massive success. We will see how it performs next week. It was expected to be very frontloaded because Imax theaters were selling out for it a year in advance. It is generating huge numbers from Imax sales where tickets are $20-25 but still putting less overall butts in seats than movies 10-15 years ago. They are selling higher priced tickets to less people.
I take my 15 yo daughter to the movies every quarter or so. The theater we frequent has assigned seating. You choose your seats (row & number) when you purchase the tickets. I never buy in advance, and so we pick the seats from what’s available right before the show starts. The last 3 times we’ve gone, the theaters were nearly totally sold out, and we had to choose seats in the very front of the theater. However, in each case the theater was more empty than full for the entire movie. Only rational explanation I can conceive is the tickets were purchased by the studio (or an agent thereof) to inflate sales figures.
I don't plan to watch it anywhere. It will be streaming soon but I doubt that it will be any better than the one with Kirk Douglas. Hollywood seems to be obsessed with doing a remake with their woke krep inserted so they can lecture us rubes about the proper way to think. I really think people actually going out to theaters is somewhat fading away. Hard to compete with sitting in front of a big TV with the kitchen and bathroom a few steps away not to mention a lot cheaper. I am afraid that too many of our young people have no knowledge of real history and it won't be long before they think that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also black.
I agree that the Left controls the institutions and has won the culture war. It is a war that most normal people had no interest in fighting and many were not even aware of the seismic shift that was happening to our culture. A lot of people are genuinely puzzled by the seemingly sudden emergence of the trans cult. They didn't see the signs coming and they were silent as each new boundary was breached. Now boys are in girl's bathrooms and thousands of children have been sterilized for life and have had healthy body parts chopped off. And people ask "where did that come from?"
It may be true that the reaction to the ridiculous casting decisions helped sell tickets to the Odyssey but it doesn't mean that critics were wrong to point out the obvious. Juno is not a Greek warrior and Lupita Nyong'o's face is not launching any ships. I don't really care if these parts were inconsequential to the movie. People should not be forced to accept lies and then be called a bigot or a racist for pointing out the truth .
The Odyssey might well win lots of Oscars but fewer and fewer people care. The Oscars were just an invention of the film industry to pat themselves on the back and generate publicity. Hollywood's influence on our culture is waning and I suspect it will disappear almost entirely with the advent of AI.
I grew up in the 1970s within walking distance of a movie theater and I used to love movies. So it's sad to see the decline in quality of movies and our culture in general. I hardly ever go to the movies anymore but I did see Project Hail Mary and Young Washington. I hope that more movies will be made that reject the culture of woke and that people will stop patronizing a culture that hates them.
Accused of being too passive, accused of being too active. I would like it if the Right stopped overemphasizing and became a little more stoic. Yes, and keep building and creating. These attacks, whether from the Left or the Right is an awful look. I thought the Right was more intelligent and wise and the Left was more self righteous about their agenda. They both look like goofballs.
I don't agree, Sasha - the opposition by conservatives to the Bad Bunny halftime and woke silliness of the Odyssey movie are just reactions to the obscenities of our current culture. It's so artificial and disgusting that allowing us to be played has to be resisted. If that resistance caused the Lefties to waste their money and three hours of theater time, so be it.
The message that we are trying to get across is that we do in fact recognize pandering and falsity and obscenity when we see it and we will resist.
Quietly watching all of this happening without saying anything tells people pushing these cultural insults that we are quietly going along with it.
We will not.
Some of the people here who disagreed with - and seem slightly outraged by - Sasha’s assessment missed what I think was one of her most important points: It’s not enough to fight hard; you have to fight smart. If we let them manipulate us into fighting their way, we’ll often lose. If we fight them with mockery and making fun of them, the wokesters will always become hysterical and make fools of themselves, because they’re basically humorless, thin-skinned children. That partly explains Trump’s success - he doesn’t yell at them; he mocks them until they fly into a rage. Then he owns them.
Remember the character, Joe Friday, from Dragnet? He supposedly tells someone he is interviewing "Just the facts, ma'am". Joe was a conservative. The women he interviews are libs, for sure. He patiently lets them know he is not interested in their hysteria. That is how I am. I provide the facts, and then might even chuckle when the defensive response is 100% irrational and emotional
Facts and truth is "the ticket", so to speak, so I would correct Sasha (very delicately, as she's brilliant) and say that if we just huff and puff like the leftists, that's not a good idea (probably self sabotaging), but if we humbly "bring the facts and truth" (which I try to do - but it takes a lot of time to read, do research, etc.), THAT will (and does) make a difference. Lastly, I do mock them sometimes too. Example: when "the (supposed) insurrection" comes up, I mention how I was driving in my car when it was first reported that some Democrats were calling it an "insurrection" and I LOL, robustly, because the idea was so entirely ridiculous. If they push back, then I'll ply them with the facts and truth.
You’re right, and there’s also the old adage to “Pick your battles.” Was “The Odyssey” really a worthwhile “casus belli? I mean Christopher Nolan cast the weird creature Eliot Page as an Ancient Greek warrior? Who cares? That may be a great reason to point and laugh, and avoid the movie, but if someone goes off the deep end with outrage, they just look fragile, easily triggered, and silly. It was not the hill to die on.
Hah! Good point and a great analogy!🤣
Also, as a matter of possible interest, way back when I was learning how to try murder cases when the death penalty was on the table, I devoured Sun Tzu. It was more valuable than any legal text I ever found, and if I had to sum up its essence in one sentence, it would be “Fight smart; not just hard.”
The right should also beware getting drawn into the battle by wolves in sheep’s clothing. When one of these flash points first pops up, I often see commenters stoking the fire who don’t seem to be all too conservative. It would do well to remember that the left is just one giant psy-op running 24/7/365 and the more they can whip the peasants into a frenzy over insignificant things, the less time that will be spent focusing on the important stuff. Good piece as always by Ms Stone.
Trump doesn’t own anybody but his mindless, bootlicking cultists like you. The rest of us with a functioning brain know he’s an idiot, who appeals only to other idiots, such as yourself.
Hahahaha! Typical leftist two year old tantrum. Bet you’ll be spewing profanity next. Never fails. Hahaha!
Kevin’s just mad because his puberty blockers are causing mood swings.
No tantrum needed. I’m not your orange turd messiah. I’ll be laughing by the end of this year when the repubes lose congress and your dear leader has no more power lol. That’s worth celebrating : )
Any of us can dog-walk you retards whenever we want, because you’re all emotional cripples who grew up licking windiws and snacking on leaded paint chips, so you’re too dull-witted to actually argue about anything, and too cowardly to dish out any shit unless you’re safely anonymous and online. Leftists are all like monkeys, howling from the corners of their cages and hurling feces at all the people pointing at them and laughing.
Typical leftist pussy. Forces his way into a conversation that doesn’t concern him, with subject matter that he’s too stupid to understand. And then, because he’s too dumb and emotionally crippled to debate or argue, start the kind of tiny little shit talking that he’d never have the courage to do in person. Then, when someone slaps him down, he bursts into tears and runs away.
That’s pure projection. You call others what you know you are. You’re not even good at shit talking, let alone beating anybody. You couldn’t beat a pillow. Now it’s way past your bedtime junior. Your fat mama is calling you in bitch.
I agree. You couldn't have said it any better.
Thank you!
Also, as a matter of possible interest, way back when I was learning how to try murder cases when the death penalty was on the table, I devoured Sun Tzu. It was more valuable than any legal text I ever found, and if I had to sum up its essence in one sentence, it would be “Fight smart; not just hard.”
I have to agree with you. Remaining silent signals inherent approval. While I get Sasha’s point, I’m sick and tired of not being able to speak up and voice my opinion for fear of someone’s “meh feelings” being hurt. They sure don’t give a fig if they hurt my feelings. I’m just done with their hypocrisy. What’s good for the goose…
I’m of the view you should never let a leftist argument win by being silent and polite.
A clever retort will always win such moments, but only a Churchill or Twain regularly and often quickly could come up with these witty retorts.
The rest of us mortals can certainly shake our heads no and announce we disagree. It might even warrant “How silly.”
In many cases THAT is enough to shut down the Leftist nonsense.
You couldn't shut a door, Ricky. You lose merely by commenting outside your cult.
Mary QUITE CONTRARY-
You didn't address a single idea I presented.
Are you not capable of clever retorts, even with time to compose them ?
I CAN shut a door, and I'd be even more thrilled were you on the other side of it.
(Kind of Churchill-ian , yes ?)
Thank you for saying this. I disagree with Sasha’s view on our reaction to this film. We must be loud to resist having this crap pushed in our face and Hollywood can go broke. Nolan pandering to Academy rules to be considered Best Picture is what made this film a DEI movie. Spending 250 million to accommodate every rule is not how they achieve success.
We don't have to be loud. Just ignore it. If you don't watch it their numbers will be abysmal and the for-profit studio will stop making Woke movies
I don’t plan to ever watch their crap movies. I believe we do need to speak up. You do you, but I won’t be silent as they destroy a classical novel. I’m just sitting back waiting for Hollywood to go in the toilet and these celebrities go broke. Happy times
YES and honestly we need to throw our own parties and tell each other how great we are and just get away from them don't watch, buy or connect, there needs to be more conservative everything,,our own universe.
Make a true historical Greek drama. They are the liars and hurtful ones.
Would a director make a movieabout slavery and hire white canadian actors to play the slaves? NO!! WAs Helen of Troy from Africa ? NO
That's what I do. Just ignore it. I do write corporations when they put woke and unrealistic stuff in their ads. It's annoying and insulting that they seem to think that we can be manipulated by putting black actors in situations and venues that seem unlikely to happen in real life. Good for the blacks and getting a nice paycheck and I don't begrudge them that but it's actually become amusing to see the efforts they go to but maybe the ad agencies feel that they have to 'check the box' to signal their wokeness.
This.
The existence of the Odyssey is not "pushing it in your face" because you don't have to watch any movie you don't want to. My own TDS mother was today years old when she even found out this Odyssey movie existed.
A sports show might be a bit closer, but even then no one is forcing anyone to watch halftime, no one is batting the rest of the game if you refuse to watch the middle, and creating an alternative halftime show elsewhere and letting the viewing numbers drop for Bad Bunny and promoting it as an alternative anyone is free to choose or not was probably a better option than just screaming about how people who aren't like you are abominations that should be eradicated.
I had not thought of the new Academy rules when thinking of the casting! Excellent point, Ruth!
A few years ago my wife and I attended some plays in Ashland, Oregon, at their Shakespeare Festival. They had a black actor playing Macbeth--not exactly a minor role, to say the least, so that was certainly not the same as with Helen in this current film. The actor was excellent and after a few seconds his skin color dropped from my mind, and I was able to enjoy the play and the production.
It is true that this type of casting generally goes only one direction, especially for Shakespeare and more historical works. Still, Nolan could have cast non-white actors in other roles, perhaps a general or two or some sirens, etc. I think choosing Helen was a high profile and direct assault for the race-based groups and generated the buzz he wanted.
It’s probably incorrect to assume classics like The Odyssey should be rendered with a British accent, but it’s a bit of a stretch to hear American actors who are usually less trained than Brits who take acting as an art form not a woke agenda. It’s easy to look beyond the bone thrown to the Academy Awards with Eliot Page and Lupita Nyongo who have bit parts, and the spectacle is worth the price of admission but expect the Odyssey to be more like Star Wars than Lawrence of Arabia. Since We still go to the movies on the big screen, Odyssey filled its 170 minutes enjoyably, but the bar is set exceptionally low based on recent American releases.
No desire to see how badly this film was affected
So Brad Pitt can play Othello?
Its like NONE of this is about acting anymore just show boating political statements
It does seem to move in one direction. I don't support all of this racial identification stuff and grew up believing in the Martin Luther King desire for a colorblind society. Having said that, it does seem to limit black actors options in Shakespeare and other older works.
Yes.
In fact most Opera productions cast white men in the role.
I agree with you @USMCVet. One of the key factors that differentiates conservatives from liberals is rational / thoughtful reaction versus the emotional / theatrical reaction of liberals. It seems almost every liberal was a drama-class kid or a choir / glee kid. I did those things (choir and theatre) but I was not very good at them because I am wired to be a rational and thoughtful person. I do not emote adequately. And THAT is what creates such blowback from the Left: we conservatives just do not shed a lot of tears. We care, but we think about pros and cons. Not every emotional reaction is for the better. Illegal immigration is certainly like that. Yes, I can intellectually understand why people want to come to America, but no, I do not agree everyone that wants to come, can come, and certainly not without an invitation. The reasons are rational: We cannot afford to take in everyone who wants ECONOMIC asylum, which is the entire world. I can go through all the Left Wing wants, including "Abundance" and show if and how it can be done, rationally. But libs do not want facts and science, they just want to FEEL good. Attacking conservatives does that for them: it makes Leftists FEEL good
Interesting you claim conservatives are the rational and logical ones. Last I checked, you right wingers are the ones who believe in a sky fairy who’s magically watching over us every day. It’s the liberals who have the intelligence to know those are fairy tales and your imagination. So I’d rethink your claims of logical superiority and lack of emotional reactions. Atheists aren’t conservatives.
Ask yourself one question: will this action bring more independents to your side for voting purposes or not? If not, don't do it. You can worry about the rest when you become a dynasty because you have proven to the people you can govern for the good of the people.
Amen. Well put.
I don’t believe Sasha said that the Right should be “quietly watching…without saying anything”, but to build and create which means knowing the rules of the game better than the opponent to win the battle.
Hell no, we won’t go! But Sasha’s analysis goes deeper than that. We need to pick our battles. Like she explained, all the pearl clutching that was stirred up launched the movie into the stratosphere. Undeservedly so.
We should have allowed it to rise or die on its own merits.
Why are people here dissing on Lupita? Is it because she’s black?
Remember the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. The less attention the left gets on irrelevant issues (Hollywood in particular) the faster it will die on the vine. The only reason leftist had to see this movie was to boost it's box office and give the right an insignificant "loss". If no one had reacted, it would have flopped.
Keep deluding yourself to think that. It was always going to make tons of money regardless of how moronic right wingers thought.
Sasha, One of the most insightful analyses on this whole area that I have read. You have hit the nail on the head -- it is not a binary war (nothing in life is, for practical purposes) it is understanding the individual situation and dealing with it accordingly. As a doctor who teaches medical students, I fight a one man battle to note that health care is ONLY about individuals, and everyone who tries to pretend it is about groups or populations will end up being wrong enough often enough to kill lots of people. This article is a perfect analog to that in the arts/culture world. Kudos.
As someone who worked in both clinical patient care and then in corporate medical sales and development, I couldn't agree more with you in regards to "individual care". I watched as policies, practices, and expectations were developed based simply on what someone looked like that I became incredibly cynical regarding the care I was to provide. Moreover, on the corporate side, outside of process improvements, the massive turn to "everything AI" in medicine will absolutely, in my opinion, lead to poorer healthcare for many, and more deaths. I could go on in depth, but those of us who experience the change on a daily basis couldn't be more concerned.
Thank you Dr. K and danbfas. I too am a physician who taught medical students and residents for over 40 years. I too lament the trend to think of populations rather than the individual patient sitting before you, and the fraudulent camouflage of non-granular algorithm medicine disguised under the banner of "evidence based." The woke takeover of medical education at my university finally drove me away from the classroom and from seminars, though I continued to supervise residents.
Teaching a course in medical ethics to a combined class of medical students, dental students, and advanced nurse practitioner students I stated that those of my patients who accepted that they were at least partially architects of their own misery tended to do better than those who blamed all their issues on society and on others. For this I was attacked as ignoring racism, sexism, economic injustice, and climate change as the key factors in the lives of our patients, and after decades of teaching awards and high student ratings, got my first and only negative evaluations from students.
At this important cusp in our history and it is essential we not squander our remaining clout wrongly. This goes way beyond the Super Bowl and a current movie. If we are drawn into foolish skirmishes we will lose our effectiveness in the main battles looming before us. There are not that many remaining offramps as we hurtle down the freeway to losing the most important parts of our culture.
Similarly, Homer’s Odysseus seeks to rectify the consequences of his individual actions to be restored to his thrown as opposed to Nolan’s Odysseus, whose actions instead trigger the downfall of his civilization, which he must abandon (self-exile) to restore order…??
Both versions of Odysseus break Zeus’s Law toward stranger-hospitality (as do many other beings), but to severely different consequences: personal/rectifiable hell and redemption OR permanent guilt/ruining all of Greek society, which he is no longer to be a part of.
So Nolan’s film version (I saw Friday night) is not the personal story of Odysseus as it seems to be at first glance. It’s a story of fleeing and surrendering one’s culture because it’s not worthy of defending, also no actual possibility for redemption or restoring order.
Thank you doc for seeing through all the haze of what is considered health care today. My personal opinion is that Obama destroyed QUALITY healthcare.
Doctors cannot survive in a private practice. The requirement that all our records be electronic forced those who were trying to remain independent into a medical group. That destroyed everything.
Obamacare is unconstitutional, so there’s that also.
Nobody gives a damn about The Odyssey or Bad Bunny. You overestimate the level of caring people have for such nonsense.
You are giving far more credit to the left than they deserve. The tantrums, the meaningless protests, the baffoonish stupidity, the failed scams, the perversion of anti-science/anti-human policies, the entire con...IS NOT WINNING.
The shrieking and whining from irrelevant malcontents is nothing more than noise coming from a desperate party that's clinging to life support (look at the shitshow in Maine). The do-nothings should be completely relegated to the dusty corners of social media where the only people who care about those tragic losers are the ones who choose to give them time and attention. Stop giving them the time and the attention.
This is a truly conservative response. It is: who gives a rip?! That is how I feel about all things Leftist. The things the Left claim for themselves, they can have. I just want my stock market and male sports like football and basketball, things most libs hate. We can co-exist. The problem is the Marxist Left really ARE the NAZIs and don't want to let me be happy with my own life and pleasures. They want to control me and everyone else, just like Lenin, Mao and Stalin did.
Ugh, it's the relentless hash of never ending hysteria. I don't think there's one thing that the harpies have not attempted to undermine in the name of "social justice activisim". The cheering for failure at every turn is impossible to take seriously at this point. How can anyone support a party that seethes with resentment, deeply disturbing anger and self-loathing? The Party of Love Trumps Hate is imploding and I'm gonna stand back and watch it happen.
Why do you feel maga types throw tantrums, meaningless protest, are baffoonish and stupid, perpetuate failed scams, are anti science and love cons? Some of Trump’s scams rake him in billions bigummit.
The right needs to “[b]uild parallel culture”. They are building it, and his name is Taylor Sheridan. He has become a force to be reckoned with in film and television, and he (mostly) approaches woke culture with skepticism and satirical humor. The crème de la crème of actors are happy to work with him, and the Hollyrot establishment is so scared of him that they won’t allow his shows to be nominated for awards (No best actor nom for Billy Bob Thornton in Landman? Really??? No writing nom for Sheridan for Landman, either?).
One piece of that parallel culture is named Angel Studios. Their output is largely high quality, and never descends to the smut-trash Hollywood is enamored with.
I agree, but he would have so much more success if he didn't make us wait so long between seasons. I have watched, and loved all of his shows.
The right is stupid. And I say that as a conservative independent. One part consistently dies on the wrong hills and the other part seems to be trying to equal the corruption on the left.
No, the Pro-freedom Right is Individualist, with everyone going in a different direction. While the Communazi Left is collectivist - a cult like hive like the 'Borg' all organized around one ideal - punishing those that dare stray outside the hive.
Sigh...
You're right, of course.
But... damn...
Well, I can't disagree, the right is stupid. However, "stupid" comes from the brain. The left, on the other hand is evil. And "evil" comes from the soul. I'll take the former.
Well, I can't disagree, the right is stupid. However, "stupid" comes from the brain. The left, on the other hand is evil. And "evil" comes from the soul. I'll take the former.
The Odyssey
Read The Book!
Good advice for everything.
I recently discovered Books don't need battery's, and The Format doesn't change. You can open a book from 100 years ago, and it still works!!! :-)
Steve, you’ll love this! My daughter’s copy of the ILiad from the early aughts has been sitting on my bookshelf these many years so with all this brouhaha about the Odyssey I decided to read it
My book group for August will read The Odyssey, I bought the Robert Fagles translation.
If anything about Nolan’s Odyssey it’s gotten some of us to revisit Homer and Greek mythology in general and that’s a good thing.
PS western Culture came from 3 places Jerusalem, Ancient Greece, Rome. This is why we are different (Better) than say India. You have to know something about hem or you're gonna be confused.
As I understand it (and I could be wrong) Christopher Nolan used Emily Wilson's modern translation which is very Feminist.
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/64fa4bd0898637fa1cfe84ef/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/230918_r42942.jpg (Real Classy!) I don't get the whole Tattoo thing.
How Emily Wilson Made Homer Modern | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/emily-wilson-profile
Victor Davis Hanson: ‘The Odyssey’ and the Woke Feminists Trying to Rewrite Homer’s Play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i8QScdhZzo
FYI
Introduction to Ancient Greek History with Donald Kagan Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL023BCE5134243987
Sure and I have a couple of books that are close to that age. I have, tho, gone almost entirely to the Kindle versions for convenience. I have a library full of physical books that I will never read again and my poor kids will have to sort through them. The sons might keep the fishing, golf and outdoor books and the daughters might want some of the cookbooks but I guess most will go to the library sale or some other charity.
"Books don't need battery's, and The Format doesn't change."
Sure, we lost the battle of the superbowl, but IDGAF; I didn't even watch this year. And not for nothing, Speileberg's Disclosure Day bombed relative to what was expected. And Supergirl got crushed in it's 2nd week by a George Washington biopic.
So Nolan's going to do OK w/this movie- great! Shapiro liked it: 9/10, so it's a good movie I guess.
I rarely go to the movies anymore: for what I can do at home it's simply not worth the money and the headache.
I suspect that people are just tired, man. Tired of the culture wars. I know I am. I picked my side, and I'm all in. I use less bandwidth this way. And as a result, my use of social media has seriously tapered off.
And that's a healthy thing.
Brilliant.
Interesting assessment.. The NFL administration has been woke garbage. Look what they wrote in the end zones, kneeling etc.
Numbers down, they tacked back to right.
Hollywood is going broke in every measurable way.
Odyssey may make money, but they lost another $1 billion they could have made. Don’t forget the story was changed to suit Emily Wilson’s feminazi worldview.
If only the NFL would just do football.
Saw a pic of Emily Wilson: she's a tattoo-covered monstrosity. I couldn't possibly take anything she writes seriously.
The left thinks they are "the Resistance", but that is false. They and Hillary and Joe are the status quo and Trump is the real Resistance.
Hard for libs to understand. Trump is who pushed back on and took over the GOP, destroying the neoCon movement all by himself. The Left had controlled the American government since Bush Sr. in 1992. I don't give George Jr much credit for being a true Constitutional conservative. He was more like a centrist Democrat in his policies
Agreed. GWB was very much a Kennebunkport Republican with a Dallas twang.
100% Globalist swamptrash!
If Trump is the resistance, is it in the sense that’s he’s resisting not raking in billions from stock trades this time while most of the rest of us outside money making big cities are having a hard time affording rent and food?
Build indeed. Angel Studios is an example of what non-woke well crafted movie making can be. The audience in the theater in which I saw “Young Washington” applauded enthusiastically at the end. I believe the reviews from both left and right commentators have been generally favorable.
"To the Left, any time they are invited to a culture war battle, it’s like this scene in Casablanca, where they have to sing louder to drown out the song by the Nazis."
Nope. It's those of us that love America, its traditions and values singing the Star Spangled Banner to drown out the Commie (Nazi) Left. Every Damn Time.
"What followed feels like a virtual Civil War."
Actually this is already a civil war in its initial innings: Trump assassination attempts and Charlie Kick murdered.
Otherwise an EXCELLENT critique of the Right, especially in terms of building vs reacting.
Our time is better spent building sound arguments and institutions - such as Hillsdale College - than clutching pearls over the Left's bullshit.
“Let's keep our culture proud, loving, and strong. Let's welcome folks who want to
share in it, honor it, but not tear it apart. Too many of our forefathers spilled blood to keep it this way.
Let's keep the faith for the next 250 years in their sacred honor.”
-James Wood
I'm not yet convinced The Odyssey will continue to be this massive success. We will see how it performs next week. It was expected to be very frontloaded because Imax theaters were selling out for it a year in advance. It is generating huge numbers from Imax sales where tickets are $20-25 but still putting less overall butts in seats than movies 10-15 years ago. They are selling higher priced tickets to less people.
I take my 15 yo daughter to the movies every quarter or so. The theater we frequent has assigned seating. You choose your seats (row & number) when you purchase the tickets. I never buy in advance, and so we pick the seats from what’s available right before the show starts. The last 3 times we’ve gone, the theaters were nearly totally sold out, and we had to choose seats in the very front of the theater. However, in each case the theater was more empty than full for the entire movie. Only rational explanation I can conceive is the tickets were purchased by the studio (or an agent thereof) to inflate sales figures.
I will wait for it on Netflix
I don't plan to watch it anywhere. It will be streaming soon but I doubt that it will be any better than the one with Kirk Douglas. Hollywood seems to be obsessed with doing a remake with their woke krep inserted so they can lecture us rubes about the proper way to think. I really think people actually going out to theaters is somewhat fading away. Hard to compete with sitting in front of a big TV with the kitchen and bathroom a few steps away not to mention a lot cheaper. I am afraid that too many of our young people have no knowledge of real history and it won't be long before they think that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also black.
I agree that the Left controls the institutions and has won the culture war. It is a war that most normal people had no interest in fighting and many were not even aware of the seismic shift that was happening to our culture. A lot of people are genuinely puzzled by the seemingly sudden emergence of the trans cult. They didn't see the signs coming and they were silent as each new boundary was breached. Now boys are in girl's bathrooms and thousands of children have been sterilized for life and have had healthy body parts chopped off. And people ask "where did that come from?"
It may be true that the reaction to the ridiculous casting decisions helped sell tickets to the Odyssey but it doesn't mean that critics were wrong to point out the obvious. Juno is not a Greek warrior and Lupita Nyong'o's face is not launching any ships. I don't really care if these parts were inconsequential to the movie. People should not be forced to accept lies and then be called a bigot or a racist for pointing out the truth .
The Odyssey might well win lots of Oscars but fewer and fewer people care. The Oscars were just an invention of the film industry to pat themselves on the back and generate publicity. Hollywood's influence on our culture is waning and I suspect it will disappear almost entirely with the advent of AI.
I grew up in the 1970s within walking distance of a movie theater and I used to love movies. So it's sad to see the decline in quality of movies and our culture in general. I hardly ever go to the movies anymore but I did see Project Hail Mary and Young Washington. I hope that more movies will be made that reject the culture of woke and that people will stop patronizing a culture that hates them.
“Juno is not a Greek warrior”!!! That little bit of wit jumped right out at me and had me laughing. Thanks for making my morning!
Accused of being too passive, accused of being too active. I would like it if the Right stopped overemphasizing and became a little more stoic. Yes, and keep building and creating. These attacks, whether from the Left or the Right is an awful look. I thought the Right was more intelligent and wise and the Left was more self righteous about their agenda. They both look like goofballs.