It’s all a lot easier too if this is just a socially enforced standard rather than expecting individuals to measure exactly how they should tell an old person to turn their shit down while also being at the limits of their patience and probably not really in a position where it’s easy to express themselves in the manner that the other person feel entitled to.
Something that does stick out to me that I just found interesting is that Bob is extremely paranoid about phones and starts blaming Sensei talking on the phone for the military finding them when that has nothing to do with them targeting him, as what actually puts them on Sensei is Willa being publicly highlighted and linked to his dojo both on the calendar and in his dojo itself.
But phone tracing is in fact what allows Lockjaw to track Willa to the nunnery and I’m not quite certain what to read from that. I think perhaps that Bob has some of the opsec knowledge ingrained in his instincts but he’s too rusty to properly use it, and also perhaps that his blanket ban on Willa having a phone rather than giving her instructions for when to know to dump it is a major failing. Obviously Sensei uses phones in communicating with his network while also having the skaters as a courier system of sorts, and he does stand out as sort of the current generation of effective active resistance.
The feeling this movie gives me is kind of that it all depends on the specific situation you’re in, the rules have to be adapted to your situation and the risks you’re taking vs the results you expect and the consequences on your life following your actions. Comrade Josh isn’t in the wrong for being strict on the passwords but he and the organization should have protocols for bringing in people who can personally safely vouch when passwords fail, rather than that being the responsibility of Bob when he is not really in a position to think clearly, even if he should get told to knock his fucking attitude off when the situation is resolved.
Finally got around to seeing OBAA and Comrade Josh is so fucking funny, I love that guy.
I know a lot of people want him to be like l’ultimat critique l’wokeisme but I do buy into the idea that he plays it up when Bob starts being an unreasonably caustic asshole instead of just pulling out the manager code. Reading online that his land acknowledgement essentially translates as him saying that he is somewhere between the west coast and east coast really sealed the deal on that reading for me.
And also on the other hand I think him being kind of a useless piece of shit that gets backed up by personal connections in the movement, despite putting more “valuable” members in direct danger, could be read as another angle of critique. Like how many times do you get people who cover for shit that wouldn’t be tolerated from a fresh face to the movement because one guy in particular has history with whoever is being a problem? Overall nothing really read like a one side criticism, it’s all woven around the central theme of how personal connections is both an incredible strength and an intense vulnerability in the movement, that’s my read on things. Probably his best decision is staying retired after the whole mess.
The one thing I would have wanted changed tho is I’d have probably put more threats in towards the nonbinary student who ends up giving the military Willas phone number, you can read subtextually that they are extremely vulnerable in being arrested but it is the one scene I kind of think did feel sort of like a down with wokeisme moment.
Kind of the same shit with public smoking as well.
To me it seems like such an obvious pull from collective culture that I don’t expect there to be like one particular source, it would be funny if it originated from an accident tho.
I get why people want to point out the disconnect but I’m ngl, feels weird that people talk about Israeli comedy like they actually expect Jewish people to be born with an extra funny bone.
But I guess it’s also like the whole actually unique situation of a diaspora being assigned a near unanimously agreed representative state whether they like it or not, that also deliberately wants to erase the connection to diaspora culture and history.
Still think people could phrase it better than just asking dumb questions about why Israelis aren’t funny if American Jews are.
I always saw that as more of a famous poster than a famous shirt in particular.
Kind of ridiculous to call it antisemitic when it is in reference to a horrific crime of misogyny specifically.
What do you consider a smear?
The only thing I have seen cited as activist work in his adult life is something that sounds like a local climate change org.
But he fucking owns an oyster farm, he’s fighting for his business interests lol.
I did play this as a kid, I think I finished the roman and the zombie catholic and then the bad vibes of the hub world whispering got to me one night and I just put the game down entirely.
They need to give this guy the Vlad the Impaler treatment.
Yeah, and that also makes me suspicious that his anti Israel rhetoric has any weight behind it.
The cynical refrain of American Zionists is that spending money on armaments for Israel is a great investment, so why wouldn’t he just change his mind once he gets into office and gets that whole spiel?
Just regress to a standard dem fingerwagger who keeps giving the funding and then insincerely hoping that Israel and Palestine just become friends.
Not fiscal Conservative broadly but specifically in the sense that he’s like, we are wasting money on pmcs, we need to retvrn to making recruitment for the real military attractive and beneficial instead of wasting tax payer money.
He has some statements from I think like 2021 where he asserts that the perception that PMCs are unaccountable death squads is a myth and that they’re basically just a taxpayer grift that does mall cop defensive shit. That’s his problem with PMCs, not that they commit massacres.
And notably that he left out both world wars and the civil war, despite giving patriotism as the reason he wanted to be in the American revolution.
That and the fact that his radicalisation from it essentially boils down to some idealistic fiscal conservatism.
Every argument I have seen so far in regards to this is the standard class reduction fare where him vaguely fighting for healthcare at home is him making up for mass violence abroad.
A lot of people will have ideas on how this could be good but really no matter what is put into it I don’t think it will amount to anything more than slop that will make people sat, “wow the past sure was fucked up, what a shame we didn’t put these guys in a reasonable jail sentence.”
His entire life has just been trying to play real life versions of cowboys vs indians so of course he would be delighted to get to join the cavalry and do the real thing.
I think even in professional settings anything might happen when the performance starts, so it becomes valuable to have someone at the front who can hear everything in context and signal for corrections if something is too loud or quiet, or out of time.