Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Re: Last Jedi political messaging



On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 11:12 AM, utahtrout wrote:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi' leans into political fray


But the latest movie, "The Last Jedi," appears to lean into the political fray, from its egalitarian message to a more specific critique of callous plutocrats.

More pointedly, the mission undertaken by Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) leads them to a planet where the ultra-rich congregate at what amounts to an intergalactic casino. Moreover, it's noted that most of those one-percenters earned their money from war profiteering -- selling weapons to the First Order and Rebels alike -- while subjugating and exploiting those around them.

The pair's escape also weaves in an animal-rights theme, as the two rebels liberate a creature used for a kind of horseracing entertainment. The beast eventually wanders off free, regaining its natural state.

There's obvious irony in a money-making enterprise like "Star Wars" -- fattening the coffers of the Disney empire -- decrying capitalism run amok. Yet even if that's a minor, peripheral element in a fantasy set in a long-ago, far-away galaxy, rather than being reluctantly drawn into such debates, "The Last Jedi" signals its willingness to at least be part of the conversation by addressing issues in the here and now.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/entertainment/star-wars-politics/index.html





Wednesday, December 13, 2017

My comment on "Why I Was Wrong About Nationalism".

In response to 


I wrote this in the comments section:

"​In my previous comment I said that the video was really interesting but could give the wrong impression.  However, as much as I want to assume that Molyneux has good motives, I think that his stance on race and IQ is counter productive.  It is not just that this is a taboo subject, but it has great potential to do harm.  Even if it is true, there is no benefit to repeatedly pointing this out and it gives fuel to racists and justifies the idea that we can treat people differently based on race.  People should be treated as individuals based on their individual merits and race should be a non consideration.  Pointing out differences in race creates prejudices in otherwise well meaning people who had none.

There are a huge number of factors that could affect scores on IQ tests.  I don't think that I need to list them.  As a result, the premise that intelligence varies by race is essentially unprovable.  Over the next hundred years we will see populations shift and changes in demographics and economics, and therefor I suspect that a hundred years from now we will see dramatically different results on these kinds of tests.  If correct, it makes race based comparisons rather meaningless.​"

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