[#366Flicks] A bit of the old ultra-violence.

A Clockwork Orange

Today’s movie focuses on a group of young men who exhibit absolutely zero compassion, perpetrate sickening acts of violence against people that did them no wrong, and fetishize vicious misogynistic aggressions toward women. What? No, not Internet MRAs, this movie was released in 1971, there was no internet.

Spoilers ahoy for A Clockwork Orange.

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[#366Flicks] Avengers 2.5

Civil War

“Welcome to the movies, how can I help you?”

“Can I get two tickets for the movie where one superhero thinks that people with such immense power have to be kept in check and the other superhero thinks that being required to answer to someone would prevent them from doing what they know to be right and these opposing viewpoints spiral out of control until they actually fight each other when they should be concerned about the villain’s plot?”

Batman v. Superman?”

“No, the good one.”

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[#366Flicks] You have already read this, just not yet. 

Time Travel

Stephen Hawking once held a dinner party for time travelers. He announced the date and time of the party after he held it and invited anyone capable of time travel now or in the future to attend. No one did. This suggests that time travel, at least into the past, isn’t possible. (I think it could just be that Hawking is a total bore and all the time travelers were washing their hair that night.) But that still doesn’t stop Hollywood from playing with the idea.

Some light spoilers ahead.

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[Editorial] Mississippi HB1523: Live and Let Live

Earlier this week Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed into law House Bill 1523 to “protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions…from discriminatory action…” He goes on to say that the law does not interfere with any rights afforded to any citizen under currently existing laws. You can read his full statement here.

I caught wind of this in the form of critics decrying it as legalized discrimination. Headlines described it as awful and articles suggested crazy-sounding potential scenarios like women being fired for wearing pants. I’m also aware of the echo chamber that our social feeds can form. I follow people who share similar views as myself, resulting in everyone reinforcing everyone else and giving the false impression my opinion is the overwhelming majority. So I sought out breakdowns of the bill, taking extra interest in it since it is my home state. I could see and agree with the critics’ point of view. I would normally just leave it at that, as an unfortunate truth that I would quietly do what I could to undo; maybe write a letter, vote for the people I’d rather have making decisions, etc.

Then I saw that supporters of the bill were using this hashtag: #MSLiveAndLetLive. And something in me broke.

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