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Ta-Nehisi Coates on HBO's Confederate

Nairume

Banned
Comical to me that people don't get this.

It's so unsurprising to me too, that of all of TV GAF, and the cancellation threads, and the discussion threads about said shows, people saying "Meh I don't want to see this show" is suddenly a problem now that it might stop a show with black fucking slaves in it.

Like.... TV gaf has discussed seasons of television for years, and not a fucking peep about debates on whether shows should get made/cancelled until now. These fucking coincidences are amazing.
I wonder what the overlap is like between the people policing others for being down on Confederates existing and people who incessantly whine about a Han Solo prequel existing.
 

Mr. X

Member
I have no faith in this project showing the South in a bad light. There's no way they would showcase how extremely violent they would be towards poc. It's not even the writer's fault, Hollywood would never permit an accurate negative representation.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
It's so unsurprising to me too, that of all of TV GAF, and the cancellation threads, and the discussion threads about said shows, people saying "Meh I don't want to see this show" is suddenly a problem now that it might stop a show with black fucking slaves in it.

Like.... TV gaf has discussed seasons of television for years, and not a fucking peep about debates on whether shows should get made/cancelled until now. These fucking coincidences are amazing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there aren't many shows that cause people to object to production on moral grounds in 2017 on this forum. This isn't an evangelical Christian forum for parents talking about shows their kids can watch.
 

Nairume

Banned
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there aren't many shows that cause people to object to production on moral grounds in 2017 on this forum. This isn't an evangelical Christian forum for parents talking about shows their kids can watch.
That's the thing.

People will absolutely bitch about certain shows existing for petty reasons, but the minute somebody suggests that maybe there's a legitimate reason that a show should be reconsidered, they are the ones that are getting jumped on for attacking the pure and honest ~creativity~ of the collaborative effort of people working for a corporation.
 
That's the thing.

People will absolutely bitch about certain shows existing for petty reasons, but the minute somebody suggests that maybe there's a legitimate reason that a show should be reconsidered, they are the ones that are getting jumped on for attacking the pure and honest ~creativity~ of the collaborative effort of people working for a corporation.

You only start hearing about creative freedom.when sketchy shit or morally repugnant things come to light. I haven't heard people crow so much about freedom and speech and censorship in television since Last Man Standing got cancelled. When the Emoji Movie was announced, everyone agreed that it would be shit and had no business existing. Now that it's out, everyone agrees that it was shit and a waste of time, with the added caveat that everyone involved shouldn't be allowed to work on another movie again. But if Sony came out tomorrow and announced that the Emoji Movie 2 would be a thinly veiled take on american slave narratives, just as poorly written and executed as the first movie, I guarantee you that defense force would assemble where there wasn't one beforehand.
 

daemissary

Member
You only start hearing about creative freedom.when sketchy shit or morally repugnant things come to light. I haven't heard people crow so much about freedom and speech and censorship in television since Last Man Standing got cancelled. When the Emoji Movie was announced, everyone agreed that it would be shit and had no business existing. Now that it's out, everyone agrees that it was shit and a waste of time, with the added caveat that everyone involved shouldn't be allowed to work on another movie again. But if Sony came out tomorrow and announced that the Emoji Movie 2 would be a thinly veiled take on american slave narratives, just as poorly written and executed as the first movie, I guarantee you that defense force would assemble where there wasn't one beforehand.

It's absolutely stunning to me that so many people in here can't distinguish the difference between "Man, this looks like shit and there's no way I'm gonna watch it" and "Man, this looks like shit and no one should ever be able to watch it."

Yes, I too thought the Emoji Movie looked like total garbage before it was released. I agree that based on its 7% RT score, I will never watch it now that it's released. Despite all of that, you won't find me inundating Sony with #NoEmoji on Twitter trying to stop it from being made or being released on DVD now that it's already been made.

Hell, I could probably write a ten page essay about how the Big Bang Theory is the worst show I've ever watched. How I personally find it morally reprehensible that like half of its jokes are basically making fun of a person with a mental illness. Despite all of that, you won't find me unleashing a horde of #NoBigBangTheory tweets either. A ton of people enjoy that show and despite all of my problems with it, I don't want to take that away from them. My solution is that I don't watch it.
 
It's absolutely stunning to me that so many people in here can't distinguish the difference between "Man, this looks like shit and there's no way I'm gonna watch it" and "Man, this looks like shit and no one should ever be able to watch it."

Yes, I too thought the Emoji Movie looked like total garbage before it was released. I agree that based on its 7% RT score, I will never watch it now that it's released. Despite all of that, you won't find me inundating Sony with #NoEmoji on Twitter trying to stop it from being made or being released on DVD now that it's already been made.

Hell, I could probably write a ten page essay about how the Big Bang Theory is the worst show I've ever watched. How I personally find it morally reprehensible that like half of its jokes are basically making fun of a person with a mental illness. Despite all of that, you won't find me unleashing a horde of #NoBigBangTheory tweets either. A ton of people enjoy that show and despite all of my problems with it, I don't want to take that away from them. My solution is that I don't watch it.

When Emoji movie was first announced like two years ago, people were saying it shouldn't be made. There was no "oh mai gawd gaiz, sinsoreshep!" battalion.
 
It's absolutely stunning to me that so many people in here can't distinguish the difference between "Man, this looks like shit and there's no way I'm gonna watch it" and "Man, this looks like shit and no one should ever be able to watch it."

Yes, I too thought the Emoji Movie looked like total garbage before it was released. I agree that based on its 7% RT score, I will never watch it now that it's released. Despite all of that, you won't find me inundating Sony with #NoEmoji on Twitter trying to stop it from being made or being released on DVD now that it's already been made.

Hell, I could probably write a ten page essay about how the Big Bang Theory is the worst show I've ever watched. How I personally find it morally reprehensible that like half of its jokes are basically making fun of a person with a mental illness. Despite all of that, you won't find me unleashing a horde of #NoBigBangTheory tweets either. A ton of people enjoy that show and despite all of my problems with it, I don't want to take that away from them. My solution is that I don't watch it.

The fact of the two properties you chose to use were the emoji movie and the big bang theory pretty much proves how little you actually respect this topic or care to think about it critically.

It must be nice having the privilege where things like this aren't incredibly harmful and hurtful to you, but we aren't so lucky.
 
My biggest takeaway was this section

“What if the white South had won?” may well be the most trod-upon terrain in the field of American alternative history. There are novels about it, comic books about it, games about it, and a mockumentary about it. It’s been barely a year since Ben Winters published Underground Airlines.

Storytellers have the right to answer any question they choose. But we do not need to wait to examine all the questions that are not being chosen: What if John Brown had succeeded? What if the Haitian Revolution had spread to the rest of the Americas? What if black soldiers had been enlisted at the onset of the Civil War? What if Native Americans had halted the advance of whites at the Mississippi?

That's what bothers me the most. The bizarre insistence is retrodding the same stories of what if these white dudes had actually won instead of these other white dudes, when there are tons more stories of minorities that would be vastly more interesting yet are, sadly, vastly more underused
 

Slayven

Member
It's absolutely stunning to me that so many people in here can't distinguish the difference between "Man, this looks like shit and there's no way I'm gonna watch it" and "Man, this looks like shit and no one should ever be able to watch it."

Yes, I too thought the Emoji Movie looked like total garbage before it was released. I agree that based on its 7% RT score, I will never watch it now that it's released. Despite all of that, you won't find me inundating Sony with #NoEmoji on Twitter trying to stop it from being made or being released on DVD now that it's already been made.

Hell, I could probably write a ten page essay about how the Big Bang Theory is the worst show I've ever watched. How I personally find it morally reprehensible that like half of its jokes are basically making fun of a person with a mental illness. Despite all of that, you won't find me unleashing a horde of #NoBigBangTheory tweets either. A ton of people enjoy that show and despite all of my problems with it, I don't want to take that away from them. My solution is that I don't watch it.
Systematic racism = the Emoji Movie

Must be nice to not have any skin the game
 
My biggest takeaway was this section

That's what bothers me the most. The bizarre insistence is retrodding the same stories of what if these white dudes had actually won instead of these other white dudes, when there are tons more stories of minorities that would be vastly more interesting yet are, sadly, vastly more underused

As someone who's not necessarily opposed to the show Confederate, this would be my biggest complaint. Those examples are far more interesting.
 

Futureman

Member
How involved are the Games of Thrones people with this? Is it just like executive producers? Or writers and other things as well?
 
As someone who's not necessarily opposed to the show Confederate, this would be my biggest complaint. Those examples are far more interesting.

Think how awesome it would be to see a story of if Native Americans had repelled white invaders? If their culture had been allowed to spread across the continent and modernize (and not be done so from the bubble of reservations, or surrounded by heavy European influences). I'm pretty ignorant of native american fiction, but I wonder if there's an afrofuturism equivalent

How involved are the Games of Thrones people with this? Is it just like executive producers? Or writers and other things as well?

I think they're the two main showrunners/writers
 
Hollywood would never permit an accurate negative representation.
I mean, 12 Years a Slave exists and is mostly faithful. That's not to say I trust HBO—or just about anyone—to do some confederate alt-history. I have zero trust in that being a smart, good-faith endeavor, and I kinda agree with Coates that it's utterly flawed even in its conception.

But there is a bigger appetite right now for truth and reconciliation about slavery and white supremacy than there has previously been. At least relatively bigger.
 

LionPride

Banned
I think that basically it.

Slave kids in the trash yall
giphy.gif


Greatness
 

daemissary

Member
When Emoji movie was first announced like two years ago, people were saying it shouldn't be made. There was no "oh mai gawd gaiz, sinsoreshep!" battalion.

Ok, those people were also shortsighted and wrong.

The fact of the two properties you chose to use were the emoji movie and the big bang theory pretty much proves how little you actually respect this topic or care to think about it critically.

It must be nice having the privilege where things like this aren't incredibly harmful and hurtful to you, but we aren't so lucky.

Oh stop, I was directly responding to the person who used Emoji movie as an example.
 

daemissary

Member
Systematic racism = the Emoji Movie

Must be nice to not have any skin the game

Again, direct response to Claude so take that up with him.

And I do have a family member with mental illness so I have skin in the game with the Big Bang Theory, why didn't you cherry pick that example?
 

Slayven

Member
Again, direct response to Claude so take that up with him.

And I do have a family member with mental illness so I have skin in the game with the Big Bang Theory, why didn't you cherry pick that example?

TBBT guiding premise isn't "here are some mentally ill people yuck yuck" in fact they regularly say he is not mentally ill just an ass.

Confederate starts off with "What if slavery wasn't abolished and black people didn't live so good like they do in modern america"

Even for Alt History it fails, because as Alt History it would have to be fundamentally different then what actually happened.

Confederate= The South stayed in power and continued to oppress black people

Real History= Confederate generals and officers slid right into government jobs that allowed them to shape their region but the entire country


Where is the Alt?
 
Think how awesome it would be to see a story of if Native Americans had repelled white invaders? If their culture had been allowed to spread across the continent and modernize (and not be done so from the bubble of reservations, or surrounded by heavy European influences). I'm pretty ignorant of native american fiction, but I wonder if there's an afrofuturism equivalent

That's why you simply need need more People of Color showrunners to think outside of the White box.
 

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
Spoken like someone who has never taken a philosophy class. Read Nietzsche's the Genealogy of Morals and get back to me about that good vs evil stuff.

Lol, if you had a philosophy degree you'd know that discussions of ethics and morality didn't die with Nietzsche

Or maybe all you would need to do would be think for a second or two
 

daemissary

Member
Lol, if you had a philosophy degree you'd know that discussions of ethics and morality didn't die with Nietzsche

Or maybe all you would need to do would be think for a second or two

"Lol" is a great way to start off a comment when you want to alienate the person you're talking to instead of actually convincing them of anything.

A) Jesse was discounting philosophy in its entirety.
B) I never said Nietzsche was the end all, be all of philosophy and ethics. I do believe that is a good starting point for someone in the good vs evil discussion.

If you would "think for a second or two" and not leap to conclusions, then maybe we could have a productive conversation.
 

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
"Lol" is a great way to start off a comment when you want to alienate the person you're talking to instead of actually convincing them of anything.

A) Jesse was discounting philosophy in its entirety.
B) I never said Nietzsche was the end all, be all of philosophy and ethics. I do believe that is a good starting point for someone in the good vs evil discussion.

If you would "think for a second or two" and not leap to conclusions, then maybe we could have a productive conversation.

Throwing Nietzsche around in a nonacademic context is not an element of productive discussion. Rather, it is a tactic to establish intellectual superiority. It is "a great way to alienate the person you're talking to instead of actually convincing them of anything," as you have said.

Jesse's questionable decision to question the relevance of logical fallacies, then subsequently pointing out your own is not more egregious than your suggestion that an understanding of Nietzsche would lead thoughtful people to a position of moral relativism regarding the Nazis in WWII.

It's the off-topic section of a video game forum. Waving our big, proto-existentialist dicks around here just to shut down discussion is off-putting and irrelevant.

What are you on about, anyway? Nobody is going to censor this dumb show. The freedom of large, faceless corporations to put on badly conceived, inconsiderate spectacles is one of our most treasured liberties.
 
tl;dr - What kind of realistic alternate reality will this present with the White South winning that isn't already existing in 2017 currently?

or

HBO Confederate a.k.a. If South Africa's Apartheid lasted 20 more years
 

daemissary

Member
Throwing Nietzsche around in a nonacademic context is not an element of productive discussion. Rather, it is a tactic to establish intellectual superiority. It is "a great way to alienate the person you're talking to instead of actually convincing them of anything," as you have said.

Jesse's questionable decision to question the relevance of logical fallacies, then subsequently pointing out your own is not more egregious than your suggestion that an understanding of Nietzsche would lead thoughtful people to a position of moral relativism regarding the Nazis in WWII.

It's the off-topic section of a video game forum. Waving our big, proto-existentialist dicks around here just to shut down discussion is off-putting and irrelevant.

What are you on about, anyway? Nobody is going to censor this dumb show. The freedom of large, faceless corporations to put on badly conceived, inconsiderate spectacles is one of our most treasured liberties.

Yes, suggesting that Nietzsche is a relevant and good read to establish a base on the subject of moral relativism is very much the same as you telling me to "think for a second or two."

"Tactics to establish intellectual superiority" sounds exactly like something Trump/Republicans would say about Hillary/Democrats when she/they were using generally accepted truths. If we are getting to the point where progressives are also going to say academia and knowledge are bad things because that inherently means you are 'talking down' to people who don't have that same background, then I truly fear for the future of our planet.

This is all getting very much off topic though. If you want to have a legitimate conversation about this, contact me via PM.
 
Throwing Nietzsche around in a nonacademic context is not an element of productive discussion. Rather, it is a tactic to establish intellectual superiority. It is "a great way to alienate the person you're talking to instead of actually convincing them of anything," as you have said.

Jesse's questionable decision to question the relevance of logical fallacies, then subsequently pointing out your own is not more egregious than your suggestion that an understanding of Nietzsche would lead thoughtful people to a position of moral relativism regarding the Nazis in WWII.

It's the off-topic section of a video game forum. Waving our big, proto-existentialist dicks around here just to shut down discussion is off-putting and irrelevant.

What are you on about, anyway? Nobody is going to censor this dumb show. The freedom of large, faceless corporations to put on badly conceived, inconsiderate spectacles is one of our most treasured liberties.

This is the goods
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
You only start hearing about creative freedom.when sketchy shit or morally repugnant things come to light. I haven't heard people crow so much about freedom and speech and censorship in television since Last Man Standing got cancelled. When the Emoji Movie was announced, everyone agreed that it would be shit and had no business existing. Now that it's out, everyone agrees that it was shit and a waste of time, with the added caveat that everyone involved shouldn't be allowed to work on another movie again. But if Sony came out tomorrow and announced that the Emoji Movie 2 would be a thinly veiled take on american slave narratives, just as poorly written and executed as the first movie, I guarantee you that defense force would assemble where there wasn't one beforehand.
Did you somehow find a way to make the emoji movie 1000x worse? xD
 
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