Everyone hates being wrong. Doubly so if you stuck your neck out for this technology over the last 3 years while anti-genAI sentiment bubbled and simmered on the left. And tbf, many neo-Luddites (I do not use this pejoratively) will be gloating and drunk on that Vindication Wine if the bubble pops.

Love and tender companionship is great and all, but can it really beat the euphoria of yelling "Scoreboard!!" at your nemesis when they've finally hit rock bottom?

I will say the gulf between 10 and 11 here is a canyon.

The past 2 years of their petulant behavior and lashing out just reaks of fear and rookie shit. Used to be you could just call the college student IS critic an antisemite and watch the blacklist take effect. Now they're sweating because they might really have to box.

Welcome to the Thunderdome.

Like for sure there is continuity in the administrations' approaches between 2014 and 2024, but man the flood of open criticism and valiant displays of solidarity. Like living through the 2000s and 2010s, I felt like the dam might never break on IS/P. Its breathtaking to witness.

I keep saying this but for me it at least bears repeating: the difference between how the country reacted in 2024 vs. how it reacted during the 2014 Gaza bombardment is night and day. I was in IR studies back during that period and just had to hold my tongue so much. It was socially verboten.

The generational divides on some of the Dem shibboleths which have not been disturbed for more than half a century is going to get gnarly over the next 10 years. Its rough now for sure, but 2024 felt more like a prelude than the real meat of the coming conflict.

Ridley Scott understood this, which is why Alien is unimpeachable in my eyes. There are other horror masterpieces which are far more subtle, but I appreciate the candor and frankness of Alien re: the nature of horror as a uniquely horny, sexual, femme genre.

Horror is horny in a bisexual and woman coded way no offense to the haters

Absolute unit inbound

Well the South side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy Brown
You see he stand 'bout six foot four
And it's bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Me and Nicole actually chat weekly. She mostly just talks about the magic of movies and AMC theaters but still, we're on a first-name basis.