!neolibs !bookworms there's a book "Infantilised" by a Bong author.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199617292-infantilised
The first link is The Economist article.
Some highlights
Over many years as a lecturer, Mr Hayward grew concerned that his 18-year-old students "resembled less mature teenagers on the cusp of adulthood and more fearful schoolchildren adrift in an alien world of adult autonomy". One arrived in class dressed in a onesie, noting that it was cold and he liked to feel comfortable. Was he not "concerned about the infantilising overtones of such a garment?" asked Mr Hayward. "No, I want to be treated like a kid," came the reply. "Adulting is hard."
Finally, Mr Hayward chides the liberal commentariat. On the one hand, they celebrated Greta Thunberg, a former schoolgirl activist, as an "all-knowing sage", despite her possessing "no scientific expertise" and saying "nothing original whatsoever about climate issues". This, he claims, is evidence of "a role reversal in which young people are increasingly assigned the intellectual gravitas and cultural authority to educate adults".
A lot millennial writing consists on adults behaving like children and children acting as sage creatures "lecturing" adults. Greta Thunberg is just a symptom of that. !writecel gives us some pf the worst examples of "wise kids" tropes on media.
But Mr Hayward's argument has two flaws. One is that it is so grumpy. Why shouldn't adults dress up as comic-book characters, if they enjoy it? What is wrong with liking the "Wallace and Gromit" animated films? Being grown-up means taking responsibility for your actions; it does not mean only ever seeking fun in highbrow places.
Lmao, "Just let people enjoy things" journo version
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Its not just comic characters but the fact the media with these characters is getting worse and worse. There was a time when DC was publishing fresh new mature books every year which dealt with themes of varying complexity. You could say these concepts are inherently childish or poorly written but crack open Watchmen and the reader is left with questions about what it means to be a hero and if the hero mentality is truly good for society. Read the 90s Doom Patrol and nearly every issues drops new philosophers, art movements, or esoteric religions every issue. Sandman teaches a reader about mythology and storytelling. Daredevil born again teaches a reader about the importance of faith and forgiveness in a fundamentally evil and sinful world.
What does The Avengers (2010) teach a viewer? It is a nearly plotless movie. There is no character development, themes, or even a simple or kink in the plot to make it interesting. A bad guy who is bad shows up and attacks new York and a bunch of quippy attractive people punch a bunch of faceless CGI aliens hard and everything is beautiful and nothing was hurt despite half of New York being destroyed. When a superhero movie tried to show that maybe a city being anhilated by a crazy sci fi machine would actually be scary and hurt people soyboys had conniption fits and cried that it was too dark and scary
like kid me was just fine watching Man of Steel idk why 30 year old men were so upset over it. Even when the Avengers added a tiny bit of depth with the neo-malthusian Thanos it fricking did nothing with it as the story just became about time travel and big fight scenes not a single character in that movie even offered once ounce of critique to prove Thanos wrong.
It goes beyond this to what does a viewer learn from Star Wars 7 beyond just blatant nostalgia and vague anti authoritarianism? Like to a kid the Darth Vader reveal in Star Wars empire strikes again could actually cause them to think about how a good man (lukes father) could become bad and fight his son. Its not much but its the kind of thing which promotes thought and connection to the real world. Is there anything like that in the new star wars trilogy (I never saw the last one because 7 and 8 were pure slop despite all the soyboys crying about 8 being too deep or something. Its not deep its just dumb disney nostalgia shit with a feel good message about how anyone can be a hero)?
I mean we are on alien 7? or some shit? I think the first four alien movies are pretty interesting examinations of femininity and motherhood but how many movies do we need about people being hunted by the same monster in a dingy space ship?
What does a reader learn from some shitty anime isekai about a loser weeb who kills himself and gets a harem in a fantasy mmo rpg world? Suicide is good? I cracked open the newest batman comics recently and they were fricking unreadable. It was some slop about how there is like evil purple and red batmen from other universe who infected a robot army and brainiac and Amanda Waller are using this army to kill all superheroes or some shit. Just pure slop. I then flipped back through some 90s Batman back issues and wow there were actual characters, the villains acually made sense, there was a lot of focus on the every day people of Gotham and how they lived, and when a big Gotham threatening even happened it actually had an impact on the city because it only happened once every few years instead of every few months (it was also reasonable natural diasters like earthquakes and plagues rather then multiverse robot armies). Yeah this kinda stuff is pop art and silly and some of the villains have weird powers but atleast it has some connection to reality. The characters have actual lives and motives, things actually sense.
It just seems to me all this stuff has been stripped of meaning and turned into pure escapist slop !comicshitters
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
That's something which always bothered me about MCUslop, Thanos is not a misunderstood "the ends justify the means" villain who akshually has a point, he's just flat out wrong.
The universe has an overpopulation issue? Overpopulation on Earth is already bollocks and is even more stupid on a universal scale. I don't understand why there wasn't a single character in the films questioning that, they even had a scene where Captain America tries to see the silver lining of environmental pollution being down. There's no need to make your psychopathic genocidal supervillain "well-intentioned" or "technically right".
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
What do you think of Joker (2019)? Besides it being a cheap Taxi Driver clone, it had a lot of potential to be an interesting villain perspective, but he seems kind of just hapless and r-slurred, just doing things because he's a natural frick up instead of digging into the societal breakdown stuff as motivation.
Andor was probably the only recent Disney scifi show that explored some interesting themes, mostly just how they show how the imperial system is run at a huge multi-planet scale. But scifi is a bit different than superhero fantasy where you can look at bigger "coming soon" societal themes. Probably why that XMen comic "Days of Future Past" was the most interesting comic ever IMO
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Joker (2019) was such a waste of a movie. It was too afraid to advance its own message or criticize the character and muddied itself intentionally to avoid casting the writers' ideological enemies in a relatable light. They wanted Joker to both be an abused psycho maniac and a stand-in for millennial audiences mad at their parents.
Nobody believes 3 investment bankers beat up a clown for fun. It's just supposed to make him palatable to the viewer— which he shouldn't be! A movie about a guy who is wronged and lashes out should be off-putting and force you to confront both the conditions that create him and his actions. Offloading the guilt to the 1% and underfunded therapists is such a cop-out.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I think the investment bankers scene was a reference to Bernie Goetz, but the facts were clearly changed up to be more palatable to the audience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
yeah the scene shows 3 white drunk bros in suits very lightly harassing a girl by asking her if she wants french fries, then Phoenix sits there acting like hatable r-slur laughing even after the girl looked to him for help, then they beat up the r-slur mocking them. It's a strange scene to start his anti-hero arc. Some legit criminals, humanized as just dumbs rich kids before being killed by a psycho who had seen it repeatedly before would have been more interesting. The whole movie is so wishy washy all youre left with is an r-slur main character and a vague anti-rich narrative they spend 3min building up.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
If they wanted to make things muddy they would have placed 3 low life black thugs beating him up instead of the Wall Street bros.
I would love to see what redditors would think of a scene like that.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
It was but also by changing the conditions it totally changes the context of the shooting to the point that it doesn't even address any of the same issues. But making the shooting match what happened IRL risks the audience reacting the same way they did IRL (support)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
!edgelords
(fuk u mom)
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I gotta admit, it was nice seeing some mom hate for once.
Everyone's all like "boo hoo my dad" but my dad's always been pretty cool.
Also that scene where he points the gun at the tv when a black guy comes on and shoots a hole in the wall that he has to hide
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
i agree your dad is pretty cool
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Nice to see someone else appreciate it
he works too hard 
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
No, you don't understand - if we don't shoehorn in the 753rd cinematic rendition of the Bernhard Goetz shooting no one will watch our movie!!!
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
I don't think
@transgirltradwife still lurks here, but she is very adamant about this- not specifically in marvel movies but in general.
Some people are complete defeatists who act like there's never been a technological innovation in their lives that make the standard of living better as population grows and also acts like there's an incomprehensible population boom that will bring on Malthusian population problems when almost the entire developed world has had less than replacement rates of reproduction for decades. Real ones think about colonizing planets if needed. Fake ones think about their r-slurred lifestyle being maintained like the old days and hoping change doesn't come.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
lmao cute twink
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
You forget that the r-slurred west coastcels who wrote that slop seriously believe in peak oil tier arguments.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Modern writers are incapable of imagining a scenario which isn't about their pet issue. If something is a problem they care about (overpopulation) then it has to be a problem everywhere in all forms of fiction. This is also why all fantasy, scifi and magical settings have to have disabled people in wheelchairs and gender dysphoria, and all demographics throughout all of history and imagination have to be the demographics of 2024 San Francisco
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
In a bizarre creative decision, The Eternals reveals that Thanos was objectively doing the right thing and saved all life on Earth and many other planets besides.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
in this house Thanos is a hero
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
My thing is they don't even address anything he has to say. No one really gives a reason why he's wrong or right beyond "wow its sad people died" there are so many ways to could use the script to prove him wrong. You could go the lazy route and just had someone do a take down monologue or have it be revealed Thanos is scape goating over population as a cope for being a shitty ruler.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
I don't have alot to add, but Infinity War was actually pretty good for being slop because Thanos was actually charismatic and fun to watch. Endgame he was just a super duper evil bad guy, it was pretty bad imo.
I think the Marvel movies had a good run of just being fun action movies with likeable, even though surface level, characters, but my god it's over.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
AI, rewrite the Avengers movies where Thanos wants to eliminate all women.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
I love you babe but I gotta disagree. I dont have to tell you that 90's comics were filled with hyperviolent hypersexual trash on an industrial scale but we blocked it out. I bet the proprtion of shit to good is the same then as it was now but only now its been mass media'd into a lot of shit to wade through. HOWEVER, theres lots of good including:
Morrison's elevation of Doom Patrol wasnt his only contribution to DC but also his Batman Run and All-Star Superman, the latter probably being one of the greatest portrayals of Superman came out in the mid 2000's.
Their Nameless (2017) book is essentially Crowley raping Lovecraft on the Event Horizon ship and is just as mindbinding as it sounds.
(morrison and his tarot, switching out the ogdoad, sword, wand, pentacle and cup for qlippoth? ak dagger head and cup?)
Jodorosky's Sons of El Topo (watch the movie first) I think he beats out Morrison in terms of his love Tarot, Spiritual Alchemy, mysticism etc. A biblical tale, (un)holiness of soul and deed, it came out in 2018.
(abel conforting lilith)
Tom King's Miracle Man (2017) was a beauty in depression and fatherhood.
(can he escape death and depression? true believers read on)
Hellboy finished recently and I consider it the sister series to Sandman, in quality and as a comparative mythology (plus blavatskian theosophy) setting with a main character struggling with his (lack of) humanity. The Hellboy in Heck(2012) arc was a beautiful send off to the character.
Immortal Hulk (2018), Banner's mental illness, pathologies and co-dependencies revealed through jungian analysis and stunning body horror.
On the indie side, Kill 6 Billion Demons (ongoing), essentially an isekai but with a setting and story so engaging I didnt even realize it was or that all the main characters were lesbians (and one of them was trans) until more than halfway through. It wears its manga influence on its shoulder and Im love it
(good manga include JOJO and Thats my Atypical Girl, a thoughtful and mature if a bit melodramatic piece on abuse and the complex feelings of love and resentment that comes with a disabled person)
(literally landmark louvre labor)
Disco Lavente (2022), a harrowing existential rage against self apocalypse, absolutely gorgeous. Will they match up against the genre defining classics like watchman? maybe but is that even a fair question? Like asking if Goodfellas will ever reach citizen cane?
As for the movies, yes blockbusters are mostly shit sequel machines. The Dark Knight Trilogy at least tried [Nolan said Borges was an inspiration but you be the judge if that actually came through] and I heard the twilight version of batman was good. Too bad the new bruce timm thing looks like shit. But go to the 80's. How many Police Academy, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, etc etc etc sequels were there? Unoriginality and slop have been here forever and will always be here. Go to the 80's and 90's how many dumb butt crossovers and events were there that had meaningless world ending stakes? The good has always been the exception but because its the only thing that survives we think its the rule. Imagine what shit was being pumped out by contemporaries of (pick your favorite ancient classical medieval modern writer) that we never saw because no one bothered to write it down. Give it 10 15 years, no one will remember the slop, only the cream and we'll wonder why things have gone down hill again (and again [and again] )
Long post, be gentle my sweet
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
When i said the 90s i was narrowly focusing on DC (DC weathered the 90s really well like even event slop like superman dying or knightfall is high art compared to recent events and some alt stuff) still the 80s for marvel was unquestionably good esp compared to now where everyone is a celebrity fed. Thats also not to say good comics arent being made currently i mean we got Monster by BWS, the strange death of alex raymond by Sim, the Glen Gengees by Kevin Huizenga ect. Are all good original stories. The indie scene will never die. People will always sneak good stuff in corpos too. My point was more the over all storytelling in DC has declines. Post crisis DC lasted a few decades as a collective unified story meanwhile in just like 13 years DC has recently had 4 total relaunch reboots.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
to be honest, half oh the reason behind my post was to recommend some comics that i really liked recently but i agree, i wouldnt be surprised if the total quality of dc has gone down hill. I just dislike the idea that art in general or comics specifically are getting worse than they've ever been. its too pessimistic (and sometimes it smacks of the children under frank sinatra songs and their mistimed births) and its disheartening to people espouse it. anyway, thanks for the monsters by BWS recommendation, the art was amazing and it made me cry
for your troubles and time, here's a portrait that looks like the rock for some reason 
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context
Perfectly said. It's fine to enjoy brainless action flicks, but when the brainless action flicks of today are less stimulating than those of 30 years ago, and people in general spend less time engaging with so-called highbrow media, we're in a bad state.
The original jaws is probably the most famous pulpy blockbuster movie, but it has a genuinely thought-provoking scene in the form of robert shaw's monologue
the implicit question that the movie asks here is "was the development of the atomic bomb worth it?". Obviously it's not in-depth and doesn't explore every facet of the arguments surrounding the morality of the bombings, but it trusts the viewers to come up with that question without spelling it out, and decide their own stance on it. This is all accomplished with a short scene including downtime so you can process it.
Contrast this with the thanos genocide thing where he quickly explains his r-slurred plan, one of the heroes says "that's insane!", and then they go back to punching each other immediately lol. It doesn't even give the viewer time to consider the idea before making the filmmaker's stance (GENOCIDE IS BAD) clear
Edit: on that note, There's a scene in back to the future 2 with a quick joke about how many sequels Jaws would have in the future
(about 1 minute in for reference)
In 1989, 19 movies in a franchise was a comically absurd number. Marvel has far exceeded that and star wars is getting pretty close if we cheat and count all the shows lol
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
You had a chance to not be completely worthless, but it looks like you threw it away. At least you're consistent.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
LOL. LMAO.
TEAMWORK
VALUE OF A SYMBOL
SACRIFICE
LEARNING HUMILITY
THE GREY MORALITY OF KEEPING SECRETS
WRONG. THE AVENGERS HAD TOO LEARN TOO TRUST EACH OTHER. ONE OF THE PLOT POINTS IS FOR TONY TOO LEARN TOO BE MORE LIKE CAPTAIN AMERICA IN HOW HE VIEWS SACRIFICE. THAT'S HOW HE GOT THE COURAGE TOO NUKE ALIENS IN SPACE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_Steel_(film)
MAN OF STEEL MADE A PROFIT. THE AVENGERS JUST HAD A LARGER CAST OF FAMOUS CHARACTERS TOO WORK WITH AND THE NOVELTY OF HAVING MULTIPLE MOVIES COMING TOGETHER INTO A SINGLE MOVIE.
BECAUSE CANONICALLY SUPERMAN ALMOST NEVER KILLS AND WHEN HE DOES KILL IT WEIGHS ON HIS MIND FOR YEARS. THE WHOLE SYMBOLISM OF SUPERMAN IS HOPE TOO THE WORLD, ANY WORLD. IT'S LIKE ASKING WHY 30 YEAR OLD CONSERVATIVES ARE UPSET THAT IN YOU'RE MOVIE JESUS IS ACTUALLY USING THE HOOKERS AND LOVES DOING BLOW. IF YOU AS A 6 YEAR OLD KID SEES NO PROBLEM WITH IT THEN NEITHER SHOULD THE ADULTS.
THEY DON'T REALLY HAVE TOO PROVE THANOS WRONG. THEY AREN'T HAVING A MORAL BATTLE THEY ARE HAVING A SURVIVAL BATTLE. PLUS HE HAS REPEATEDLY BEEN CALLED THE MAD TITAN THROUGH THE MOVIE, KIND OF IMPLYING HE CANNOT BE REASONED WITH.
THAT YOU'RE LITTLE GIRL AND ALL LITTLE GIRLS AROUND THE WORLD CAN IMAGINE THEMSELVES AS THE CHOSEN ONE. IT CAN STILL BE A SHIT MOVIE BUT THAT IS A REASONABLE ENOUGH MESSAGE ON ITS OWN.
IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT. THIS IS MORE THE FAULT OF THE REST OF THE MOVIE INDUSTRY FOR NOT FIGURING OUT A BETTER HORROR MOVIE CONCEPT THAN ALIENS TOO SURPASS IT.
LAST @timmy_blueballs CHECKED THEY DON'T GENERALLY KILL THEMSELVES, THEY END UP DYING IN AN ACCIDENT AND WAKING UP IN ANOTHER WORLD. ISEKAI ARE JUST MEANT TOO BE AUTISMO FUN. MORE ABOUT EXPLORING DIFFERENT REALMS WITH CHILD LIKE IMAGINATION. YOU KNOW WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD AND YOU USED TOO WONDER WHAT IF @timmy_blueballs WAS MEGAMAN OR WHAT IF @timmy_blueballs WAS A DRAGON. ISEKAI IS JUST THAT BUT DRAWIING FORMAT. NOT FINDING ANYTHING EDUCATION IN AN ISEKAI IS LIKE COMPLAINING THE 2ND GRADE STORY BOOK ISN'T TEACHING YOU ENOUGH ABOUT PHYSICS AND BIOLOGY.
FIRST OPINION @timmy_blueballs AGREE WITH.
SOURCE
YOU ARE RIGHT ANON, BATMAN COULD TURN INTO A FIRSBEE JUST LIKE REAL LIFE IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
YOUR PROBLEM IS YOU MISSED OUT ON 3 DECADES OF BUILD UP ON COMIC STORYTELLING, RANDOMLY JUMPED IN AFTER THE 90S AND ARE NOW COMPLAINING NOTHING MAKES SENSE BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T THERE FOR THE JOURNEY THAT ENDED UP GETTING US ALL HERE. THE REASON YOU HAVE A DISASTER HAPPENING EVERY YEAR IS BECAUSE PEOPLE WANTED MORE FASTER. YOU STILL HAVE MORE GROUNDED STORIES AS WELL, JUST READ THE BATMAN COMICS INSTEAD OF THE MULTIVERSAL EVENT COMIC. THEY ARE SEPARATE COMICS SET IN THE SAME UNIVERSE.
IT WAS ALWAYS PURE ESCAPIST SLOP ANON. EVEN IN YOUR TIME. THE ACTUALLY COMPETENT MEMBERS OF SOCIETY WEREN'T READING COMICS THEN AND THEY AREN'T READING COMICS NOW EITHER.
i STAND WITH ISRAEL.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
!soyteens
SOYDUEL
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
2012, not 2010, kiddo
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Wtf how young are you???? ZOOMERS 🚨🚨🚨 OUT 👉🏿👉🏿👉🏿
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Honestly I'd give alien a pass because it gave us Alien Labyrinth which was kino, but will never be adapted because it's too dark for hollywood
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
I can't believe you're making me defend the MCU but no one in the movie tries to explain why Thanos is wrong because it should already be obvious to anyone with an IQ above 65.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Most of their audience wouldn't get it, then.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context