For as schlocky of an adventure the OT and Prequels were, they still drew on real world inspirations. The OT pulls inspiration from WW2 and the Vietnam War as the backdrop, a small rag Tage group of guerilla style freedom fighters fighting off the highly militarized empire with weapons that can destroy entire jungles I mean planets in its path.

The Prequels, for as bad as the dialoge was (because Lucas was surrounded by Yes Men instead of people who actually knew how to cover his weaknesses), was about the decadence of the 80s and the exploitation of the labor of 3rd world countries (see the disparity between Anakin being a slave on Tatooine and Padme being a queen of/senator for Naboo), in phandom menace, which quickly shifted focus to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and how republics, like the Roman Republic, and Weimar Republic became the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany, and how America was following the same path.

And this isn’t really some reading between the lines speculation, George Lucas has said that these real world conflicts served as inspiration for the movies. Could it be post hoc rationalization? Yeah it could be, but it’s kinda hard to make those justifications even years after the movies have been released.

The sequels just aren’t pulling from any relevant sources. It was all nostalgia bait without any substance the first order is literally just Hugo boss wearing good stepping nazis 2.0, aka The Empire Again, the New Republic narratively exists only to be blown up by The Empire 2.0, everything is “Look its just like the Original Trilogy!” and it all lacks a cohesive vision and an actual hero’s journey for someone to go through. Like everyone has great setups, a rogue stormtrooper, an ace pilot for the rebellion and a girl who survived childhood gathering scrap from dangerous derelict. And they just all get sidelined for all the nostalgia bait.

With all the people talking about how the books in this one library have been destroyed, when Israel has completely razed numerous universities, hospitals and libraries. Lives and information that has been burned from the face of the earth. This level of damage pales in comparison to the damage caused by Israel in Gaza.

If some spray paint in an American library causes you to clutch pearls but the literal bombing and razing of libraries in Gaza doesn’t get this level of response, you seriously have some inverted priorities.

My dad had to wait 6 months just to get an appointment for a doctor to recommend ankle surgery surgery which took place another 6 months later. So we have wait times just as bad as any other country.

I’m lucky enough that I don’t have a huge weight problem, and the bit of pudge I do have would probably be pretty easily solved by drinking less sugary drinks. But I’m also speaking from a place of empathy because I get that there are basically no options that cover the healthy, quick, and cheap requirements people want from their food.

Take everything with i say with a grain of salt/do some searching to get more specifics of what I say, its been years since I’ve really considered myself properly Catholic and a lot of what I learned is a bit rusty.

It depends on the flavor of Christianity, Catholics and some Protestant denominations that are still traditionally pretty close to Catholics, like the Anglicans, use the all black outfit with the Roman collar, that black collar with the white tab for their day to day outfits and the wear specific robes and garments when performing Mass.

I’m not sure of the details of the various flavors of Orthodox, but the bit I have seen tend to also use the various robes and other garments.

Some flavors of Protestant tend to focus on their leadership being part of the people and being in service to others (and actually do a lot of community service) tend to wear fairly plain common clothes.

And then the big Protestant mega churches that operate more like tax havens than actual ministries serving the community, tend to wear the nice suits and fly in their private jets.

I already have a hybrid schedule, so the days that I am working room home gives me so much time back, but that also still doesn’t particularly help me budget my way out of living with my parents.

I already have a hybrid schedule, so the days that I am worming room home gives me so much time back, but that also still doesn’t help me budget my way out of living with my parents.

I’m not someone deep in the throes of poverty, I’m decently middle class and I work an office job but 12 hours of my day is dedicated in service of my job. My alarm goes off at 6 so I get up, washed, and dressed in the morning, leave by 7 for about an hour drive to work, I have an 8 hour work day with an unpaid hour for work, and an hour drive back home which brings me to about 6 pm. I’m already tired from the day and by the time I’ve made dinner, eaten and cleaned up it’s easily close to 8:00. Before I’m too tired to go much further past 9:00 or 10:00.

And before you say, “why not move closer to your job” Gee I wish I thought of that but I live at home with my parents because homeownership is quite a bit beyond my economic ability at the present moment and rent is even more expensive than having a mortgage.

I’m not mad they used the cloning technology that has been established and even referred to the entire conflict that was literally named after the tech back in 1976 to bring back Palpatine, but that one line is just the encapsulation of “they need people to not have common information” whenever the plot needs it and try to make it a surprise.

This-is very-dangerous-to-our-democracy.mp4

To quote myself: “And there are quite a few people trying to reimplement the policies of that time period.”

Just because things were worse in the past and marginally better now doesn’t detract from the shittiness of today. And there are quite a few people trying to reimplement the policies of that time period.

Things being worse before is not justification for not progressing to something better.

We do. I’ve got friends who are harassed because of who they are, or what they look like. I’ve had friends almost die because of police kneeling their neck because he defended family from an abuser, friends who’ve been threatened and nearly attacked by homophobes and transphobes, I’ve experienced cops do everything they can to escalate situations to justify violence.

So yeah we really do live in a dystopian era where basic rights and securities are not afforded to the people who need it most.

Yeah I do help locally, I’m lucky enough that I have the means and ability to help others. But that still doesn’t change the fact that people can’t just cope and hope their way out of food insecurity. Plain and simple, every single one of us needs food, our bodies and minds will go through great lengths driving us to find food, we literally cannot turn off the neural pathways that tell us we’re hungry and that we need to eat. You can’t “positive thinking” your way put of an empty stomach while your body breaks itself down for energy.

Bold of you to assume I just sit on lemmy all day posting memes. Actually join in a bunch of volunteer service events throughout the year, some through work, other times personally. I also encourage others the vote for candidates who are more likely to bring about positive changes for our society.

So, yes I am being empathetic, and that empathy does actually drive me to take the steps I can take to make other people’s lives better. But at the end of the day, all of this work can very quickly be for naught unless we simultaneously fix the overarching systems in place that led to the unnecessary problems people suffer.

God it must be blissful to live without any kind of empathy towards the struggles others go through.

Food insecurity is something outside of most people’s control, last I checked, humans can only cope without food for about a week before death sets in.

It doesn’t have any protections about and entire political party colluding to grab power.

I suppose I was a bit small in the scope of what were dealing with today and entire party willing to disregard democracy to accumulate power.

Allow me to quote a great political philosopher of our time: Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.

There are quite a few people embedded in our political machinery, in congress, in the supreme court and held the presidency, that are actively working on overthrowing the government and replacing it a fascist state. The police who showed up and supported the jan 6 insurrection are doing exactly what that contingent of fascists want, they did not falter, they did exactly what their superiors wanted.

Honestly as much as the lifetime appointment wasn’t the worst idea the drafters had in terms of something for long term stability when the positions in every other branch have varying degrees of volatility, not having some process baked into the Constitution to deal with bad actors in the judiciary was a gross oversight.