They deported hundreds of individuals, and there are still masked officers abducting people in the streets. This is one small victory in a great big war that we’re all losing.

It also highlights a fundamental misconception about what criticism is. It isn’t about knocking someone down a peg, it’s about identifying and remediating flaws. Criticism should be supportive, otherwise it’s just cruel and rude.

Which is exactly what Frank would do with the same powers.

Fuck yes. I’ve always said that Punisher works best opposite Spider-Man. Daredevil was a good stand-in for the moral opposition to Frank’s brand of violent justice. Spider-Man isn’t just avoiding murder, he’s actively pulling punches to go easy on the criminals he fights.

It is what was missing from the Thomas Jane and Dolph Lundgeren films. We had lots of revenge violent rampage movies, and seeing the Punisher killing violent murderers in a violent world of murderers doesn’t have the same effect as when you have principled heroes in the same universe.

We just watched this last night with the kids. First time for them, millionth for us, but it did not disappoint.

Is the question what it is? Or what it should be?

You’re not a shitty boyfriend. Sometimes people are just incompatible. Work on yourself, but also seek out relationships with people that accept you for you, and aren’t stressed about whether you respond immediately. It also helps to find someone who makes you want to immediately respond to their texts.

She might have won the vote. Trump almost certainly cheated, exactly like he said he would. We should prove that Trump cheated so that we can prevent it from happening again, and so that we can punish the criminals that helped him in order to discourage future acts of treason against America.

But Harris still lost. She and the American public may have been denied a fair and democratic election, but an election happened and the results of that election were that she lost.

We need to focus on the first part, that Trump cheated and that we need to stop that from happening again. The argument about whether Harris was a good enough candidate, or enough people voted for her, or whether it was racism or sexism or some other factor that cost her the election, it’s all a waste of time.

America is diseased, and Trump is merely a symptom. This election shouldn’t have been close in any state, but the Democrats are so ineffective that it’s hard to imagine they’re really trying to win.

Bullshit. I am privileged in many ways. It isn’t an insult to acknowledge that I don’t and haven’t faced the same challenges as other people. I can recognize that society hasn’t been fair to others without ignoring the obstacles and challenges I’ve faced.

Are you saying we’re not privileged?

Edit: I’ve been thinking about your comment, and I wonder if you don’t understand what privilege is.

Imagine you’re at a restaurant. You sit, you’re eating your meal, and someone at the next table asks to borrow the salt. You have salt on your table, and for whatever reason, they don’t have salt on their table.

So you stand up and shout “No! It’s not my fault the restaurant doesn’t provide salt to every table! It’s not my responsibility to make sure everyone has access to salt! I don’t owe this table or any table any other table my salt that I am owed. The salt is on my table because I earned it. And besides, I have no pepper and my steak was overcooked and my chair is wobbly. Fuck you for even suggesting I share my salt.”

None of that bullshit is relevant. You have the salt and someone is asking you to share because you can. They aren’t blaming you for the lack of salt. They aren’t saying you’re responsible to make sure everyone has salt. They aren’t saying that, because you have salt, you don’t have other needs or problems, or that you aren’t entitled to use the salt while you have it. The privilege is that you have access to salt while others don’t. You don’t always need it, so it costs you nothing to share. Having it won’t solve all of your problems, and sharing it should not cause you significant problems. And someone pointing out that the whole restaurant should have salt on each table is not a personal attack on you.

You’re not the asshole until you refuse to pass the salt.

It’s a good thing I’m going to be protected by my denial.

The waterproof IP rating is a misdirect. We had waterproof phones with replaceable batteries, they just weren’t required for most people. Batteries fail at a predictable rate, and decreasing or dead batteries are the primary reason people upgrade their phones.

Phone manufacturers wanted to seal their devices to make people buy a new phone when the battery dies. They started making a big deal about IP ratings, because it was a byproduct of gluing everything shut. But how often do you actually get your phone wet? Everyone has one story about dropping a phone in the toilet, or falling in a pool, but those instances are rare. not every phone will get wet or dusty, but every phone battery will die eventually.

The exploding phone was actually a lot less likely to break. Making the phone a rigid bar of glass and aluminum makes it more likely to be destroyed when you drop it.

This comes up a lot, and I really don’t know where it comes from. Who is telling you that you’re responsible for the misdeeds of others? Seriously, point that out, because I’m in my mid forties, I’m a white cishet American man, and I’ve never felt like I was being blamed for the sins of people who look and fuck like me. Really, it just sounds like a conservative strawman talking point, because nobody does this.

Frankly, I was going to say almost the opposite. Conservatives are appealing to young men by decrying the “woke” process of breaking down those stereotypes. It’s a reaction to those “traditional” masculine traits being challenged by a more enlightened society.

The key is not breaking down those gender norms, but rechanneling that masculine energy and “gender pride” into something healthy and beneficial. We need to reframe the conversation, because when you attack, people instinctively defend. Instead, we should model the new masculinity, one where being tough means being confident enough to stand out or be yourself. Where being a bro means being a friend, not a douchebag. Real men have the strength to admit their faults and ask for help. Real power is punching up, not down, and real bravery is accepting people for who they are.

Contrast someone like Joe Rogan with Pedro Pascal. Which one is a “Real Man™”? Which one should we celebrate and focus on? Boys need role models, because we don’t know how to handle our hormones at an age when everything is confusing. If you tell them their instincts are wrong, they will retreat to a safe space where someone else will tell them that society is wrong and they should be as gross and misogynistic as they can be.

Real men are creative. Real men are kind. Real men are curious. Real men are sincere. Real men admit mistakes and accept consequences. Real men lift others up. Real men are able to ask for help. Real men are comfortable with their sexuality, and are not afraid of exploring their preferences.

All children are born selfish and frightened. We have to learn to be better through empathy. Without positive role models, we cannot learn to overcome those selfish impulses, and we cannot stand up to the bullies that will try to sell the red pill.

Because no matter what we do, there will always be conservative dipshits talking about how oppressed they are because they can’t insult people by calling them “girly” or “gay” or “retarded” anymore. There will always be angry gym rats who think big biceps and a fast car will fix their insecurities. There will always be bullies, and we should always stand up to them.

Also, every boy should watch Ted Lasso. Seriously, there has never been a better breakdown of male stereotypes than that show.

Which is like a normal amount of money for a book advance. It’s not like the publisher had matters before the court, or the judge was given free money and vacations for nothing in return. Justice Jackson wrote a book, and her book is a national bestseller.

One of the selling features of Christianity is that you just need to ask Jesus forgiveness and it will be granted.

Disney does not know where it wants to go or what it wants the movies to be. Blade seems like low hanging fruit, but what does an entire underworld of vampires mean for the rest of the MCU? Is it going to come up in Armor Wars? Will Kate Bishop start shooting stakes at fangers? The Wesley Snipes movies had him cut through hundreds of vampires in a nightclub where they had abducted hundreds of victims that they were bleeding for the sprinklers. Shield never ran across some weird bodies drained of blood through the neck?

I recently tried to DM for my son and his friends. One of his friends insisted he wanted to be a DM. I tried to gently encourage him to allow me to DM for them, and he would have much more fun as a player. Nope, he insisted, and like a good DM, I let him discover for himself why he was wrong. It was fun to be a player character, and they all learned a lot about running a game, so wins all around.

Don’t forget hiring sherpas to carry my shit up the mountain and help me not die.

There are people in this thread who are confirming that people care more for the dog. If you think those people don’t exist, I’m not going to have to provide proof. You’ll see it in the coming days and weeks.