The Superman 1978 film was an enigma, for being a superhero film that didn't absolutely suck.
Then there were the Burton Batman films, which had something special to them that made us feel comic films weren't horribly cheesy.
Then there was a break for a decade of suck, before the first X-men film found that missing link between fantasy and humanity that audiences could relate with on a realistic level. It was bolstered by the first Spiderman, and then the Iron Man film really cemented the legitimacy of comic-based films from there.
That's not even mentioning the Dark Knight films.
But has anyone noticed that gradual slide into mediocrity/laughability in the last few years/sequels? Everything since then has lost that human element that could make us relate to the protagonists and suspend our disbelief, and for me it's felt that everything in this genre has slid backwards to that immature and unrealistic setting.
Meh.

And what you just said was relevant to anything other than your own narrow preconceived notions of what is or is not a worthwhile use of someone's time and property?

What I was doing was taking your initial argument and demonstrating the absurdity at it's core by extrapolating it's logical consequences. This is what one does when one has been taught to argue at a level beyond pre-school debating classes. I haven't just "read some Chomsky" I have spent my entire academic career studying Philosophy and linguistics/rhetoric.

Chomsky and I actually disagree on many things & frankly the fact you would choose him and not say Jacques Fresco, Jean Jacques Rousseau or Slavoj Zizek etc. with whom my beliefs have a much greater affinity suggest that you yourself have a paper thin grounding in the political and philosophical subjects you are trying to pull me up on. (and to be clear I don't fully agree with any of those people either, my political philosophy is based upon my own conclusions built up over years of study and consideration)


So lets be clear, generating $7000 of income is to you a pointless activity? (a point you have consistently refused to acknowledge as it undermines your entire argument). What about trying to entertain people? Are all attempts at comedy fruitless because they didn't make YOU laugh?

"Immature", "funny" and "necessary" are all highly subjective concepts.

Clearly YOU didn't find it funny, others (about 7 fucking million in fact!) did.

Clearly YOU thought the video creator lacked maturity, plenty of people would regard his sense of timing, context and dare I say it low level satire as indicative of a potentially very mature and cognicent individual. (not saying he is but the evidence supports either notion)

But most of all NOTHING in the universe is demonstrably necessary, not even the universe itself. The very concept of necessity or usefulness is entirely subjective in it's nature. We as humans invented it, nature has no such qualms, it simply exists and continues to do so (unless you wan't to bring God into this at which point my eyes will likely glaze over).

This did start as your observation regarding the "pointless" destruction of a phone, an observation I was suggesting had it's basis in little more than your own narrow preconceptions about what is and is not a laudable use of ones time and resources.

The point about other evils in the world was an (unsuccessful) attempt to point out the absurdity of getting your knickers in a twist about something so trivial it's almost funny. What you consider a serious problem on the global level specifically is less important than the simple fact that this dude smashing up a phone is utterly negligible by comparison to virtually anything one might care to mention. The best counter you have here far as I can see is to suggest that everything is pointless/subjective which would naturally be totally self defeating. (or to backtrack and redefine your position as one of mere distaste and aesthetic preference rather than an objective truth as you did)

Maybe your a Randist or an anarcho-capitalist or something. That's fine and while I might disagree with the premise of those positions their proponents would support my core notion just the same. i.e. getting angry and this dude smashing up his phone is by a country mile the most inconsequential and asinine point of contention in this whole discussion.


Also to be clear, I utterly reject the entire notion of the left/right wing paradigm and you're attempt to once again put my argument in a box of your own design (i.e. straw man again) is not going to work.

I'm not anti capitalist I'm anti Nepotism and Cronyism. My own ideas about how to fix the world involve both capitalist and socialist principles (along with replacing "democracy" with "meritocracy"). If you had enquired further rather than just generalising my suggestions into a straw man to support your own argument you may have had the opportunity to realise this and engage with the ideas intellectually (rather than as a reactionary).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjectivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivity_(philosophy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Learn to think critically instead of dressing up your own prejudices as objective facts (and attacking the arguer instead of the argument itself).

Some might consider an inability to separate subjective preconceptions from objective facts a far greater sign of immaturity. One of the reasons children are considered immature is because they cannot tell or control where their own Ego stops and other peoples begin. (though naturally this is itself a subjective notion and should probably never be defined as an objective truth either)

I don't expect you to respond like a Harvard professor but please at least engage with the content of the argument rather than painting me into a box and trying to assassinate my character. I'm sure you're probably a reasonably intelligent person and I'm always happy to back down or take back arguments if I'm presented with a well thought out reason why I might be wrong etc.

Well, that was an irrelevant, left wing, rant.
You managed to not only be obtuse, but turn it into a political statement.
It is really very simple my friend; Pointless destruction is what kids do when they can't control themselves, or don't get their own way. Yes, it is his property. Yes, he is free to do with it as he wishes. But it is also immature, unnecessary, and not in the slightest funny.
Your own problem is clear to see. You resent corporations who, incidentally, provide the money to develop the technology you are using. You don't like the system? Fine, off you go and develop another one. In the mean time don't read so much Noam Chomsky that you become a slave to other peoples philosophy. Think for yourself.
This started, on my part, as an observation regarding the wanton destruction of a phone, but you managed to turn it into the evil of CEO's etc...Jeez, I'm done.

Well, that was an irrelevant, left wing, rant.
You managed to not only be obtuse, but turn it into a political statement.
It is really very simple my friend; Pointless destruction is what kids do when they can't control themselves, or don't get their own way. Yes, it is his property. Yes, he is free to do with it as he wishes. But it is also immature, unnecessary, and not in the slightest funny.
Your own problem is clear to see. You resent corporations who, incidentally, provide the money to develop the technology you are using. You don't like the system? Fine, off you go and develop another one. In the mean time don't read so much Noam Chomsky that you become a slave to other peoples philosophy. Think for yourself.
This started, on my part, as an observation regarding the wanton destruction of a phone, but you managed to turn it into the evil of CEO's etc...Jeez, I'm done.

Oh yes, look how they try, those video game makers. How can pimps and prostitutes possibly eliminate the stain of sexism and immaturity when the very basis is sexism and immaturity.

Do you not include senseless violence under immaturity? Ridiculously easy, self gratifying, stupid, you-thought-you-killed-things-in-every-way-possible-but-not-like-this violence with an array of weapon combinations and #gamer girls in their under garments.

Y4Y 4 xXxM47U21713xXx

Fucking shit, Conan. In one comedy bit you've just managed to trounce two decades of an industry trying to eliminate the stain of sexism and immaturity that is E3. Jackass!

@dag - What I like best about your comment is that you present constructive criticism, while the rest of the media, government and public are preparing the tar and feathers.

I'm frustrated by the way we focus on personality and ignore the systemic nature of these kinds of issues. Once we tar and feather Obama, the next president will find herself/himself in need of effective national security measures and will likely go along with whatever the NSA thinks is best. Hillary is Stalin! Rand Paul is Hitler! Rinse and repeat. This is part of the reason why nothing ever seems to get done.

As an aside, I've certainly been on the offensive side of these crusades with Bush, McCain, Hillary and Romney, so this newish perspective is something of an epiphany. Not to say I didn't voice legitimate gripes, but I took cheap shots aplenty.

In short, I'm probably feeling what the rest of the world has long known, that Americans are immature, aggressive and completely unproductive in the way we manage their civic affairs, and it's not going to stop till we wise up.

(So just give up)


Anyway.....

If the US wasn't so steeped in immature, hypocritical puritanism, the fact that two adults did sexy things in the WH would be a "thing" only between Bill, his wife and the intern (except if she was coerced/sexually assaulted, a different thing entirely). Instead, Bill felt he had to lie, and that's what most sensible people hold against him.

Immature wordplay always tends to make me laugh.

Reminds me of Claptrap...Look everyone, I'm dancing, I'm DANCING!

Definitely a downside of the everyone-can-publish-anything era...more immature twits seeking attention.

*promote

oh the immaturity ...

I got up to the uncovering part of the description. Too immature!

Well now you are just moving the goal post. You said that being poor in the First World was better than living like 90% of the rest of the world, which I roundly refuted (with numbers and everything). I never made the claim that being impoverished in the First World was equivalent with being a victim of slave labour.

I also would never encourage someone to imagine that their life is worse than it is (the definition of the 'first world problems' meme). Rather, I was encouraging people to have some empathy for those that do find themselves impoverished in the First World instead of simply looking down on them and saying 'Could be worse, look at those poor bastards in China, so could you please stop whining now. It's killing my buzz.'

Victimization and psychological immaturity might be the cause of some people's poverty (or at least inability to escape it) but I think societal immaturity and economic Darwinism should carry more of that burden.

What makes no sense? The point here is that Mitch McConnell attempted to pass a bullshit, sarcastic bill as an insult to Democrats. By itself, this is a foolish, immature waste of time. But when called to task, he sheepishly backtracked. I was hoping since there is no danger of Obama being re-elected in 2016, then these filibuster games would end and your representatives could go back to work on real bills for the next 4 years. Sadly, the games go on. Hey look, I agree! It makes no sense.

I don't like necessarily Israel's tact on this issue nor how much force they are employing. But, on the other hand I really don't know what else they should be doing that would bring about a ceasefire with people that don't seem overly concerned with focusing on things like "good intentions". As @bcglorf said this is a complicated scenario and it has no easy solutions. I'm even more afraid, ultimately, that it will always be true that if either of these sides (or countries if it ever comes to that) decide to break their ceasefire, even for something "minor" (something in the Cold War that wouldn't have provoked us or Russia into action) it may lead to conflict. Conflict like we now see playing out.

To be truthful, I have no advice for either of them, but I do think the world community including the U.S., someday, should agree together to tell ALL of the Middle East one thing, "Grow up!". Until we can agree unilaterally the Middle East will continue to be a powder keg. Though if Iraq truly becomes powerful, self-reliant, and democratically free then perhaps they can work opposite Israel to reign in groups and even countries that have "contracts of death" created for the purpose of destroying Israel. But, these are all long-term scenarios...

For now it really is up to the people in that region to decide: do they want war? Or would they rather they had peace? Israel is guilty of acting immature for a country that should now better in some circumstances. But, those around Israel are guilty of blind idiocy, pure ignorance, and following a self-destructive mandate (destroy Israel) that is the key to what leaves them behind the rest of the world. What a mess--one both sides need to clean up and eventually decide who is wrong...maybe a bit of both...

But, like that would ever happen...