That’s definitely the impression I got in the third movie. In the first one, we only see the Himalayan headquarters, and it seems like there’s a white guy inexplicably in charge of an all Asian team of ninja assassins (although I think I remember one black guy being there when they burned Wayne manor).

Yeah, but they did that specifically because Disney convinced the Comanche to adopt him before the movie came out. He certainly wouldn’t be a member of that tribe if he hadn’t been cast as a member of that tribe.

I have mixed feelings about Liam Neeson in that role. His performance is great, and given that they got rid of the whole, “immortal genius from the Islamic Golden Age,” backstory, I guess the character’s race is less important. It feels very strange that an Irish guy is somehow the leader of a group of Asian ninjas, though.

The Sam Jackson/Nick Fury story is pretty hilarious. When Marvel created the Ultimate Universe in the comics, they changed a lot of characters’ backstories. One of those changes was making Nick Fury black, and one of their artists started drawing him looking a lot like Sam Jackson. Jackson talked to his agents, and Marvel was basically like, “Well, instead of suing us, would Mr. Jackson like to play the character in any future projects?”

Well, I think it’s a bit different. The Little Mermaid takes place in an unidentified kingdom on the surface (it seems vaguely Italian or Mediterranean, I guess?) and an underwater Atlantian kingdom, so race doesn’t matter. The original Dr. Strange comics have all sorts of uncomfortable racial and religious tropes; it’s about a white guy who finds magical order Tibetan monks, not only learns their magic, but becomes even better than them at it, and moves to New York with an Asian man-servant named Wong who serves him tea. Changing up the races and backstory on that one isn’t just acceptable, it’s advisable.

Gotcha. Three-eighths is roughly one-third, so I guess that? One-quarter German on one side, one-eighth on the other?

You can get some odd fractions by two parents having similar lineages. Like, if your mother is Irish, and your great-grandmother on your father’s side is Irish, you would be five-eighths Irish. I’m having trouble finding a combination that gives you thirds, though.

In fairness to Tilda Swinton, they decided to entirely rewrite the character to be a Celtic woman instead of a Tibetan man. This was probably to avoid being censored in China, but getting away from the racist 1930s, “oriental mysticism,” trope was probably a good idea. It’s certainly a lot better than letting Jonny Depp pretend to be a Native American because he’s one-eighth Cherokee.

I mean, the point of a mermaid isn’t that it’s a sexy looking fish, it’s that other than its tail, it looks like beautiful human women. In some stories, sailors don’t even realize they’re taking to mermaids because their tails are underwater. Also, mermaids were generally considered bad omens or malicious entities, and when they did seduce humans, it was usually to kill them, so it’s not like the folklore was very pro-mermaid sex.

Does Lemmy have a Confidently Wrong community yet?

To be fair, I think their actual national pastime is Cricket, which is significantly more boring.

I’ve never had them, so I can’t comment on their taste, but aesthetically, it looks like a dish you’d be served in a Soviet prison.

I mean, yeah, but that’s so much better. Sure, our food sucks, but it sucks in such an elevated way that it’s almost an art form. British food seems like it was made by a guy desperately trying to put together a meal from ingredients he bought at a gas station. American cuisine seems like it was made by a chef who is losing his sanity to Lovecraftian horrors beyond our comprehension. The world looks at beans and toast and laughs at how pathetic it is.They look upon the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco and weep, for they now know there is no God.

Eh, maybe, but he still lost that debate pretty hard.

Oh Christ, earpiece truthers. This shit’s been around since Bush/Kerry.

From where I was sitting, it seemed like Harris beat the ever-loving-shit out him. He took every piece of bait she laid out. I’m not the target though, so I hope undecideds saw what I saw.

And her tired but patient tone, like a pre-school teacher explaining that you can’t eat chalk. Truly perfect moment.

I don’t think it really hit me how badly our country was doing until I heard Linsey Davis say, “There is no state in our country where it’s legal to kill a baby.”

The UN expressed concerns about a potential genocide, but we haven’t heard much in the last six months.

Well, maybe you haven’t, but today I read in the AP that the the U.N. chief called the destruction in Gaza the worst he had ever seen. His exact words were:

“The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations. I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months.”

He then went on to say that a two-state solution was the only path forward, and compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to South African apartheid:

“It means that you have 5 million Palestinians living there without any rights in a state,” he said. “Is it possible? Can we accept an idea similar to what we had in South Africa in the past?”

“I do not think you can have two peoples living together if they are not in a basis of equality, and if they are not in a basis of respect — mutual respect of their rights."

Anyway, I guess this must be one of those antisemitic dog whistles you’re talking about. I must be a moron for believing every crazy thing being said by…[checks notes]…the Associated Press and the United Nations. I bet those are some of those racist conspiracy sources you’re talking about. From now on I’ll only trust reliable sources like yours, which is…[checks post]…“trust me bro!”

Also, speaking of sources, did you know that Wikipedia actually did the opposite of what you suggested? They voted to remove the words, “allegations of,” from the article because they decided that there was enough evidence to call it a genocide. Thanks for bringing that up, I forgot about that!

What do you suppose it would be like to be on the wrong side of history? I’m guessing you’re going to find out real soon, given that you’re resistant to doing any kind of introspection on whether any of your views might be stemming from biases. It’s a shame you lack the self-awareness to take your own advice and reevaluate your beliefs (beliefs which, again, include FUCKING GENOCIDE DENIAL). But maybe you’ll feel a bit better if you keep calling everyone else antisemitic and comparing them to the alt-right. Then you won’t have to think about the atrocities you’re supporting.

They’re not questioning him for the same reason questions about Biden’s fitness were brushed aside until the debate; no one’s actually listening to the old guy right now. For Biden, this was because his team was carefully controlling his public appearances. For Trump, it’s because no one goes to his rallies except his supporters, and they’re obviously not going to question him. Most people get the headlines and clips of his most outrageous statements, but almost all of them (myself included) would rather bash our own heads in with a crowbar than sit through one of his rambling, racist speeches.

At the debate, a large portion of the population is going to sit down and listen to Trump speak, and this time, his opponent won’t be an even older, even more incoherent man. If that doesn’t lead to questions about his fitness or mental state, then I will be concerned. But right now, the fact that no one is paying attention to Trump’s mental decline makes sense to me.

Though promoting a false narrative about Israel committing a genocide (the casualty numbers are consistent with urban combat in other conflicts) is an indication that you aren’t really questioning the narratives you’re seeing on the internet.

Oh, this is just a normal urban conflict? That’s good. I thought that since a U.N. human rights expert said what was happening in Gaza was a genocide, the ICJ demanding Israel prevent Gaza from becoming a genocide, and that dozens of nations and NGOs recognize this as a genocide, this was probably a genocide. Luckily, you were here to tell me this was normal and that I shouldn’t believe everything I see on the internet. Thanks, random account! Your empty words, backed by no evidence, have shown me the error of believing in the reporting I followed from actual journalists!

In all seriousness though, you disgust me. Attempting to convince me that facts I learned, from reading and listening to hours of reporting, is just an internet narrative would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous. Your attempts to make me believe my sympathy for the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians that have been killed is actually rooted in antisemitism is cowardly and manipulative. And your false equivalence between calling for the end of a genocide and JD Vance’s weird comments on Mountain Dew is just pathetic.

You’ve built in your head a narrative that criticism of Israel is antisemitic, and rather than consider the possibility that you may be incorrect, you’ve taken it upon yourself to chastise anyone who criticizes Israel. You demand that everyone else reevaluate their own beliefs so that you don’t have to reexamine yours. And that’s led you to genocide denial. Great job buddy, great fucking job.