Apparently there’s a movie in theaters now by the name of The Hunger Games – it’s sort of obscure, so you may not have heard of it. Despite the title, it does not have anything to do with food. No, apparently it has something to do with young people fighting to the death on TV, or something.
Over on the Fox News website, Dr. Keith Ablow – described as “a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team” – is shocked to discover that this film contains:
1) Attractive young people
2) Violence
This deadly combination alarms Dr. Ablow, who warns:
The Hunger Games … adds to the toxic psychological forces it identifies, rather than reducing them. …
It is an entertainment product of complete fiction and great potency, given its intense level of fantasy and violence. As such, it only conveys young people closer to “expressing” in a virtual format their powerful and primitive instincts (potentially kindling their desire to truly express such instincts) while conveying them further from their daily realities and a little further still from their real selves.
And apparently the film fails utterly in inculcating hostility towards the Kardashian family.
Almost no one will emerge from a theater swearing off shows like the Keeping Up With the Kardashians, or Jersey Shore because they are produced by adults happy enough to make a buck off of stupefying teenagers.
As I am sure you are all aware, inculcating hostility towards the Kardashians is the aim of all great art, as Aristotle explained so many centuries ago:
A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious, and also, as having magnitude, complete in … with incidents arousing pity and terror, with which to accomplish its purgation of these emotions. Those Kardashian girls are such stuck up bitches — “ooh i got a big ass, everybody look at me!” And don’t even get me started on Snooki.
Hey, can I get a goddamn gyro here?
That quote is, of course, from Aristotle’s famous treatise “Ho-etics.”
In addition to not inculcating hatred towards the Kardashians, Dr. Ablow warns us, The Hunger Games will make its viewers
more likely to come out of theaters having shed some measure of the healthy psychological defenses (which are, luckily, partly reinforced by socialization) that keep them at a distance from their violent impulses. …
Other than entertaining millions and millions of teenagers and making millions and millions of dollars, the net result of The Hunger Games is likely to be:
1) Females will be further distanced from their traditional feminine characteristics that … suggested they were not being real “girls” if they were extremely physically violent.
2) Young teens and many pre-teens will be awakened to the fact that they are capable of extreme violence, given the right set of circumstances.
3) A few psychologically vulnerable teens—who would have come to no good anyhow—may be inspired to replicate the film’s violence.
So I’m guessing that’s a big “thumbs down” from Dr. Ablow.
Given that the mainstream media is but a tool in the hand of our gynocentric matriarchal overlordsladies, I’m not quite sure how this article slipped through. But we’re lucky it did.
Over on What Men Are Saying About Women, where I found big chunks of Ablow’s essay quoted without any explanation of where they were from, our good friend Christian J. explains that:
This movie is straight out of the slut-feminists’ arsenal of the “You Go Grrrllll” mantras. They have promoted violent women and will continue to do so (think Valerie Solanas). Slut-feminists justify this action under their delusional and blatantly false claim that women should be able to protect themselves as they are constantly attacked and physically abused on a daily basis, everywhere they go..
Where they get that from is ofcourse by generating their own falsified and doctored statistics which they have done for too long to remember.
If anyone suggests you go see The Hunger Games, they are probably a slut feminist. You should run far away from them in case they decide to punch you.
Go watch old episodes of The A-Team instead, a show which is totally not violent in any way.
RE: pillowinhell
Fair enough. In my case, I guess I’m just… perplexed? Like, seriously, all I want to know from this person is what I’m supposed to DO. They just keep repeating the obvious (that healthcare is expensive) and that the current changes are unfeasible. What I really want is to force them to say what they expect people like me to DO. Of course I’m going to oppose the current system–it shafts me, and a bunch of other people I know!
Hell, I managed to gouge ANTZ into admitting his movement totally failed men like me, Rubes CAN’T be dumber than HIM.
Seriously, they’re making libertarians look bad. (Never thought I’d say THAT in convo…)
>>>Obamacare is like the cure being worse than the disease
More like putting a band aid on a festering, gangrenous wound.
Single-payer like we have in Canada isn’t a panacea (it’s certainly not as awesome as full blown ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’, which is my position) but it’s the bare minimum for a healthcare system that is attempting to be humane. We could still learn from the UK or France or the Netherlands, but at least we’re not stuck with the awful *USian* system.
What DSC said. Health care will ALWAYS be rationed, in some sense: there is not enough money to give everyone the health care that, say, the President gets. However, there is still the question of how to ration it. The current system rations it based on “if you’re privileged, you get what you want, and if you’re not, you get shit.” I see no reason that we ought to prefer that to the more ethical rationing based on need.
Yeah, this. I’d rather have my fate decided by a “death panel” than the Patient Accounts office.
On a student’s budget and state health insurance, the option of “get any treatment you need, right away, no obstacles” isn’t open to me to begin with, so the idea of someone deciding what treatment I get isn’t all that horrifying actually. At least the “death panel” is trying to be fair.
Because they do.
Not always.
There is rationing now-and it is based on income. There will be a different kind of rationing after a single third party payer is put into place. And yet, full basic health care coverage will still cost less than the stupid system the US has now. You are making illogical assumptions based on no information.
We know that. We acknowledged that. We still know, unlike you, that it still will be possible to do a full basic health care coverage at less cost than now and covering more people.
Have you even bothered to read anything anyone has posted Ruby? Because it sure looks like you are not.
LBT. Ruby has told you what to do. Suffer or die.
Okay, you know what, talking with Ruby Stonewall is depressing. I’m gonna talk about the fun shit I get to do DESPITE being poor.
Like, tonight, I am going to spend time with good friends and work on an art commission. (Holly, you in?) I may also work on writing and eat delicious home-baked goods. Then, tomorrow, I am going to my friend’s place to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail on her co-op’s big projector screen. (Well, projector bedsheet.)
And if I’m feeling REALLY crazy, I’ll bang my husband. Multiple times if possible.
Wow, look at all the wonderful things I get to do despite being a poorass motherfucker! Okay, guys, your turn: what cool shit are you getting to do this weekend that DOESN’T cost an ass and a half?
RE: pillowinhell
Just to spite them, I’m going to do everything I outlined in the above comment. TWICE! And do another Edward Cullen comic.
And I’ll ENJOY THE EVERLOVIN’ SHIT OUT OF IT.
I’m going to read the books I got at Goodwill and hang out with my girlfriend.
RE: Ozy
That sounds awesome. What books?
Imma gonna bug, tease and pester Beloved. If it doesn’t end in a tickle fight I doin it rong! Think I’ll make a nice candlelight dinner and watch movies and give him a massage.
LBT – I’m gonna be visiting friends out of town tonight and family next week, so I won’t make it til the 13th. 🙁
My cheapass weekend entertainment is going to include, well, visiting friends and family, enjoying/attempting to help with delicious home cooking, weathering a coming Internet outage (oh no how will I liiive) with books and maybe actual human interaction, and probably group sex.
My cheapass weekend entertainment is, however, only possible at all due to the medication provided by my (oogy booogy) state health insurance, without which my weekend plans would be limited to “try to breathe.”
Couple of friends of mine hold a weekly movie and/or gaming night on Fridays. Might go to that if I’m feeling up to it. It’s been a while.
You go with your bad self LBT!! Show ’em how its done!
The Books Ozy Got At Goodwill, A Full Enumerating
Robert Aspirin, MYTH Inc In Action
Naomi Wolf, Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood
Elizabeth Alexander, The Black Interior
Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts
Tim Folger (editor), The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005
Alice Rossi (editor), the Feminist Papers
Amy Tan (editor), The Best American Short Stories 1999.
William Goldman, The Color of Light
Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose.
David Weber, By Schism Rent Asunder.
what you can conclude from this is that Ozy is the best at impulse-buying books at Goodwill
also that zie has an extremely, ahem, eclectic taste in books
RE: Ozy
ZOMG Robert Asprin. ADOLESCENT NOSTALGIA! (Even though we actually preferred the first four books; after that, we didn’t enjoy so much.)
The guy died just a couple years ago, did you know? How bummer is that? All my favorite childhood authors are either dead or over sixty, it’s such a sad.
RE: Holly
You’ll be there in spirit!
(Also, I’m able to enjoy myself because my private-pay therapist is very, very lenient with how I pay her. Sometimes I barter comics for my sessions. Sssh, don’t tell.)
LBT: I’d never read him before! I recognized the name vaguely and so bought the book. (See what I mean about Goodwill impulse buys?) But it was a really fun book and I really enjoyed it, so I think I’ll check out more of his writing. Kind of reminds me of early Pratchett, before he started to come down with a tragic case of Philosophy. Of course, I love the philosophy, but still…
I’m going to watch Game of Thrones with friends. We’ve got 4 episodes to rewatch before the new season starts, and I’m looking forward to their episode 8 freakout!
RE: Ozy
That book, from what I recall, is something like the sixth or seventh book in the series. I highly recommend you pick up “Another Fine Myth,” which is the first. (Myth Conceptions is the second, Myth Directions the third.) If you’re lucky, you might be able to find the old editions that were illustrated by Phil Foglio of Girl Genius fame; there’s a bunch of ’em around.
I also have one of the two volumes of comics that were made based off those series! 8D They’re out of print, so I lucked out and tripped over it in a used bookstore!
I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them, LBT. Add that to the Phil Foglio Must Have list: I really really want to read Xxxenophile. 🙂
Used bookstores are the BEST for coming across things you’ve been looking for for ages. 🙂
My favorite part of Goodwills is when you can figure out that a load of books all came from the same person. Like the person who donated a lot of 1990-1994 economics, sociology, and political science/public policy textbooks. Gee. Wonder what they majored in… XD
I own pretty much ALL the XXXenophile volumes (still missing #4, I think), and a couple spare issues. Also the card game. I’m too ace to enjoy them pruriently, but they’re still fucking AWESOME. (I probably own more girly porno than a gay/ace man should.) Phil Foglio offers cheap online copies since a bunch of the volumes are out of print; it’s not the same, but seeing how hard it is to get print ones, I can say it’s a good way to go. And it supports the creator!
I bartered an unwanted Kindle for my print copies, because it’s among my husband’s favorite porn. Best way to rid myself of unwanted technology EVER!
Foglio also did the Myth series comics. I loved used bookstores so much.
So, the conversation about cheap weekend amusements for people of limited means brings to mind the last convo I had about health insurance with (someone who for the sake of simplicity I will call) a conservative. His point was that he didn’t make a million dollars. Sure, he had a house (but the housing market sucks, so whatever) and a housekeeper (who he was helping out financially, even though he was barely making ends meet himself! so he’s a nice guy, not a wastrel), but he was, in fact, not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Nor was he healthy by any stretch of selfsame imagination. So, since he was able to buy health insurance — despite the many! sacrifices! he had to make to do so — so should we all.
*cue image of people sitting around bitching about how they can’t afford health insurance, while watching their bigass wide-screen TV and eating truffles and diamonds.*
It will never stop bothering me that otherwise fairly bright people easily fall into the easy mindset that the poor don’t deserve nice things. EVER. Or that because someone, somewhere, once, was able to scrimp and save and nevernotevenonce bought so much as a cookie as a treat for himself so that he could live within a budget that allowed him to buy health insurance, everyone is expected to do that.
This is not what this conversation is about, but for what it’s worth, I am a person who lost my health insurance three years ago when my company went under for fucking stupid investment decisions made by the CEO; who was unhireable with my skillset; and who only has health insurance now because I made the incredibly stupid decision to go back to school and rack up a fuckload of debt. I’m glad I have health insurance now, because I get sick all the time. With the RW attack on Planned Parenthood (which is a pretty nice, low-cost place to get a health exam and testing), health insurance will become even more important for poor women.
And even though I should be saving my pennies for that dreaded moment I have to start paying back school loans, this weekend I am probably going to do something dumb like get a massage, because I’m achy and I want to. And then I’ll go back to studying, because I have to.
I got a date tonight for dinner and a movie with dude I met three weeks ago.