The Wire 4x02 Reaction

"I'm shocked"

fionan franklin

37:22 Milena : “Sigh… FFS Lola let me get a word in” 😂

David

You’re really coming across as dramatic with these replies and labels, then telling me I’m asking for too much while not supplying any alternate solutions The things I’m describing are literally things other countries have. You really don’t seem interested in giving support to people who need it Question? Have you read any of my replies? I never said these were the solutions to the problems in The Wire, these were examples of change that could occur in the country that would help its citizens. I literally said from the top of this discussion “There are so many systemic issues that need to be addressed” Also if you’re using only homicide rates as an indicator of crime and then trying to act like the reason they haven’t lowered is because of Women’s Suffrage and the Civil Rights movement and affirmative action… implying that those specifically could change it for the better? Also: Baltimore’s crime rate increasing? People left the city en masse in the 60s and onward for a variety of reasons. This has lead to economic decline, which has lead to poverty which has lead to higher crime

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"I don't think there are permanent fixes to any of these problems." "these are problems that just aren't realistically solvable" "The goal isn't to end these problems forever, they'll always be there" So it's never enough. No matter how much you get you'll always ask for more. Got it. "The ideas I shared create jobs, reduce crime and protect citizens." After your Civil Rights movement, Women's Suffrage, and Affirmative action the crime rate in Baltimore has SOMEHOW increased from 20.7 homicides per 100 000 in 1977 to 57.1 homicides per 100 000 in 2020. To compare with a random city, the homicide rate per 100 000: - Salt Lake City: from 5.57 in 2000 it dropped to 4.94 in 2018 - Baltimore: from 40.28 in 2000 it INCREASED to 51.04 in 2018 - New York: from 8.69 in 2000 it dropped to 3.46 in 2018 So what's the deal here? Does the system in some areas work but not in others? Clearly the issue isn't as simple as "more money, more affirmative action" as you can easily find a plethora of statistics which go directly against your stated solutions (which are not actually solutions to anything as you pointed out yourself).

Orr Malus

I took a shot every time they said "literally" and "honestly". I died.

Chidi.

Tf is this sped blabbering about?

Lil Don075

I don't think there are permanent fixes to any of these problems. People will always be suffering, we can just try significantly harder to help them. US citizens are suffering The word “solution” is reductive Did the Civil Rights movement and Women's Suffrage give suffering people more opportunities and rights? Yes Did they help combat institutional racism and sexism? In some ways sure but these are problems that just aren't realistically solvable, the least we can do is ensure that rights are protected and make sure people aren't discriminated against because of their race or gender The ideas I shared create jobs, reduce crime and protect citizens. With the things I mentioned in place lots of doors can open for legitimate societal change. If people aren't living pay check to pay check, have access to healthcare and can receive quality education then we can progress past economic solutions and challenge things like the electoral college The goal isn't to end these problems forever, they'll always be there. The goal is to help more people than we already are and the things I mentioned would help a significant number of people. We shouldn’t not do them because they don’t 100% fox things

space colon

"part of the focus needs to be on creating jobs" -> money "Implementing more supervised injection sites" -> money "need to have police officers travel with social workers" -> money "spend more time training them" -> money "Supporting black owned businesses is crucial" -> money "affirmative action" -> money "Raising the minimum wage" -> money "free healthcare/housing/welfare" -> money "abolish the stranglehold of capitalism" -> money "hard tax the mega millionaires" -> money Your words. Every solution you're giving revolves around economics/money. If what you listed are indeed solutions to any societal issue, then you should have no problem whatsoever pointing out how much more specific solution is needed to permanently fix its respective issue. I'm not saying money isn't the issue, maybe it is. So what I want is a clear, straight, honest answer. For example, how many more supervised injection sites are needed in order to fix the addiction problem? Doesn't have to be this issue necessarily, pick any which one you listed. How much more affirmative action do we need to fix wealth disparity? How much more do policemen need to travel with social workers in order to permanently reduce violent interactions? Give me a straight answer and I'll 100% back you up.

Orr Malus

You're agreeing with my and you don't even know it.

Shivering King Banana

Yeah I felt really indebted to the government when they gave out the stimulus checks lmao

Legion

I never said the things you listed were be all end all solutions. There are so many systemic issues that need to be addressed I think words like “solve” are reductive, there often aren’t straight solutions to any kind of human suffering, especially if that suffering is brought about by the structure of the society those people are living in If we’re talking about helping the country then part of the focus needs to be on creating jobs. Implementing more supervised injection sites across the country to help addicts would be ideal (we have two currently, should be three by next fall). These places both save lives and offer people resources to rehabilitate themselves Also we need to have police officers travel with social workers, this has been shown to drastically reduce arrest numbers and drastically reduce violent interactions. Police aren’t equipped to handle so many things, if we aren’t gonna spend more time training them then this is the least we could do Supporting black owned businesses is crucial, things like affirmative action created opportunities for black and brown Americans to reduce the wealth disparity Raising the minimum wage would give Americans MORE money to spend which would be great for the economy, especially if those people know they have access to free healthcare/housing/welfare There are a number of things that would need to be done to abolish the stranglehold of capitalism, the wealthy elite have so much power over media and law (they own the Supreme Court) A recent millionaire tax in Minnesota (around like 3-4%) allowed for school lunches statewide for public schools, we need to hard tax the mega millionaires and especially the billionaires You edited your comment, it originally said “poverty doesn’t lead to crime” which I don’t know if you believe to be true or not. Regardless infrastructure to help so many people would reduce crime drastically These are policies plenty of politicians have fought for, the ones who you say “always throw money at problems” Also worth noting that I didn’t ONCE say money is the sole solution

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🤣🤣🤣

Charlotte Drolet

Me too! I love sitting back and reading the comments. It allows me to calm down and think. I get to research and learn more. A lot of insight and good links get dropped in the comment section of these videos.

Charlotte Drolet

Why u so upset about a yes or no question, it's so funny.

SaIado

"Take a shot everytime we say 'System failed them'" lol Lola wants to kill us

Karabo

"You people" I'm talking about Westerners as I pointed out in a previous comment but to be more specific I'm talking about the USA and implicitly americans. I ask you, given the point that money is indeed a solution, how much free healthcare, free housing, and welfare would be necessary to solve the issues presented in The Wire?

Orr Malus

What Bunny and Daniels did for Carver is so slept on. The influence of good leaders is so underrated.

Karabo

I've seen so many good channels do this, That's why LM is my last hope, the girls get it, these stories need in depth discussions

Karabo

Dude, Lola hit the shiiiieet, I was so happy hahahaha

Karabo

We eating good hey

Karabo

Or the government. Don't forget about all them checks they were sending out.

Shivering King Banana

Marlo gives money out to kids so they're indebted to him or at least feel that they have to be. Common predatory recruitment tactic for drug lords and gangsters.

Lil Don075

“You people” 👌 Poverty has a direct correlation with health, level of education and crime Public health and public education are real things that exist and money within those institutions needs to be allocated differently than it has been. Things like free healthcare and free housing would change the country as a whole, these are things we can continue to aspire to Also never did I once say that institutional changes and general policy changes don’t need to take place, at both a nationwide and federal level they absolutely do. But you can’t throw economic factors out the window and say they don’t matter whatsoever Do you think we can just overnight abolish capitalism and make money a non-issue? Would be awesome but it’s not a reality Among the issues that I mentioned tell me which of them people are throwing money at non-stop?

space colon

"Also yes poverty is the largest piece of the puzzle when it comes to social development in children" This just confirms what I pointed out . For you people always, always, the answer is ALWAYS: "moar money pls!" When you keep throwing money at a problem and it's still not going away BUT getting worse, maybe funding is not the issue?

Orr Malus

On the subject of repeated dialogue... The senior teacher tells Prez that he needs "soft eyes", the same advice that Lester gave him back in S1.

Mike

I’m all for having these conversations but I don’t appreciate you misconstruing what I’m saying 1) You said “if a child comes from a bad family he has a lot going against him” in reply to the discussion I brought up about families struggling with poverty not being able to give kids the support they need to succeed despite proper schooling Children from a “bad family” that’s wealthier are still gonna have more opportunities than children from a family that’s less fortunate Nowhere did I say that capitalism isn’t the root cause of these problems and yes the level of poverty people suffer under in the US would be avoidable to a large extent if there was actual institutional support for at-risk/suffering individuals and not the largest military budget of any country by far or a system that favored corporations The suffering of the general US populace isn’t the fault of “bad families” or “parents not voting correctly,” all of this goes back to Reaganomics and policy that’s supported corporations above everyone else 2) The reason I brought up the DNC at all was to cite an example of politicians screwing over voters, I didn’t once try to make this about right vs left 3) Moral and economic problems aren’t mutually exclusive, economic problems don’t just come down to how much money institutions have to spend every year. And yes, there are institutions that could use substantially more money AND alternative ways they could spend that money that would better serve US citizens Also yes poverty is the largest piece of the puzzle when it comes to social development in children and needs to be addressed before anything else and at the same time there are other aspects that inform it

space colon

These boys are just so special to me like you don't even know. Like you ladies, I instantly connected to my boys as soon as they came on my screen, so I can't help but mention my love for them and I am so happy you finally met them!!!!! Also I LOVE how the show showed us the difference between Marlo and Avon, even in this episode where we don't even see Avon himself but just a picture and you can see the difference in how their names ring out and how they try to get their names out. First Marlo was legit handing money to kids and making sure they knew it was from him, even going as far as standing right across the street so the kids can thank him in person, and to make the kids feel like they now OWE him, and getting offended when Michael didn't take it so he felt the need to get in Michael's face about it and only backed down when he realized Michael wasn't scared. It's all just hilariously pathetic and not subtle at all, versus Avon, who gave Cutty 15k for his gym but told him he didn't want any picture of him going up, and didn't ask for anything in return, and after being locked up you see that Cutty didn't listen and STILL put his picture up, so Avon's name is never forgotten even if he's not around. Can't compliment the show enough for it's subtle storytelling and parallels and THIS particular difference in Avon and Marlo always stood out to me.

Nyeisha Melvina Clark

I think you’ll make it, Lola, and I really appreciate your attitude; I know it’s a hard season. These kids may not have much, but they have each other - while that may not always be enough, it’s a sort of reality that many of us can recall. BTW - You two speculate on something that is so spot on (Spot on!) that I can’t wait to see when you find out how prescient you were! Do you have a super-special-double-infinity-platinum level where I can watch you finish off the season now?

Joe Gaspard

I agree that some more money, especially in the Balitmore school would help out the whole education experiance, but money doesn't actually change a lot unfortunately...as you're about to see in this season there are some enormous disparities between the cultural capital that the schools and teachers will try to pass down, and the cultural capital that the kids have acquired from the streets. These radically different forms of cultural capital all stem from some very disturbing and terrifying forms of abuse and war (segregation, slavery, blatant racism) between races/ethnicities of people...It's the same here in Australia for the Indigenous kids who are forced to be schooled in a system whose cultural capital is predominately derived from the people that have inflicted terrible abuse on their ancestors :/

Ben G

"the role poverty plays" Ugh... Biggest non sequitur of Western politics ever. A bad family is not tantamount to a poor family, in the same manner a rich family is not equal to a good family. The Western mindset is infected with materialism and its capitalist zombies are too blind to see the real issues. And when I say "capitalist zombie" I'm not talking about Right or Left. No matter the issue, no matter the political leaning, for both Democrats or Republicans the solutions is always to just throw money at it. Always. The issues the US faces aren't about what institution needs more funds. The issues the US faces are moral, not material.

Orr Malus

Goddamn I missed that! I learn so much from these comments 😊

TeaDrinker3000

Love these I always try to look for contrasting details (thematically/narratively) whenever both Valchek and Prez are in the same episode Struggling to find something concrete other than the fact that Valchek is openly salivating at the thought of blackmailing someone while Prez has avoided becoming like him and has embraced this calling to give back to the world

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@SaIado I mean what do you expect to happen? Are they suddenly going to rush to edit and post it earlier than they planned just because you asked? Just wait and watch whenever it drops. Anything else is just rude and annoying

John

They love parallels in this show, there's usually like 2 or 3 direct parallels in every episode, one of the smaller ones I like in this episode is that both Duquan and Namond have a bit of the story dedicated to them getting their new clothes, and the specific circumstances of both, one getting hundreds of dollars worth directly from his mother the other having to keep his donated clothes AWAY from his parents.

Jay Craig

@Orr Malus Plenty of US politicians are openly vocal about the role poverty plays in social development and how economic segregation leads to these same problems we’re discussing If parents aren’t equipped to create a safe environment for their children I don’t think it’s as simple as putting all of the onus on them when it comes to voting It’s not the fault of voters Politicians run on platforms like education reform or health care reform but other politicians/media create all kinds of social wedges to prevent people from voting for those politicians (vilifying them for supporting queer rights, abortion etc) To add onto this all kinds of zoning laws and BS policies pass to make voting as difficult as possible (lived in Atlanta the year they made it illegal for people to hand out water to voters waiting in line to vote) Worth noting that interference by political parties is also very common, the DNC blatantly jeopardized Bernie Sanders campaign to prop up Hillary Clinton

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Its also just fun to say. SHIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

John

Great. You caught the few points I want to mention: 1. Namond and Clay Davis being happy to "take anybody's money if they're giving it away" - the exact same words they used. 2. Marlo and Cutty seem to have both taken an interest in Michael or at least seen something different about him. And yes, Mike was able to look Marlo in the eye... 3. Politician Tony Gray talking about the importance of schools and taking kids off corners Btw, I love your analysis - I won't say whether it's right or wrong - you'll find out eventually - but I enjoy seeing how you try piecing things together.

Chidi.

Politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from the family unit. Schools weren't invented to raise children, they're meant to teach. Families have a duty to raise children. Doesn't matter how great a school is, if a child comes from a bad family he's got a lot of odds against him. Unfortunately schools don't vote but parents do. So of course no politician will ever dare to point out the root of the problem lest they drop in the polls.

Orr Malus

I really liked your discussion about Michael and your assessment about the kids in general, it's really interesting how Dennis and Marlo saw the same thing in Michael but in different ways, like you said not many would stand his ground to Marlo, much less a kid, doing so while looking at him right in the eyes. That's a quality that he also demonstrates acting as the "big brother" of the group as you called him. Milena killed me with her comment about Herc and how "playing dumb" would be no problem to him lmao, I agree the actor has great comedic timing. I don't think I ever seen him in anything else, but he has really good chemistry with Carver's actor. Speaking of Carver, remember when he hoped on top of a car screaming all over the place and threatening kids and how "they're gonna lose"? Bunny's influence is really showing, what fucking growth

HenryM

Seeing a lot of reaction youtubers start to skip the intro and outro discussions, to cater to the algorithm/make it easier to create content. Really appreciate that we get so many good thoughts here.

Wildbow

SHIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. Iconic.

Aj

We're LM Reactors, it's what we do. We wait and whine 😁

TeaDrinker3000

@John Have talked to people online or IRL who think that Donut (in the 6th grade) is too young and it’s unrealistic that a kid would steal a car but it’s reality, the same people who think Brother Mouzone was an unrealistic character smh

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Happens to be The Wire before HH, I would ask anyway no matter the show. Since it's too late in my timezone. No need to get butthurt about it 🤧

SaIado

can there please be one single wire post without HH stans whining?

John

In my city carjackings by teenagers happen all the time. I would actually be more surprised if it was an adult.

John

I propose Milena and Lola both do their best "Sheeeiiiitttttt" impersonation in the next video and we vote on the best one.

Michael M

It’s something I wanna talk about later in the show but we’ve seen IRL that even the best schools with all the resources possible (like the “I Promise” Lebron James School) often aren’t able to help kids achieve better test scores/pursue higher education I went to a Magic Johnson High School, similar to the Lebron James School both places prioritized creating a supportive learning environment for at-risk students The problem is that even the best schools can’t help the kids directly with their home lives. Test scores still haven’t changed for the kids attending the Lebron James School despite the number of tutors and the small class sizes. Like LM said in their discussion, things fall apart because the parents aren’t able to create a safe environment for their kids

space colon

Waw, they start down a dark road so young. Such a shame some parents even encourage such behaviors. It's an endless cycle: having no other role models innocent children look up to vile criminals turning them into criminals as well.

Orr Malus

At the beginning of the school year several teachers and staff members at most of my schools would tell students to bring them laundry if they needed clothes washed My girlfriend tried to get to her High School and Middle School early to take showers and drop off/pick up laundry from staff. My last High School had a population of 60 students, it was a school for at risk students so the staff was allowed to help significantly more than school staff would be able to in normal schools

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David

Hehehehe, a while back I was wondering if it would be you or me to bring that trivia up when they got to season 4. I completely forgot since wondering and you beat me to it 😂

TeaDrinker3000

It's an Easter egg that isn't addressed in the show but Randy's last name (Wagstaff) implies that his father is Cheese (Method Man). His mother is stated to be his foster mother The boys are around 12-14, Donut (the boy who stole the car) is younger for sure. A lot of people cite the car stealing as unrealistic but it’s all too real. My girlfriend’s nephew stole at least one car for a joyride before he was High school age and I’ve worked with a young teen in a mental health inpatient facility who’s case manager said him and his older friends/cousins had done the same with half a dozen cars and multiple license plates

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*walter white gif* You're goddamn right

TeaDrinker3000

LOL

M Salam

Fans of The Wire are eating so good rn. These reactions are so long and great.

Komikall

Such happiness in the thumbnail, you'd swear the girls were watching a really uplifting series 😊

TeaDrinker3000

HxH tonight?

SaIado