Premium 232: GONAD Santa Tracker

My parents didn't let me believe in Santa because they were afraid it would affect my Christian faith

Andrew Dunn

...I'm at the tail-end of "For all Mankind", as per Aaron's recommendation, and this is where I think it becomes very clear that the show isn't "doing something clever" (by having you only see things from the american side in a kind of "we don't know we're the bad guys here, with our relentless cover-for-pals" and free-floating idea of american exceptionalism), but a pretty squarely "shit-lib" alt-history show about what it would be like if the cold war never ended. Still, and it may be mostly out of a poverty of choice, I'm enjoying it as I work through a post-holiday influensa (even if primarily for space-scenes, scored with non-licensed Interstellar-music). Thanks for the recommendation; here's to anything better, in this genre, than this. /Edit: I noticed that the main producer/writer/whatever is a woman, and without doing any kind of research, I assume it's a "zero-dark-thirty" situation, where a female content-creator feels dead-set on proving that women can also make "boy's shows" with just as much empty signifiers of "rah-rah-american exceptionalism", even when the world is literally an alternate history. It's not a great sign when the ambition of your alt-history script is you going to wikipedia, searching for assassination-atempts, and having a blurb on the news in your script about that dude actually dying, and letting that be the extent of it. In conclusion - an alright show when you're too sick to play video games, and literally counting hours till you're more functional again. 1.5 out of 5 stars?

Jesper Ohlsson

Y'all's discussion on death and our relationship to it reminded me of a line from a Jaime Sabines poem: "And that's why [God] created death: so that life--not you or I, life--would last forever."

SirHumphrey

The NLF is gonna win

TangiePower

Imagine living so well that you want to live forever.

Both him and Malcom X worked at the same bar in Boston

Avatar rocked

TangiePower

Also you all are dead on when you describe our culture as incapable of dealing with or accepting death Sorry if I quibble too much, I am a quibbly sort of guy

A Guy

Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh

Chris

Yes, living a long life is good just these ultra rich guy immortality stunts that most assuredly either won’t work and are certainly not gonna be available to us commoners is pathetic

Trillbilly Worker's Party

Yeah I think citing good researchthat’s good and useful. I’m talking about these that cite bullshit from realmedicalnewstoday.net

Trillbilly Worker's Party

Is trying to increase people's life spans inhuman? Or is the quest for immortality one of the oldest ones of all time. Also, I'd rather my loved ones and I live longer haha. If you could lose your buddy today or keep them tomorrow what do you choose? If you don't buy Purina Dog Lotion you won't live to see 45 I'm just saying The dark note re: 1:12 was fantastic haha

A Guy

Well I have a *scare account* based in good research and a personal anecdote. Right now RSV hospitalizations are happening at a higher than usual rate all over the nation. Meanwhile, we have strong scientific evidence that COVID can reduce antibody production by ruining T cells and killing dendritic cells. He's one piece of research which supports that hypothesis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32791036/ small sample size but very effective sampling method. So my theory is if COVID can damage immune systems, is more infectious than the flu, it can lead to a bad flu season from immune-damaged people. Especially babies, who would rely on the antibody production of their mothers. If their mom's immune system got damaged the infant wouldn't be getting those antibodies through breast milk or well in development as a fetus. I get the "why are you freaking out about this" sentiment because I don't think that the COVID biosecurity problem is any more pressing than the crises of climate change, stochastic terror, or one of any gazillion problems that faces our species.

A Guy

The soviets did try to get rid of Christmas for a while and channel the energy into the secular new years holiday, but it didn't work lol. There's this East Orthodox Santa equivalent named Dred Moroz, who basically looks like an ice wizard. His popularity increased in eastern Europe and Russia despite efforts to suppress his name by the soviets. Thousands of churches were closed in the early USSR, but Stalin reversed that policy in order to bring the faith back under far more state influence.

Rob Ford

“Space may be the final frontier but it’s made in a Hollywood basement” they’ve been doing deep fakes since the 60s lmao 👀 also it’s 50/50. Half the stuff they sell us is to kill us and half is to make us look younger while we die. Definitely cheaper to eat like shit

Browning Becherer