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From Life and Fate:
“My faith has been tempered in Hell. My faith has emerged from the flames of the crematoria, from the concrete gas chamber. I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of it immortality.
It can never be conquered.
The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious leaders, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man’s meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has bot been destroyed even now, then the evil will never conquer. “
-Vasily Grossman
Mornin’ gentle readers. It’s movie Tuesday here on DWR, so lean forward find your favourite box of tissues and watch The War You Don’t See by John Pilger. If you are not up for violence and death, watch anyways because if you rely on the MSM for your view of our ‘benevolent’ foreign policy, you are tacitly what this documentary is against.
During World War One, 10% of all casualties were civilians.
During World War Two, the number of civilian deaths rose to 50%.
During the Vietnam War, 70% of all casualties were civilians.
In the war in Iraq, civilians account for up to 90% of all deaths.
It’s a sad day friends. I was all primed to deliver a hilarious disservice, mocking some religious lunacy that rivals e-meters, magic underwear, and sin-absorbing chickens. As I researched further, however, the humour faded rapidly to be replaced with revulsion and dismay. It all started earlier this week when I came upon this article. Teen exorcists with karate black-belts “kicking some demon butt” (yes, that’s an actual quote) across America are going to fight Satan in the UK. The article promised an hour long program about it later in the week on BBC Three, so I went to the BBC website for the show. It turns out only UK residents are allowed to watch it online, but the site did have three short clips for me to check out. This one showing the young ladies sharing their thoughts on Harry Potter is particularly revealing.
That is some kind of ridiculous, but my desire to mock was already quickly falling away. They are too young and too earnest. They seemed like they could be alumni from the hideous Jesus Camp. With apprehension, I tried to locate the program elsewhere on the web where I might view it. I couldn’t find the BBC program, but instead I found another documentary released a month ago. This one followed the exorcising trio to the Ukraine. Brace yourselves, ‘Disturbing Content’ doesn’t begin to cover it.
The level of creepy evil housed in that Reverend Bob is off the charts. He’s terrifying. I feel bad for those young women he’s brainwashed so he can use them for his personal gain. I feel much worse for the audiences they exploit . Most of all, I feel an overwhelming repugnance and disgust for Bob Larson.
“Assassin’s Creed 4 marks the first step into next gen for the franchise. Learn how AC4 utilizes next gen technology to create realistic oceans, dynamic weather systems, ambient lighting, and seamless ship boarding.” – Ubisoft Team
Thanks Ubisoft for making a nice looking ocean and flora that bends with the rainfall. You know what would actually be revolutionary? A female as the lead role in the game. That my besotted dudelly programming/marketing types would be fucking revolutionary.
Yerp! Efforts to maintain historical accuracy prevent Ubisoft from having a female protagonist. Concomitantly, it enables them to continue to act like complete bags of douche!
You know what isn’t revolutionary but more of the standard 365, 24/7, misogyny hailstorm women deal with *since forever*, are interviews like this:
Ubisoft steered clear of making the Assassin’s Creed III protagonist a female character because the game’s setting is not a strong match, according to creative director Alex Hutchinson. Speaking to Kotaku, Hutchinson said the American Revolution time period is all about men. “It’s always up in the air,” Hutchinson said. “I think lots of people want it, [but] in this period it’s been a bit of a pain. The history of the American Revolution is the history of men.”
Oh! Because you are making a historically accurate document and are entering Assassin’s Creed 3 into the Library of Congress NON-fiction. Jebus-dancing-christ-on-a-pogostick. It’s a historically inaccurate run around stab festival with historical trappings, nothing more.
“There are a few people, like John Adams’ wife, [Abigail]–they tried very hard in the [HBO series John Adams] to not make it look like a bunch of dudes, but it really is a bunch of dudes,” he added.
Are you fucking kidding me? You’re saying because of an HBO special you can’t possibly put a woman as lead character? This sort of vapid prolix is industry standard when it comes to worshipping the all mighty ‘peen. It is based on nothing but ignorance and misogyny. If you bothered to look you would see women play just as important role in the revolution as men did (time to google women’s role in the AR? 5 seconds), but as with much of history we favour the male based narrative.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has bent the books of history before, but Hutchinson admitted that doing so in Assassin’s Creed III could be problematic.
“It felt like, if you had all these men in every scene and you’re secretly, stealthily in crowds of dudes [as a female assassin], it starts to feel kind of wrong,” he said. “People would stop believing it.”
Ah yes because jumping off of 3 to 7 story buildings into conveniently placed bales of hay is stone fucking cold reality. See below about the suddenly all important believably factor…
No Hutchinson dude, I’m calling shenanigans on this polished crown of turds you’re calling an explanation. You are talking out of your ass trying to avoid the issue: that is the money that greases your skids won’t pay for a female protagonist.
And admitting that you are too fucking in love with $$ to truly make a revolutionary game doesn’t look good in the press. So lets see where was that quote….
“Assassin’s Creed 4 marks the first step into next gen for the franchise. Learn how AC4 utilizes next gen technology to create realistic oceans, dynamic weather systems, ambient lighting, and seamless ship boarding.” – Ubisoft Team
Take your oceans, your pretty lights and and whatever other techno-wank you’re peddling and kindly frak-off.
Come back when you have something that actually qualifies as “revolutionary“.
Men can be better than this. Change your thoughts, change the culture around *you*; take your spoons, speak up, and when you see the rape enabling BS, make a difference.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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