@kel

UGH. Yes.

I didn't watch Jessica Jones for this reason - can't stand this trope, even when I understand that it's being used in part as an analogy for abusive relationships - and also checked out of Dollhouse at E1.

There *are* shows that have characters acting differently depending on the context, and I admire the hell out of them for the work they do on building narrative continuity.

The rest is often lazy writing / bored actors tired of their role.

What're you watching these days?

@cmskiera

I too am thoroughly sick of dystopia - not just because it makes sport of what's often reality, but because of some creepy libertarian undertones to the longing to do away with, say, 9/10ths of civilization so that one can have a better chance of building a kingdom of one's own with whatever remains.

We have to get better at making mundane, collaborative futures in hardship a more exciting sell!

@misterfive

It drives me UP THE WALL that more effective medical uses for transporter tech weren't routinely featured on Star Trek - but of course, the moment you logically follow through on a new transporter capability, you lose 1/3 of your crises-of-the-week!

@WordsmithFL

Pff. Next thing you're going to tell me, Section 31 was supposed to be a cautionary tale and a site of deep narrative unease, not fodder for a swanky, high-thrills space adventure starring Michelle Yeoh as a reformed genocidal queen! 🙄

@ceorl

YES. This comes close to my personal most-loathed trope: the monocultural alien planet.

Big ol' world!

But at tops, there are only two warring groups upon it, or one slave and one master class. Ridiculous. Any advanced species we meet should be teeming with subcultures, as ours is.

Any self-congratulatory human exceptionalism in the face of such "unwashed masses" on alien worlds is another big yawn from me, too.

@stephen_a_allen

Yes! That embraces the chaos.

@kel

Such a lazy concept! And also one of our oldest.

Mesmerism and notions of possession were around long before the Cold War anxieties that prompted decades of experimentation.

I suspect we're just not that good at understanding cult behaviour / groupthink, so we spin wild theories around mental possession instead.

@stephen_a_allen

Great choice.

I love the acting in "Darmok", and it's a good teaching tool, but it's also lousy on the linguistic science. Our languages are riddled with figurative expressions that the universal translator can handle with ease.

(And not just spoken language, but also tons of visual signs that carry whole embedded meaning structures:

Pikachu, his mouth open!
Monkey-puppet, his gaze to the side!
Kermit, sipping tea!

We are a highly referential species!)

@corlin

That's a good one!

The only time I've seen it done well is in TNG's "The Survivors" (S3E03), which involves discovering a being so powerful that it commits a crime so horrific, there doesn't exist a mechanism capable of grasping the immensity of what it's done, let alone with the power to enforce a sentence.

Picard leaves that entity with its grief, which is all a mere mortal can ever hope to do.

All right. Switching gears to fiction-writing, after some tedious administrivia this afternoon, carried forward from yesterday's ridiculous 3-hour meeting & debrief.

What is your LEAST favourite sci-fi trope? Bonus points if it's something that gets done to death on #StarTrek!

#ScienceFiction #SFF

@Susandoyle

In a HEARTBEAT.

@Susandoyle

Oh, oh! I did! The butter rum Life Savers were my treasure. :)

@evamarie @process

Na da na na na~ Not lovin' it. :/

@janallmac

If you ever share any sketches from it, please @ me! I would love to see what you're noodling over, whenever it's ready for public viewing! 🤗

@ShaneArtBooks @LiseL

Devout Jewish groups in Israel have also been standing up to messianic extremists and their secular counterparts.

From the outset of this war, there's been footage in Israel of police battering and otherwise harassing orthodox Jewish persons for speaking against this war.

You get to weird places as a society when a secular warmonger tells a person praying for peace Hitler should've taken their lot.

But that's because we're all human, & every group contains multitudes.

And now I am going to finish one (1) art and one (1) book review.

In a bipolar downcycle, I reduce myself to the very worst of who I am and the harm in which I've been embroiled over my life.

The lie of the downcycle is that the "worst of you" is the "all of you".

Who we are now, and all the words and actions we put into the world today, might not be the best that we and they could be.

But we can *always* grow from them, so long as we give ourselves permission to stay a little longer here. 🕊️

@ecksmc @Jorro

👌🏻 Aces. Thanks for this!

@CanisPundit

Exactamundo. 👌🏻

@Jorro

Google used to be excellent, until it captured market share and started selling top spots in its search results. Enter the whole industry of Search Engine Optimization experts - a must-have on any business team to game the Google rankings!

And now there are inaccurate AI answers popping up first, as tech companies try to prove the value of their investment.

So, your Google instinct was right... years ago! We haven't built a better public commons with this tech, alas, and it shows.

@CanisPundit

In all seriousness though, among Canadian conservatives that's often how party members view their candidates.

I routinely hear defences of politicians that run: "Well that person could be in private industry right now, making a fortune on oil/pharmaceuticals; the very fact that he's generously chosen to run for election instead is such a financial sacrifice, I simply *have* to believe his intentions are good!"

Conversely, liberals are just bums who couldn't get work elsewhere. 🤷🏻‍♂️