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A Critique of Red Letter Media’s Bigoted Content (See Staff Post)
- Thread starter PhoncipleBone
- Start date
Why are you assuming both that poster's gender and race? Also, saying "she comes off as smug" isn't the same as losing one's shit. I don't agree that she comes off that way, but this is a pretty bullshit response to it.
Whoever told you that you get to decide which opinions are and aren't valid lied to you.
How so
Also outside of the prequel reviews I havent found a single piece of content that I've liked from RLM.
Yeah, RLM is in no way shape or form anything like fucking Sargon. RLM saying some shitty things doesn't make them into this guy:
You're either diminishing how awful of a human being Sargon is or you're being extremely hyperbolic. You can be critical of RLM without resorting to such insane extremes.
So you're saying my opinion isn't valid? 🤔
I don't think this is a good example for what you're doing here because while this is just "problematic" to you, it's a huge red flag for a lot of people.
So, if this is the bar, then yes. I'd be comfortable dropping someone like that.
Real life situations are much more complicated than that though. For example, My wife has a friend, and the friends husband recently moved to germany to be with her and her kid. We sometimes meet with them, since my wife likes the woman and we come from a smaller city so the number of children with likable parents in the age of our son is limited. The husband is a generally nice guy, but he just told me he voted for trump the other day. So I have 2 options now:
1: suck it up and let my wife and kid be happy with their friends
2: throw a handgrenade in there and debate the guy until we can't meet anymore and destroy the friendships of my wife and my kid.
I don't think not chosing option 2 makes me a "sad person"
Well, first of all it says "male" in that poster's profile and secondly I just can't imagine any rational person who isn't a fragile white male taking issue with anything Larson has said (or the way she has said it, whatever that means).
Your opinions are valid, but you shouldn't go around telling other people theirs aren't valid, at least when it comes to something that amounts to subjective intake of content, in this case interviews.
yeah RLM is not comparable to people like Sargon or Jontron. They still say problematic stuff that deserves to be called out on, though.
I didn't do this
If you read my post and what I was responding to, it wasn't explicitly about RLM but the idea that we shouldn't ban topics ever.
I never liked their shtick. Sure, they're entertaining and occasionally insightful in rare moments, but it's hard watching grown-ass men in their 40's constantly hating on everything like a snobby 15 year old. And often time's they're so gloomy on future films they get things downright wrong - projecting their own petulance onto projects (like in the "endless trash" gif, in which Wonder Woman and It are plainly visible - talk about getting shit wrong). They're man babies, in short.
So. She's a bad ass in the film. A fucking ace pilot with super powers. What, should she be giggly and curtsying?
Robert Downy Jr / Tony Stark takes smugness and arrogance to new heights and no one ever complains about him.
So. She's a bad ass in the film. A fucking ace pilot with super powers. What, should she be giggly and curtsying?
Robert Downy Jr / Tony Stark takes smugness and arrogance to new heights and no one ever complains about him.
That was more in reply to two other posters who said they were the same, one which I quoted.
Love Red Letter Media despite the questionable content; mostly coming from Rich Evans.
Just want to note that Patton Oswalt is showing up for a guest appearance as well on a future Best of the Worst.
Just want to note that Patton Oswalt is showing up for a guest appearance as well on a future Best of the Worst.
User Banned (1 month): Excusing racist jokes, ignoring staff post; previous severe ban for dismissing bigotry.
I enjoy a good chunk of their content, I do wish they would replace Rich, he just doesn't really bring anything interesting to the conversations.
The problematic language OP outlined I interpret as just satirical or played out jokes for the purpose of being satirical and played out. I highly doubt they are trying to push a bigoted agenda, and if people are being radicalized or their racist/sexist beliefs are strengthened because of a 6 second joke in a 15 minute video then I'm not going to blame the creator of that video.
And for every problematic quip they have entire discussions gushing about movies like Us, Get Out, or specific actresses; Jay says Daisy Ridley carried TFA because she was so charismatic, and both of them liked Daphne Keen in Logan.
The problematic language OP outlined I interpret as just satirical or played out jokes for the purpose of being satirical and played out. I highly doubt they are trying to push a bigoted agenda, and if people are being radicalized or their racist/sexist beliefs are strengthened because of a 6 second joke in a 15 minute video then I'm not going to blame the creator of that video.
And for every problematic quip they have entire discussions gushing about movies like Us, Get Out, or specific actresses; Jay says Daisy Ridley carried TFA because she was so charismatic, and both of them liked Daphne Keen in Logan.
I didn't lump them in. They weren't in that post. I was responding to the person saying we should never ban topics.
Some of you have some appalling reading comprehension.
People wouldn't be talking about her being smug if not for the controversy.
My reading comprehension is fine. The last line of the 2-line post you replied to is RE: RLM and you apparently replied to the first line. Delete the bits you aren't replying to, or highlight the bits you are. And when others are confused by your poor posting hygiene, definitely don't start compounding your behavior by insulting them.
I can't really disagree with what you said, but it just feels a little icky for them to only promote diversity because it makes them more money rather than it being the right thing to do.
First of all, real life situations range from complicated to simple and are still real life situations.
In real life, you're not even describing a friendship between you and the trump voter. He's just your wife's friend's husband and more like an acquaintance, based on what you described.
You first brought up friendship but now you're talking about your wife and kid's friends.... wtf
In real life, I've dumped childhood friends who support trump because hanging around them when they obviously don't care for my well being would be sad.
In real life, I don't have the privilege nor desire to tolerate trump people outside of work anymore than I have to, certainly not to the point of wanting to share my time and friendship with people who clearly don't give a fuck about me or people like me.
Hanging out with people who don't give a fuck about you just to say you have "friends" is pitifully sad shit, especially for anyone older than teen age, to me.
Been slowly watching their videos less and less as I began to notice this stuff over the last few years. I thought the negative reaction to their Ghostbusters vid was overblown because I thought it actually made some good points about the filmmakers' intent and how that was a bad fit for that property (improv humor vs written jokes). But then shit like the TFA plinkett review or the Captain Marvel review happens and it's like, oh y'all are really starting to pander to this anti-SJW crowd huh.
Then I saw the Godzilla / X-Men HITB go up and was curious to hear their thoughts because I had just seen both of those movies and part of me does still enjoy their content. And outta fuckin nowhere Mike makes that lazy, stupid fucking joke about assuming Godzilla's gender and I literally said out loud "What the fuck?" Like with the Captain Marvel thing they were able to get away with this type of shit because of their whole "Corporations are only progressive because it's profitable now" (which, side-note, no shit? RLM brings no insight to this topic beyond pointing it out), but nothing about Godzilla's marketing, the people involved, etc. was broaching the topic of gender pronouns. That's just some shit that's on Mike's mind. Seemed like a pretty revealing moment.
Then I saw the Godzilla / X-Men HITB go up and was curious to hear their thoughts because I had just seen both of those movies and part of me does still enjoy their content. And outta fuckin nowhere Mike makes that lazy, stupid fucking joke about assuming Godzilla's gender and I literally said out loud "What the fuck?" Like with the Captain Marvel thing they were able to get away with this type of shit because of their whole "Corporations are only progressive because it's profitable now" (which, side-note, no shit? RLM brings no insight to this topic beyond pointing it out), but nothing about Godzilla's marketing, the people involved, etc. was broaching the topic of gender pronouns. That's just some shit that's on Mike's mind. Seemed like a pretty revealing moment.
This is going to be quite the read… I've only ever found the captain marvel and ghostbusters reviews problematic which is weird because there's plenty to take issue with in both of those films without devolving your dialogue
No, it's just younger millenial and zoomer slang for any middle-aged or older person who seems out of touch and/or has the brain worms.
If you aren't up to date on the lingo, "Corporate Wokeness" is definitely the way a lot of genre-savvy bigots hide their bigotry these days. There are people with legit gripes but-- SHOCK HORROR-- the shitheads leapt onto lingo and arguments and reappropriated them. As they do. It's the new "virtue signalling". Everything old is new again, etc, etc, etc.
This place isn't nearly as progressive as you'd think. It's just better than the alternatives.
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It very obviously is difficult, or else the OP wouldn't be littered with poor examples of "RLM bigotry" that include in-character Plinkett throwaway lines about "Malaysians" being "no good" and "dirty," which TO ME is pretty obviously their attempt at having their character be weird and cranky for comedic affect, and not RLM taking the podium to label the people from a randomly-selected tiny island country as inferior. It's a common joke premise where an old person has some anachronistic, weirdly-specific problem with something, like in this old Grandpa Simpson clip.
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Seems like a thread on them pops up here every couple months and it's always the same stuff being criticized. People here love to label them Alt-Right or even better, "Alt-Right Adjacent." Whatever the fuck that even means. There's zero room for nuance with anything. It's always black or white. Left or Alt-Right. Fully woke or a Nazi. But when people try to compare these guys to those who are genuinely all around shitty Alt-Right fuckers, it's laughable.
You can think their jokes are in bad taste or "problematic." That's fine. Don't watch. But they are far from being Alt-Right. Whenever they have a serious conversation about things like women in film or diversity they're always strongly in favor of it (HitB's for Annihilation, Suicide Squad, Furious 7), but they call "bullshit" when it's used as a disingenuous marketing tactic for corporations to try and boost their box office totals.
I fully admit I'm biased here. I've been watching them for years. I buy all their commentary tracks. I back them on Patreon. And I'm going to keep doing all those things and never once feel the slightest bit of guilt over it because they're two drunk fucks (and Rich Evans) in Milwaukee bitching about movies. They have no real influence on anything much less anything of any significance. But they are good for a laugh. They don't take themselves seriously. I don't take them seriously and I really don't get why so many people here seem to.
You can think their jokes are in bad taste or "problematic." That's fine. Don't watch. But they are far from being Alt-Right. Whenever they have a serious conversation about things like women in film or diversity they're always strongly in favor of it (HitB's for Annihilation, Suicide Squad, Furious 7), but they call "bullshit" when it's used as a disingenuous marketing tactic for corporations to try and boost their box office totals.
I fully admit I'm biased here. I've been watching them for years. I buy all their commentary tracks. I back them on Patreon. And I'm going to keep doing all those things and never once feel the slightest bit of guilt over it because they're two drunk fucks (and Rich Evans) in Milwaukee bitching about movies. They have no real influence on anything much less anything of any significance. But they are good for a laugh. They don't take themselves seriously. I don't take them seriously and I really don't get why so many people here seem to.
User Banned (3 Days): Ignoring Mod Post, attacking other members
We all know why. Plenty of the rot of the old found it's way here.
Go look at the virulent defense of corporations on gaming side and it'll be plain.
I find Robert Downey Jr. equally obnoxious if that helps. I generally don't like arrogant people. I don't think that necessarily means I want women to be subservient.
Never understood how so many people here found them entertaining, I watched a few videos that were posted here and on the old place and found them very cringey bordering on offensive
That's cool, respect. I just find it odd in wider social media how people harp on about Brie Larson's Captain Marvel when there are a legion of examples of smug, arrogant characters in action films from the past ten years but people love them. Even female characters, like all of Angelina Jolie's action characters for example.
What is accomplished by them being banned ?
Their motivations for promoting diversity are irrelevant. All that matter is the end result.
TC didn't bring up Rich talking about tr***ies, or their multiple other out-of-character transphobic "attack helicopter"-like jokes. OP is not an exhaustive list of them being bad.
Not being familiar, is the Plinkett character criticized or demonized in any way? Does he get his comeuppance? Is there any effort made to establish that this is not a person that you're supposed to agree with?
A lot of bad attempts at edgy humour present naked bigotry, and fall back on the defense of "well obviously I don't agree with it" while doing nothing to actually make that obvious. While the intent may not actually be harmful, it still ends up sharing bigotry for the audience to enjoy and doing nothing to justify spreading it, but provides enough of a veneer of plausible deniability to shield from the consequences that sharing that same bigotry may otherwise bring.
A lot of bad attempts at edgy humour present naked bigotry, and fall back on the defense of "well obviously I don't agree with it" while doing nothing to actually make that obvious. While the intent may not actually be harmful, it still ends up sharing bigotry for the audience to enjoy and doing nothing to justify spreading it, but provides enough of a veneer of plausible deniability to shield from the consequences that sharing that same bigotry may otherwise bring.
I wouldn't say that there is an especially strong attempt to make Plinkett look bad, no. The way Plinkett is framed is that you're expected to already not agree with the things he's saying, but to people who do agree, what he says can be taken as serious belief.
I was half joking because there are responses downplaying their bigotry because they're not as bad as other bigots. But.. Nice detective work?
I know. I get what you're saying too. But I think too many people like those at RLM hide behind the "Disney just wants money" argument disingenuously, as if they really expected every movie to always only be about the "art" and shouldn't be "about forced diversity."
I stopped watching them years ago not necessarily due to this, but thinking back at what I remember from them it's pretty obvious they always were nto edgy 4chan-esque humour.
He's a psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer. There is one other character of the Plinkett reviews, and she is a sympathetic character, an escaped former victim who schemes to come back and kill him in revenge, but even if she weren't there, at no point is the Plinkett of the Plinkett reviews normal enough to appear like a character to model your behaviour or beliefs on. He's also depicted as being the height of white trash.
The reviews sort of come across as the work of a killer in a slasher or Texas Chainsaw Massacre film.
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I agree that it's not like these guys should be on some unforgivable ban list, but they really haven't gotten as much flack as they should for some of their shit, and I'm more than fine with it getting called out. They don't seem like shitty people at their core, just the kind of priveleged white dudes who are sometimes aggressively ignorant. They won't change unless they're called out for it ( I actually think some people here have posted examples of them back tracking a few statements in the past ).
The fact that so many of the defenses are basically "Yeah, they did these shitty things, but they also did these other non-shitty things, so they're actually okay" is really just sad.
This is not a game of points where you get to cancel out every bad thing you if you just do another good thing later. Doing the good doesn't cancel out doing the bad, and if you keep doing the bad stuff without showing any real attempts to change or show remorse, that generally just means you're bad, full stop, no matter how many good things you try to do to counter it.
This is not a game of points where you get to cancel out every bad thing you if you just do another good thing later. Doing the good doesn't cancel out doing the bad, and if you keep doing the bad stuff without showing any real attempts to change or show remorse, that generally just means you're bad, full stop, no matter how many good things you try to do to counter it.
