@jkimballcook @Grownded This is a good point. It's not hard to imagine how they could make a movie where the right would view it as anti-communist/marxist while the left would view it as anti-populist.
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Ben Thomander
4.2K posts
Ben Thomander
@benthomander
Family, humor, faith, religion, politics A sometimes special guest "expert" on Fat, Dumb, and Happy.
Idaho, USA 参加日 Nisan 2010
891 フォロー中378 フォロワー
@Grownded I have no desire to see this movie, based on the trailer, but Animal Farm is not really a right-wing parable as much as it is an anti-communist story. Orwell was a democratic socialist and hated right-wing totalitarianism as much or more than left-wing totalitarianism.
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Take notes here folks.
Angel Studios is a notoriously faith and rightwing based organization. Animal Farm is a notoriously Right wing parable.
What Andy Serkis did was offer a ton of money (30 pieces of silver, at least) to Angel Studios to Trojan Horse his abomination of a movie to sell communism to your conservative children packaged as colorful animals and memoryhole Orwell's original intent.
"1984" is going to be about Antifa and in Fahrenheit 451 the firemen will be the heroes for eliminating Lord of the Rings.
They hate you and they are coming for your children.
ScreenRant@screenrant
#AnimalFarm swaps out George Orwell's questions for a different one: What if a movie spent millions with a legendary cast ... only to target the wrong demographic and abandon the classic tales's message? Some adaptations, it seems, are far less equal than others. Read our ⭐️ review: screenrant.com/animal-farm-20…
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@NathanShumate @DavidJohnButler The easy solution is their daughter has the same power and someone wants to take advantage of her. But I agree that finding a similar enough story with enough differences to keep it satisfying might be difficult
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In their defense (as a devil's advocate only), the original movie not only resolved the storyline, but also ended the "gimmick" that drove the plot (the long, healing hair). A sequel story might have involved characters with the same names, but it would have been a story with no resemblance to the first one in plot, theme, or unique hooks.
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The only thing this can mean is "we don't want to tell a story about a married couple." Like, say, The Incredibles, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, True Lies, the Shrek sequels, etc.
Cartoon Base@TheCartoonBase
Disney scrapped plans for ‘TANGLED 2’ after the original team couldn’t “find a story worth telling”. (via: The Direct)
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@orsonscottcard I’m rereading all of them now. I’m excited to finally read the ending of a series I loved as a kid when it first came out.
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MASTER ALVIN is the finale to a series that truly began forty-five years ago, in 1981, with a poem.
This last & seventh volume contains “Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow” in its entirety (as well as the story of how it came to be).
For fun, here’s the opening stanza:
“Alvin, he was a blacksmith’s
prentice boy,
He pumped the bellows and he ground the knives,
He chipped the nails, he het the
charcoal fire,
Nothing remarkable about the lad,
Except for this: He saw the world askew,
He saw the edge of light, the frozen liar
There in the trees with a black smile
shinin cold,
Shiverin the corners of his eyes.
Oh, he was wise.”
a.co/d/026R50ZI
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@nebulous_air @orsonscottcard The first one came out nearly 40 years ago!
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@orsonscottcard Damn, over 20 years later, that's something else. I quite vaguely remember reading this series, will have to put it on the list to reread now.
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@gregorbas1 @DouthatNYT It's not that their experience is a dream. It's that their spirit's memories don't always get locked into their physical brain's long term memory for some reason. Once we're back in our physical body we only remember what is encoded into our physical body's brain. Just my theory.
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@benthomander @DouthatNYT But NEDers describe their experiences as far from dream-like, often more real than reality itself.
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More people Trusting the Science (of near-death experiences):
x.com/ryanburge/stat…
Ryan Burge 📊@ryanburge
The share of Americans believing in life after death in 1972: 76.3% The share of Americans believing in life after death in 2024: 82.4%
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@gregorbas1 @DouthatNYT Just my personal opinion, but I suspect it's similar to dreams. A lot of us have dreams but don't remember them. Something about the timing of waking up and what's going on with our brains locking things into long term memory? I suspect more people have NDE but don't remember.
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@DouthatNYT I haven't read Greyson's book yet, but checked out some interviews with him based on your recommendation. I believe he says that not everyone (less than a quarter?) who was clinically dead has an NED. Does he, or do you, have an account as to why?
Just the Calvinist elect? ;)
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@NoblestCalling You can definitely get by with lots of kids in a little space. Bunk beds! That said, it still depends on the layout. Huge living room with only 2 bedrooms is hard if your job requires you to have a home office. Still, if it's important you can find a way to make it work.
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So how many thousand square feet per child do they need
This is why I don't believe people when they complain about the housing market or about how they can't afford to have kids
Alec MacGillis@AlecMacGillis
"Rilee Stewart and Brock Goodwin always imagined having several children... But that vision shifted once they settled into their 2,000-sq-foot house with a $3,200 mortgage... They realized that even with one child, they would most likely need more space." nytimes.com/2026/04/26/bus…
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@Hashboz @iRunfastXC I'm sorry. I'm with you like 97% of the way. I do think it would be better for him to take it back a notch or two. I do wish more people would find ways to emphasize the sacredness of the call. But there's a meaningful difference between what he's doing and a betting pool.
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@benthomander @iRunfastXC He’s posting betting pool online.
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I’m telling you guys, it’s getting out of control
SCOTT WARNER@ScottWarner18
Our beautiful Tessa Belle just received her mission call. She will be opening it in an hour from now. I will give a $100 Amazon gift card to the first person who guesses where she will be serving for the next 18 months. Ready go!!!
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@ZionsCampfire @Hashboz That's awesome. It reminds me of baby gender reveals. The parents (at least the mom) already knows. They had that moment during the ultrasound together. They want to invite their loved ones into the joy they already feel.
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An interesting shift has started to happen in my city. Now, almost every missionary first opens their call either by themselves or with them and their parents only, then they have a night where everyone comes and sees where they're going. It's not a secret that they have already opened the call when all the friends gather and a big deal is made about it.
There are 36 missionaries from this years senior class and every one of them has done it this way.
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@iRunfastXC @Hashboz I believe the call is sacred but I think there can be a space to loudly rejoice in the call surrounded by many who love you while also having space to quietly reflect on and feel the sacredness of the call. I prefer the reflecting first but don't begrudge those who rejoice first.
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@benthomander @Hashboz I let my letter sit in my kitchen for a few days until family home evening.
Then just me, my mom, and dad opened it together. No Zoom, no anything. It was a moment of revelation.
I honestly don’t judge anyone who does it differently, though. That’s just how I felt it should be.
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@1000HolyPlaces @Hashboz I agree that children's books have done it for ages but I feel like Maleficent made it big in movies even though it certainly wasn't the first.
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People were writing reverse fairy tales for YEARS before Wicked. Very popular children's books did this. I remember reading twisted fairy tales back in high school in the 90s.
My uncle explicitly mentioned his frustration with movies like The Grinch, which he felt gave an unnecessary back story to a character that may have been redeemed but was still a nasty character throughout nearly the whole story.
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It’s the same reason I hate the whole genre started by “Wicked” where the evil villain is actually just a misunderstood victim.
We don’t need to just take time to “understand evil”
We need to understand evil is real and it must be destroyed without mercy
Rulon Leman@JimRoland15
Hot take. The original Dracula story is fantastic because there is no tragic figure backstory, he’s just evil. Hollywood took a fantastic story and turned it into garbage with the whole reincarnated lost love garbage, there has not been a single film that does the story justice.
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@FaithLikeAbish2 I bet he did but it was so fast you didn't see it.
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I bought my husband some shoes today but he didn't run and show me how fast he could go when he put them on... I hate this house
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@virulentvagrant @whignewtons It's a reference to Trump posting on social media on Jan 6 of what can happen if "Mike Pence has the courage." Since then, it's become a bit of a meme to say all kinds of things could happen if Mike Pence has the courage. Not sure why this is more funny than others like it.
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Annnnnd that’s a wrap folks. The last 5 billion years of Earth—the bacteria, the dinosaurs, the pyramids, Shakespeare, the moonwalk—have all been the setup to the greatest line ever delivered.
Ben Sasse@BenSasse
i can still live another 50 years if @Mike_Pence has the courage
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@Hashboz It's all so foreign to me. I found a quiet place in a park to privately and prayerfully open my call and then I came home and shared the news. I get wanting to share the joy. I don't mind people making guesses. But I'd hate for anyone to miss those private moments.
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@benthomander What concerns me is anything that threatens the sacredness of this monumental moment in the young person’s life
Mission openings have gotten out of control and it is definitely devaluing and even degrading the sacred event. I hope parents will just stop and think
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@NoblestCalling When I was at BYU, I rarely saw a class offered at 7am. Probably 10am classes were the first to fill up but 8 and 9 could still fill up quickly. I loved trying to get all my classes done before lunch. It gave me the most flexibility with my studies/fun later in the day.
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My dad went to BYU and told me it was hard to get early morning classes because of all the conscientious RMs; I went to a party school and the 8am classes were ghost towns
Lisa De Pasquale@LisaDeP
This reminds me that during my freshman year in college, I registered for a 7a class. I always tried to start as early as possible so I could have more time to work at my job. The professor called a week before school started and said the course was cancelled because I was the only one who registered 🤣
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Our beautiful Tessa Belle just received her mission call. She will be opening it in an hour from now. I will give a $100 Amazon gift card to the first person who guesses where she will be serving for the next 18 months. Ready go!!!
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Flying on an airplane.
ً@omgsidewalks
For those who didn't grow up privileged, name something you thought was luxury when you were a kid
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@jkimballcook He seems to be comparing two very different things. It's like saying "LDS often say the Lamanites destroyed the Nephites but the concept of Joseph Smith destroying himself to hide the truth doesn't occur to them."
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I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that the lamanites destroyed the nephites' scriptures
Ransom Bartholomew@Bar_tolmi
LDS often say the Lamanites destroyed the Nephites' scriptures and writings, but the concept of Mormons doing that to their own original documents to hide the truth somehow doesn't occur to them.
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@TheUnderTiny @MamaCAllen Yeah, I'd guess that vast vast majority of the time the buzz or bald looks better.
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@benthomander @MamaCAllen Fair point on the glasses—sometimes the ‘flaw’ actually suits the face better! Scars may definitely change the game.
Still, for the classic comb-over, I’m team buzz or bald all the way. Confidence beats hair math every time.
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