Ben Radford is a genius.

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    The real lesson of The Wire is that you (Chairman Stringer Bell) cannot force your ideology (abstract white collar crime) onto the masses (street thugs) without taking their material conditions (NEET - Not Educated, Engaged in Turf war) into consideration, or else they will rebel against you, the opps take advantage of the weak organization, and your entire movement falls apart.

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        Lmao I’m imagining Stringer setting up a meeting with the gang, then peddling crypto and NFTs, and half of the crew have casts and slings from being shot recently

      • theposterformerlyknownasgood@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        At one point we see the sympathetically portrayed cops straight up brutalize a suspect in custody, and this does not change that they are meant to be seen as sympathetic. Ultimately its abstractly critical of “the system” and “the bosses” and how the bisses don’t care and how the system grinds people down and perpetuates itself and the oppressive structures necessary to maintain itself.

        Like it will criticize the policing system for focusing on numbers rather than “good police work and real cases”, but the cops being tribalistic and prone to extreme abuses of power is portrayed neutrally unless the victim is a kid or the perpetrator is incompetent

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        I don’t know why, but I’m drawn to portrayals of systems in motion. I like watching the criminal bosses discussing their agendas, the foot soldiers’ opsec, and the cops’ investigations.

        Politically, it’s alright. If you just go into it with “cops bad, politicians bad, mob bosses bad, they’re all friends,” then the politics don’t matter all that much

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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        5 months ago

        It’s one of my favorite shows ever and while kmfor sure still lib in the solution department it is a show about how injustice is systemic and explores those systems on an expanding basis season by season. I strongly recommend it but also will say I had to restart it numerous times before I finally got into the swing, it’s slow and detail oriented and it’s hard to get hooked bit once you’re there it’s the best

              • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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                5 months ago

                Star Trek is a mainstay, start with next generation ND be aware the first clupe seasons are rough hit up the good tos episodes, then the tos movies and then you’re ready for ds9 which is the greatest thing ever but best eth some trek context in yer braiBabylon 5 is fantastic as well, a trend you’ll see here is that oce again the first season is rough but in this case it’s partially cause it’s also doing a lot of setup that you only notice on a second watch, after the first go season one gets better aside from a few episodes made to appease te network. I’ve also recently become.e a a gundam guy and highly recommend the original 79 seres as well as Zeta Gundam if you enjoyed the fest and after you’ll be hooked

  • porcupine
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    5 months ago

    I remember getting into a fight with David Simon on twitter where he swore that his intended message with The Wire was that the problems with American policing can be solved by simply hiring “good cops” instead of “bad cops”.

    • themoken@startrek.website
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      5 months ago

      … There is literally no way to watch The Wire and get that message. The whole show is about how hard it is to do worthwhile police work even with the best intentions, and then every character is a piece of shit on top of it.

      Only people you can really root for without reservation are the project kids.

      • porcupine
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        5 months ago

        Probably. I pretended I didn’t know who he was, and I kept insisting that he must not be very familiar with The Wire.