Right, back when it was silent consensus among news organizations which candidates or stories to legitimize by covering. Pack journalism, "decorum", and the old boys network of editors and advertisers. Those good old days.

Ah yes, the good old days of journalism, back when reporters only told the unvarnished, objective truth, that racism and sexism don't exist and have nothing to do with art or politics.

I suspect those were totally ordinary boners. But I don't have access to your medical records, so maybe double-check with your doctor.

I look at a lot of sphynxes (the internet is for cats), and that was a really pretty sphynx.

No "sex or relations" in children's books. Rigorous self-reliance only. Children must learn never to feel for another person. Love is vulnerability. To be alone is to be strong.

Nah. Medium-gay at best. We can, and will, do gayer.

I mean I'm not sure if that counts though because Percy and Pierre are so OBVIOUSLY meant to be together.

I could be wrong but I don't think there are. There really aren't that many adult or even teenage men in the show and the only significant one is Steven's father. Notably I don't think there have been any queer relationships between humans at this point, though I could be forgetting something.

It's like he's here in the room with me. But thankfully he's not.

No, she means she's trying to get in touch with any as yet unknown cousins.

I'm might go so far as to say that nobody is destined to be the saviour, and all this saviour talk is what's getting us into trouble in the first place.

I thought it ended up very strong. Much more emotionally mature, in my opinion, than most television of its genre. And I eventually liked a shocking proportion of the core cast, which is rare for me.

Totally, and why shouldn't they be? The calculation might be a little different depending on context, but at the end of the day if you're twisting a cultural tradition of some importance to many people into an ugly racist stereotype, one that's been part of a centuries-long system of oppression, it may not matter much…

I think an African-American dressing up as slutty geisha for halloween would probably get some pushback, and rightly so (some just for general grossness, but there would be a cultural aspect too). Or a Korean-American wearing a feathered headdress to a music festival, right? Power is part of it, but only a part of it.

No, totally, it's a pretty easy case, but the point is it's an easy case despite the fact that, for instance, "kimono" as a concept was basically designed for export, and that Japan as a whole is pretty enthusiastic about its cultural stuff being appreciated elsewhere. So intent-to-export isn't a complete bar to…

I think it's more complicated than that - "appropriation" is a complex phenomenon involving the power relationship between the parties/cultures, their historical relationship, the perpetuation of stereotypes, the purpose of the original and the use to which the copy is put, and the intentions of the parties. One could…

Let's not forget that she was literally running a mass-murder conspiracy. That's pretty bad no matter how you look at it.

And it was always a fakeout. We were 100% tricked into categorizing Major as a particular very dull trope. "Major Lilywhite" should, in hindsight, have been a tipoff that something was afoot.

Agreed completely, well said.

Maybe whatever divine intervention or time fuckery saves the cast from being wiped out will also rescue him from the marriage.