Video game example (stay with me…) - I play Warcraft, and they just released an update this Tuesday with a very unpopular change. For every post about how it could have been handled better, there were at least a dozen calling the developers names, calling for firings, or just generally screaming outrage. I know…

Criticism, like all writing, is valuable only when it's thoughtful. And most folks on the internet are far more interested in provoking a response than articulating a thought. So while it's sad that all criticism gets dismissed as "hating", it's easy to see how we got there.

Well, her *committment* to being black would be impressive coming from anyone. And I'd say her whole insistence on *being* black would be an effective joke on the human-made definitions of race…if that was her intent. But survey says - cray cray.

Only solid Cosby joke I've heard was a movie character saying "If you love me, you'll drink this" and getting the callback "Seven words you never want to hear Bill Cosby say to you."

While the internet allows feedback (and thus criticism) at a greater clip than ever before, it also allows means that feedback comes in historically unparalleled bulk and intensity. Artists of all kinds have always needed thick skin to deal with their detractors, and I can see why the skin-density the internet era…

Except since it's not tied to a larger system of oppression, lots of people will in fact say that it's not "racist".

Given that the entire point of the "systemic oppression" definition of racism is that it can function without members being rac*ists* (or at least particularly bad ones), it might be useful if we had a different term for it.

It became semantics when people changed the definition of racism from "prejudice based on race" to "systemic oppression based on race". 99% of people talking past each other on what racism is boils down to them using these two definitions of racism.

Lot of leading men pretty much just play "Leading Man".

I'm coming up on 40 in a few years, and I am sorely tempted to bank on the fact that there's no real history of *any* cancer in my family…

See the Australian literacy *landmine* PSA?

Quite literally performing your job as best man there.

http://www.theonion.com/art…

"Nice dodging. Who taught you those moves?"

No plan survives contact with the enemy, man. Especially when you get no warning.

*stares at gauntlet on ground, walks away*

If you want a slice of pure, unadulterated '70s schlock, it's right up there. There's an ad for it in the Rifftrax version of the Star Wars Holiday Special, and it just drives home the fact that you're watching unfiltered 1977 right now.

I'd replace "sucks" with "has aged really poorly", but…it's not good.

Different actor, same movie. "Simple Jack" was the Ben Stiller character's crappy award bait movie.

I remember the doofuses on the frickin' "Man Show" urging their viewers to get exams after their beer-chugging mascot died of prostate cancer. That was really weird.