In general, I think that my reading of HAL’s behavior could be consistent with HAL not being sentient. Lots of computers malfunction a bit when stuck in a logic loop. Fucking up the communications unit could also be a solution to the problem: can’t disobey orders from ground control if you never heard any orders in…

The way I always interpreted that was, HAL’s programming conflict led to malfunctioning a bit (saying the communication unit will break when it won’t) and maybe “deciding” (possibly subconsciously—IMO this is implied in the book) to cut off communication with Earth.

I don’t think that The Fine Young Capitalists being “feminist” was an unintentional irony. I think it’s more that GG was trying to prove that they believed in “real” equality of the genders by supporting this shady af operation. Then if you attacked GG they could be all, “you must not really want women to succeed in…

As a Certified Real Gay, this whole HAL-as-gay thing drives me up the wall. First of all, HAL is a computer and is neither gay nor straight. Secondly, this is not, like, a real theory, this is just a bunch of homophobic mocking bullshit. It boils down to “lol u sound like a sissy, what you you read books or somethin?”…

“Every time a black woman gets angry, she’s a stereotype.”

You know what’s the worst tweets? Weird Twitter assholes. People who are lolrandom and not fucking funny, but it’s okay because they are also bullies.

<3

Yeah... that’s gonna be a no for me dawg

When I first saw gameplay footage from this I was absolutely gobsmacked at how shitty it looked. Like what the fuck.

I’m glad we haven’t lost sight of forgettin’-chili here on the AV Club.

I mean, in all fairness, there was a time not too long ago when Alex Jones was seen as a kind of “local character” of Austin, like an “anti-establishment libertarian”. Even though looking back on it I doubt there was ever a time when he was not racist, I guess I could see being taken in when his public persona was…

Surf Nazis Must Die is the best vigilante movie because the expendable thugs are all Neo-Nazis and the avenging vigilante is a black grandmother. Also, the cinematography is unironically great.

I’m so fucking sick of this argument. Look, are guns better at killing people than other things or not?

This is my absolute least favorite type of take, the one where someone notices that A Thing is popular and is scrambling to be the first one to realize how it’s problematic and so they write a hot take that makes no point at all. I’m getting worked up about it.

You think sets for the Hunger Games were cheap and easy to build? Or Snowpiercer? Or the Handmaid’s Tale?

“What’s needed if for people to try to make their own, actually-horrible world better right now, today”

Granted, I’m not a Hunger Games expert (I only saw the first two movies) but I feel like Katniss is in no way a lone hero of the resistance. I got the impression that the whole point was that she was a pawn. I actually remember hearing hot takes about this when the first movie came out, like, I don’t like this because…

I consider myself a connoisseur of awful television but Happy Days did not do it for me, I tell you...

“since the baby moves after she and Christian have sex, the baby must already like sex”

The scare quotes around the word “relate” made me laugh for about five minutes. Thanks.