I’m with you on almost everything, but I gotta disagree about Bright Lights, Big City. I think it’s a helluva performance. I’ve heard people say he’s miscast, but I don’t get that — an addict could look and sound like anyone, and he sells the hell out of it for me. That monologue he gives to Swoozie Kurtz about his…

If the only thing he’d ever done was Bright Lights, Big City, that alone would have made his career worthwhile to me. Probably his best work in my opinion and a criminally overlooked performance and movie as a whole.

Well, I’ll give you that — the idea of Bezos crying would certainly make me laugh. But we do have to be careful about minimizing, even inadvertently, anyone’s efforts in fighting a system, especially if we don’t know that person — it’s already enough of a struggle to do the right thing, and we don’t want anyone making…

Ha — good one. Just read the first paragraph, then. I’ll bullet-point the rest:

At the risk of reading too much into THAT, what do you mean? Does the joke not reflect your personal feelings, or does it not actually target the person boycotting Amazon?

Actually, the comment of yours I was replying to was the one you made not to PV but to BOH1066, who you also implied was mentally ill, which makes it seem less like genuine concern for a particular individual and more like a thing you do.

Come on — I mean, I know it’s a joke, but it’s a joke that 1) relies on labeling someone with whom you don’t agree as mentally ill and 2) implying that someone on medication for mental illness has no say in these things. Something being a joke doesn’t automatically make it acceptable. If you don’t believe that, try…

It is, far as I’m concerned. I think the kind of flak that PV is getting is evidence that it’s edgy. And as far as depth goes, I think being aware of how your everyday actions, like spending money somewhere, figure into the system, and understanding how to integrate those principles into those actions is certainly…

Well, yeah, we’re all in the same economy, so a lot of our money is cycling through Amazon one way or another right now. But that’s basically like saying that there’s no point in boycotting Amazon because nobody is boycotting Amazon, which is a circular line of reasoning. You have to start somewhere...

There is a difference between virtue-signaling and leading by example. Isn’t PV saying, ‘I do this — it can be done’? That seems an important message to those of us who feel we cannot escape the tyranny of convenience, which is what Amazon so heavily replies upon.

But until such a tax can be levied, why can’t we boycott said companies in the mean time? Wouldn’t doing so help to decrease their power and at least shrink the fucked up system that I agree is the real issue?

I know this is a joke, but unless I’m misunderstanding the tone, it seems the target of the joke is the guy boycotting Amazon, which means you’re making fun of David while he’s trying to fight Goliath. Why?

Did PV say that? I know this sounds like an irritating rhetorical device, but I’m actually asking because I didn’t see that anywhere and want to be sure I didn’t miss something.

To be fair, PV never said he or she only boycotts Amazon. And Amazon, while it may not be the most flagrantly horrible company of them all, is probably the most powerful and dangerous, especially in terms of how it’s laying the groundwork for a total dominance of every market in the near future. For my money, if you…

Good for you! I haven’t spent money there for the past 18 months, and the way things are going, I’ll never return. Better late than never.

Forgot to say that the ‘taken out of context’ remark was a reference to the post I was originally replying to.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I’m throwing it back your way, if you care to continue.

1. - 6. Why?

I have a lot of thoughts on this, and if you’re interested, I’ll merely direct you to my long comment above rather than obnoxiously pasting the whole thing here. (I was already obnoxious enough in posting it once.) In short, though, I’ll just ask what are your reasons for claiming that the discussion of this song is…