Shit that Pissed me off – 12/5

Radical Feminism Helps No-One

I don’t suggest clicking on the link above.  I know very few people who would sympathize with what is written there.

As someone who tries very hard to support feminism, I see nothing of value in this woman’s rant about how men are clearly inferior to women.  They aren’t.  They are different.  In some (mostly physical) ways men have certain advantages.  In other ways they do not.  When you remove the obstacles society creates for women, men and women are mostly equal.

Except Matt Damon. Matt Damon is clearly superior to everyone. I want to be clear that his superiority has nothing to do with his gender.

The problem is people viewing this extreme point of view and calling it feminism.  As if all feminists are out there just despising men for having the misfortune to exist.

When, in truth, hardly any of them are.

Every point of view has it’s extremes.  The problem becomes people viewing the extreme position as representative of the entire position.  Feminism is about working to fix a society that is off balance.  It is not about creating a “utopia” where men don’t exist.

Another Police Officer is not Indicted

The issue for me here continues to be the idea that Police officers, apparently, are above indictment.  If some regular dude got into a fight with someone and choked them to death, an indictment would be easy.  Give the guy a badge and they somehow rise above the judicial system.

Or so it seems.

I understand that being a police officer is a very difficult job.  I understand that they put their lives on the line every day.  I’m tired of the #notallpolice argument because, I think, we all know not all police are killing unarmed civilians.

Some of them are.  Sometimes they are justified.

But sometimes they are not.  And if they know they will never have to stand trial for a questionable death, we are setting up a system where there is no accountability when cops use lethal force.

I guess I have a problem with that.

Nicholas Cage in Left Behind

This movie is so completely awful, I had no choice but to be angry.

If there is any small part of you that believes it would be entertaining to watch this film, please put it out of your mind.  This movie commits the worst sin in filmmaking.

It is boring as dirt.

Cage spends the majority of the films 111 minute runtime looking vaguely concerned his plane is going to crash.  “Concerned” might be too strong a word.  Worried, maybe?

You know who would have killed looking vaguely worried for 111 minutes?  Matt fucking Damon.

While the film doesn’t even do Fundamentalist Christianity any favors with the watered down rapture message it only barely preaches, it still manages to remind us that Christians are a persecuted minority who are confronted for their belief all the time.

You can listen to us rant about it on Geeks Without God next week.  I promise the podcast will be a lot better than the film.

 The Term Tour de Force

It’s Oscar movie season and that means folks are talking about the performances worthy of Oscar consideration.

Those that know me pretty well are aware I kind of geek out about the movie awards.  I don’t know why as they are, really, only slightly more irrelevant than the Grammies.

But I’d really love it if we could retire the term “Tour de Force” when talking about a brilliant acting performance as if it is some sort of mic drop.

SHE TOUR DE FORCED THAT MOTHERFUCKER!  BOOM!

It just makes me want to go to the film and walk out loudly proclaiming “Well, I thought she was good but it was no ‘Tour de Force!!'”

The phrase makes for a great pull quote.  I guess that’s why critics use it.  Say someone had a brilliant performance and the marketing folks don’t notice.  Call it a tour de force and your web site will be featured on ads all over the place!  The hits will roll in!

Here’s an idea: all movie critics get to use the term once in their entire career.  Then the term will actually mean something because if a critic pulls it out, you know they are fucking serious.

This Article About How Young Man Have it So Bad

Basically it is just a bunch of young men complaining about women making it so much harder to have sex.  It assumes their sexual experience is different from what it was for my generation.

When I was in college, I was a nerdy, awkward guy who was afraid to approach women to whom I was attracted.  I didn’t blame it on feminism then.  I figured it was probably me.

Actually, Matt Damon went to my college and all the girls (and boys) were chasing after him.

Well listen up guys, it is still you.  Most (and by “most” I mean “almost all”) feminist girls actually like guys.  They just want to be respected as people.

So hey, fucking respect them as people.  Stop blaming girls for the fact you are shitty at romance.  You are shitty at romance because you are too afraid to fail at romance.

You can still find girls attractive.  You can still try to date them.  They can say no.  The trick is you don’t get to call them a “bitch” or a “whore” or a “slut” if they say no.

Honestly, it doesn’t sound so hard.

Girl Completely Fails to Destroy Atheism No Matter What the Producers of the Video Say

What tires me more than anything is videos like this one (or movies like Left Behind) that show a complete failure to understand why atheists think what they think.

In this case, we have an atheist dentist who seems to think his practice will improve if he lectures his Christian clients on the existence of god.

His argument is the same one most fictional atheists use to argue for the nonexistence of god.  The thing is, it isn’t an argument you will hear from real atheists.

Memo to the producers of this video: if you want to stick it to atheism, you may want to find out what they think by talking to atheists rather than other Christians.