Why did the first notes from The Lion King just burst into my head?

Eight decades later, and all those lessons have been forgotten. Self-interested and shortsighted leaders have risen to the tops of many nations, and nationalistic rhetoric is gaining popularity again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

In some ways, I'm a believer in the "80 year cycle, theory". But to me, it's a much simpler cause. 80 years is going to be roughly four generations removed from whatever the last chaos was (in this case, Hitler and Fascism and the Holocaust).

The generation that lived through it is long dead. They taught their children (My parents) to never forget. They in turn taught their children (Me...Gex X) to still remember what was fought for. And then the current generation (my kids if I had any) have a far less fundamental grasp on that history. We're so far removed from that event that it's been forgotten just long enough that it all makes an appearance again for the very same reasons. Because it's an easy trap to fall into; blaming someone else for your problems.

All this has happened before and it will happen again. It's as simple as "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it".

Quebec cares. Probably a little too dogmatically in my opinion. But you're right about east coast culture.

Although I would say that it does have it's own somewhat well-documented cultural artifacts in terms of music, food and drink. We certainly hear more on the prairies about Screech, Great Big Sea and kissing the fish (for example) than most other areas with the exception of Quebec.

What is that, about tree-fiddy American?

Reagan and "trickle down economics" ushered in the 80s and poured gasoline onto Wall Street, empowering a thousand Gordon Geckos to abandon the middle class workers in the name of greater profit.

In Russia, Linux forks you!

My opinion of Musk has nothing to do with it. For the price of it, its ugly as fuck.

I'm not a fan of priuses either, but priuses don't a) take wild swings in design in order to be "edgy" and b) price themselves according to supposed "cool points".

With or without Musk, your choices reflect who you are. This guy bought an overpriced vehicle in order to be "cool" and now he's butt hurt that no one agrees with him.

I wouldn't call this "inconsequential", but not only is Deckard a Replicant, he's a very specific Replicant.

Gaff (played by Eddie Olmos) was the original officer assigned to hunting down the escaped replicants, before Holden and before Deckard. When the escaped Androids originally tried to storm the Tyrell corporation, one of them got "fried" going through an electric fence. And it was either there, or in another encounter, that Gaff was wounded in the leg, forcing Holden to take over the case, and we know where that ended up...

I posit that the android that got "fried", didn't actually get fried. In concert with the Tyrell corporation, they programmed him with Gaff's memories in order to finish the job, which is why Gaff is chaperoning him, driving him around; to make sure the memory implant holds. It's why Gaff seems to know what he's thinking and can make origami to give him hints. It's why Gaff at the end of the movie says "You've done a man's work". And it's why Gaff is such a dick to him. Imagine chaperoning your artificial replacement around that everyone thinks can do just as good a job as you...

I always watch Blade Runner from that perspective. At least until the sequel came out and ruined it for me.

Or maybe, just maybe, Europe has been around for soooo much longer than America that they've reached the age where they realize that there are other priorities in life than just the accumulation of wealth. Like enjoying life, having a work/life balance, socializing with one's friends and family.

Perpsectives change when your history as a country is longer than a few hundred years.

No. It's called the Paradox of Tolerance. "Discussing" rationally with the intolerant only serves to justify their position in their own eyes and thereby embolden them.

In other words, putting up with them simply gives them more ink

Turning the other cheek only works if the person doing the slapping has a sense of shame. Trump and his ilk have long since proven they have none.

The fact that people care about whether their messages are blue or green is so absolutely ridiculous.

I've known people who literally refuse to message anyone who doesn't use iMessage (and by extension has an iPhone).

Every one of them turned out to be a twat in every other facet of their personality as well.

correction... always were worthless.

It's always been a con game.

Their so-called "value" was always determined by the ability of the person shilling it to make up bullshit. Literally the definition of a "confidence" game. Same problem as crypto in general. It's only has value if you have confidence in the person shilling it. The moment that person loses the confidence of their marks, the entire thing crumbles to nothing because it isn't backed by any real tangible assets.