quote:it's not so good that you should do it and then pat yourself on the back for doing the Lord's work, while the truly underprivileged people of this world suffer and starve
I've always felt that Roger Ebert was a monster for choosing to go into film criticism rather than becoming a doctor. In fact, we're all monsters here.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Destineer: It's a good thing, but it's not so good that you should do it and then pat yourself on the back for doing the Lord's work, while the truly underprivileged people of this world suffer and starve.
To be sure, are you trying to make the case in any way that because there are objectively worse concerns for the human condition, my entire quantity of effort spent talking about this one is, regardless of relevance or personal interest in the notion, frivolous, wasted, or disagreeable on any of these lines?
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Not at all. Nor is there anything monstrous about focusing on parts of life that are not of the utmost moral importance.
What bothers me is when people focus on these less important parts of life and then justify that by convincing themselves that the issues that move them personally are the most important ones, when in fact they're tertiary at best. I've had people look askance at me for enjoying Seth McFarlane's Oscar hosting, who wouldn't dream of judging me for spending money frivolously rather than giving it to the less fortunate. But the latter thing matters so much more. So many people on the left don't have their priorities straight anymore. This is what bothers me.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Yeah, I think that's really telling, Tom. It's snarky, and you don't bother to explain what you mean... but I do think it underlies a real problem with the priorities Destineer seems to have laid out.
Here's another one:
"Sure, he cured cancer, but he financially supports heteronormative fiction!"
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Abusing your spouse is very bad morally, on an entirely different scale from enjoying or producing morally questionable art. I've also never said anything to imply that being very good in one aspect of life can compensate for being very bad in another way. So I'm not sure why you think the attitude Tom is making fun of has anything to do with my own views.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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That's fair. I thought I saw the glimmer of something useful in his joke as it related to you, but I think I was wrong. Certainly, I can't articulate it. Sorry if I gave offense. Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Far from it, I was just unclear about what the problem for me was supposed to be. Especially since Tom didn't say anything himself to explain it.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Well, the problem is that you're ludicrously overstating the issue.
I doubt you'll find a feminist alive who'll say, "Oh, yeah, there's a meteor heading for the planet to wipe out all life on Earth, but I really think we need to fire the scientist leading the deflection effort because he's such a chauvinist."
In the real world, people are capable of focusing on multiple things at once, and observing that some people are jerks is not in fact a distraction from "important issues."
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quote:I've had people look askance at me for enjoying Seth McFarlane's Oscar hosting, who wouldn't dream of judging me for spending money frivolously...
I'd be one of those people. Spend money frivolously all you like; enjoying McFarlane's humor is far, far worse. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Thinking about this more, I don't see OSC stopping reviewing stuff (or writing about politics). He puts the articles on his website after a week, and the politics stuff had other sites as weel. And it's not like Rhino Times ever paid him (he mentioned that in some random column that I am not even going to try to find), so I suspect that he might not have bothered doing things like getting reimbursed for taking his family to the movies or saying it was a tax deduction for his job as reviewer.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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