Mind, Carl Sagan was a flaming lefty with a massive hate-on towards Conservatism and President Reagan, but give him credit where it's due... he actually did care about society at large.
OK - I was 100% on board with Sagan's rant until he started hating on the movie "Dumb and Dumber". ( Please don't bring up what an asswipe Jim Carrey has turned into - nobody knew that was going to happen in the 1990s ).
I have advanced STEM degrees and "Dumb and Dumber" may be my favorite movie of all time. I know I am not alone in this.
It's a bit of a paradox, but it's almost as if "dumb" entertainment is best for, for better lack of terms, knowledge workers. When you exercise your brain all day long, you get home and want to turn off your brain. If anything simple things are a great time to let your unconscious processes work.
Other times in my life when I was doing more physical, mundane labor for work my free time was when I would read classics and philosophy and what not since I was craving mental stimulation.
A person needs intellectual stimulation, but the idea that every single thing we do should be intellectually stimulating is fucking exhausting.
Sorry, fren - but I'm going to have to call BS on that. I watched Living Color from the first episode. Carrey played goofy, off the wall characters - I never ONCE got the impression that they were trying to script him into characters to make white people look bad.
I have a keen, cynical eye for this - give me one specific example.
Most of the humor of Dumb and Dumber comes from a sense of embarrassment that the audience feels for the characters. If you're too dumb to be embarrassed by what they are doing, you don't find it funny.
Carl Sagan was certainly no dummy. The guy just lacked a sense of humor. That's fine - not everybody needs to have a sense of humor. I laugh a lot, but I am sure I would enjoy Sagan's serious science books.
They should have done D&D part two where the lads join antifa and accidentally shoot their comrades with AK-47s while trying to attack "right-wingers".
99% right, but the pseudoscience is not coming from horoscopes and crystal balls but from alleged scientific ‘experts’ and ‘studies’. Fortunately, people like James Randi and Michael Shermer debunked faith healers and other nonsense, in large part. The problem is still the same: people are not applying common sense, skeptical and critical thinking to what they’re being told, deferring to ‘experts’.
Mind, Carl Sagan was a flaming lefty with a massive hate-on towards Conservatism and President Reagan, but give him credit where it's due... he actually did care about society at large.
Came here to say this same thing.
This used to be a lefty opinion. Now lefties are all about meh delicate feelings.
OK - I was 100% on board with Sagan's rant until he started hating on the movie "Dumb and Dumber". ( Please don't bring up what an asswipe Jim Carrey has turned into - nobody knew that was going to happen in the 1990s ).
I have advanced STEM degrees and "Dumb and Dumber" may be my favorite movie of all time. I know I am not alone in this.
It's a bit of a paradox, but it's almost as if "dumb" entertainment is best for, for better lack of terms, knowledge workers. When you exercise your brain all day long, you get home and want to turn off your brain. If anything simple things are a great time to let your unconscious processes work.
Other times in my life when I was doing more physical, mundane labor for work my free time was when I would read classics and philosophy and what not since I was craving mental stimulation.
A person needs intellectual stimulation, but the idea that every single thing we do should be intellectually stimulating is fucking exhausting.
I remember seeing some Woody Allen movie years ago where he worked himself to the point of suicide through philosophy.
Then he went and saw a Marx Brothers movie in a movie theater and it turned everything around.
BTW, great message on your part.
Woody's a pedo.
You mean his was a token white?
Yes. Yes he was.
The white lady too. She was wild! Surprised she didn't do more.
Maybe she refused to suck dick.
Sorry, fren - but I'm going to have to call BS on that. I watched Living Color from the first episode. Carrey played goofy, off the wall characters - I never ONCE got the impression that they were trying to script him into characters to make white people look bad.
I have a keen, cynical eye for this - give me one specific example.
Oh come on, you cannot be serious ! You are taking a parody of VANILLA ICE as an attack on white people ?!
Vanilla Ice is as self-degrading a white celebrity as has ever been. He is a living, breathing self-parody.
OK, Karen - don't throw coffee at me.
Most of the humor of Dumb and Dumber comes from a sense of embarrassment that the audience feels for the characters. If you're too dumb to be embarrassed by what they are doing, you don't find it funny.
Carl Sagan was certainly no dummy. The guy just lacked a sense of humor. That's fine - not everybody needs to have a sense of humor. I laugh a lot, but I am sure I would enjoy Sagan's serious science books.
Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this.
But he totally redeemed himself.
They should have done D&D part two where the lads join antifa and accidentally shoot their comrades with AK-47s while trying to attack "right-wingers".
Wow!
I have several of his books. He was truly an independent thinker and he let his thoughts go beyond what normal people could ever do.
Idiocracy.
Rings hollow coming from one of the pioneers of abusing science to effect political change. One of the fathers of ManBearPig.
Theodore Kaczynski had an even better grasp on it, in fact he tried to stop it.
99% right, but the pseudoscience is not coming from horoscopes and crystal balls but from alleged scientific ‘experts’ and ‘studies’. Fortunately, people like James Randi and Michael Shermer debunked faith healers and other nonsense, in large part. The problem is still the same: people are not applying common sense, skeptical and critical thinking to what they’re being told, deferring to ‘experts’.