I can’t imagine being a celebrity and then accusing rando peasants of abuse.

The Guardian:

Steve Toussaint has revealed he received racist abuse online after he was cast as Corlys Velaryon in the upcoming Game Of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon.

The 57-year-old British actor has previously starred in Doctor Who, Line of Duty and Death in Paradise.

Speaking to the Radio Times about his lead role in the highly anticipated HBO series, Toussaint said: “When they announced [my casting], one of the first things I saw on social media was a drawing of the character [from the books] next to a picture of me.

“And then there was the racist abuse that came with that.”

In the books by George RR Martin on which the series is based, the Velaryons are described as having white skin, ghostly pale hair and purple eyes. However, in the new series the clan are reimagined as black nobles with long silver dreadlocks.

Reflecting on the backlash from fans of the series of books, Toussaint continued: “I kind of thought: ‘Oh, I get it’. When we were criminals and pirates and slaves in the other show, you were OK with that.

“But as this guy is the richest [character] in the show and he’s a nobleman, now you have a problem with it.

“In House Of The Dragon [our colour] is just a given – I quite like that.”

Despite the risk that acknowledging the backlash could give it greater prominence, Toussaint said he thought it was important to address it.

I don’t even think most of these people complaining about this stuff are even “racists.” They just want their shows to not be so shitty.

The main issue with the casting is the fact that the characters race actually plays a part lmao, House Velaryon is a Valyrian House, Purple Eyes and Pale White Skin is their characteristic. It makes no sense for a Valyrian to be black or dark skinned. This is not a racist thing.

— Ahmad (@Zenorastic) August 9, 2022

House Valyrian just changed. This man is black. Anyone who gives a fuck has some serious issues.

— Sanguine (@sanguine61981) August 11, 2022

They hate that it went against the books and what George created because Velaryons were pail white. Yet George probably gave his approval to retcon this. Either way diversity and inclusion are very important in this franchise. They should reflect the audiences who pay to see them

— chaotic (@1egaltk) August 9, 2022

It turns out that all those memes from the 1990s were correct.

Television rots your brain!

The Guardian:

Until now, claims that television makes you stupid have only been backed up by anecdotal evidence. True, at a certain point it does seem that people who watch vast amounts of TV do become so intellectually impaired that they start involuntarily clapping along to theme tunes like imprisoned sea lions performing for fish, but that isn’t anything you could write a medical paper about.

Now, sadly, science has trundled along to back it up. According to Dr Ryan Dougherty, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, the more television you watch in middle age, the lower your volume in grey matter. Examining the viewing habits of 599 American adults between 1990 and 2011, Dougherty found that those who watched an above average amount of television showed reduced volume in their frontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Basically, your mum was right: TV really does rot your brain.

To make matters worse, Dougherty goes out of his way to suggest other sedentary activities that are better for your brain. Horrifically these include board games. Which raises the question: would you rather lower your IQ by watching the defining cultural art form of the 21st century, or stay clever for ever by joylessly prodding counters around a backgammon board?

This is not the first study to show that TV negatively affects the brain. People have known for years that it puts the brain into a kind of hypnotic state.

I’ve actually never read “Saturday Morning Mind Control” by Phil Phillips, but the cover has always been so intriguing.

I think that is some kind of evangelical thing about how cartoons are satanic. Which makes it all the more intriguing. I can’t find an ebook of it, even. There’s an archive.org version, but you can’t download it.

Here are some more examples of 1990s style anti-TV memes. Because I’m basically a meme historian.

A lot of this was associated with like, “Manufacturing Consent.” In then when MTV first aired, there was a lot of ironic stuff about how “I like my mind being controlled by MTV.” There were a lot of early cartoons on MTV with this theme. That aesthetic really influenced Sam Hyde a lot, I think.

I got a lot of this in comic books from the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a kind.

I recently went back and read an issue of New Mutants that used all of the memes from the TV mind control material. At the end it thanked Noam Chomsky for writing “Manufacturing Consent.”

It had some really cool 1990s meme imagery, very similar to the MTV cartoons of the time.

Maybe I should start doing comic book reviews again?

I think those were popular?

Probably not.

Meme reviews and meme history however: that is definitely popular.

As regards TV – I think the threat is maybe kind of out-dated.

Most people use the internet now, I hope?

In some ways, the threat of the internet is even more extreme – at least in the way that most people use it. For 98% of internet users, their entire experience is on social media.

Basically, all of the threats of TV are present, it’s just a much more personalized experience.

The first season of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series from Amazon Studios will cost $465M, making it the most expensive show of all time.

In comparison, HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ cost roughly $100M per season.

(via @THR) pic.twitter.com/OmOq6ZfhZV

— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) April 16, 2021

Is this Jeff Bezos spending more money than anyone has ever spent on a TV show to make people like him?

Or is it inflation?

Is it both? 

The Hollywood Reporter:

Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings television show is going to cost all the gold in the Lonely Mountain.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Amazon will spend roughly NZ$650 million — $465 million in U.S. dollars — for just the first season of the show.

…

“What I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million in season one alone,” Stuart Nash, New Zealand minister for economic development and tourism, told Morning Report. “This is fantastic, it really is … this will be the largest television series ever made.”

The figures were released as part of as part of the New Zealand government’s Official Information Act and initially reported by the New Zealand outlet Stuff. The documents also confirmed the studio’s plan to film potentially five seasons in New Zealand — as well as possible, as-yet-unannounced spinoff series.

…

Amazon’s spending will trigger a tax rebate of NZ$160 million ($114 million U.S). This is somewhat controversial in New Zealand as the government could end up on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to help subsidize Amazon’s elves-and-hobbits drama series. Stuff reported that the country’s treasury has labeled the show a “significant fiscal risk” given there is no capped upside to how much Amazon — and therefore the government — might spend. But others point out that the boost in local spending by the production plus the potential tourism surge from Lord of the Rings fans far outweighs the taxpayer-funded kickbacks.

…

The official description: The Lord of the Rings “brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”

…

The series is in production for a planned debut in later this year. Amazon Studios declined to comment.

We all know it’s just going to be all black people.

We saw that Middle Earth was already being subject to unrelenting waves of immigration in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.

Of course, I wouldn’t even mind if blacks played the orcs. I don’t think black people would mind either, and would probably like it. They’d be watching it like, “yeah, nigga, we botta rek dem cracka elfs.”

But that won’t be how it goes.

This show will have black elves.

Is this a glimpse of what people will do if a Universal Basic Income kind of thing ever happens?

Study Finds:

Just one more episode. Or five. That’s the mantra of millions who suddenly find themselves stuck at home all day during the coronavirus pandemic. A new survey of 2,000 U.S. residents finds the average American is currently streaming eight hours of content per day and finishing three TV series per week. We all have some extra free time on our hands right now, but at this rate many people may exhaust the entire Netflix library by summer.

Moreover, many parents have started to fall back on streaming services to get a break from their kids. In all, 65% of surveyed parents said they’re allowing their children to watch more TV and movies during this pandemic.

RELATED: Researchers Say Parents Should Keep Toddlers and Preschoolers Away from All Screens

The research, commissioned by Tubi, also noted that the average American enjoys access to four streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime). Another 38% are usually logged into five or more at any given time. Of course, many households find themselves operating on a leaner budget, so it makes sense that 47% are also taking advantage of free streaming services.

All in all, 75% of respondents are using streaming services more in general since COVID-19 interrupted all of our lives.

We all have our favorite shows, from Breaking Bad to The Sopranos, that we just can’t help but go back to and re-watch. As such, 56% said they are watching shows they’ve already seen before more often than starting something new.

…

“The findings of the survey illuminate just how much people are turning to streaming as a way to stay entertained and cope with social isolation. Americans are bingeing more content than ever before, seeking free streaming options alongside subscription services, and turning to password sharing as a way to find more content,” comments a Tubi spokesperson.

People appear to have weird thought processes.

“Can’t go take a walk in the park so I might as well lay in the couch without moving for most of the day.”

“Can’t see my friends right now so I might as well spend most of the day watching TV instead of talking with them.”

“Can’t go to work right now so I might as well not do anything productive with my life.”

“Can’t escape physically so I might as well escape mentally.”

Wouldn’t it be better to spend the free time that the lockdown imposes talking with our friends and family over the phone, doing stuff that we’ve wanted to do for some time but couldn’t find the time to do before, reading interesting old books, working or planning personal projects, and overall laughing at the coronavirus paranoia?

I mean, even video games are at least interactive.

The malnourished teenager with Asperger syndrome and tiny tits, Greta Thunberg, is not done lecturing the world about the proper way to be a tiny malnourished teenager.

In fact, she’s just getting started.

Daily Mail:

Greta Thunberg has signed up for a BBC documentary series focusing on her ‘international crusade’, that will feature her challenging world leaders.

The 17-year-old Swedish climate change activist will be shown exploring what actions can be taken to limit climate change and responding to the ‘real-world consequences of inaction’.

The series is being made by BBC Studios – the corporation’s commercial arm – as climate change ‘is probably the most important issue of our lives’.

It looks like Greta is turning into both some kind of climate-harmony specialist and some kind of climate police officer that will respond and punish climate changers who changed the climate through their lack of obeying her.

Everything’s going according to her plans.

Announcing the series, BBC Studios’ Executive Rob Liddell said: ‘Climate change is probably the most important issue of our lives so it feels timely to make an authoritative series that explores the facts and science behind this complex subject.

‘To be able to do this with Greta is an extraordinary privilege, getting an inside view on what it’s like being a global icon and one of the most famous faces on the planet.’

Greta re-tweeted the announcement on social media.

The programme will also ‘chart her journey into adulthood’ and follow the schoolgirl during her ‘quiet moments’ as she writes ‘impactful’ speeches.

A broadcaster attached to the series is yet to be announced.

It is hoped the programme will shine a light on the continuing plight of wildlife and humans across the globe due to climate change.

What they’re most likely to do is to show brown people suffering from their brown people-induced misery and somehow blame white people for it.

It’s what they always do.

Keep in mind that Greta Thunberg and the climate cult still refuses to address China and India, the biggest threats to the environment, and instead focuses on random white people driving cars when going to work and flying on planes a couple of times a year for their vacations.

The whole climate change movement is a plot to further weaken white people globally while allowing the rest of the world to do the things that white people get nagged at for.

Greta Thunberg even said that whites must stop using technology and stuff to allow the rest of the world to catch up to Western standards of living.

For these people, it isn’t really about saving the planet but about hating themselves.

Usually, they hate themselves as a proxy for hating their parents. Greta, as we know, has an eating disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, selective mutism and various other psychological disorders on top of her biological autism. The only cure for autism is drinking bleach, and a lot of folks don’t want to go down that road. But the psychological disorders are all the result of poor parenting.

The rest of these climate change lunatics presumably have similar issues with their fathers and/or mothers. They are mostly girls.

Greta Thunberg is a tiny, titless 17-year-old alleged female on a vegan diet who went months without talking or eating.

How can that be the face of climate salvation?

Television is known to be a tool controlled by those who don’t have your best interests at heart. But on top of it being used as a propaganda device, there’s the less talked about problem of it being such a huge waste of time.

Now a recent survey has put into perspective just how much time, on average, is really wasted.

Study Finds:

Television has become such a common part of all of our lives that most don’t even think about just how much time they spend staring at their TV screen. Of course, all of those hours are undoubtedly adding up, and a recent survey of 2,000 British adults finds that the average TV viewer will watch an astounding 78,705 hours of programming (movies, sports, news, etc) in their lifetime. That’s a whole lot of screen time that may have been better spent on more productive endeavors.

On a day-to-day basis, the average adult watches TV for three-and-a-half hours, amounting to 1,248 hours each year.

78,705 hours over a lifetime… that’s about 3,279 days, or about 109 months, or about 9 years.

1,248 hours every year… that’s about 52 days a year, or about two months a year.

Imagine the things you could do with two months’ worth of free time every year.

Now imagine the things you could do with nine years’ worth of free time in your lifetime.

It gets even worse when you consider that many people are sleep deprived. There is something pulling tired people towards televisions instead of beds.

Something that makes people want to escape reality and their own thoughts, perhaps.

Something related to reality being such a nightmarish parody of what we thought the future should be like, perhaps.

The survey, commissioned by LG Electronics, broke down those numbers even further and concluded that the average adult these days will watch 3,639 movies at home, and 31,507 episodes of TV during their lifespan. As far as different programs, the average person will watch 11,278 different TV series as well.

Additionally, it seems that deciding what to watch is a very common problem among modern families. The average household will have two arguments every week simply over what to watch. Sadly, more than half of the survey’s participants say their household would struggle to get by with only one television for everyone.

That’s probably why, according to the research, the average home hosts at least two TV sets, which are usually thrown out in favor of newer models every six years.

Yeah, the TVs may still work, but if they’re not as crisp and as fancy as the NEW LATEST MODEL, then what’s even the point in watching them?

Here’s an especially noteworthy statistic: six in ten respondents actually admit they would be lost without their TV set.

…

Between traditional cable, smart television apps, and streaming services, viewers today have never had more choices of what to watch. Interestingly, the survey actually found that many people (15%) tend to get frustrated by having too many options. On that note, the average adult will spend 2,943 hours of their life just deciding what to watch!

What a huge time sink.

Look. I’m not saying we’re literally ruled by overlords from another species that think we’re their slaves.

I’m just saying that if we were ruled by overlords from another species that think that we are their slaves, they’d probably devise some scheme to keep people “busy” with nothing, distracted, tired and unproductive, as a way to protect their power structure.

This zombie “rise from the dead” recycling of past stories and characters that these hand-rubbing media producers engage in is likely to be the result of the combination of their incapacity for creativity and a desire to ruin the childhood memories of people.

Their next victim is Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Hollywood Reporter:

The Jedi Order is once again calling Ewan McGregor into service.

The actor, who famously portrayed the masterful Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in three Star Wars movies, is in negotiations to reprise the role in a Kenobi-centered series for Disney+, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The development positions the series as the third Star Wars title being made for the upcoming streaming platform, which is set to launch this fall and is meant to take aim at rival digital services such as Netflix while taking Disney and its brands into new audience  realms.

Disney+ and Lucasfilm, the producer behind all things Star Wars, are already making The Mandalorian, a series based on the class of warriors and bounty hunters first embodied by fan-favorite Boba Fett, and an untitled series characterized as a prequel to 2016’s Rogue One featuring Rebel Alliance officer Cassian Andor, with Diego Luna reprising the role.

No timeline or creative talent for the Kenobi project were revealed. The Mandalorian is set to debut in November as a launch title for Disney+, while the Rogue One prequel has Stephen Schiff (The Americans) writing and showrunning.

According to the movies, Boba Fett is a clone of this man:

There’s no doubt that “The Mandalorian” will be a series intended to glorify browns and possibly blacks too.

Space Wakanda.

This Obi-Wan Kenobi series will likely take place between Episode 3 and Episode 4, and tell the story of how the Jedi Master turned into the desert hermit from the original movie.

Given what we know of Disney, these are some of the things that the series is likely to show:

• Obi-Wan Kenobi having a gay affair and “exploring his sexuality outside the Jedi Order”
• Someone close to Obi-Wan Kenobi having a gay affair with someone
• People having gay affairs
• Obi-Wan Kenobi engaging in sexual acts with space aliens
• People engaging in sexual acts with space aliens
• Transsexual space aliens
• Random slave woman with no training beating Obi-Wan at stuff just because she’s that much better than men
• Random women being smarter and/or wiser than a Jedi Master due to their Menstrual Wisdom
• Evil Space Nazis gassing innocent space fruit-fly people for no reason other than pure Dark Side-fueled hatred
• Evil Space Nazis doing random and senseless acts of evil because they’re metaphysically evil

There is zero chance that the series will be good.

Disney is producing social engineering devices disguised as entertainment.

The degenerate stuff they sneak into their movies should be exposed and ridiculed.