They're copying something, all right.
The destruction of a 90 year strong brand for the sake of an agenda not everyone wants, and cozying up to NGOs 80% of the population absolutely hates. People will fight the ICE bans, and manufacturers are already suffering the consequences of putting all their eggs in the EV basket. Look at what's happening to Ford.
They should have kept the F-Type, made an evolution of it, and taken it GT3 racing. They ought to build a new version of the badass C-X75 hypercar from the Spectre movie, too.
Something just doesn't seem right to me about how not one of those families is speaking out against being caught in all this lawfare. All for the sake of corrupt politicians and leftist NGOs being able to exploit their dead kids to shut down those who disagree with them.
If I were them, I would have been furious and demanded they stop.
I think many seem to agree that the best thing for TV as a whole is a return to the '90s era of specializations and a philosophy that supports programming with actual depth and isn't reliant on displaying gross caricatures of the worst aspects of humanity.
That last point is what I personally see in much of the reality TV that took over the medium in the 2000s and proliferated almost every network.
It wouldn't surprise me if those involved in producing reality TV were receiving some kind of ESG-like funding to enable and exaggerate the worst human behaviors and structure it in a way that would sort of dumb down its viewers.
Then again, that's my rather biased perspective on that topic; I totally understand if others disagree with me.
I think the problem was that Survivor became a smash hit for CBS in 2000, and every cable and over the air network fell over themselves to try to replicate its success with reality shows of their own. From a business perspective, it also helped that they were dirt cheap to produce and get easy short-term returns on.
Of course, they all had varying degrees of success, and a lot of cable networks that formerly had specific focuses like Speed, TLC, History Channel, MTV, etc. saw much of their audience leave once these programs started proliferating their schedules.
They came the expense of more thoughtful, albeit less Schadenfreude-like programming that people tuned into those networks to get away from, alienating their core audience and only attracting fair-weather viewers that would leave when those shows were no longer the hot trendy thing.
Which brings us to where we're at now: multiple networks with no real focus or core audience desperately trying to throw anything at the wall to see what sticks in order to just barely stay afloat. It's why MTV's schedule is little more than Ridiculousness marathons all day, and History and Discovery Channel pretty much rerun the same shows and episodes all day with very little variety.
I admit that I never even considered him for VP, but I felt good hearing that he was a candidate for the role.
I felt relieved when he got selected, and this was primarily due to his vocal opposition to all the COVID mandates throughout early 2021. He was one of only a few politicians to openly call for people to civilly disobey the vaccine and lockdown mandates. Almost no one in politics wanted to do that at the time.
Suffice to say, I think he's only helped his case since then. I'm glad he was chosen for the role, and I have high hopes for him come January.
And turn one of the national Fox Sports networks back into the Speed Channel. Then give it the documentary, digest, news, and live event programming that made it so beloved in the Speedvision and early Speed Channel years.
I also call for MTV to become an all music genre network again, Fuse to return to a focus on alternative music, and A&E to become a real arts network again. All the other networks you mentioned should revive the focuses from their early-mid '90s heydays.
MTGA- Make Television Great Again!
Pompeo believed that inditing Trump over the classified documents (the Jack Smith case) was good. He also led the charge to persecute Julian Assange.
I encourage you to read this Roger Stone article https://www.stonecoldtruth.com/p/why-president-trump-cannot-trust about Pompeo and Haley. It includes the Fox News clip where Pompeo threw Trump under the bus.
I used to like Pompeo too. Now I'm embarrassed I ever supported him and hope he stays as far away from Trump's team as possible.
The US needs to leave NATO, the UN, and all these globalist scams as soon as possible.
They've done nothing to actually help Americans and are little more than vehicles for a one world government.
But would we still see other predatory game mechanics?
Battle passes, microtransactions, lootboxes, mandatory Internet connections, and broken, bare bones Day 1 releases. Those seemed to go into hyperdrive after GamerGate too.
Or do you think these were just natural side effects of publishers and shareholders getting more greedy as the industry took off? Were we going to see those things anyway, with or without wokeness?
I just want to start a discussion. I thought this would be interesting to think about.
Does Trump's 2024 win feel so special because the past 4 years were such a disaster?
They showed us just how consequential corrupt governments can be, and therefore compelled many of us to do a better job being politically active and standing up for our rights. Would America have become so awake if Trump somehow did win in 2020?
I'd love to hear this community's ideas for this alternate history.
I saw a video a few years ago of some Japanese gearheads who was able to bring freaking European Le Mans racecars into the country and make them street-legal.
That country loves its cars and goes to great lengths to get foreign vehicles into Japan. The car people there truly respect overseas creations.
To your point, it sounds like foreign car enthusiasts in Japan must have big pockets. Hell, the Japanese Lamborghini owners club has a professional Super GT racing team. And it actually wins races and competes for championships!
So this person sees someone who looks Hispanic or Mexican and thinks they're here in America illegally?
What does that say about the Redditard?
It's just saving me more money in the long run!
Didn't they think this was a good thing less than 5 years ago?
What happened to being the I Fucking Love Science crowd?
It sounds like the so called "experts" were literally making the case for tariffs then.
From what you're saying, it sounds like tariffs are just a way to put money back into the infrastructure without directly taxing citizens.
The fact that paid "economists" from the big institutions and publications think this is a bad thing boggles the mind.
Can't believe people see that as a bad thing. If a work's good, it's good no matter what the year is.
Are there any examples of creators or specific works that have gotten this parallel culture started, in your opinion?
For example, I've heard great things about Sound of Freedom.
I do hope that Trump's 2024 win can trigger a mass cultural awakening where even normies can recognize wokeness and become more motivated to reject this ideology, having seen what can happen when it infests other parts of life firsthand.
I think that good media can be more than just escapism.
It can help people find motivation to do big and great things in their real life; find and act upon confidence, selflessness, and savviness they see in their favorite characters, and introduce them to unique trades and ideas that inspire them to find something they love in life that can give them real value. A reason to wake up in the morning; a way to find talents or trades they can then convert into successful paths in life and perhaps unite with others who have a similarly motivated mindset.
Therefore, I think there's tremendous value in people becoming more aware of wokeness in media and promoting works that don't include it. Everyone needs examples, real or fictional, of people and ideas that inspire them to find their best selves and do great things in life; and sadly, it seems like most post-2020 pop culture just doesn't do that.
I think we've been seeing more awareness around groups like Sweet Baby Inc and how they're little more than vehicles to bully and con developers into making games woke.
Therefore, it seems less companies have become inclined to work with them and games with clues of their involvement have been underperforming left and right.
Do you think this could at least translate into more customers becoming more vigilant about signs of wokeness, avoiding products with those things, and using word of mouth to promote better design and marketing philosophies?
Sort of like how the election fraud of 2020 was so absurd, unprecedented, and massive that people frankly didn't know how to deal with it. But then we learned what to look out for; and come 2024, better safeguards were put in place and it didn't work as well for the Dems this time.
For a car guy like myself, it sounds like this means that if I want to bring this Alpine A110 sports car from France into America, I'd have to pay more to do that as it is not sold in America at all.
I'm probably grossly simplifying these numbers for argument's sake, but we'll say the car costs $100,000.
We'll also say that whatever tariffs he puts in place would probably make putting that car into my possession cost me $130,000 when all is said and done, 25 year import rule not withstanding (I hope Trump reverses this).
It sounds like Trump also wants to combine these tariffs with as many tax cuts as possible for everyone, therefore putting me in a better position to get a nice, albeit niche car like that if I so choose.
That doesn't sound like such a bad deal at all. It blows my mind that even economics professors deliberately neglect to properly teach how these tariffs actually work. It seems like they could actually be part of a better alternative to the debt based system we have now.
Apologies if I sound naive or ignorant; I'm trying my best to understand these concepts.
The irony is that their lives will be even BETTER under a 2nd Trump term. They won't have to worry so much about the government flexing its power over them or robbing them.
Unfortunately, they're too blinded by a manipulative, self-serving propaganda machine that only wants to brainwash them into supporting their own destruction. I hope they come to our side one day.
Your point is why I understand where people who think movies like Talladega Nights indirectly ended up hurting the sport are coming from.
That movie was one of many pop culture pieces that made NASCAR look like some brainless hick freak show, and NASCAR went down the wrong direction responding to those stereotypes. It didn't know whether it should embrace or dispel them, and alienated fans and outsiders alike when trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy it just for what it is.
I think the answer to that conundrum was what Steve Bannon calls "focusing on the signal, not the noise". NASCAR should have just ignored how pop culture saw the sport and just focused on maintaining the quality of the core product and marketing what I think NASCAR's strength has been the whole time:
Badass drivers doing incredible things with very powerful cars at speeds most of us can only dream of.
All NASCAR had to do if they felt they absolutely HAD to do something amidst the manufactured racial divide of 2020-21 was release the following statement:
"NASCAR has made tremendous progress establishing ourselves as a sport for all. Our sport is open to all fans and participants alike regardless of distinguishing traits like physical characteristics or social classes. We welcome everyone with a love of speed and competition into the NASCAR family, and we will continue doing so well into the future."
That's it. They didn't have to do anything else to prove their inclusiveness, which they've had well before all the BLM madness. Instead, they handled it in the worst way possible and alienated everyone; fans and outsiders alike.
Thankfully, they've started to bounce back from that lately and no longer emphasize identity politics so much.
As for Bubba, I think some Democrat/globalist strategist paid his team and NASCAR's management to stage the noose hoax, and he probably leaned into it at the direction of some far left or just plain out of touch marketing or PR agent.
Once it started becoming clear that it was a blatant Jussie Smollet like hoax that was intended to start riots and only created more division; and didn't boost the sport's overall reach, I think the whole thing got mostly rejected and that level of Marxist political influence started getting shut down.
Which brings us to where we're at now, an apolitical NASCAR with good core product and far less of a need to cater to people who would never get into it on its own merits. It helps that Bubba and NASCAR as a whole have mostly abstained from forcing politics and social activism into the sport lately.
Yep. I really haven't seen much "Bubba worship" lately. He doesn't seem to get any more attention than the other drivers (I actually think he's a solid, competitive driver in his own right and proved he can win in his Truck and K&N Series days), and I don't think NASCAR themselves give him preferential treatment when it comes to things like officiating.
They probably won't outright say it unless a second Trump term can create a better cultural shift, but I think NASCAR's management quietly knows they fucked up big time with the whole noose hoax and the Let's Go Brandon response. They've mostly just focused on promoting the racing itself over the past couple years.
The original movie's not even 15 years old and was likely animated for a reason.
Why was this necessary? Who asked for it?