Dr.Device

IME when something relatively innocuous provokes such an intense response from someone, it's not primarily a matter of personal morality or philosophy. Those supposedly objective beliefs are being used to rationalize deep-seated fear, hatred, envy, and in this case probably lust, triggered by anything seen as a challenge to the shaky foundation of said person's sense of identity and self-worth.
 
It's a truism that those who decry sin the most have the most sinful thoughts, but it's a truism for a reason.

Personally I think Israel fumbled the ball with this one.  The HAMAS attack was particularly heinous and broadcast across the world, everyone who did not watch in horror was giving themselves away.  It was something that serious pro-Palestinian nations could not actively endorse or excuse.  I think if Israel had played up the horrors inflicted upon it, called on the wider arab nations to condemn HAMAS, to expel them from their safe havens to face justice for the actions of their organisation and to force HAMAS to return the hostages they MIGHT have broken the back of the HAMAS organisation and potentially began a healing process.  I would have followed it up with a promise to release the non-HAMAS prisoners in Israel and a development promise to improve the infratructure of Gaza.
 
It seems so easy to sacrifice the lives of living soldiers and to excuse the sacrifice of innocent Palestinians when you can blame HAMAS for hiding behind them, but almost impossible to sacrifice the vengence owed to those already dead under horrific circumstances.  It is definitely an easier political line to take, to satisfy the short term demand for justice/vengence.  The current policy seems impossible to me - they will kill many HAMAS fighters, they will degrade HAMAS' ability to operate and attack Israel in the immediate future BUT they will radicalise a whole new generation of Palestinians both in the Middle East and beyond, they will provide "justification" for future horrors in what is a massively assymetric conflict, and the cycle will continue.
 
I think it is too late for a ceasefire - the Israelis are already too far in to withdraw now without significant victories, they have already damaged their credibility as victim and need to emphasise their ability, and willingness, to kill those who attack their citizens as a form of disincentive on future terror.  The disagreements are already too polarised into who you are for and looking for who is the real villain rather than looking for a longer term solution.
 
😞

Whereas the "moderates" were okay with holding their nose and voting an insurrectionist into the role of Speaker of the House.  Which makes me wonder how "moderate" they really are.
 
 
The only reason we didn't get a shutdown three weeks ago is because McCarthy tried to pull a fast one on the Democrats and miscalculated.  Gaetz is on record as saying that a House that does absolutely nothing is fine with him.  Because his goal is to sabotage the federal government, and a shutdown is an effective way to accomplish that (while simultaneously affecting Biden's popularity numbers).

It may have been a bit more accurate, but I could have seen MoM appearing in Dr. Strange comics and QM showing up as an Ant-Man storyline. The challenge for movies is that we don't get three years of monthly comics - we get one movie.  So the movie wants the biggest story, with guest stars and impact on the broader universe.  And you can't leave out supporting cast favourites - no big deal if they miss one week on TV or one issue of the comic, but they're gone for 5 years or more if thy miss one movie.

I mean it's just really weird that all the examples you picked out were women.  Didn't the plot of WF "revolve" around Namor?  Didn't Quantumania "revolve" around Kang and the guy who invented Pym Particles?  Didn't they literally blow up Black Panther's dad in Winter Soldier?
 
The MCU has been doing this all along--introducing new characters in films that headline someone else.  Going all the way back to IM2 at least.  It's blatantly obvious by now that Feige is setting up the Young Avengers; we've now seen Wiccan, Speed, Patriot, and Kid Loki as well as the characters you already listed.
 
 
 
This still doesn't explain why "girl power" "becoming distracting" is supposed to be a serious problem.  To me, what's distracting is the degree to which Hollywood movies, and especially superhero movies, have been male-oriented to date.  The source material, the actual comics, have led the way in equalizing representation for like fifty years, so I get really confused when the movies finally catch up and people act surprised and "distracted".  Like when Cassie Lang, who in the comics was experimenting with Pym Particles by 2005, does so in the movies in 2023 and that's supposed to be... weird?  Or wrong?  I don't get it, sorry.

Renner was quitting the MCU.  (And then he got run over by a tractor.)
 
 
40 minutes of screen time in a 140 minute film.
 
 
23 minutes out of 124.
 
 
And this is a bad thing because...?

I can appreciate that, but when one side wants to legislate minorities out of existence...I'm not seeing much room for compromise. I'll reference the  "Paradox of Tolerance" for my general views on that. The simple fact of the matter is that nothing will fundamentally change until we substantially reduce money in politics....and that's not going to happen in our existing system. You do the math. The change that is needed is not going to organically happen without strong outside influence.

I'm going to reserve judgment until something more concrete than one anonymous person's statements come out.  We don't know what HIS biases are.

"None of them trust him" because he reneged on his promises to both the Democrats and the GOP lunatic wing.  And he violently and publicly refused to negotiate with the Dems to gain their support to maintain his speakership.
 
Amusingly, the GOP removed McCarthy with absolutely no plan as to what to do next.  All business in the House is on hold until a new Speaker is elected.

https://www.tor.com/2023/09/19/a-tale-of-two-genres-doc-sidhe-by-aaron-allston/

https://www.tor.com/2023/09/19/a-tale-of-two-genres-doc-sidhe-by-aaron-allston/

https://www.tor.com/2023/09/19/a-tale-of-two-genres-doc-sidhe-by-aaron-allston/

https://www.tor.com/2023/09/19/a-tale-of-two-genres-doc-sidhe-by-aaron-allston/

I'm way ahead of them on this.

I'm way ahead of them on this.

I'm way ahead of them on this.

Copied from an author's page on FB, altho not posted by the author:
 

Well, let's look at the sequence and tally of votes. Jones, one of the black legislators, was expelled on the first vote, 72-25 (three abstentions). On the second vote Johnson, the white woman, did indeed fall one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed, 65-30 (five abstentions). The third vote, for Justin Pearson, passed 69-26, again five abstentions.
 
I think the failure of the second vote may have had a chilling effect on legislators when it came to the third. But the difference between votes one and two is still pretty telling IMO. However, let's not forget that all three are minorities in the Tennessee legislature, and Johnson escaped expulsion by the thinnest of margins. I believe Beau's observation about the message sent that "uppity folk better stay in your place" was meant for all of them.

Sure - but the ability to just snap up a new weapon of opportunity after the first is disarmed, or to have the weapon return to the user's hand provided it's still nearby isn't any less limiting than an inability to be disarmed in the first place.

BW was released on streaming and famously generated lawsuits about lack of revenue for that reason.  That's why I originally specified post-pandemic MCU films.  Which, aside from Quantumania and Love & Thunder, still score well with critics.  Angela Bassett was favored to win Best Supporting Actress ffs. 
 
I get that some people have negative opinions of recent MCU films, which is fine, it's just that those opinions should not be mistaken for objective reality.

https://www.polygon.com/23759783/dnd-dungeons-dragons-lawsuit-tsr-bankrupt-chapter-7
 

https://www.polygon.com/23759783/dnd-dungeons-dragons-lawsuit-tsr-bankrupt-chapter-7
 

if there are bad actors on both sides, concentrate on those that can do the most damage

@Pattern Ghost
{I'm not going to quote because the nested quotes are getting out of hand, and it's not really necessary]
 
First, I want to say that I do appreciate that you acknowledge the threats that folks like me are facing. I do have a lot of anger, but what you're seeing here is more frustration (not that there's a bright line between the two).
 
My problem with "The fact is that elements on BOTH sides have become quite a bit too heated lately" is twofold.
 
First,  tone policing always favors those in power. I and other have been repeatedly accused of raising the heat (in general, I'm not talking about here) by pointing out that there is a thriving campaign on the right to eliminate us, which is a simple statement of fact, backed up with evidence. It's not, what's raising the heat is the fact that they're trying to eliminate us.
 
Second, most of the time I see any "both side" argument these days, it's being used by someone as an excuse to keep voting for republicans, or dismiss the concerns being expressed by LGBTQIA+ folks. I appreciate that that is not what you're doing, but I'd ask you to keep in mind that for many people, the moment they hear "both sides" they stop listening.
 
And then there's the more emotional aspect.
Analogies suck, but I'm going to make one anyway. Let's say that we have two people, Alice and Jane. Alice's sister has a bad cold. Jane has lung cancer. Every time Jane brings up something about her cancer, like how she's having trouble getting her insurance to cover a new treatment, or that chemo has been killing her appetite, Alice brings up how miserable her sister's cold is making her. She never says that the cold is as bad as Jane's cancer, but she always takes that opportunity to talk about it. I'd think Jane could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Alice is minimizing the cancer by regularly bringing up the cold.
 
That's what I'm dealing with. Almost anywhere outside explicitly queer spaces that I bring up the attacks on trans people, someone will chime in talking about how some people on the left are mean, too. It's immensely frustrating, and does come across as minimizing what is being done to us.