In Defense of the Past

 

A YouTube culture and movie critic called Critical Drinker published the definitive defense of freedom and the preservation of art. Worse than burning books and banning movies, we can now alter them to mean what we need, rather than what the artists originally intended:

I don’t know if it was the combination of the movie clips and his inspiring rhetoric, but he brought a tear to my eye.

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  1. Caryn Thatcher
    Caryn
    @Caryn

    Spot on and very nicely done.  It was fun to see clips from so many movies I’ve seen, but terrible to consider how they may be changed so that future watchers might never see the same story that I saw.  They already aren’t reading the same delightful childhood books that I read. What a diminished world they are creating.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Pretty good piece. I wonder how many of those “creatives” are prepared to sacrifice their royalty revenue on the altar of political correctness once their previous work is re-examined by the current batch of cultural critics.

    • #2
  3. Dave of Barsham Member
    Dave of Barsham
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Gotta love the Critical Drinker.

    • #3
  4. She Member
    She
    @She

    It strikes me that “the past,” used to be incontrovertible, and  pretty much analogous to Churchill’s “truth,” and could be substituted for the word in his famous quote:

    “[The past] is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.”

    These days, it’s more like: 

    “[The past] is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.  Until, suddenly, one day it isn’t.”

    • #4
  5. LC Member
    LC
    @LidensCheng

    Yup, watched this last night. Drinker always has great speeches. 

    • #5
  6. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    I was going to post this myself.  This is probably the most moving thing Critical Drinker ever did – he’s normally a sarcastic comic reviewer.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I’ve been listening to the Drinker for a while. This is both a change of pace from his usual (hilarious) delivery and quite good.

    • #7
  8. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    I was going to post this myself. This is probably the most moving thing Critical Drinker ever did – he’s normally a sarcastic comic reviewer.

    I liked it so much I put it on two different threads.

    • #8
  9. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    • #9
  10. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

     

    • #10
  11. Vince Guerra Inactive
    Vince Guerra
    @VinceGuerra

    The Drinker is also a well established fiction author. His commentary on the legacy of Disney’s Star Wars was pure poetry. It might be fun to have him on a podcast. Loved this one too. 

    • #11
  12. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    That was friggin’ awesome. Thank you.

    • #12
  13. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    • #13
  14. LC Member
    LC
    @LidensCheng

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    Yeah, it’s sad watching Picard’s speech at the end given what Stewart, Kurtzman, and Goldsman have done to Picard’s character. 

    • #14
  15. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    Sorry I misunderstood you. I thought the video as whole was very inspirational. Patrick Stewart’s dialogue from the TNG episode “The Drumhead” (season 4 episode 15) one of the best episodes of any science fiction tv series. Didnt really register with me as being especially remarkable in the context of this video. (other than being the longest, and the only one with audio)

    • #15
  16. kylez Member
    kylez
    @kylez

    I popped on to Netflix the other night, in the dvd section, and GWTW was featured in the carousel thing across the top of the screen. 

    • #16
  17. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    kylez (View Comment):

    I popped on to Netflix the other night, in the dvd section, and GWTW was featured in the carousel thing across the top of the screen.

    Yes, me too. Its also now trending as a torrent download.

    • #17
  18. Vince Guerra Inactive
    Vince Guerra
    @VinceGuerra

    Vince Guerra (View Comment):

    The Drinker is also a well established fiction author. His commentary on the legacy of Disney’s Star Wars was pure poetry. It might be fun to have him on a podcast. Loved this one too.

    Skip to the 27:00 time stamp.

     

    • #18
  19. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    So, what will they do with something like this (warning some bad words and lots of racism, but that’s kind of the whole point)

     

    • #19
  20. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Spike Lee is a member of the club. He can literally do no wrong. Not only could he shoot someone on 5 Ave, he could possibly even drown a girl in his car in a river.

    • #20
  21. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    Critical Drinker can use the words and yet not favor the actor’s most recent woke project — he trashed Season 1 of “Picard” in a review back in March:

    • #21
  22. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    Critical Drinker can use the words and yet not favor the actor’s most recent woke project — he trashed Season 1 of “Picard” in a review back in March:

    Yes the Critical Drinker is completely correct in both cases. He’s not judging the actor hes judging the act. Do you think Patrick Stewart believes one word of his speech (which first aired in 1991!) do you think he even remembers it? He’s an actor whose reading dialogue – he could be reading off the phone book for all he cares – as long as someone is willing to pay him to read it, it doesnt matter. He trashes season 1 of “Picard” because it deserved it. It was 10 hours of character assassination. Patrick Stewart must’ve really hated Picard to have gleefully participated in the destruction of his own character.

    • #22
  23. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    The irony is that the actor who intones the inspirational words at the end is, himself, at the forefront of cancel culture ideology. His words ring hollow. Then again, he is an actor.

    How is he at the forefront of cancel culture? Whom has the Critical Drinker called to be cancelled?

    Do yourself a favor and scroll to 7:03 in the video and watch. The actor in question at the end of the video will reveal himself to you. Hint: it is not “the Critical Drinker.” Then, consider if you might wish to revise your comment.

    The actor delivered the lines he was handed. That’s what actors are supposed to do. The writer has nothing to be ashamed of. The actor, on the other hand …

    • #23
  24. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Blacks should laugh at some of the ways they used to be portrayed in movies, as opposed to violent outrage.  Failure to embrace the negative aspects of history means remaining blind to how far they’ve come . . .

    • #24
  25. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Stad (View Comment):

    Blacks should laugh at some of the ways they used to be portrayed in movies, as opposed to violent outrage. Failure to embrace the negative aspects of history means remaining blind to how far they’ve come . . .

    Exactly! Instead of being upset that Aunt Jemima started out as a stereotypical black mammy complete with a headscarf, be proud of the fact that she’s now (or was) a beautiful, stylish black woman you could look around and see anywhere. To me, that definitely seems like progress to be proud of.

    • #25
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