Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Gray Lensman]

Not garbage.

I normally buy house brands. Way cheaper and I dont notice enough of a difference on most things to make it worth the extra money

There are a couple things I buy name brand. But that is few and far between.

Some generic brands I avoid like the plague. Shop n Save, and Psssst (yes, that's a real brand) are stuff I've both had the hot dog or hamburger roll for, and they were so bland they sucked the flavor out of everything else. Never again for those 2.

[Emperor-of-Dragons]

I'm very torn about inaccurate diversity push in historical storytelling. I get the desire but worry it gives false impressions about how black folks were treated in the past.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm very torn about inaccurate diversity push in historical storytelling. I get the desire but worry it gives false impressions about how black folks were treated in the past.

That I can agree with - it's one thing to replace a fictional character with someone of a different race/ethnic group. Most of the time those complaints are just whining that wouldn't happen if the character had a white actor. I'm involved in a debate on the X-Forums about the possibility of changing the race for my favorite comic character (Cyclops) and I'm surprised at the pushback - I'm taking the stance that by having to spend the entire film with his eyes covered, it's got the pole position for hardest part to pull off out of all of them, and want an actor who can make me believe that the character is charismatic enough to get strangers to follow him into battle, or be part of a love triangle (and to have some actual chemistry with his love interest). If that's going to require casting someone black, asian, or a woman instead then go for it. I've seen 2 failures who looked the part but were incapable of carrying it already.

I'm not up to seeing a white guy play Genghis Khan.

* Musicals are special case. Can the actor sing?

[babyblob]

I'm very torn about inaccurate diversity push in historical storytelling. I get the desire but worry it gives false impressions about how black folks were treated in the past.

I am not sure how to explain what I am about to say so please bear with me.

When it comes to diversity in historical films it depends. (Not that I dont want to see it) But when it it forced or fake in the sense that every one got along man does that bug me.

I cant remember the movie but it was a made for tv movie from about ten years ago. It took place in Mississippi in the ;ate 50s. A white woman falls in love with a black man. They go on and on about how they have to keep it a secret and the black man is of course scared. But at last the woman say Im tired of hiding. Lets go out in public. And they did. And everyone was fine with it. Other the bad guy of the film who gave them a mean look!

So this movie is telling me a small town in Mississippi in the late 50s is fine with a white woman and a black guy on a date in Public. Come on. I hated it. Was one of those love is all you need things.

[achilles]

That I can agree with - it's one thing to replace a fictional character with someone of a different race/ethnic group. Most of the time those complaints are just whining that wouldn't happen if the character had a white actor. I'm involved in a debate on the X-Forums about the possibility of changing the race for my favorite comic character (Cyclops) and I'm surprised at the pushback - I'm taking the stance that by having to spend the entire film with his eyes covered, it's got the pole position for hardest part to pull off out of all of them, and want an actor who can make me believe that the character is charismatic enough to get strangers to follow him into battle, or be part of a love triangle (and to have some actual chemistry with his love interest). If that's going to require casting someone black, asian, or a woman instead then go for it. I've seen 2 failures who looked the part but were incapable of carrying it already.

I'm not up to seeing a white guy play Genghis Khan.

* Musicals are special case. Can the actor sing?

So then, you've seen the most horrific casting in history, with John Wayne playing him in...I really don't even know what to call that look. It's simultaneously racist and laughable, but not in a good way. My uncle used to love mimicking Wayne's...er...acting, by delivering the lines in the same way. Damn, that was a bad, bad, awful movie!

[MajorHoy]

So then, you've seen the most horrific casting in history, with John Wayne playing him in...I really don't even know what to call that look. It's simultaneously racist and laughable, but not in a good way. My uncle used to love mimicking Wayne's...er...acting, by delivering the lines in the same way. Damn, that was a bad, bad, awful movie!

And even worse, there are many who believe the filming of that movie did nothing to help Wayne and others involved because of radiation that had drifted downwind from a site in Nevada where above-ground nuclear tests had been conducted to the location in Utah where filming took place.

[DrNewGod]

I'm very torn about inaccurate diversity push in historical storytelling. I get the desire but worry it gives false impressions about how black folks were treated in the past.

I agree. It extends to other POC as well.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Homes should not be an investment. Middle class people are buying real estate thinking it will turn them into donald trump, it won’t. We need to make housing more affordable and make investing in homes less appealing. If you can’t afford to pay the mortgage without a renter you shouldn’t be a landlord.

[Gray Lensman]

Homes should not be an investment. Middle class people are buying real estate thinking it will turn them into donald trump, it won’t. We need to make housing more affordable and make investing in homes less appealing. If you can’t afford to pay the mortgage without a renter you shouldn’t be a landlord.

I bought my house to protect myself against sudden rent hikes. The mortgage being LESS than my previous rent helps too. I don't plan on selling anytime soon. Maybe when I need to move into a nursing home, but not before unless I suddenly come into a big pile of cash.

[seismic-2]

John Wayne as the Mongul chieftain Temujin (the future Genghis Khan) in The Conqueror (1956)

[Adam Allen]

I'm very torn about inaccurate diversity push in historical storytelling. I get the desire but worry it gives false impressions about how black folks were treated in the past.

Well, there is the slight problem that there really is not much (in our popular fictional storytelling) to indicate what actual, regular daily life experiences of all black people were like. That is, until fairly recently, black people were either just magically completely absent from whatever story was being told, irrelevant (and caricatured) in the story, or the story was focused solely the suffering and injustice black people endured.

So the question becomes, is it historically accurate to present every experience in the lives of any black people throughout history as only suffering and hardship? That can't be right either, can it?

[Gray Lensman]

Well, there is the slight problem that there really is not much (in our popular fictional storytelling) to indicate what actual, regular daily life experiences of all black people were like. That is, until fairly recently, black people were either just magically completely absent from whatever story was being told, irrelevant (and caricatured) in the story, or the story was focused solely the suffering and injustice black people endured.

So the question becomes, is it historically accurate to present every experience in the lives of any black people throughout history as only suffering and hardship? That can't be right either, can it?

One could always tell the stories Black Americans (and others) have that are actually inspiring. A western following Bass Reeves could be EPIC. The myth is too small for the man in his case. And who knows how many other stories are out there, buried under an unwillingness to have told them at the time they happened.

[Kirby101]

I think that misses the point. If you want to tell the story of a success black person in history, do it. From Alexander Dumas to Frederick Douglas. Show their success and what the went through. The problem is when you recast a white person as a person of color, or put in a POC without any acknowledgement of how others would treat them. I am strictly talking about historical dramas or revivals of older works. Can we see a black actress playing Mary Lincoln or a black actor playing King Louie IX and not think it strange.
Some examples I found odd that took me out of the show. Audrey McDonald (as amazing as she is) playing Grace, Daddy Warbucks secretary and love interest in Annie. It's 1934, it wouldn't go unnoticed. And in a revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons on Broadway, the cast a black actor as the brother of the main character's white love interest. It's hard to be colorblind about siblings.
It is as weird to me as casting Brad Pitt as Django or Bette Midler as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. What next Idris Elba as Atticus Finch?

One recent exception is the recent HBO David Coperfield. The racial diversity was part of the quirkiness of that production

[DrNewGod]

Homes should not be an investment. Middle class people are buying real estate thinking it will turn them into donald trump, it won’t. We need to make housing more affordable and make investing in homes less appealing. If you can’t afford to pay the mortgage without a renter you shouldn’t be a landlord.

The danger is not the middle class buying rental properties. The danger is financial investment organizations buying them. The former have far better odds of seeing tenants as human beings than the latter, and a far less chance of dumping the investment if the return should slack in the slightest.

[Kirby101]

Homes should not be an investment. Middle class people are buying real estate thinking it will turn them into donald trump, it won’t. We need to make housing more affordable and make investing in homes less appealing. If you can’t afford to pay the mortgage without a renter you shouldn’t be a landlord.

Homes shouldn't be an investment to get rich, but they should maintain their value over inflation.
The second part isn't true. Buying a two or three family home dictates that the rent pays a big chunk of the mortgage. Your home is no longer just residential, but commercial as well. Whether it is a smart purchase depends on many, many factors.

And what NewGod said.