Maybe I am just am ignorant American, but Joe is Johnson at all comparable to Trump in terms of overthrowing democracy? I don’t recall anyone storming Parliament or Boris claiming any elections were rigged.

Because Davis was a grown adult when he started doing this, not a teenager or younger that is already much more likely to be a victim of violence.

I never said we shouldn’t try to have a conversation, but there are situations where I cannot recommend putting yourself in harm just for the small chance of changing someone’s mind. Davis decided to do that, but it’s not everyone else’s responsibility or duty to do the same.

Made the switch from Podcast Addict recently and I’m pretty happy. It’s much more stable (especially with casting) and I like the queue system, but I do wish I had a bit more flexibility in applying download/update rules to whole categories instead of only one show at a time.

I think both Darmok and The Inner Light from TNG would be solid candidates. Both are more about the story and dialogue than the setting, and while both have more sets than OP’s examples, there’s also plenty of room to consolidate and move scenes around. Almost all of the stuff on the planet in both episodes, for example, could be a single set with just a few pieces of furniture (or rocks) moving around to give the allusion of location changes.

They are also very good episodes that have a message beyond just the setting and plot, which make for a good play, as well.

Do you have a solution to enacting progressive policy that doesn’t require electing a bunch of Democrats to create, introduce and vote on said legislation?

The 20216 election was incredibly close. It doesn’t take much to influence the final result with narrow margins, especially when considering our archaic voting system which significantly over-represents less populated areas (i.e. changing a few hundred votes in one district can be more influential than another district with 10x as many voters if all of those voters are more politically consistent).

The counter to this is the belief / rumor that studios have been hoarding unproduced scripts for years to prepare for exactly this scenario. One of the big complaints of the WGA is getting rid of “mini rooms” where a few writers put together scripts for an entire season, but those writers are not retained throughout the rest of production.

It would be very easy to use this system to intentionally create scripts that only a few people know about and don’t need to be paid in the future if that project eventually moves forward.

I am not sure how to interpret “no more influencers” as anything but the primary upside.

Mostly that’s a joke, but to be clear I do acknowledge that the same model that supports ‘influencers’ which I don’t watch, also support creators that I do watch. On the other hand, most of the creators I care about already don’t rely on ads, but accept donations via Patreon or equivalent, so maybe it wouldn’t change anything after all!

So weird to suggest leaving NATO as the solution to other participants allegedly not contributing their fair share. I guess this is one of those “take the ball and go home” compromises I’ve heard about?

When the “something worse” is literal fascism, there are no other choices. Stopping fascism is more important than any progressive agenda item because those agenda items will never happen with fascists in power.

I admire your compassion and empathy.

But I think you are missing that the people Darryl talked to had to also be open to that conversation in the first place.

Moreover, the physical risk in that approach is quite high and the level of violence in the modern GOP’s rhetoric has just continued to ratchet up every year. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the same approach in this situation. Most of the people that we’d need to replicate what Davis did are in no position to put themselves in that kind of situation–and presumed allies like myself can only do so much.

I think I see where you are coming from, but there does need to be a line where we can just acknowledge reality.

What’s the reason behind thinking half of them are acting in bad faith? Is that because you disagree with them?

This is especially galling when talking about the Supreme Court specifically. McConnell refused to do his legal duty and allow a vote on the current President’s nomination to replace Ginsburg. He and his party said this was because it was unfair to seat a new Justice during an election year.

Several years later, the exact same people rushed through a nomination and confirmation of a new Justice just weeks before the 2020 election. The two situations are as close to identical as can be practical with two real-world examples.

Please explain how this should be interpreted in a way that can be described as “operating in good faith”.