The Big [Censored] Theory • Hacker News Board

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#531

Post by lwansbrough » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:03 AM UTC

concordDance wrote: post #253

lwansbrough wrote: post #78

Interesting to see what passes for a joke on The Big Bang Theory. I knew the show was bad but wow. Perhaps just as surprising is the author's suggestion that a xenophobic remark about a Chinese restaurant is "harmless". I'm not even particularly sensitive when it comes to race relations, but that's just such a negative stereotype it's hard to ignore. I despise Chinese censorship, but I would support the Chinese gover…

> xenophobic It's interesting how politically charged words mutate over time.

Xenophobia is about prejudice. The joke in question relies on underlying prejudice towards the image of Chinese restaurants in America in order for the joke to land.

If you don’t understand the stereotype of Chinese restaurants the joke wouldn’t be funny to you.

Is it bad or legitimately harmful to perpetuate those types of stereotypes? Probably not. But I don’t think the quality of the joke makes up for it in this case.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#532

Post by lwansbrough » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:06 AM UTC

elldoubleyew wrote: post #279

lwansbrough wrote: post #78

Interesting to see what passes for a joke on The Big Bang Theory. I knew the show was bad but wow. Perhaps just as surprising is the author's suggestion that a xenophobic remark about a Chinese restaurant is "harmless". I'm not even particularly sensitive when it comes to race relations, but that's just such a negative stereotype it's hard to ignore. I despise Chinese censorship, but I would support the Chinese gover…

The joke about the chicken is interesting to me. I see to your point, the joke leans to imply that Chinese people will lie about the ingredients served in their restaurants to save some money. This stereotype, however, is predominant amongst Chinese people in China. This joke would fit right in on any Chinese TV show, questioning the legitimacy of the meat at a cheap restaurant is a joke older than the country. This…

> It would be the equivalent of a Chinese sitcom where a character might suggest that visit a Texas Barbecue you might get shot by some revolver-wielding cowboy. I don't think many Americans would take offense.

That’s fair enough, maybe I’m over analyzing. But you probably wouldn’t find that joke on TV in America either.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#533

Post by sacrosancty » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:08 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #444

Ajedi32 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taken to it's logical extreme though, such a service could easily render copyright effectively useless. Break the movie into 10 second clips, "rent out" each of those clips during the 10 seconds they're being viewed and automatically return them after. There, you can now "legally" stream 720 concurrent copies of a 2 hour movie at once in perpetuity for near zero marginal cost. The only reason rentals worked was becau…

That's not really a "logical extreme", that's a straw man and an obvious ploy to do something you're not supposed to be able to do. I think a reasonable person would see that what you describe is an attempt to make an end run around both the spirit and letter of the law. But what VidAngel was doing was "one copy = one view", which is IMO entirely reasonable. There is zero moral difference between mailing someone a Bl…

Mailing the disk imposes a much longer delay between customers, so it massively reduces the amount of times it can be rented. There's the moral difference - copyright owner won't sell as many copies.

But I wonder what would happen if we had some super-fast rocket drone delivery service so it's just a video rental shop on steroids?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#534

Post by bacchusracine » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:11 AM UTC

IX-103 wrote: post #431

coryfklein wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mormon neighbors tend to use VidAngel, which got in huge trouble with an absolutely hilarious payment model. 1. VidAngel purchases a bunch of Blu-ray discs and stores them in a warehouse 2. Tag all the content of a film and create filters so the user can, for example, filter out all sex and violence but leave in vulgarity 3. User "purchases" a Blu-ray for $20 (!!) and VidAngel says, "since we now know you're the o…

What if they rented the customer the server that read and encoded the customer's copy of the Blu-ray on the fly and streamed it to them using bandwidth that was leased to the customer? Would that violate the studio's "performance" rights? What if the customer is in the same room as the server and loads the disk themselves? I, as a citizen and a consumer, want to know what rights I have when I purchase a product. The…

>I, as a citizen and a consumer, want to know what rights I have when I purchase a product.

Step one would probably be actually purchasing something instead of licensing it.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#535

Post by jurassic » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:14 AM UTC

As an LGBTQ person, this makes me very sad. Just look at fandom twitter and you will see how much even a small amount of representation on screen means to people like me. I wish everybody could experience that.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#536

Post by ginger2016 » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:15 AM UTC

Dig1t wrote: post #437

ginger2016 wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the racist protrayal of Indian American Raj Kuthrapalli, I am of the opinion Indians are magnanimous in allowing this show to be aired there.

I mean, it's comedy, it's obviously not hateful. The whole point was that all the main characters were stereotypical nerds and each displayed a different type social difficulty. I mean Sheldon was obviously supposed to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, how is that not ableist or whatever? It was also apart of his character arc! If you watch the show, Raj eventually overcomes his fear of talking to women and ends…

Almost 10 years ago MTVIndia said the same thing I said about Big Bang Theory.

https://twitter.com/MTVIndia/status/379879685863129088?s=20&...

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#537

Post by forgingahead » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:15 AM UTC

Having accidentally seen gratuitous gore on shows like Game of Thrones on HBO or The Boys on Amazon, I'm not against a general set of standards to avoid the assault on my eyes (or the eyes of younger members of society). In my day, you could always get the uncut version on DVD if you want to - but the mass market versions should certainly adhere to some basic societal standards.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#538

Post by no_where » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:19 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #490

no_where wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also that the self imposed censorship in America was a response by the studios to their customers. Where was Chinese government is furthering its Communist briefs.

China's government seems to be more concerned about containing criticism of the current Chinese government than Communist ideology. It's not like the Maoist period. The Economist has a good story about that this week.[1] Some militant Communists are now in opposition to the Xi regime.[2] The current regime is more authoritarian than Communist. Which is what usually happens when you get a Supreme Leader for Life. [1]…

Authoritarianism does not preclude communism. Likewise, their model more resembles fascism with all facets of life serving the government's ends. Which is the reason for my classification of it as Communist as fascism is a mere variant of communism. The fact that some disaffected communists disagree with Xi is quite common as Communists often disagree.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#539

Post by sacrosancty » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:19 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #434

coryfklein wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mormon neighbors tend to use VidAngel, which got in huge trouble with an absolutely hilarious payment model. 1. VidAngel purchases a bunch of Blu-ray discs and stores them in a warehouse 2. Tag all the content of a film and create filters so the user can, for example, filter out all sex and violence but leave in vulgarity 3. User "purchases" a Blu-ray for $20 (!!) and VidAngel says, "since we now know you're the o…

It's pretty ridiculous that this isn't legal. Sure, VidAngel could have built some custom software to play back a real Bluray disc, skipping certain scenes based on configuration file per title, and then would mail the disc to customers, who then have to mail it back, but that would be a worse experience for customers, and would be more wasteful (unnecessary physical shipping, as well as wear-and-tear on the discs).…

A lot of the law we take for granted about copyright is really just a complicated compromise that worked out alright given the limitations of older technology. It's not some moral ideal. What about recording a song off the radio for your personal use? Or downloading one off Youtube? Or inviting your friends round to watch a movie? Or doing that but asking them to bring food, or it's OK if they just bring money instead of food and you buy the food, or they just bring money and you don't buy food but you let them watch the movie in your house, or they can bring their own friends too, or you're a full-blown movie theatre? There are no clear-cut boundaries of "stupid" and "own", just a complicated balance to keep things working well, we hope.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#540

Post by lettergram » Tue, Aug 30, 2022, 2:22 AM UTC

elefanten wrote: post #500

lettergram wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Well taking only this thread as a datapoint... your list of censored news stories wasn't convincing. In what sense were any of those "censored"? I read all those cases being made on the internet. Are you naming editorial choice of what to publish "censorship"? I'm just confused. Anecdotally from my own perspective, I see big waves of voting on HN that go in various political directions. Seems consistent with self-sel…

1. Are you serious? Why is Alex Jones censored? Why is Trump censored? Why did people get indefinitely banned for discussing many of those topics on social media?

Just a few days ago Zuckerberg was discussing banning / suppressing discussion of the Hunter Biden laptop - https://nypost.com/2022/08/25/mark-zuckerberg-criticizes-twi...

Idk what to say about that. It’s not editorial decisions when DMs are being censored or social media posts. Particularly when the FBI / government is suggesting it.

2. This is a perfect example of my point. Most people don’t even realize they are surrounded by censorship. Or they outright agree with it. Look up the list of topics bannable on YouTube. On Twitter you can’t even call someone by the name their parents gave them if they disagree. In schools near where I live you can get suspended for using proper pronouns, if someone disagrees.

Censorship in the US is different, but very apparent.