I’m not sure if “things have gotten so bad”. The native English speakers who actually use this stuff are probably the ones who struggled with writing in school and have always been terrible at it. That’s obviously not everyone though, a lot of people are still competent enough to type their own emails.

What is a widely-known fact? From the “uH yEaH” you sound like you’re trying to argue with me but I’m not really sure what your point is. I never said piracy can’t be a service issue, what I said is that people who trot this line out literally every single time to defend their pirating should follow through when piracy becomes more convoluted and time consuming than the legal alternative. Many don’t, the line has become a convenient catch-all cop out that people hide behind so they can pretend acquiring everything for free makes them some kind of morally superior consumer activist. I wasn’t having a go at OP specifically, but the logical conclusion when you get to their point should be to give up and pay or rent through a library or something.

If I really couldn’t find something and I was really that desperate, I’d just try to buy it somewhere. Assuming it’s also difficult to buy, I’d be looking at online marketplaces and op shops. If pirates are going to keep hiding behind the “piracy is a service problem” line then at some point they do need to admit that paying for the product is actually the more sensible and straightforward option if they have reached a deadend elsewhere.

Removed by mod

I don’t think he’s ever been charged, this is just the result of the police investigation into the allegations that were raised in the Channel 4 documentary a few years ago.

I don’t think it matters either way, though I prefer Garden of Words. I think an appreciation for the differences probably depends a bit on the age of the viewer, since Garden of Words is really dealing with the complexity and isolation of adult life. If you are in your 20s or younger, you might not fully understand or appreciate those themes yet. Your Name is more fantastical in that sense; it has a streak of hope and wonder running through it that younger audiences can connect with.

I haven’t actually seen Suzume yet so maybe I’ll end up agreeing with you. I’m not sure if you’ve seen ‘The Garden of Words’ but that is possibly my favourite from him, despite being very short. Maybe that’s part of the reason why it was so impactful - the shortened runtime cuts out a lot of the more distracting plot elements found in his other films and leaves you with a very distilled and pure Shinkai film.

I watched ‘Mother, Couch’ (2023). It starts off as a typical dry and quirky (in that indie film festival kind of way) comedy but becomes something quite serious and contemplative by the end. It is very open-ended by design, which I think put a lot of people off based on their reviews. It’s also not funny in a mainstream laugh-out-loud comedy film kind of way, so I think that’s another reason why audiences were so split over it. I think it’s quite a good film though, definitely worth watching considering its short runtime.

Makoto Shinkai films are much more about the overall experience, rather than the details I think. They always have this very strong bittersweet/poignant element running through everything (visuals, music, story) that leaves me with this very odd feeling afterwards. Japanese cinema in particular has this wonderful ability to subtly convey very complex emotions to the viewer so that you get to the end of a film and realise you have tears in your eyes without really understanding how or why they got there.

Possibly, although it hasn’t stopped people from doing it in the past.

The majority of their servers support port forwarding. “Only available on paid tiers” is a completely meaningless crticism, because a) you wouldn’t use a free VPN for torrenting unless you were an absolute moron and b) very few VPNs support torrenting in the first place because it requires so many resources. If you want a good VPN with port forwarding, you need to pay for it. Nothing about this makes Proton VPN “fishy”.

As the other person said, the owners of PIA also own several other VPNs and their history prior to this was pretty bad. One of the biggest selling points for PIA, the “no logging tested in court” claim, also occured before these new owners took over so it’s questionable whether that is as believable today. A big part of trust in privacy-related software comes from financial incentives and motivations driven by the business model, and the parent company does not have a good track record in terms of prioritising security and privacy above financial gain.

I believe Private Internet Access also offers this feature if people need a cheaper alternative, although it comes with tradeoffs regarding trust and ethics.

Yes, Proton VPN is a better option if you require that feature.

Avatar moment.

So if some actor complains about something deplorable, and then there is a huge manufactured fake backlash, is it always ok to write “The actor created controversy by…”?

It is objectively controversial. People were offended by the things Zegler said - the film was being relentlessly mocked online years before its release. The backlash to the film isn’t just about it being Disney live action remake slop and you haven’t been paying attention at all if you think this is the case.

It is absolutely VITAL that we call out news media that are supposedly neutral like the BBC. If they accept fascist talking point as a valid opinion in discussion, we have already lost.

Again - this is netural reporting. The “fascists” won the election with a majority in Zegler’s country. The first step towards dealing with this societal problem is accepting that is not just some tiny fringe movement that will disappear if you close your eyes hard enough.

But the BBC calling her comments “controversial”? That’s problematic at least. She opposed genocide and illegal occupation and opposed an authoritarian strongman gaining power. That is not a controversial comment in a liberal democracy and the founding values of the western democracy. That BBC article is garbage.

They are objectively controversial positions, though. It doesn’t matter how much you agree with them, others clearly do not and it has led to heated public debate. That is literally the definition of controversial:

causing disagreement or discussion

The so-called “liberal democracy” in which she lives is currently being run by the “authoritarian strongman” whose mission is seemingly to disrupt and dismantle many of those “founding values”. So again, reality is quite different to how you are presenting it. Calling the article garbage because it stated basic facts instead of subscribing to your fantasy land interpretation of current events is very silly.

I’d argue that it’s not really Zegler’s fault… Not that there’s anything special about her performance, but there isn’t really anything wrong with it, either.

What’s not her fault? The article isn’t about her performance in the film, it’s about the pushback and resulting pile-on from conservatives to her casting and public comments prior to release.

I watched ‘Internal Affairs’ (1990). Quite a strange film that seems to be following some pretty typical story beats for the first half but gets weirder and less coherent as it goes on. Richard Gere always struck me as a somewhat unlikeable actor because he played these really smarmy leading man roles but after watching this I realised that his inability to deliver convincing emotions actually works perfectly when he is playing a villain. I really liked Andy García in this too, he comes across as a lot more genuine and emotionally sincere which further enhances Gere’s performance.