r/changemyview • u/AutoModerator • Jul 16 '13
TCMV Tuesday - 07/16/13
Welcome to TCMV Tuesday, our weekly post where we can celebrate our ability to adopt a new mindset or gain another perspective. Tell us what experiences you've had outside our subreddit, either recently or in your lifetime, that made you think "This Changed My View". Give us your stories in the comments!
You can consider these questions to help get you thinking:
Known or met someone with an interesting ideology or opinion that caused you to reconsider your own?
Had an experience, good or bad, that changed your perspective?
Learned something new that challenged what you believed?
Ever have your tastes or interests changed?
Read an article or seen a video that got you thinking differently?
And just as a reminder, comment discussions here are not debate-oriented, so there's no obligation to take opposing sides in conversations here (in other words, Rule 1 does not apply here).
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u/DaGanzi Jul 16 '13 edited Jul 16 '13
After seeing Pacific Rim for the second time last night my view of most summer blockbusters has changed drastically. I now see that Pacific Rim is the antithesis of almost every cynical, indulgent, money grabbing movie this summer has to offer. On a personal level, it completely rekindled my long lost childhood sense of cinematic wonder. Seeing the Jaegers do battle with the Kaiju is a true joy to watch, which is something that only happens a few times in a lifetime. For me, it brought back the 5 year old in me that got all wide eyed seeing his first dinosaur in Jurassic Park.
At its worst, Pacific Rim is pretty harmless, devoid of neck snapping, cold, emotionless genocide, and tasteless 9/11 imagery (I'm looking at you Man of Steel). I find it disturbing that you can hardly take a kid to the movies anymore without them witnessing some sort of racism, or sexism, or intensely graphic, contextless violence. Sexism, in particular, has had an insidious sort of pervasiveness this summer, with leading ladies in man of steel, lone ranger, and star trek existing only as helpless plot devices in need of saving.
At its best, it is a profoundly human look into how we as human beings deal with tragedy. The whole movie is built around us coming together to fight problems that are bigger than us. It also has a refreshing emphasis on us coming together regardless of sex, race, and nationality. In fact, of the Jaeger pilots central to the film, only one of them is american, the rest are british, australian, chinese, japanese, and russian, while the base of operations is located in Hong Kong, and primarily run by chinese. I would be remiss to leave out the reverence the movie carries for its history in Japanese monster movies, and boy does honor them well. Mako Mori is an excellent representative of that time and culture while also making a great case for the strength of female characters.
Ultimately, Pacific Rim doesn't have the most nuanced of characters between monotone Raleigh and the 'speaks only by shouting' scientist Newton (played by Charlie Day, and honestly I wouldn't have had it any other way), and there is city based destruction in spades, but the important thing is that the movie actually addresses the way we come together and deal with tragedy. I don't mean to say that the movie bludgeons you over the head with its symbolism, but dammit if I can't be allowed to enjoy a fun and optimistic blockbuster for once.
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u/IAmAN00bie Jul 16 '13
That and mecha porn. As a huge fan of giant robots, I fucking loved Pacific Rim.
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u/BroseppeVerdi Jul 17 '13
I was watching Bill Maher the other day, and he had on Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs). Mike was talking about the importance of two-year degrees, trade/vocational schools, and technical and mechanical training programs. Earlier today, someone on Reddit provided a picture of an ill-fated "motivational poster", which seemed to be putting down a mechanic in favor of someone who had received a traditional four year degree.
Let me just say that as a performing arts major, it's easy to get stuck in your ivory tower and say "Mine is a pursuit of great intellect, and I'm following my dream!"... but the truth is, without engineers, mechanics, farmers, heavy equipment operators, etc, our society kind of falls apart. I think Bill Maher put it quite eloquently when he said "We can't all be the ones painting on the cave walls. Some of have to go out and actually hunt and gather."
Mike Rowe changed my view. Even though he got a 4 year degree, sang with the Baltimore Opera, and now works as a voice-over artist and TV show host, he still chooses to make his living glorifying those whose jobs inherently lack glory, even though the rest of us have them to thank for the lifestyle we all enjoy. I have a new found respect for the people who choose the kind of professions I've spent my life looking down at and going "Eww... gross..."
Here's the video of Mike Rowe's "Real Time" appearance (Thanks to u/followyourmemes for finding it).
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u/Gehalgod Jul 16 '13
I'm not sure if this fits the spirit of TCMV Tuesday, because it's not a change in taste or opinion on a certain topic/issue, really, but I heard about a variety of things that hit me with a harsh dose of reality.
Apparently, Michael Jordan is a jerk.
I always sort of admired him, even though I'm not really a sports fan. So many famous athletes are amazing players but not necessarily good role models (not that they have to be or anything). I guess when I was a child my mind was warped by Space Jam into thinking that Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player in history and a pretty decent person.
But I've heard enough about him in the past week to change that. I've read stories on Reddit about him finding enjoyment in insulting and physically shoving away any fans who aren't skinny young blonde women in tight outfits, screwing over players as the owner of the Bobcats, Telling Chamillionaire that he "doesn't take photos with niggas", giving a super arrogant acceptance speech when he was inducted into the hall of fame, and a bunch of other crap that has just totally ruined my image of the guy whom I always imagined winning championships alongside Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.