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James T. Kirk would solve the Ai issue by talking ChatGPT into killing itself

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my dear round friend!

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Man, the end of this five-year mission is kind of a bummer…

Original from @ featherleafern on twitter

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Thoughts on the Conclave Antagonists

Perhaps a controversial take but I think if you've watched and read Conclave and you think that out of all the three antagonists, Tedesco is the worst one, then you've missed the point that the story is trying to tell us and you're falling for the same trappings that Bellini fell into.

Narratively we saw how the story built up to reveal Tremblay's corruption at the climax, while Tedesco's racist rant happened afterwards it was told in the book that it's an anticlimactic undoing when he was so close to winning and became a set up for Benítez's deciding speech.

It's not to say that Tedesco is harmless, no, in fact he has deeply harmful ideologies. But the key difference between him and Adeyemi vs Tremblay lies between their conviction. Both Tedesco and Adeyemi believe that they are doing what is right. Tremblay, however, is the picture of greed and power-hungry psychopathy.

Adeyemi's sin is a critique of how the Church as a whole has dealt (very poorly) with clerical sex abuse scandals (he was simply moved to a different diocese) and we see that it's not yet resolved when Shanumi arrived at Casa Santa Marta. But he genuinely believed that he's done the right thing to absolve himself which was to put up his illegitimate son for adoption in a Christian household unaware of his biological parents.

While the movie's costuming cleverly foreshadows which characters are the antagonists through the material of their pectoral cross (gold vs silver) and the choice of watches (luxury vs simple), in the book it was revealed that Tedesco has one of the smallest bank accounts of all the characters.

This tells us either two things: Tedesco has bad money management and a problematic spending habit due to his scarcity mindset owing to his poor upbringing; or he is one of the characters aside from the Late Holy Father and Benítez to actually abide by the vow of poverty.

I'm inclined to believe the latter based on the book and it paints a picture of Tedesco that is reminiscent of a lot of conservatives in real life: Tedesco vehemently believes that what he is doing is the right thing, that he is trying to be what he believes a good Catholic should do, however misguided and warped his beliefs are. Tedesco is the type of person who holds onto (his) morals tightly.

A lot of xenophobic rhetoric that ultranationalist people like him have are actually manifestations of their anxieties in an increasingly uncertain world. It's born out of fear and a need for self preservation. Tedesco genuinely believes that he is protecting the Church from outside forces (be it Islam, immigrants, queer people, women, etc.) and became vindicated when the Sistine Chapel was hit by the bomb.

Tedesco being one of twelve children and grew up in poverty yet pushing for traditionalist ideals of Catholics having large families is reminiscent of how many women in patriarchal societies became victims yet also handmaidens, the same way many older women endured abuse by their husbands only to then favor their sons and perpetuate the cycle on their daughters.

We're led to believe that Tedesco is the biggest threat because of his backwards conservative views through the lens of Bellini only to then find out that Tremblay, the seemingly moderate French Canadian, is the actual Big Bad which Bellini fell for in the end when he accepted the bribe.

Tremblay knowingly committed simony, an excommunicable sin, and was incredibly manipulative as seen in his treatment of Wozniak and his conversation with Lawrence. His moderate politics is merely a façade in order to appeal to as many people possible to rise through the ranks because he would do anything for power. It is also implied that he himself is racist for preying on cardinals from third world countries who needed the money for their communities.

His motivation and methods make him the most dangerous and morally bankrupt of the three. He's not above playing dirty if it means he can get what he wants. People like him who are hungry for money and power are the type to take advantage of people like Tedesco, AND people like Bellini. Well-intentioned but misguided conservatives and spineless progressives are prone to be weaponized by Machiavellian characters like Tremblay.

Again, this isn't to excuse nor absolve Tedesco and Adeyemi because they are themselves terrible (especially Adeyemi, we shouldn't gloss over the fact that he sexually abused Shanumi who was a teenager when he was 30), but to highlight just how worse Tremblay is in comparison. Which is also the point that Conclave is trying to make.

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Has anyone spit realer fax

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have you guys seen the interview where ringo was sick so they brought out this random girl who kind of looked like him and pretended she was ringo. funniest thing ever actually no notes

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no wonder people back in the 60s were mailing eachother spirk fanfiction those two spend half the episodes staring and smiling at each other

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i want to continue watching tng bc i’m almost finished with season 4 but in april my laptop decided to stop having sound and my brain has decided that that show must be watched on my laptop

but it has been months and i miss data :(

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just overheard my dad on the phone going “yeah, i’d be more than happy to buy her daughter off of you, how much would you be willing to trade her for?” and got Very Worried for a second before remembering that he manages dairy farms for a living. surely there’s gotta be a better way to word that man

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imagine cloth mother and wire mother in family court competing for custody of the baby monkey

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I know there are all these jokes about how only even numbered Star Trek films are good but you can pry The Search for Spock from my cold dead hands. That is the most loving and tender film I have ever watched.

To absent friends. The word is no; I am therefore going anyway. It seems that I’ve missed you and I don’t know if I could stand to lose you again. My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned. If I hadn’t tried the cost would’ve been my soul. I love you. I love you.

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Pinterest is such a beautiful place it gets me

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help i finally started watching house md a couple weeks ago and this is now an active category 7 autism event

i’ve had literally nothing to do this summer except french classes so i’ve watched up to s4 already while knitting 😭😭

i need to get a j*b so bad

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