Contagion (2011) Review

[Thebestoftherest]

I think that we need at least one day hearing good news.

[Rocketboy1313]

How the hell did I not guess this?

[Riedquat]

I think that we need at least one day hearing good news.

One person's good news is usually someone else's bad news.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think that we need at least one day hearing good news.

One person's good news is usually someone else's bad news.

How is less death by disease a bad thing?

[RobbyB1982]

I am completely thrown by Chuck doing the Hogfather quote because I just came from Dominick Noble's video where he reads *the exact same quote.*

As for the actual review, Chuck's positivity astounds and *inspires* me constantly. He brought up great things in the one Superman video, and as recently as the election, he said something on twitter that made me, a grown ass man, cry. And it has stuck with me.

Chuck had done a long tangent about the outcome of the election and how it was largely decided by hate and fear, but mixed with some positive things and in response I said

ME: I grew up in Texas surrounded by both sides and that was fine. Difference of opinion on spending budgets and military and religion is ok!
But when racism seems to be the current main issue above all else, I just... can't empathize anymore.
You're a better man than me Chuck.

CHUCK: No, I'm not! I believe in you, because you took the first step right now. It's not about embracing moral repugnancy, it's opening to the possibility that things aren't as simple as the narrative you're being fed. And to then see that the repugnant is a minority, and that...

...most people are just scared that the other side, sounding so full of fire, want to destroy what they cherish. Because seeing that is the first step in knowing how to show them that the rhetoric is just that, and that if they trust you, you won't hurt them.

You don't have to change what you believe, all you have to do, is be the best person that you can be while you're doing it. Like I said, you've already shown me that is the person you really are.

And that really gets to me.

I appreciate him using his platform and audience to spread some positivity and hope. I get that's not everyone's thing in the wake of... everything... but I really really appreciate it. I'm sorry that the hopefullness doesn't ring true for a lot of you.

(As for those of you worried about not being able to rewatch this video later... Chuck has nearly a thousand videos now. How often do you rewatch *all* of them?)

[Thebestoftherest]

I am completely thrown by Chuck doing the Hogfather quote because I just came from Dominick Noble's video where he reads *the exact same quote.*

As for the actual review, Chuck's positivity astounds and *inspires* me constantly. He brought up great things in the one Superman video, and as recently as the election, he said something on twitter that made me, a grown ass man, cry. And it has stuck with me.

Chuck had done a long tangent about the outcome of the election and how it was largely decided by hate and fear, but mixed with some positive things and in response I said

ME: I grew up in Texas surrounded by both sides and that was fine. Difference of opinion on spending budgets and military and religion is ok!
But when racism seems to be the current main issue above all else, I just... can't empathize anymore.
You're a better man than me Chuck.

CHUCK: No, I'm not! I believe in you, because you took the first step right now. It's not about embracing moral repugnancy, it's opening to the possibility that things aren't as simple as the narrative you're being fed. And to then see that the repugnant is a minority, and that...

...most people are just scared that the other side, sounding so full of fire, want to destroy what they cherish. Because seeing that is the first step in knowing how to show them that the rhetoric is just that, and that if they trust you, you won't hurt them.

You don't have to change what you believe, all you have to do, is be the best person that you can be while you're doing it. Like I said, you've already shown me that is the person you really are.

And that really gets to me.

I appreciate him using his platform and audience to spread some positivity and hope. I get that's not everyone's thing in the wake of... everything... but I really really appreciate it. I'm sorry that the hopefullness doesn't ring true for a lot of you.

(As for those of you worried about not being able to rewatch this video later... Chuck has nearly a thousand videos now. How often do you rewatch *all* of them?)

Your a good man.

[Riedquat]

I think that we need at least one day hearing good news.

One person's good news is usually someone else's bad news.

How is less death by disease a bad thing?

"Usually."

It's also important to put it in to perspective, even though that usually gets someone's hackles up. Death by disease happens all the time, and yes, there's more of it than usual at the moment. But it's not Black Death levels, not by a long shot. So don't let things seem worse than they really are - which isn't to say that they're not bad and should be ignored - but they may not be as bad as it feels.

[Thebestoftherest]

I think that we need at least one day hearing good news.

One person's good news is usually someone else's bad news.

How is less death by disease a bad thing?

"Usually."

It's also important to put it in to perspective, even though that usually gets someone's hackles up. Death by disease happens all the time, and yes, there's more of it than usual at the moment. But it's not Black Death levels, not by a long shot. So don't let things seem worse than they really are - which isn't to say that they're not bad and should be ignored - but they may not be as bad as it feels.

And that something worth celebrating.

[clearspira]

Right, where was I? Ah yes, can't stand the modern world. Whilst it undoubtedly has its merits there's still far too much of an obsession with trying to solve yesterday's problems. "More wealth, more wealth!" seems to be the constant cry even in countries with plenty of it but issues with distribution. All modernity's successes involve rubbish it's managed to do away with (150 years ago the air here would've been full of the output of lime kilns, and much more recently than that the stream at the back of the garden used to change colour regularly). Most of what it's added - well, some of it's an entertaining distraction (otherwise I wouldn't be on here), and some's genuinely great (e.g. medical) but it mostly seems to have switched from solving the physical hardships that ground us down to piling on levels of mental stress we never evolved to deal with.

And whilst I like technology when it can do new, exciting things, like probe the depths of space or the most fundamental laws of physics, or even make me really feel like I'm flying around in an X-Wing, god, I loathe it insinuating itself into basic, day-to-day tasks at the level it has done. I'm really finding it all rather impersonal, souless, and dehumanising. The answer isn't to completely go in to reverse, it's to find a good balance. But it sure as hell doesn't make me feel good about the future, and bringing it all up as a message of hope just leaves me more depressed than I already am. So the only SFDebris review I've not made it through to the end of.

Where progress needs to continue isn't in technology, it's in social development and organisation. We have the means - and have had for many years, for no-one to really live in worry for their existance.

I've just gotten around to watching this.

1) Yeah, I do kind of share your thoughts about Chuck's speech. And don't get me wrong. Its his show and he felt it an important message. I personally would not have made this the Christmas episode - but again, his show, his choice. No argument from me. But I have to say that the world he professes to exist is not what I see when I look out of the window. I see a terribly divided world. The sort of world that an historian looks back at before a major war and thinks ''why/how the f-k did they not see that coming?'' On paper, many things are going great for us. But then, many things on paper were going great if you lived in Rome around the birth of Christ.

2) I do feel as if we are on a precipice as a civilisation. I have waxed lyrical about the 90s before and Madnar pointed out to me that it was only great in Britain and America and I accept that. But if I had a choice, that is where I would live. It was the point between ''technology is making our lives better'' and ''technology is about to steal away all of our livelihoods'' that I wish we were still at. Plus social media was at a point where you could discuss topics - I remember fondly the Babylon 5 boards back in the day - but not influence and that is a key point. Most of the bollocks we see today from anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, radical ideologues, far left and far right activists; none of that would exist today without Twitter and Facebook. There was a respect for scientists and doctors back then that we do not have today.

The solution however is not the ST: Insurrection approach of ''back to nature''. Because that world sucked just as much as this one does.

[AndrewGPaul]

Part 2, 7:53: [the lack of toilet paper] "still left a scar".

That'll happen if you use the sandpaper instead.