“Democrats are deeply, historically unpopular right now, with a 57 percent unfavorability rating. This is absolutely no one’s fault but theirs. Their failure is so vast that they’ve yet to figure out why people are so unhappy. They’re listening to consultants who have only ever lost elections and Sunday morning talk-show hosts who platform insurrectionists and who tell them reaching their hands across the aisle is what the American people want. They’re wrong: According to a recent study conducted by the Center for American Progress, “bipartisan solutions” are what voters value the least. It would never in a million years occur to Democrats that maybe their supporters are mad because they gave bipartisan cover to Donald Trump to turn Guantánamo Bay into a concentration camp for immigrants, helped to confirm a man whose only qualification for being transportation secretary was winning the Road Rules Challenge, and can’t stop talking about “finding common ground” with a party currently being run jointly by a convicted felon and his unelected fascist salute–throwing pal. It’s time Democrats listen to us, and we’re going to have to do it the hard way.”
“This isn’t just another political crisis—it’s an existential threat to the constitutional order that has secured human liberty for over two centuries. Every American who understands the value of this inheritance has a duty to resist its destruction. The Constitution doesn’t defend itself—it requires citizens willing to stand for the principles of democratic governance against those who would replace the rule of law with the rule of men.”
My favorite detail about Jurassic Park is that it has a baked-in justification for any and all retcons it might need to make due to paleontology advancing forwards.
Because there is not a single dinosaur that has ever appeared in Jurassic Park.
Not one. Not in the books. Not in the movies. Not ever.
“Now what John Hammond and InGen did at Jurassic Park was to create genetically engineered theme park monsters.” ~Alan Grant
Grant says that in a moment of cynicism. It’s part of his arc for the film. But it’s not inaccurate. What Jurassic Park has, what it’s always had since the very first novel, are “Mostly Dinosaurs”.
“And since the DNA is so old, it’s full of holes! Now, that’s where our geneticists take over!” ~Mr. DNA
It’s impossible to recover a fully intact gene sequence from an ancient amber mosquito. Cloning a pure dinosaur would have been completely impossible, and so the park filled in the gene sequence with whatever works. Frog. Lizard. Bird. Whatever they need to get the result they are trying to get.
Every single dinosaur is a chimeric beast made up of mostly dinosaur and a bunch of other stuff that some scientists thought would achieve the appropriate dinosaur-like result.
“Nothing in Jurassic World is natural! We have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different.” ~Dr. Henry Wu
Which, from a writing perspective, is fucking genius. Because now you have a preset excuse for each and every plot hole your movie has.
Like. Why don’t the raptors have feathers? Because of the chimera DNA.
Why do dilophosaurs spit venom? Because of the chimera DNA.
Why do T-Rexes have movement based vision? Oh, they don’t. But Rexy does. Because of her chimera DNA.
Why is the Spinosaurus so fucking big? Because of the chimera DNA.
Why are the velociraptors mislabeled? Because Hammond’s a dipshit.
Like. I’ve always marveled at the way Jurassic Park started out by giving itself a blanket excuse to be wrong about every single thing it ever said about the central attraction of its franchise. It’s honestly beautiful, and allows the series a degree of immortality well into the era where we know better about its animals.
The way this administration, and conservatives in general viscerally hate “DEI” is so disturbing because it’s very clear now that they see….. any person of color having a job that they think is “above them” as an example of DEI and that they should be fired. They think just seeing a black or brown person working in any position that isn’t minimum wage as “woke” and clearly undeserved
