Aram Zucker-Scharff

Scorpion Brings the Stupidest, Most Batshit Insane Hacker Scene Ever:

So Scorpion debuted last night on CBS, bringing us the thrilling tale of “geniuses” who help DHS by setting up wifi access points in restaurants. Yes, that is a true plot point. It all leads to this scene, whose true meaning I will unfold for you so that you can appreciate the full amazing awfulness.

Surprise! (Not a surprise.)

From ad one for this series I knew it looked terrible. It was: let’s take all of the shitty stereotyping of ‘geeks’, intelligent people, scientists, etc… from Big Bang Theory and double-down on it by making all the characters less able to function in reality (because geniuses can only be “relatable” if we render them non-threatening by making them totally socially inept, otherwise: oh noes, intelligent people, we hate functional intelligent people. Yay keeping up the anti-intellectualism in America, that will never have consequences.) and throw in a network-TV-producer’s level of intelligence about how computers work.

It’s not like I intended to watch it, but I’m glad to be wholly reinforced in that assumption.

“The reader or viewer remains passive in the face of the book or movie or play: she expects the work to be done for her. If the concept of identification suggested that an individual experiences a work as a mirror in which he might recognize himself, the notion of relatability implies that the work in question serves like a selfie: a flattering confirmation of an individual’s solipsism.”

– The Scourge of “Relatability”.

“”The more I’ve looked at the details of the threats and the insults that women are on the receiving end of, the more some of them seem to fit into the old patterns of prejudice and assumption that I have been talking about […] It doesn’t much matter what line of argument you take as a woman. If you venture into traditional male territory, the abuse comes anyway. It’s not what you say that prompts it—it’s the fact that you are saying it.””

– Mary Beard: The troll slayer.

“”It’s true that the game can twist relationships, usually by forcing a leap to a higher degree of intimacy, but this can be a positive development. “Really what we’re doing,” Luke says when I ask him why he plays, “is trying to use the weird medium of texting to create new ways of interacting with people.” In this view, Damage Control turns texting into something more than a mode of communication. It is texting as a new art form. “It can be transcendent,” Luke says. “But mainly it’s just terrifying.”””

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