Gran Turismo

With no agenda other than to tell an upbeat and cockle-warming story Gran Turismo revs up the RPMs and delivers.
79/100526609
Starring
Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom
Director
Neill Blomkamp
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama
Release date
August 25, 2023
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Plot/Story
Visuals/Cinematography
Performance
Direction
Non-Wokeness
Rating Summary
Although it lacks the universal appeal of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Gran Turismo is one of the best video game commercials since 1989's The Wizard. While it squeezes in a couple of minor subplots to help fill in the runtime, one of Gran Turismo's greatest assets is that it doesn't try too hard to be more than what it is, an upbeat and inspirational underdog sports movie in the tradition of films like 1979's Breaking Away. It boasts charismatic and believable performances, a few interesting visuals, and a sufficiently compelling plot to engage the audience from curtain up to curtain down.
Audience Woke Score (Vote)
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2023 has undoubtedly been the Year of The Video Game Dramatization. From The Super Mario Bros. Movie to Tetris and now Gran Turismo, Hollywood has finally started to learn how to make a decent video game movie/show (season 3 of The Witcher notwithstanding).

Since its launch in 1997, the Gran Turismo franchise has gone on to sell over 90 million copies, becoming the best-selling game franchise under the Sony PlayStation brand.

Gran Turismo


Gran Turismo tells the somewhat fictionalized tale of the real Jann Mardenborough, a 19-year-old Gran Turismo gamer who wins a contest to become a professional racecar driver.

No one thing makes Gran Turismo Worth it.  Instead, it manages the rare feat of being greater than the sum of its parts by virtue of a magic mix of its constituent ingredients and a little something extra. It’s an underdog story; it’s based on a true story; it’s about a regular person working hard to achieve his dreams; you get the idea. How could it not be at least a feel-good and pleasant diversion?

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However, what elevates it from pleasant to engaging is authenticity, mainly brought about by the performances of three men: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, and Djimon Hounsou. While none of them are given particularly dynamic material filled with soaring rhetoric with which to work, each manages to infuse their respective characters with an effortless relatability. Archie’s Jann is pleasant and easy to root for, Harbour’s Jack is the heart and humor of the film, and Djimon gives a deceptively nuanced performance bursting with subtext.

In fact, Djimon’s performance is easily the best in the film. He’s wagyu beef served at your favorite comfort food greasy spoon, elevating what should have been a rather two-dimensional disapproving father trope into something much more, and, like close captioning for the screenwriting impaired, you can almost literally read his character’s fatherly insecurities, fears, and hopes on his face all while he delivers cliché if serviceable dialogue.

Racecar movies are one of the easiest subgenres to provide a tactile sense of raw engagement for the audience. From the thunderous growling of a 1,000+ horsepower F1 racer to that one extra gear Dominic Toretto always seems to find when he needs it most, there’s a primal testosterone-pumping quality to watching fast cars and the men who know what to do with them. Unfortunately, that’s where Gran Turismo stalls out a bit.

Except for a single scene in the rain, the audience is never made to feel the race in their bones on the level as in even subpar films like Days of Thunder (yes, it’s still fun to watch – don’t email me), and there are two reasons for this.

First, the music. While there’s a running (and effective) gag throughout much of Gran Turismo concerning music, there is no substitute for a hard rock soundtrack kicking in at that crucial moment of the race, and GT never gives it to you once. Instead, we get a generic score and a single use of a hip-hop track.

Second, paddle shifters. This one is an unavoidable sign of the times. F1 racers have been using paddle shifters since the 90s, and touring cars use them now, but there is something about a closeup of a driver dropping the clutch and slamming the car into a new gear that grabs you by the Leydig cells and cranks up the excitement to 11. It gives the audience a tactile sense of being in the car as well as a feeling of controlling one’s destiny by sheer aggressive will that can’t be gotten from flipping a paddle like you’re changing the TV channel.

There’s a third factor that doesn’t diminish the overall film quality but does preclude it from being a film that the entire family can enjoy, and it’s so unneeded as to be criminal. The problem is the language. There are two completely unnecessary f-bombs, a holy-$h!t, and a GD. They add nothing to the narrative, and it’s not as though those who don’t mind such things would leave the theater saying, “You know what that movie was missing? F-bombs.” had they been omitted. Each one was jarring and entirely out of left field.

Despite these shortcomings, Gran Turismo stands out as a feel-good film that surpasses expectations. This late into the summer film season, film quality traditionally starts to lag. In a summer that consists of stinkers like Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny and The Little Mermaid, it should mean that you should avoid theaters at all costs. However, GT gives you a good reason to return one last time before the leaves start to change.

WOKE ELEMENTS

  • One of the contest finalists is a woman. However, the first female finalist in real life didn’t come about until five years after the events of this film. DEI hire.

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James Carrick

James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.

52 comments

  • Abdul

    August 16, 2023 at 10:59 am

    5 out of 5

    10/10 non woke. I love the bit where he goes from Gamist to Racest, epic style

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  • Tim

    August 17, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    5 out of 5

    We loved. One of the best films of the year.

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  • goqul

    August 18, 2023 at 1:09 am

    5 out of 5

    I wanted to watch the movie. It’s not here in India yet. Now, I will definitely be watching it.

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    • Doris Gardiner

      August 20, 2023 at 11:24 am

      This is an American website.

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        • Devin

          September 23, 2023 at 3:14 am

          The amount of dislikes on this innocent comment proves some of the people aren’t just here for movie reviews

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  • Traditional Parent

    August 18, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    5 out of 5

    Please flag things with miscegenation for the many traditional folks out there who don’t want to see that in a movie.

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    • James Carrick

      August 18, 2023 at 7:26 pm

      Thank you for taking time to comment. While we respect your right to have and voice your opinion on the matter, with there being a greater statistical genetic difference between those of different hair colors than those of different melanin levels, we do not share it and see nothing inherently wrong with people of mixed races being portrayed in romantic relationships with one another, especially in films such as this which are based on real people and true events.

      Now, if the studio takes a true story and starts changing the races of people to fulfill their virtue-signaling quotas, that’s something else.

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      • Chuck Sneed

        August 21, 2023 at 5:36 pm

        I thought this was an anti woke website, but here are people defending the purpose of the woke agenda – white genocide, and destruction of western civilization, by way of interbreeding. This is not a matter of opinion. Time to wake up

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        • James Carrick

          August 21, 2023 at 7:39 pm

          No, we just ascribe to the Martin Luther King, Jr. school of thought that what matters is the content of someone’s character and not the color of their skin. Behing upset at people with different skin tones making babies together is actual racism, unlike being upset that, for instance, a movie studio has set diversity quotas that ignore merit.

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          • Chuck Sneed

            August 22, 2023 at 9:55 am

            You follow Martin Luther King Jr? The outspoken socialist, who preached nonviolence but in reality led massive riots that destroyed cities not unlike BLM? Who, at the time he was shot, was leading a ‘Poor Peoples Revolution’ against capitalist America? THAT MLK?
            The reason the movie studios have these quotas and force racial mixing into every damn film is because they are MARXIST and they HATE white people. They want a future with no more white babies. This is why woke Marxist ideology exists!!!! MLK was one of the inventors of this ideology – DO NOT fall into there traps!

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          • James Carrick

            August 22, 2023 at 10:15 am

            Marxism is bad.

            Racism is bad. Including anti-white racism.

            Race quotas are wrong and racist.

            It’s racist to think that it’s wrong for people of different ethnicities to marry. It also makes no logical or biological sense.

            This is this site’s perspective and that won’t change.

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          • Tracy

            August 23, 2023 at 8:05 pm

            Huh, I thought Chuck was being hyperbolic, but I looked it up and he’s right. MLK had some very questionable socialist sympathy, and was for sure anti-american – why have our media and institutions cleared his name so strongly that now even so called conservatives claim to follow his ideals? We shouldn’t have national holidays for a SOCIALIST in the USA. I’m honestly shocked.

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          • James Carrick

            August 23, 2023 at 8:34 pm

            Yes, MLK was far from a perfect man, which is why I didn’t endorse everything the man said, but he was 1000% right that we should not discriminate against based on their skin color. That’s exactly what the Left is doing right now, and it’s racist and wrong.

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          • Kurt

            August 26, 2023 at 11:59 am

            Well said and it is THE conservative position (and Christian as well) that character matters most. I am just as tired of wokeness in modern media and identity politics (hence why I enjoy your website) but I have no objection to mixed race couples in real life or in TV and film where it is based on casting the best actors or in cases like this where it is appropriate.

            I’ve noticed that some of the other websites that review TV and film in a manner similar to yours, that they have attracted what I believe are very progressive people posing as “bigoted” conservatives or very unintelligent/uneducated Christians in what I can only guess is an attempt to discredit the website and conservatives in general.

            I am curious to know how many of these white genocide complaints (and upvotes) are coming from the same ipaddress.

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          • Steve F

            September 26, 2023 at 4:24 pm

            Well said, Mr. Carrick. Interracial relationships are not new and are not woke. And I think Kurt is on point. I’m conservative, I’m Christian, I’m a patriot, but the number of you folks liking the negative comments makes me shake my head.

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          • James Carrick

            September 26, 2023 at 4:54 pm

            Thanks Steve. We’ve recently been able to suss out a troll who created multiple accounts for the purpose of making it look like we attract racists. My estimation is that that many of the likes are from him and those like him.

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  • N. Tavares

    August 21, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    5 out of 5

    I loved this movie, easily one of the bests movies I have seen this year, and shot up into one of my top 25 all-time movies. There are very little to no woke agendas in this movie.

    I love how this was based on the true story of the driver that went from a fantastic Sim Driver to a real life driver; & the realdriver did all the stunt driving. It was very entertaining with a good soundtrack and solid acting. I really love movies where the message is about chasing and obtaining your dreams even when those closest don’t support you.

    The one thing that disappointed me was I couldn’t see it again and wasn’t aware that I saw an early showing. I do recommend seeing this movie in an AMC Dolby Cinema Theater, IMAX or equivalent type theater with a great sound system.

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  • Tracy

    August 23, 2023 at 8:09 pm

    5 out of 5

    After reading the conversation here I tend to agree that the admin missed the mark. What do you think the end game of woke ideology and cultural Marxism is? It’s the extermination of white children. They don’t just put forced race mixing in our movies just for fun – they clearly are trying to normalize this to breed us out of existence. Same with all this gay ideology, they don’t want white Americans having children at all. This is the woke ideology we need to resist – we must secure a future for white babies.

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    • James Carrick

      August 23, 2023 at 8:32 pm

      It’s a true story. His real-life parents are black and white. His girlfriend was/is white. It really happened.

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  • Kay

    August 24, 2023 at 9:35 am

    5 out of 5

    Thank you James for this review and your response in these comments. Believing all mixed couples are trying to cause “white genocide” is ridiculous. I doubt that was Clarence Thomas’ goal when he married his wife.

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    • Steve Doyle

      August 24, 2023 at 7:04 pm

      It’s the goal of the cultural marxists and wokes who control the media. Why do you think they push it so hard in every movie now? It doesnt matter if it’s real life. Its what they push onto our children by showing it in every movies and shows.

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  • Jim Jones

    August 24, 2023 at 9:54 am

    5 out of 5

    Imagine running face-first into the point and missing it. Race interbreeding *is* the purpose of the woke agenda

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  • Steve Doyle

    August 24, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    5 out of 5

    Yeah I’m kinda disappointed with admin for this one.
    Stuff that makes a movie woke for me: leftist race / gender agenda, forced blacks females and gays, and pushing miscegenation. The woke puppet masters push that noncence really hard in every movie and tv commercial now, I cant remember last time I seen a normal white couple with a white baby on tv…

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    • James Carrick

      August 24, 2023 at 7:38 pm

      We always call out forced diversity for its own sake. That is different than saying that there is something inherently wrong with people of different colors marrying one another. Further, it’s not woke in any way shape, or form to portray an actual interracial relationship in a biographical film in which the people involved were actually a biracial couple. This is exactly the case with this specific movie.

      Our position on this will never change.

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  • N Tavares

    August 24, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    5 out of 5

    I would get complaints about interracial couples if this was a fictional piece but since the movie is based on real events and real people this argument loses it value here.

    If the parents were white and Hollywood did it thing to push the woke agenda of interracial couples then your points would be valid for this movie.

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    • James Carrick

      August 24, 2023 at 8:22 pm

      Exactly. And if they did, we would ding it for the artificial diversity, not because we think there’s something wrong with interracial couples, or actors and actresses who aren’t white.

      This is an important and nuanced distinction that many on the Left do not understand.

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  • Isaac

    August 25, 2023 at 8:39 am

    5 out of 5

    Hmm unfortunately it seems this website is attracting Nazis and other far-right individuals who attempt to drag us down with them. We common sense conservatives need to put a stop to this.
    All this screeching about ‘white genocide’ and ‘white babies’? That’s what we call a dog-whistle. They don’t come right out and sieg heil, but that’s what they mean.

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    • James Carrick

      August 25, 2023 at 8:57 am

      I think it likely that most of those supporting that particular narrative are more likely skilled trolls who would like to make it look like this site attracts those types.

      The reason that we allowed these particular tweets to go through was so that we could clearly articulate our own point of view in our rebuttals to their overt racism, and to clarify the distinction between being opposed to DEI hiring vs. being opposed to people with more melanin in their skin than us.

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      • Isaac

        August 26, 2023 at 2:15 am

        Troll or not, I’ve encountered an embarrassing amount of people in these spaces who hold these views seriously. You get friendly with someone, they let their guard down, and suddenly you get the ‘I’m not racist, BUUUUUT…’
        Sadly, these views are endemic to some people – they didn’t pop up in 1930s Germany from nowhere, they’ve existed for centuries.
        ‘Puppet masters’, ‘globalists’ and ‘cultural Marxism’ are usually shorthand for a Jewish plot or conspiracy.
        ‘White genocide’ or ‘the great replacement’ allude to a racist panic, designed to work up fear of those of different skin colours. It’s as old as time, and it’s pathetic – there are billions of white people, we aren’t going anywhere soon.
        I don’t care if they find this ‘woke’. We need to weed out fascist and Nazi rhetoric where we see it.
        I was friends with some lefty punk-rockers in college, I didn’t see much in common with them politically, but they made a great point once – when a Nazi skinhead turns up in your bar, you’ve got to kick them out. If you tolerate them for a second, then eventually, their friends will all make themselves at home, and suddenly your bar becomes a Nazi bar.

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        • Kent

          August 26, 2023 at 11:22 am

          This is a great analogy, thanks for sharing Isaac. It’s very unfortunate that racists flock to online conservative forums in such a big way. They do the same in Facebook and YouTube. I hope that young voters realise we’re not all bigoted like this. I am friends with many blacks

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      • Kurt

        August 26, 2023 at 12:14 pm

        Yes, that was my previous point that you have skilled trolls.
        I googled your webpage to see if it was getting any discussion on progressive websites and found that Rolling Stone did a brief article about this site. (That will bring some far left traffic here.) It was behind a paywall so I couldn’t read it, but you must be an affront to RS for them to alert their readers about what you are trying to do.

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        • Lesley

          August 27, 2023 at 1:38 pm

          I think it’s pretty disingenuous to assume every commenter with an opinion you disagree with is a troll or sent by the left. Those of us who live in smaller towns or with older people know that these ‘traditional’ views about race are pretty common.
          Lately I’ve noticed some conservatives are so tribal that they can’t accept that the right wing has a few real jerks too lol. Like the guys that say the Jan6 rioters were actually antifa or paid for by Clinton’s , no they were just idiots who don’t represent us all haha

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          • James Carrick

            August 27, 2023 at 2:23 pm

            Hi Lesly,

            Thank you for your passion. However, I grew up in a middle-American town with fewer than 800 people in it, and I would argue that, if by “traditional,” you mean that their views are that people with different skin colors shouldn’t get married because of said skin color differential, that that constitutes traditional racism. Neither its prevalence nor the lack thereof changes the nature of it.

            As to your second point, we can certainly agree that jerks exist on all sides and in all walks of life.

            Take care, and God bless.

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  • JB

    August 27, 2023 at 12:47 am

    5 out of 5

    Sorry to see your excellent site has drawn what are either trolls or truly hateful individuals who make conservatives look bad. I mean, Clarence Thomas’s wife is white. Is the man not conservative enough for you people? Don’t answer that. If you all are that hateful I really don’t want to talk to you. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed your reviews, James. This is not a movie I was particularly interested in, both because I’m not a gamer and because I’m not a fan of David Harbour and his loud and proud communist takes on the world, but I’m willing to give it a chance based on your recommendation and description.

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  • Grant Naylor

    August 29, 2023 at 11:16 am

    5 out of 5

    I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – the far right is just as bad as the far left. If this is the kind of place that caters to Nazis Fascists white supremacists and other nutjobs who think that woke is some big anti white conspiracy then I guess I’m out. I’m a libertarian with an Asian wife and proud

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    • James Carrick

      August 29, 2023 at 12:26 pm

      Well then, you should probably read all of our responses that denounce these ideas.

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    • Stewart

      August 29, 2023 at 8:07 pm

      Wake up. Woke is EXACTLY a anti white conspiracy, as well as anti straight, anti family values, anti men, pro trans, pro groomer, pro globalist, pro banker cabal, and ANTI AMERICA. There are obviously leftists / rinos here calling people nazis just for having a different opinion,like they always do.

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      • Kent

        August 30, 2023 at 11:12 am

        The irony of telling people to wake up before denouncing ‘woke’ isn’t lost on you, is it?

        And who exactly are the ‘banker cabal’? You can dog whistle to your little friends, but you’re scared to say exactly what you mean, aren’t you? If you don’t want people to call you a Nazi… Stop spouting Nazi ideology maybe?

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        • Hank Hoggins

          August 31, 2023 at 8:53 am

          Kent I hate to brake it to you but you are a LIBTARD, if you knew anything you woud know that the Nazis were actually democrats. and wokeness is anti white culture, if you’re ok with that then I have to question why your even on this website at all

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          • Kent

            September 12, 2023 at 11:12 am

            Mr Hoggins, I hate to ‘brake’ it to you, but if you have to resort to name-calling then you know when you’re beat.

            And I hate to shock you, but the Nazis were not ‘democrats’, funnily enough, they were not even American. Yes I’m anti woke, that doesn’t mean I have to support this far-right partisan nonsense.

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          • Phil

            November 20, 2023 at 3:27 pm

            Kent, Hank said the word democrat because he’s an American and democrat is now a synonym for liberal and leftist. The Nazies were in fact on the left. There has never been a conservative dictatorship in history because one of the basic fundamental tenets of conservatism is small government and one cannot control every aspect of people’s lives with a small government. The very word Nazi stands for National Socialist Party of Deutschland and conservatives aren’t real fond of socialism either.

            And to be frank, your condescending tone is more insulting than any LIBTARD accusation. I don’t know your intent but you do come off as a smug leftist who thinks he’s superior.

  • JR

    September 1, 2023 at 5:29 am

    5 out of 5

    This might help those who get irked by the mixed race thing.

    So mixed race couples in entertainment … This USED to drive me nuts too. Every advert in the UK shows mixed race families or non-white familes and I think most people will agree it is NOT a true reflection on society. I mean, this nation is 80% white so why push it 99% the other way? Anyways … I was talking to a group of friends the one day and we got to this topic. One of my friends works at the BBC (they have my pity) and I was told that in effort to meet DEI rules AND meet budget by saving on hiring too many people for roles, the easiest win is to put in mixed race couples. That is the primary reason you see this so much. It is not an all-out conspiracy (though for sure, there are many who do push this crap for the wrong reasons). It is, ironically, a tactic to keep the capatalist machine rolling under budget.

    It changed my view a bit and I get less annoyed now, even though I am still completely anti-woke.

    I love everyone as long as the skin of their soul shines positively 😉

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  • Manolo

    September 3, 2023 at 9:18 pm

    5 out of 5

    Most of you people on here are the reason why the wokesters are gaining so much steam. Go find the “wokeorneonazi” web site.

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    • Hank Hoggins

      September 8, 2023 at 8:00 pm

      Yeah I agree, so many liberals RINO calling everyone they disagree with a Nazi. They are the fake conservatives

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  • Phil

    November 20, 2023 at 3:14 pm

    The purpose of woke is to subvert traditional norms and invert our sense of right and wrong. They do this by pushing a little, normalizing it until people accept it and then pushing again and normalizing etc.

    To believe that the left-wing entertainment industry doesn’t use this tactic is foolish. Take this movie. It’s based on real events and if the GT Academy had only turned out 1 winner in 2011 it wouldn’t be an issue but there were 2, the other being white. Is anyone surprised that the subject of the film is the black one with the interracial parents? That fact is why they made the movie. It allowed them to push the narrative without looking like they’re pushing the narrative because it’s a true story.

    They’re not stupid. Pushing their agenda requires time, patience and SUBTLETY. They’re not after you they’re after your children’s generation because they have already normalized all of this with them. They need to wait until the next generation is of legal age and the only remaining rational people are old and/or dead and they’ve won.

    You either accept the already normalized aspects they finished pushing 20 years ago or you accept none of it. I can’t help but see every single potentially woke thing as intentional based on what they’ve pushed already which makes this site less than useful because the bar for what’s not woke is set so low that anything and everything not completely obvious gets through.

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  • Manolo Varela

    February 6, 2024 at 7:56 pm

    I’m going to assume that any comment using radical terms, such as “White genocide,” is just a troll attempting to discredit the site. I wouldn’t even respond to them. Downvote and move on.

    Reply

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