[rcoveson]

The author and I experienced School of Rock very differently. Dewey Finn is a bit of a loser at the start, but he's still the coolest guy on screen. All his foils seem overly self-serious and/or very unhappy with their lives. We like Dewey, we don't like Ned (even though we relate to Ned).

The rant about Shamu and the ozone layer is just Meditations On Moloch[0] distilled into an emotional outburst. The thing is, he's right about those things. It is infuriating that we do bad things for money, and it's important to care enough to get mad about them and do stuff to effect change[1].

0. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish_(film)