“Think of the two major possibilities here: Either the studios owe untold millions to their talents and paying it out will decimate their stock prices, or they owe so little because there really is no money in streaming and the bubble of their entire 21st century business model will burst in spectacular fashion. And make no mistake: this is a bubble. This is the inevitable climax of a stockholder-driven hunger for infinite growth, despite the fact that, by design, such a thing cannot and should not exist. The infection of Wall Street has overwhelmed the entertainment industry beyond repair, leading to cultural vandals like David Zaslav to be appointed with the callous duty of strip-mining decades’ of artistic beauty for pennies of tax write-offs. The past and future are frivolous in comparison to the short-term demands that the line keep going up.”
btw if you find yourself dehumanizing any person or group for any reason you’ve already lost
Ok, but how do you fight that once you’ve realized it?
The therapy answer: You can train yourself to follow unproductive thought patterns and you can retrain yourself to follow more productive ones instead. The first step is realizing what you’re thinking and correcting it, and the next step is repeat step 1 until it starts happening automatically.
The sociological answer: people typically become less prejudiced when they spend extended time with groups of people they are prejudiced against, especially in a non-adversarial context.
There’s a sort of false idea out there, and historians try very hard to avoid it. It’s the myth of constant, upward progress. You can’t say that tomorrow will always be better and more liberated than today. For instance, it might be Sunday today, and you have work on Monday. Sometimes, things go backwards.
Think about the last time you were trapped in a corn maze, followed by a bunch of hayseed rurals with chainsaws. It’s a common occurrence, one that happens to the average American 8.3 times over the course of their lives. You didn’t always go forward until you reached the exit and got to your car, which mysteriously didn’t start until the very last second. No, you had to backtrack once in awhile when you went down a bad path and ended up at a dead end.
Corporations love this idea of constant, forward improvement, because it means they don’t have to work to make the improvements actually improve anything at all. The longer they hold onto a product, the more they can change it. And, if they tell you that all change is an improvement, and that things keep getting better, then this change will be for the better, too. Did it instead completely ruin your day, and the day of everyone you love, plus the guy on the subway you complained to about it? Then they must not have changed it enough.
Your average artist, too, probably hits the equivalent of the “undo” button more than they write a word, or draw a line, or paint a line, or god damn it painting and drawing are basically the same thing backspace backspace backspace. That iteration, that constant give-and-take, is what makes something really shine. It can only be accomplished by the beautiful human spirit, and more importantly, a person with actual taste. Which is why a corporation can never attempt it, unless that corporation is mysteriously co-opted by a group of renegade artists which undetectably set up shop inside its body, botfly-esque, and consume its immense resources (free coffee, toilet paper, air conditioning) to crank out mysterious, confusing works that confound the human spirit.
What I’m trying to say is, if you see a new Ford on the road, don’t expect it to be any better at not running over pedestrians than it was last week. However, it will do a really cool celebratory donut right afterward, which is a type of progress.
Ruby Bridges is 68. This is not ancient history. Not even close.
I know Ruby. She’s a really nice person. The idea that they would try and write what she did as a girl out of history is shocking to me on so many levels, the simplest of which is just, but don’t they know how lovely she is?
STOP ACTING LIKE HAVING BOOBS REGARDLESS OF IF YR CIS OR TRANS IS INHERENTLY SEXUAL LET PEOPLE WALK AROUND BRALESS LET PEOPLE WALK AROUND SHIRTLESS WHO CARES IF YOU CAN SEE THEIR BOOBS GROW UP. IF YR PAYING SO MUCH ATTENTION TO A SEVENTEEN YEAR OLDS NIPPLES THATS ON YOU. STOP BEING WEIRD. BOOBS ARE NOT INHERENTLY SEXUAL. I NEED TO KILL LAWMAKERS
I’m all for natural remedies and traditional medicine, but I think when your “natural remedy” is based on the idea that water can become medicinal by being in the presence of a teeny itty bit amount of something, then it’s probably bullshit and you’re getting scammed. Go buy some ibuprofen or see a doctor.
Things that can be true simultaneously:
The idea that Western medicine is the be-all-end-all of science is based around white supremacy and elitism. Traditional medicine DOES have its place and is incredibly useful, especially when combined with the emotional, social, and spiritual effect it has on people from those cultures and communities. Many people also choose to combine their traditional cultural medicine with Western medicine and that should be respected by doctors.
When September and October are nearing and you’re planning an event: google “Rosh Hashanah *year*” and *Yom Kippur *year*” and then, and I cannot stress this enough, don’t plan your event on those days. In fact, don’t plan any events starting sundown the night before. Those are the three most important days of the Jewish calendar, and, once again, I cannot stress enough how much this little bit of forethought and kindness will make every Jew you know cry tears of joy.
if i see one more fucking ‘reject modernity embrace tradition’ meme i’m going to lose my shit
it costs literally $0 to give a fuck about jewish people and not use fucking nazi slogans as ‘memes’
just don’t say nazi shit. it’s easy. think about this: will not saying nazi shit have an adverse impact on my quality of life? if the answer is yes, then you’re probably a nazi. if the answer is no, then you can stop it and easily make the world a safer and more comfortable place
I had no idea this meme is a fascist dogwhistle thing. But I looked it up and it’s clearly a thing fascists like, taken from the first two definitions of fascism by Umberto Eco, who lived under Mussolini’s fascist reign:
The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
JESSE: EVERYTHING THAT WE KNOW AND LOVE IS REDUCIBLE TO THE ABSURD ACTS OF CHEMICALS, AND THERE IS THEREFORE NO INTRINSIC VALUE IN THIS MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
JAMES: HYPOCRITE THAT YOU ARE, FOR YOU TRUST THE CHEMICALS IN YOUR BRAIN TO TELL YOU THEY ARE CHEMICALS. ALL KNOWLEDGE IS ULTIMATELY BASED ON THAT WHICH WE CANNOT PROVE. WILL YOU FIGHT? OR WILL YOU PERISH LIKE A HERDIER?
MEOWTH: I LIKED THE OLD OATH BETTER…
holy shit
Literally what is going on?
I like how this simple pokemon joke comic brings us from Chomsky’s example of how free will and order can arise from a materialist universe via the example of language(and thus, that materialism is not wholly and inherently deterministic) all the way back to Plato, 2000+ years ago, stupidly arguing that you’re born knowing everything, learning is impossible, and all knowledge is just memory from a pre-existence union with Perfect/Ideal Divinity.
“Just string it together in any order, the more random it is the more complex it’ll sound" improvising music on the fly was one of Mozart’s party tricks
Not saying this guy is Mozart but he’s smart and clever and talented and way, way underappreciating himself
Bimbo qualities
babe wake up new flavor of imposter syndrome dropped
Yeah 100% the joke’s on him for thinking he’s faking, lmao.
