#now megacorporations do it for you!

[salty--zebra]

Disney: do you wanna play a cute cozy game with all your fav characters? HA! just kidding. Now heal your childhood trauma.

#disney dreamlight valley #ddh #disney #you didnt get therapy? #now megacorporations do it for you!

[here-on-occasion]

If I ever acknowledge just how ooc the mcdonald's stuff was for sylvie I'll probably never get over it so i'm gonna ignore the whole thing

#sylvie laufeydottir #Loki (the bad series) #coz why would an ex interdimensional fugitive throw herself into minimum wage hospitality in the 1980s when she can literally go anywhere #in time and space #why would a character like sylvie ever settle for the structure of that #would she even comprehend job-home-sleep structure? #don't you think she'd do something else with her newfound freedom like idk LITERALLY ANYTHING #why'd sylvie get the short end of the stick and have to sell out her character for product placement #just to fund the central plot of *checks notes* fixing a fucking machine #but what? she stayed because she saw people living in a way she never has before? #and the best way to express that was having her work for a megacorporation. like. sylvie. our deuteragonist who spends both series 1 and 2 #arguing that the time police having complete systemic power is bad actually #is now working for a megacorporation #oh no :( I acknowledged it

[dbphantom]

Me when I'm at the old parking garage by the abandoned mall taking selfies on film

#I literally can't draw the biohazard symbol to save my life but anyway imagine that's there instead of the black circles of void #Caleb might not show it 100% but he is easily embarrassed #In case you're wondering what Cord's hybrid outfit is it's a cartoony thief getup to match his magic #That is to say his magic is cartoon physics (in the protection sense) #WHICH HE DID IN FACT HAVE BEFORE G5 DROPPED. JUST TO MAKE IT KNOWN. #Yes I'm still giddy about it one year later. I did the thing. I did the thing and then the thing was proven to be a good thing. Eeeeeee #Anyway. Caleb's magic is being able to enter and exit screens like they're portals #And also control connected electronics while he's doing it #Caleb is the reason you do not want an internet of things. #But in veneer-verse everything is suuuuper over tech-ified and so he is like. One of the most op characters lol #Shhhh #Listen. He's my favorite let me have this one #But yeah I think the main point is to be like. Look at all this cool stuff. Look how helpful it could be. Now look at how corrupted it is #By this megacorporation playing god. Let's kill and eat the ceo!!!! #Oh I didn't explain the thief part of cords outfit. He stole a LOT of stuff from that megacorp while he worked there #In prep of screwing them over. Hence the cartoony thief outfit. He even stole two prototypes of his own stuff. #Because like. *he's* the one who built the wings and the first portal device #But because he was working under crestfall when he made them they're legally not his. So he stole them by taking them back #''stole'' ... you know. #Veneer #Caleb Oroitz #Cord Motus #Btw if you're wondering why specifically physical selfies... Because in universe every photo taken on a recently made device is uploaded to #A mega cloud owned by crestfall where every photo/video/document is stored. So the gang all take physical photos and share them around :) #No information given to crestfall (and therefore the government) about them vibing in the abandoned industrial district #Because they don't need to know they're there. And they ESPECIALLY don't need to know where Caleb ran off to. #Or that Cord is actually alive. #Jerric helped Cord fake his death and got him a job as a physics professor... It's a whole thing. #Caleb was essentially being held hostage by them 4 20 years (nice) until Bing and Chase broke him out to help their friend Sarah DiAngelo #Anyway it's almost 5am and I REALLY should be sleeping good night sorry for the oc posting it will happen again

[5nake-eater]

Bruce Wayne was a billionaire for less than 17 years of his 80+ years of existence, WayneTech didn’t appear in the comics until the 70s. The sooner we accept that being an oligarch is in no way intrinsic to the Batman story the better

#before you come at me YES I am well aware that he lives in a mansion with a Butler #He has always had *some* amount of money #but the depiction of Bruce as an uber-capitalist and not just a moderately wealthy guy is a recent invention #I mean for god's sake his father was a doctor! You think the heir to a megacorporation would go to medical school? #and now his wealth has been taken away from him. he no longer owns Waynetech. and he lives in a Brownstone #for reference on the 17 years part. he lost his wealth in Joker War (2020) and while I don't know when he became a billionaire exactly #I do know that in Hush (2003) he's referred to solely as a millionaire

[tweedstoat]

Seeing someone u follow for different info reblog a stupid post in an area ur passionate about

#stick to ancient rome not covid information pls #you cannot individual health solution ur way out of collective problems #like ????? i hate when ppl are like omg guys there isnt a grand conspiracy have u seen government employees work #like yeah no ones arguing that every single govt employee got on a phone call with joe biden and decided to downplay covid #what people are saying is that the business class and lobbyists have determines that public health measures threaten their bottom line #so theyd rather you just keep getting sick #this is not a conspiracy or controversial in any way lmao have you seen the history of labour rights #literally megacorporations are going after the national labour relations board RIGHT NOW #ofc corporations would prioritize making middle management feel useful and using the commerical real estate they own #over providing sick leave and PPE for employees #do we live in the same world???

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for sabotaging my boyfriend's hookup with his girlfriend by filling his sex playlist with DJ Crazytimes

I (28NB, they/he) have known my boyfriend (call him C, 29M, he/him) for some 15ish years now. As long as I've known him, he has been on and off again with his girlfriend (call him T, 29NB, he/him). Respectfully, and with love, C and T are two of the worst and most annoying people I know. I want to marry them both specifically so that I can study them under a microscope like a parasitic virus.

Technically they're monogamous, but they're both hooking up with other people (myself included), usually the same people, because they have the same taste in lovers (bad). I have suggested that they give actual polyamory a try, and they reject the idea wholeheartedly. I think they get off on their dynamic, and far be it from me to try more than the bare minimum to dissuade them from it.

A couple months back, they got into a fight and broke up (again) because T (who was unemployed at the time) stole $50 from C (who works at GameStop) so that he could pay for a tank of gas (using C's car) to go hook up with another guy a couple states over. C was not upset that T was hooking up with another guy (because he was Also hooking up with that guy and knew he would not have a leg to stand on), but because of the stolen money + car.

C and I currently live together, because you can't afford an apartment on a GameStop salary, and also, like I said, he's my boyfriend. I'm making carnitas tacos next Friday, and T is coming over, because despite everything, he has nothing else to do on a Friday night. I know that C and T are going to get into a huge fight, and I know that it's probably either going to end with them getting back together out of spite or with someone's vehicle getting keyed--I'm betting on both.

Here's where I think I might be the asshole. I would really like to get inbetween them. Not in a "I don't want you to date each other" kind of way, but in a "holy shit you are both so insufferable i would like to get in on that" kind of way. I currently have my thing with C, and I've hooked up with T once in the past, but I would really like to make it official with him as well.

My plan is as follows: C and T are going to be in the same space again next Friday. They're going to fight, then hook up, then get back together again. C is one of those cybersexual "i built my own computer and run it on Linux" people, which is to say, he thinks tiktok and youtube are evil, and he he thinks spotify premium is supporting megacorporations. So, his sex playlist for T (we do not have our own sex playlist) is just an actual folder of mp3 files.

While C is at work, I'm going to log into his computer and change several of those mp3 files to DJ Crazytimes' Planet of the Bass, which I play often, and he is frequently annoyed by. My hope is that he'll realize it was me, he'll come and yell at me for ruining their hookup, T will take my side to piss him off, and the tension will get to the point where they let me join their hookup, and I can ask to date both of them after that.

To be clear, I recognize that I'm also Incredibly Toxic for enabling and encouraging this behavior. That said, I feel like I'm justified in this scenario considering C and T are both Also toxic, and furthermore, it is a known fact that I'm dating C right now, so for them to hook up, C would technically be cheating on me. I asked C's sister (a childhood friend of mine) for her take on whether it would be funny or just annoying, and she just told me that we all deserve each other, so I think I should be good. Am I being uniquely shitty here?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #one of the submissions of all time #the dj crazytimes saga

[describe-things]

Here's something Disney desperately does not want anyone to know:

When you create your own original design for Mickey Mouse now that he's Public Domain, you now own that version of Mickey Mouse.

This is the same reason that Disney owns their versions of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Briar Rose, and more, even though these characters came from the Public Domain.

If you make an original design for Mickey Mouse, it belongs to you. You own the copyright. Disney cannot use that design for profit unless they get your permission and/or pay you. The exact same way you can't use Disney's version of Cinderella for profit.

Copyright goes both ways, despite what the billionaires who run megacorporations want you to think. They rely on you thinking of them as all powerful and unstoppable. But the rules do in fact apply to them too. They are not all-powerful. They're not invincible. They're greedy, lying bastards who rely on your hopeless fear.

Have hope, be bold, go forth and create with joy.

Edit because I remembered another example:

This is also why you're not supposed to show writers your fanfiction for their series! Even though you are writing fanfiction, and the characters belong to their creator, what you have written belongs to you! Writers do not want to accidentally steal from you by incorporating your fanfiction into the official material, because that does genuinely open them up to lawsuits! They're taking your ideas and profiting off them!

#Mickey Mouse #Public Domain #Public Domain characters #Disney #Fuck disney #anti capitalism #anticapitalism

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Spamley

Debut: Ralph Breaks the Internet

Hey, remember the Ralph Breaks the Internet craze of 2018? What a time to be alive! Disney's film about What If The eBay Was A Place was an instant hit, due to the fact that everyone knows the Internet, and everyone wants to see a movie about it! You couldn't stop hearing about it! No wonder it won the Academy Award for best animated film! I think it beat out some movie about spiders, or something...?

Kids today might not remember, because 2018 was so long ago. They're too obsessed with their new age sexymen, like Raymond and the big balls Dwarf. But this movie wouldnt've been the cultural phenomenon it was without one character taking the world by storm: a certain J.P. Spamley!

The Internet fell in love with Spamley at first sight, flooding social media with memes and fan art about the loveable green prick. He rose to the highest ranks of the Tumblr Sex Man for a good while! You couldn't scroll for a few minutes without seeing his catchphrase, "Now's your chance to get rich playing video games!"

What kind of a megacorporation would Gisnep be if it didn't capitalize on Spamley's popularity? So they held a special Spamley Sweepstakes event on November 2019, allowing fans to donate money in honor of Spankley himself! All proceeds would go to Bob Iger and Baby Yoda, and if that's not wholesome, I don't know what is. Those who entered even had a chance of winning WILD prizes, like:

That's it that was the only prize

See him in theatres! This is what Disney told us all to do, and we listened! Little did we know they were doing this to hide a dark secret! If you buy the Blu-ray version of the movie, you can actually manipulate the Scene Select to watch the movie out of order and make some... strange things happen. You can look up a walkthrough online, but the gist of it is making Vanelope kill all the Disney Princesses. Especially Merida. And when you do, you unlock a weird alternate ending...

Spamley NEO is the secret true main antagonist of the film, and he wants to take over Oh My Disney to spread spam and advertisements! No! Not Oh My Disney! Please, for the love of God, NOT OH MY DISNEY!! You have to kill him. You have to destroy your Blu-ray copy of Ralph Breaks the Internet now. I hope you're proud of yourself.

#spamley #ralph breaks the internet #wreck it ralph #oh my disney #mod f boy #unreality #april fools

[evilwizard]

I do want to say, my views on AI “art” have changed somewhat. It was wrong of me to claim that it’s not wrong to use it in shitposts… there definitely is some degree of something problematic there.

Personally I feel like it’s one of those problems that’s best solved via lawmaking—specifically, AI generations shouldn’t be copywrite-able, and AI companies should be fined for art theft and “plagiarism”… even though it’s not directly plagiarism in the current legal sense. We definitely need ethical philosophers and lawmakers to spend some time defining exactly what is going on here.

But for civilians, using AI art is bad in the same nebulous sense that buying clothes from H&M or ordering stuff on Amazon is bad… it’s a very spread out, far away kind of badness, which makes it hard to quantify. And there’s no denying that in certain contexts, when applied in certain ways (with actual editing and artistic skill), AI can be a really interesting tool for artists and writers. Which again runs into the copywrite-ability thing. How much distance must be placed between the artist and the AI-generated inspiration in order to allow the artist to say “this work is fully mine?”

I can’t claim to know the answers to these issues. But I will say two things:

Ignoring AI shit isn’t going to make it go away. Our tumblr philosophy is wildly unpopular in the real world and most other places on the internet, and those who do start using AI are unfortunately gonna have a big leg up on those who don’t, especially as it gets better and better at avoiding human detection.

Treating AI as a fundamental, ontological evil is going to prevent us from having these deep conversations which are necessary for us—as a part of society—to figure out the ways to censure AI that are actually helpful to artists. We need strong unions making permanent deals now, we need laws in place that regulate AI use and the replacement of humans, and we need to get this technology out of the hands of huge megacorporations who want nothing more than to profit off our suffering.

I’ve seen the research. I knew AI was going to big years ago, and right now I know that it’s just going to get bigger. Nearly every job is in danger. We need to interact with this issue—sooner rather than later—or we risk losing all of our futures. And unfortunately, just as with many other things under capitalism, for the time being I think we have to allow some concessions. The issue is not 100% black or white. Certainly a dark, stormy grey of some sort.

But please don’t attack middle-aged cat-owners playing around with AI filters. Start a dialogue about the spectrum of morality present in every use of AI—from the good (recognizing cancer cells years in advance, finding awesome new metamaterials) to the bad (megacorporations replacing workers and stealing from artists) to the kinda ambiguous (shitposts, app filter that makes your dog look like a 16th century British royal for some reason).

And if you disagree with me, please don’t be hateful about it. I fully recognize that my current views might be wrong. I’m not a paragon of moral philosophy or anything. I’m just doing my best to live my life in a way that improves the world instead of detracting from it. That’s all any of us can do, in my opinion.

#the wizcourse #<- new tag for my pretentious preachy rants #this is—AGAIN—an issue where you should be calling your congressmen and protesting instead of making nasty posts at each other

[ranticore]

visored longwing harpies & the hall of faces

I did say there was no exclusive global culture on Siren shared by humans of a certain body type, and I lied, because there is One.

The early settlers on Siren were the unaltered human workforce of a certain megacorporation. While an almost unlimited budget was poured into the dodgy gene programs, since that was why they chose to settle a planet so far out of the reach of The Authorities, everything else was done pretty cheaply, including the settling itself. In order to map out their new home planet, incredibly cheap mass-produced aircraft were used by pilots. These aircraft could be made quickly and easily at the settlement site because they lacked a flight computer or any real sensors - or any equipment at all in the cockpit. Rather than a multitude of different equipment loadouts on an aircraft that would take time and effort to swap out or maintain, the pilots instead used these visors which were universally compatible with the one-size-fits-all aircraft. It's kind of like how it's easier to just carry a phone around with a calculator app than it is to carry a phone and a calculator, even if the phone app calculator experience sucks by comparison.

The visors were the real expensive kit, each custom built to a pilot's exact needs and flight style, and they were built to last. the aircraft fell apart in the following centuries but the visors remained, hyperlight plastic powered by the planet's native star, and something interesting happened. The remains of the first settlement were largely inaccessible to anyone but longwing harpies, and these harpies had the right head shape to fit the visors. Many of the pilots had filled their visors with video and photo files from home, from Earth, like a worker decorating his cubicle with photos of his family. Some had been decorated on the outside, as well, resembling birds. The harpies that found the visors obviously tried to use them. They found themselves experiencing visions of strange worlds, recordings of long-dead pilots and ATC, and found that each visor can interface with every other one, no matter how far apart. Each visor came with its own callsign, its own name, which has remained for thousands of years - and because of this, each visor is considered by the cultures of Siren to be a named character with a distinct personality (eg. the swan visor was cygnus2, it is known now as Signastoo)

I keep posting the map and it needs to be redrawn but essentially every red triangle is an ancient telecomm tower. These became the only remaining waypoints on the visors' HUD and mapping software, meaning that 1. a true global culture could emerge, with longwings gathering at these sites, and 2. visored longwings became the gold standard for navigation on Siren. In a world that is basically just water, that's a big deal.

There exist only a few thousand visors (about 3k I'd say). The unused visors are kept in the Hall of Faces, the ancient aviation bay at the first settlement in West. Because of how water levels and land structures have changed over the years, this building exists on a mesa that rises another few thousand feet out of the water, with sheer sides, and is utterly inaccessible to anyone but a longwing harpy. When a visored harpy dies, the visor is returned here. If you want to claim a visor, you need to hold an interview with one of the elders at the site, who will test you rigorously to see if you can inhabit the character of one of the visors. If not, too bad. If you do get it, it's yours until either you die or you do something considered 'out of character' for the wearer of that particular visor. It is DEEPLY discouraged to steal a visor off anyone because it would be largely impossible, given how they all can communicate (imagine a gigantic worldwide discord server where the location & name of every person is known at all times... the drama is likely insane but at least if someone steals a visor, everyone will know about it)

not every longwing desires a visor because it comes with a lot of responsibility alongside its automatic prestige, and you can't really give it up once you have it. also there's always the possibility of being diagnosed with a super annoying, glitchy, or hated visor character lol. but among the roughly 2700 visored harpies on Siren there does exist a global culture exclusive to them. they chat to one another long-distance, engage in closed-practice ceremonies where they all get high and look at videos of Earth, and essentially become a class outside the mundanity of normal life on Siren. to the rest of the population, they basically become telepathic wizards

Terwyef's visor (first pic) is called Scrappercharlee and is one of the more common models, tho it has been decorated over the years with extra bits. Scrappercharlee is a bit busted and half the HUD is missing. Miakef's visor (second pic) Signastoo is one of the very fancy and well-known ones, it's shaped like a swan's head and likely belonged to a high-ranking pilot who could afford a bit of frippery and showmanship back in the day. Birds do not exist on Siren and harpies are mammals so the swan itself is symbolically meaningless, but the bird-style visors introduce the idea of 'a bird' in the abstract, and this has been imbued with its own form of meaning by harpies.

#setting: siren

[elbiotipo]

While I'm worried about AI slop and autogenerated content overwhelming the internet and search engines, this was already going on. I remember long before ChatGPT was released me as lots of other people were already complaining about how it's impossible to find answers to technical problems outside of places like Reddit, because everything else was just shitty fake blog blurbs that said "1) try turning on and off your computer 2) try the windows problem solver 3) download our malware infested antivirus shit". This is for computing problems, but I also had the same problem when searching, for example, for biology or history queries, just lots and lots of travel blogs selling you some shit, and it has gotten even worse now that it's pretty much confirmed that youtube and google don't even show you the best results anymore, just whatever "relates" to your search (or more like, people selling you stuff "related" to your search)

I'm beginning to think that having a single (owned by a Usamerican megacorporation no less) enormous search engine for the entire internet powered by advertising and the sale of personal information isn't such a bright idea after all.

I think the best idea is to return to the idea of encyclopedias and directories curated by people and communities, websites that provide lists of other useful or relevant websites all neatly categorized. I'm only speaking for my own experience as I don't use the internet to shop and I don't care about that aspect of it (if I do, I use shopping websites, not google it), but for example, I could use community-run websites telling you were the best websites and media about such and such interest are (returning to a neocities concept of personal websites). This idea is not flawless, but I'm seeing an inminent collapse of search engines soon, so my recommendation is that you archive your favorite links and media (especially books) as well as you can.

#cosas mias #I mean google is pretty much shit now

[whereserpentswalk]

#demons #demon #demon boy #demon girl #monster lover #cryptid creature #cryptidcore #cryptids #eldrich horror #eldrichcore #fae #fair folk #faries #vampirism #vampires #vampyr #vampire #werewolves #werewolf #robot gf #robot girl #cyborgs #cyborg #196 #r 196 #poll #angel #fallen angel #wizard #android

[awakefor48hours]

The thing that's really getting to me about AI art is that this is just megacorporations' way of to avoid paying people because why bother going through the hassle of paying an artist for their work when you can just use an AI to steal it for you.

We all know about the starving artist stereotype and the fact that artists are starving isn't because of the artist but it's because of their clients. So many people have divorced the art from the artist and never give a damn about them and so many times you see interactions that are boiled down to:

>> Client: I want *something so elaborate that it'd take a professional a month to make* in a week >>Artist: Okay, that'll be $100 >>Client: ExCUUSE ME

To use a real example of this

Only $3,000?! That's laughable and insulting especially considering just how much money Fortnite makes.

Megacorporations have always done their best to mass produce and undercut their workers but art has always been a huge problem. You can literally see the budget with art. But now with AI, it doesn't matter. A robot can now steal art from an artist that’s “too expensive”. This isn't even an over reaction, either, because it's already happening. Not only did these artists not consent to this, some of them even denied for it to be used.

This isn't the same thing as inspiration for humans. When humans use art as inspiration, it changes, grows, and evolves with their skill but a robot is just stuck like this. They just cut and paste work from something that took someone years of sleepless nights to do.

BTW, if you're an artist and a corporation does steal your work, you're not completely screwed (under US law). This reel does a good job of explaining what you can do if someone reuploads your work even if you didn't file for copyright.

Also, as someone who used to have an AI generated profile picture, I'd like to apologize. I always just saw AI as a fun toy and nothing more. I never thought AI generated pictures would actually replace artists.

#anti ai art #ai art #ai art is not art #ai art is theft #just pay artists ffs #top posts

[nuttersincorporated]

Mickey Mouse does not need your protection

Since Mickey Mouse became public domain, I’ve seen some really wild takes and misinformation going around. Yes, Mickey Mouse is public domain. No, you do not need to protect him. It’s fine if people other than Disney make Mickey Mouse stuff, even if you don’t like the things that are made.

You are not protecting Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse is not real. Even if he was, you STILL wouldn’t be protecting him. You’re just sticking up for a megacorporation. Disney has more money and resources than you will ever have and they horde them. You shouldn’t be trying to help them do it.

Disney is a company that loves using public domain properties to make things. They have just tried their absolute hardest to make sure that nobody else could do the same thing. If you think Mickey Mouse should only be used by Disney, you should be upset that Disney made money off public domain stories like Snow White and Rapunzel.

What about things like Winnie the Pooh? Disney didn’t come up with him but they were happy to make money off him. They bought the rights to him and then didn’t share.

‘Ah!’ I hear you say. ‘But Winnie the Pooh actually helps prove our point! When Disney – that poor poor super rich company that should be protected – lost the exclusive rights, a Winnie the Pooh horror movie was made! That’s not in the spirit of the original character!’

Firstly, you can just ignore that movie if you want. I did. Nobody is making you watch it. You are responsible for your own media consumption.

Secondly, there are nice Winnie the Pooh stories out there that aren’t by Disney or the original author. The Pooh books by Jane Riordan are lovely. Her stories are much more in the spirit of the original character than a lot of the Disney comics were.

This is an official Disney comic with Winnie the Pooh

This is a picture from one of Jane Riordan’s Winnie the Pooh books

One of them is sweet, kind and in the spirit of the original character. The other is Disney owned and approved.

What would the original author A.A. Milne think of the different adaptions and new works? Well, we don’t know because, at the end of the month, he’ll have been dead for 68 years. However, I can quote one of the original Pooh books about sharing,

And really, it wasn’t much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn’t share them with somebody.

Thirdly, Disney does not respect authorial intent.

PL Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, did not want Disney to make a movie based on her work. She got coerced into letting them make one. She hated the movie and refused to let them make any more.

What happened after she’d died, the ban on them making more Mary Poppies movies ran out and they got their hands on the rights? They made a sequel.

I think you should be more upset that Disney went against the direct wishes of an author than the fact regular people can now use a character that megacorporation uses. PL Travers was a person. Disney is a company. There is a difference.

I love the original Mary Poppins movie. I don’t care about or like the sequel. However, PL Travers died in 1996. People should be able to use the character now, no matter how you or I feel about those newer stories. Again, you can just ignore them if you want.

The original stories are still there.

Royalties are different to public domain. The profits from PL Travers original books go to her descendants and the Cherry Tree Foundation. They will continue to go there for 80 years after her death and then the royalties will be shared out among any decedents who are alive at that time. The money from those books will continue to go there, no matter what new stories with Mary Poppins get made.

You all seem okay with Disney making money off public domain stories and buying the rights to other stories. Why can't you extend that right to other people?

No one has stolen Mickey from Disney. Disney can and will continue to make money off him. All that’s change is that other people can now do that too.

#mickey mouse #steamboat willie #disney #public domain #snow white #rapunzel #winnie the pooh #A.A. Milne #Jane Riordan #PL Travers #mary poppins #art #comics #long post #Winnie the Pooh isn't actully public domian in the UK yet #If anyone was wondering #He will be in two years #70 years after A.A. Milne died #That's too long #It's not like Pooh becoming public domain steals the royalties

[quasi-normalcy]

I feel like a lot of left-wing commentators are way too willing to take at face value claims made by Google and Facebook and the like about the power of their algorithms to predict and manipulate the behaviour of their userbase.

Like, okay, back in 2012, Facebook published a study on an experiment that they nonconsensually conducted on 12 million of their users to see how they reacted to subtle changes in how the algorithm conveyed politics to them; it showed a statistically significant effect.

Okay; right now you should be asking: why did Facebook publish this study? The answer is: because they wanted to sell advertisers on their platform; they wanted to make advertisers believe that they had an omniscient tool of public manipulation. This of course should raise a few more questions, like:

How many similar studies did Facebook conduct that didn't yield a statistically significant result?

Would Facebook have published these studies, given that their aim was to sell advertisers on their platform?

How would you go about reproducing the results of this study if you, personally, do not own a massive social media platform?

Given that Facebook has evinced an absolute willingness to lie through its teeth about just about everything else in order to make a quick buck, what are the odds that their data is on the level?

How would you check, given that their data is proprietary?

And perhaps most importantly,

If Facebook was so goddamn omnipotent at manipulating public opinion in 2012, why does everyone hate them and think their platform is shit now?

Like, don't get me wrong. It's bad that these megacorporations control the dominant public forum of the 21st century. But let's not humour their claims to omnipotence.

#science and technology studies #I was just reading Shoshana Zuboff and this stood out to me #surveillance capitalism

[starr-n-art]

Master Satuj Toracsi (she/they/he), archmage and perpetrator of the Severing in the Federation of Vay.

For context, the Myth is a blanket of energy that powers the mortal world's magic, as well as acting as a barrier that protects Aotra from the alien Otherworld. The Severing was a cataclysmic event in which the Myth was partially broken, allowing Other easier access to Aotra and wreck havoc.

What if,,, you were slow-dripped cognitive radiation as a kid from your Other as a kalashtar, who put the dream in your head to break the Myth and combine the mortal and Other worlds together as one? What if you found employment with a corrupt megacorporation, who had a project to find Other sources of magic by piercing through the Myth?

What if you nearly attained your dream, but your hesitation led to a tear instead of a complete severing of the Myth, resulting in the deaths of millions as the Myth tried to fix itself with mortal souls? What if you were the only survivor of the team of scientists that worked on the project, protected and saved by your Other?

What if you fixed everything with the help of the party, 3 years after the Severing? What if there was a lingering desire to break the Myth again, despite every piece of evidence telling you that'd be a bad idea? The sister worlds belong as one; why should they be separated?

What if you fought your ancient Other, your lifelong friend that kept you company in your darkest moments, because you finally realized what it was?

What if you nearly lost your mind doing so, witnessing truths unfit for mortal eyes?

(don't worry they're fine now. Mostly)

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