#Non profit industrial complex

[withbriefthanksgiving]

Within disability rights organizations, the presence of board members and corporate partners who have contributed to and profited from militarism can act as an obstacle to having intersectional discussions and actions around militarism and ableism. A central example is Mitsubishi, a group of Japanese multinational companies that also has headquarters in the U.S., which frequently appears as a sponsor or partners with various disability organizations in the U.S. In 1991, the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) was established with a $15 million endowment from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and the Mitsubishi Electric U.S. group companies and provided grants to multiple disability programs in the U.S. However, Mitsubishi is well-known for its engagement in militarism in collaboration with Japanese colonialism and imperialism: It has contributed to militarized violence across the globe.

[gilliatt83]

Billionaire Foundation - The Most Immoral Charity In The World

Billionaire philanthropy is not just charitable giving. It's an investment venture before anything else. Then it's about hoarding wealth, avoiding taxes and getting some positive PR for it.

Private foundation is an institution with a very special status. They are tax exempt private organizations yet they are still allowed to invest into for profit companies. Foundations can hold corporate stocks and bonds and generate revenue this way.

There is only one major condition they have to fulfill to keep their tax exempt status - and that is to donate 5% of foundation's total assets on annual basis. So when you hear a billionaire donating their wealth to charity and it's going through a foundation, up to 95% of it can go into profitable investments. In practice, all foundations' assets in the US amount to more than $1 trillion. Yet, they donated only $90.88 billion in 2021.

[daloy-politsey]

Dylan Rodríguez defines the non-profit industrial complex as "a set of symbiotic relationships that link political and financial technologies of state and owning class control with surveillance over public political ideology, including and especially emergent progressive and social movements." He and Ruth Wilson Gilmore argue that the NPIC is the natural corollary to the prison industrial complex (PIC). While the PIC overtly represses dissent the NPIC manages and controls dissent by incorporating it into the state apparatus, functioning as a "shadow state" constituted by a network of institutions that do much of what government agencies are supposed to do with tax money in the areas of education and social services. The NPIC functions as an alibi that allows government to make war, expand punishment, and proliferate market economies under the veil of partnership between the public and private sectors.

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Revolution Will Not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

[crying-adamantium]

t shirt that reads “I ❤️ being a senior member of my team”

[1mnobodywhoareyou]

i absolutely hate the NPIC but I'm so, so, so, so curious about how many people who claim 'scam' for various fundraising efforts even donate to "veritable" non-profits/charities or if they just refuse to help anyone.

[pedal-broad]

If i can make one recommendation it is to never try to bargain a first contract with a non-profit, ive spent the past 11 months having the literal CEO look me in the eyes and tell me the organization will collapse into dust if they give us a raise and its turned my brain into mush and rage

[msprufrock]

As a public interest lawyer myself, I agree that on a large scale, it's less of a culture-wide accepted norm or expectation that lawyers should be happy with low pay for doing the job but oooooooh the rant I can go on about how so many non-profits will use that exact same thought process to justify paying attorneys (and even more so for paralegals and vital support staff) a small fraction of what we would get working at private law firms or even doing government work.

But yes, no matter the job it's total bullshit.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroehttps://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html, then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12), and beyond!

Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even try to learn the truth.

This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How To Lie With Statistics? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was How To Lie With Cancer Statistics). His mission wasn't to help you spot statistical malpractice – an actual thing that is an actual problem that you should actually learn to spot. It was to turn you into a nihilist who didn't believe anything could be known:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

Corporations don't need you to believe that their products are beneficial or even non-harmful. They just need you to believe nothing. If you don't know what's true, then why not just do whatever feels good, man? #YOLO!

These bannonfloods of shit are a favored tactic of strongmen and dictators. Their grip on power doesn't depend on their citizens trusting them – it's enough that they trust no one:

http://jonathanstray.com/networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda

Bannonflooding is especially beloved of the food industry. Food is essential, monopolized, and incredibly complicated, and many of the most profitable strategies for growing, processing and preparing food are very bad for the people who eat that food. Rather than sacrificing profits, the food industry floods the zone with shit, making it impossible to know what's true, in hopes that we will just eat whatever they're serving:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003460

Now, the "nothing can be known" gambit only works if it's really hard to get at the truth. So it helps that nutrition and diet are very complex subjects, but it helps even more that the nutrition and diet industry are a cesspool of quacks and junk science. This is a "scientific discipline" whose prestigious annual meetings are sponsored (and catered) by McDonald's:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention/

It's a "science" whose most prominent pitchmen peddle quack nostrums and sue the critics who point out (correctly) that eating foods high in chlorophyll will not "oxygenate your blood" (hint, chlorophyll only makes oxygen in the presence of light, which is notably lacking in your colon):

https://www.badscience.net/2007/02/ms-gillian-mckeith-banned-from-calling-herself-a-doctor/

When the quack-heavy world of nutrition combines with the socially stigmatized world of weight-loss, you get a zone ripe for shitflooding. The majority of Americans are "overweight" (according to a definition that relies on the unscientific idea of BMI) and nearly half of Americans are "obese." These numbers have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, and every diet turns out to be basically bullshit:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/what-does-ozepmic-actually-do-with-dr-dhruv-khullar

Notwithstanding the new blockbuster post-Ozempic drugs, we're been through an unbroken 50-year run of more and more of us being fatter and fatter, even as fat stigma increased. Fat people are treated as weak-willed and fundamentally unhealthy, while the most prominent health-risks of being fat are roundly neglected: the mental health effects of being shamed, and the physical risks of having doctors ignore your health complaints, no matter how serious they sound, and blame them on your weight:

https://maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/11968083-glorifying-obesity-and-other-myths-about-fat-people

Fat people and their allies have banded together to address these real, urgent harms. The "body acceptance" movement isn't merely about feeling good in your own skin: it's also about fighting discrimination, demanding medical care (beyond "lose some weight") and warning people away from getting on the diet treadmill, which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and permanent weight gain:

https://www.beacon.org/You-Just-Need-to-Lose-Weight-P1853.aspx

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is real. The fact that these things are real doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone perfect for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

Writing for The Examination, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

https://www.theexamination.org/articles/as-obesity-rises-big-food-and-dietitians-push-anti-diet-advice

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against Cocoa Puffs.

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal…Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

https://www.tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/video/7298403730989436206

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly unhealthy food as "healthy."

The anti-diet movement – again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting – has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's. In their Examination article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be unhealthy to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969284/makers

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's because I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a real profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816824

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths – about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

[withbriefthanksgiving]

One of the worst thing about this whole situation as a privileged westerner is seeing white liberals give their stupid fucking explanations.

This on a post about a detained (abducted) Palestinian child by the IOF: “Just remember, there’s probably nothing this kid knows anyway. They’re just convincing him to lie”

What the fuck are you talking about. What the FUCK are you talking about. How is THAT what you take from this? Why is this where your mind goes?? The entire system is violent and illegitimate! There are NO circumstances in which it is ever justified or correct for an occupying military force (or any authorities, let’s be honest!) to detain a child! Especially an indigenous child whose land you are squatting on, poisoning, while you maim, assault, disable and kill his people!! What is wrong with y’all!!

The reaction these kinds of libs always have to these kinds of atrocities is to like search for like a legal reason why the application in this situation in particular was egregious or incorrect. Instead of concluding ‘what the fuck kind of country systemically rounds of up and beats kids and incarcerates them’ their instinct is to almost glide past that, to debate the niceties of it.

It’s as if their minds can’t comprehend seeing a settler state’s authority is illegitimate and wrong in any and all circumstances, and that there would be no correct application of it. It’s as if seeing real violence for what it is, is too painful, for these people. it’s like it slides from their mind is like water off a smooth rock, like magnets repelling each other until it finds - aha! - something familiar it can latch onto, and then we see stupid fucking takes like that.

My mind is still boggling lmao what the fuck bro what the fuck what the fuck what the fuckkkkk.

A fourteen year old child. Was beaten. Blindfolded. Locked up. What else is there even to discuss at this point??? There’s no room for like ‘oh and-‘ like from when you heard the words ‘child’ and ‘detained by IOF’ it should have been enough for the horror of this system to shock and seep into your bones!

I feel like I’m going insane seeing liberal takes to all the various aspects of this genocide and apartheid as they come to light. There is nothing that’s a red line for them. There’s nothing that’s beyond the pale. I don’t get how they’re all going about their days normal. It’s sad, of course - of course! - but you know…

No! I don’t know! I don’t want to know! There is no “but”! I feel like shaking the world. What’s wrong with you all!!

[darkeagleruins]

The impossibly rich lifestyle of DC liberals, funded by YOU the taxpayer, without your consent or approval.

This is how they live, and the receipts prove it.

USAID, the NEA, and other taxpayer-funded programs issue billions of dollars in grants.

John and Jane, or Pete and Pete, each work at non-profits who receive these grants. The non-profit pays them $300,000 or more.

In some cases, such as the Kennedy Center, the CEO is paying $1.5 million.

A married couple takes in $750,000 together, and often much more.

Off of your back. Year after year, and the perks don't stop with salaries.

Believe it or not, that's small potatoes.

If they want a free ski vacation in Aspen?

Well there's a conference being held annually.

The non-profit will of course fly them there and provide accommodations. Every meal is of course non-profit related. Eat well.

Itching for a trip to Switzerland or Paris?

Same deal.

The non-profit would be delighted to host a conference on some subject.

How they cut their family and friends in on the scam.

Their nepo babies start a "conference organizing business," and pay them from the non-profit to put on events.

Maybe they take on an ownership interest in these businesses via an offshore account.

How will anyone be able to track down this money?

It's stash in the Cayman Islands or in Switzerland via one of the many "businesses" that provide "services" for the non-profit USAID industrial complex.

Speaker fees for their friends?

Yes, of course. That's how to really get the big bucks going, as speaking fees and vendors aren't accounted for item-by-item on the Form 990.

Hold a "gala" and pay everyone $100,000 to give a talk.

Pay millions to the "vendors" run by nepo babies and others in on the corruption.

Even judge / their families are in on these scams.

It's why DC judges are issuing lawless rulings.

Their spouses, friends, and families are all taking a piece of the action.

The end result of that DC exists entirely off of your back.

This corruption must end, and that's why they hate Elon.

They won't go down without a fight. These are all people living like billionaires for doing nothing.

Think this story is exaggerated. Look at these salaries from "non-profits," which are funded by taxpayers via grants and other "aid."

Now you understand the anger.

They are thieves!

[daloy-politsey]

From their inception, foundations focused on research and dissemination of information designed ostensibly to ameliorate social issues--in a manner, however, that did not challenge capitalism. For instance, in 1913, Colorado miners went on strike against Colorado Fuel and Iron, an enterprise of which 40 percent was owned by Rockefeller. Eventually, this strike erupted into open warfare, with the Colorado militia murdering several strikers during the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914. During that same time, Jerome Greene, the Rockefeller Foundation secretary, identified research and information to quiet social and political unrest as a foundation priority. The rationale behind this strategy was that while individual workers deserved social relief, organized workers in the form of unions were a threat to society. So the Rockefeller Foundation heavily advertised its relief work for individual workers while at the same time promoting a pro-Rockefeller spin to the massacre. For instance, it sponsored speakers to claim that no massacre has happened and tried to block the publication of reports that were critical of Rockefeller. According to Frederick Gates, who helped run the Rockefeller Foundation, the "danger is not the combination of capital, it is not the Mexican situation, it is the labor monopoly; and the danger of the labor monopoly lies in its use of armed force, its organized and deliberate war on society."

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Revolution Will Not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

[drdemonprince]

how do i respond to a friend who is certain that I should be contributing to palestine non-profits instead of boosting operation olive branch campaigns for individuals and families? Is it really more strategic to help an org than to send a person money?

Most organizations are run not by Palestinians, but by wealthy American & European people who represent the interests of their state more than the wellbeing and autonomy of the people being colonized. They offer aid conditionally, and deny it to the people who do not meet those conditions, and place firm restrictions on which kinds of resources they can access with that aid. That's before you even consider the percentage of the money that non-Palestinian employees for these organizations (particularly leadership) sop up for themselves.

Giving people in need money directly is *always* the best use of your money. It means less waste, less likelihood of supporting a shady governmental agenda, and even more importantly, it signals to the people who are directly effected that you respect them to make their own choices. It's far more empowering and respectful. The people on the ground in Gaza know best what they need, and they are in the position to access those needed resources immediately, on their own terms. Giving money to an org just makes them dependent upon the very countries that have colonized them.

(You should always give money directly to unhoused people for the same reasons, too).

[girlballs]

thinking about the whole "games are art" thing. does propaganda count as art? does something that exists solely as A Product To Be Sold count as art? like. to use a non game example i wouldn't say e.g. the 14$ plastic trash can in my kitchen counts as art even though at some point a human designed it- does that extend to games? are the countless asset-flip minimal effort indie games on steam and the EGS art in spite of only existing to scrape a tiny profit off some itch.io marketplace assets? do battlefield and call of duty count as art when they only exist to sell teenagers on the idea of the military industrial complex being a cool thing to participate in?

[eretzyisrael]

Writers from around the globe including Lee Child (creator of Jack Reacher), Bernard Henri-Lévy (Philosopher and Author), Herta Müller (Author, Poet, and Nobel Prize Award Winner), Sir Simon Schama (Historian and Author), Howard Jacobson (Booker Prize-winning Author), Simon Sebag Montefiore (Historian and Author), Adam Gopnik (Writer), Yossi Klein Halevi (Author), David Mamet (Author & Pulitzer Prize Winner), Elfriede Jelinek (Author and Nobel Prize Award Winner), join entertainment leaders, Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing, Julianna Margulies, Scooter Braun, Haim Saban, Ynon Kreiz, Ozzy Osbourne, and Gene Simmons amongst many others, to reject boycotts against authors and literary institutions.

LOS ANGELES (October 30, 2024) — More than 1000 leaders from the literary and entertainment industry signed an open letter released by the non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) in support of freedom of expression and against discriminatory boycotts.

The letter comes in response to continued efforts to boycott, harass, and scapegoat Jewish and Israeli authors and literary institutions. Among the signatories are Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Booker Prize winners.

Booker Prize-winning author, Howard Jacobson said: “Art is the antithesis to a political party. It is a meeting place not an echo chamber. Art explores, discovers, differs, questions and surprises. Precisely where a door should be forever open, the boycotters slam it closed.”

Recent calls to boycott Israeli literary institutions follow a year filled with efforts to demonize and ostracize Jewish authors across the globe. In the last year, bookstore appearances have been canceled based on authors’ identities and book readings have been shut down. Activists have publicized lists of “Zionist” authors to harass and just last week, ads for a book with ‘Israel’ in the title were rejected.

Author of the Jack Reacher novel series, Lee Child said: “Politically targeting novelists, authors, and publishing houses based on their nationality is misguided. At a time when dialogue is paramount and when compromise can lead to peace, castigation and blanket boycotts are counterproductive. The written word, and the dissemination of it, must always be protected, especially in times of heightened tension. And to achieve peace, we must humanize one another and build bridges across communities through the open exchange of ideas. Literature allows for that. Boycotts hinder it.”

The letter highlights the unique role that writers and books play in society, “We believe that writers, authors, and books — along with the festivals that showcase them — bring people together, transcend boundaries, broaden awareness, open dialogue, and can affect positive change.” It continues, “We believe that anyone who works to subvert this spirit merely adds yet another roadblock to freedom, justice, equality, and peace that we all desperately desire.”

Actress and Author Mayim Bialik said, “Harassing authors, canceling bookstore appearances, and boycotting people based solely on their identity is disturbing and polarizing in ways that cannot be dismissed or minimized. Attempts to dictate “who” or “what” should be published have nothing to do with any path to coexistence or peace. This kind of rhetoric encourages demonization and hatred. As an author and as a creative, I believe in peace, I believe in humanity, and I believe in meaningful discourse. Silencing and sowing discord in this way reduces complex individuals to oversimplified caricatures which only hardens existing hostility and makes the hope for peace inch farther away.”

Philosopher and Author Bernard-Henri Lévy said: “I have always believed in the power of ideas and truth. I have always been in favor of debate, clash of opinions, even the confrontation of convictions. But what we have here is not a clash of opinions or a debate. Boycotting Israeli writers, publishers and festivals is pure anti-Semitism – and it’s anti-democratic and dangerous. The goal of this boycott is the delegitimization of the only Jewish state in the world—Israel. It is a moral obscenity and must be firmly condemned by all free-thinking and democratic citizens of the world.”

Author and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore said: “The resort to witch hunt is always dangerous and ugly especially when the inquisitors are writers. History is full of examples of self-righteous cadres of self-appointed judges who tried to enforce their version of purity by excluding people. Whatever one thinks of this tragic Middle Eastern war, who judges who is good, who bad? Once started where would it stop? Who is pure enough?”

The statement is the first of its kind – a call from the literature and entertainment community to unequivocally voice support against boycott attempts based on identity or litmus test.

The letter states: “Regardless of one’s views on the current conflict, boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness and foment further hatred.” The letter concludes: “We call on our friends and colleagues worldwide to join us in expressing their support for Israeli and Jewish publishers, authors, and all book festivals, publishers, and literary agencies that refuse to capitulate to censorship based on identity or litmus tests.”

CCFP Executive Director Ari Ingel said, “Authors, writers, and literary groups have faced non-stop harassment by a dedicated group of illiberal activists since October 7th. This is not just about Israeli authors. This is a coordinated campaign to bully and threaten anyone who refuses to condemn Israel, which targets Jews and their allies worldwide. These boycott calls, now being led by members of the literary community themselves, are reminiscent of the 1933 boycott of Jewish authors, when antisemites burned over 25,000 books. The works of Jewish authors like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, alongside American works by Ernest Hemingway and Helen Keller were burned. This is where things are once again headed.”

Signatories Include:

Howard Jacobson, Booker Prize-winning Author; Lee Child, Author; Mayim Bialik, Actress & Author; Dr. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Historian and Author; Bernard-Henri Lévy, Philosopher and Author; Sir Simon Schama, Historian and Author; Yossi Klein Halevi, Author; Elfriede Jelinek, Playwright,  Author and Nobel Prize Award Winner; David Mamet, Author & Pulitzer Prize Winner; Ozzy Osbourne, Artist and Author; Sharon Osbourne, Author, Manager, TV Personality; Herta Müller, Author and Nobel Prize Winner; Dara Horn, Author; Debra Messing, Actress, Gene Simmons, Author & Artist; Julianna Margulies; Actress; Jerry O’Connell, Actor; Douglas Murray, Author; Scooter Braun, Founder/CEO, Hybe America, Ynon Kreiz, Chairman and CEO, Mattel, Inc.; Haim Saban, Chairman and CEO, Saban Capital Group;  Aaron Bay-Schuck, CEO/Co-Chairman Warner Records; Sherry Lansing, Former CEO of Paramount Pictures; Rick Rosen, Co-Founder, Endeavor; Jenji Kohan, Writer/Producer; Adam Gopnik, Writer; Deborah Harris, The Deborah Harris Agency; Diane Warren, Songwriter; Anders Rydell, Author; Ilya Kaminsky, Author and Poet; Elisa Albert, Author; Aayan Hirsi Ali, Author; Lionel Shriver, Author; Noreena Hertz Author; Sir Niall Ferguson Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Author; Rebecca De Mornay, Actress; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Actress; Amy Sherman-Palladino, Writer and Producer; Matti Friedman, Author; Neil Blair, Partner, The Blair Partnership; Anthony Julius, Attorney and Author; Gail Simmons, Author; Ben Silverman; Chairman & Co-CEO, Propagate Content; Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize Winner; Fernando Szew, President, Fox Entertainment; amongst many others.

[susansontag]

No thoughts on AI as such, but I wonder if it would be a surprise to this user to find out that the introduction of complex machinery into manufacturing/industry resulted in the exploitation of a larger subsection of the population, as many more people could now work in certain industries (who couldn’t before) due to machinery making it viable eg more women and child wage-labourers.

My point being that machinery, the technological innovation of the time, could have been used to make workers lives easier under a non-capitalist model, but that didn’t happen because capitalism must have growth and must realise profit. And you can’t do that without the surplus labour of workers. Anyway.

[spacebeyonce]

people on twitter are truly smoking dick and doing the most VEHEMENTLY standing TEN TOES DOWN in the belief that the ao3 volunteers shouldn’t be getting paid because the ao3/otw is non-profit. like we get it y’all don’t know how non profits work. once again, y’all need to read the revolution will not be funded: beyond the non-profit industrial complex