#Welcome to Late Stage Capitalism

[chunkypossum]

“t’s almost as if they’re trying to tell us something.”

[loopsisloops]

I really hope none of this comes off as fake deep.

Do I just suck at life?

Aren’t we tired? Aren’t we tired of this way of living. And hey, maybe I am wrong. Maybe I do need to suck it up, just do the thing, and grow up. I should stop stalling and move on. But I can’t help but think of how robotic all of this feels.

I don’t like living but I love being human. I find so much joy in human connection. Two people making each other laugh. The smile on someone’s face after you give them a compliment. Finding things you have in common with a total stranger.

I have nothing more to say except perhaps fuck capitalism and how inhumane it makes everything feel.

[risingsouls]

Don't you have a Capsule house, Nabooru? 🤔 

" Yeah, I see you're trying to get me with a gotcha here, huh? Well it doesn't work. Thing is, Capsule Corporation is basically the only place you can get houses that aren't already built, vehicles, and a whole bunch of other products that you need for your everyday life. As I mentioned, they've cornered these markets to the point where competition basically doesn't exist. "

She rolled her eyes. " In other words, like pretty much everyone else, I didn't have much of a choice, especially for the region I wanted to live in. If I could build it myself, I would have, but unfortunately, that's not my area of expertise. The point I was making is that I'm not going to buy a sex toy from a company that's already got its hand and arguably control over everything else on the planet. It's all you can do when a corporate giant like that has squeezed everyone else out of the market, understand? "

[maeve-99]

ngl finding a phone that still has a regular headphone jack as well as an additional SD card slot (for storing images, music + video) is like finding a needle in a haystack. When did they stop including those? micro-sd card slots have always been standard in android phones. They remove stuff in the name of innovation, why is this so-called innovation always tied to an alternative that costs more and is increasingly consumer-unfriendly, taking away control from the customer?

So they take away the sd card slot so they can sell their overpriced phones with tiny storage and try to sell you a cloud storage/backup option for yet another monthly fee. They build computers in a way so you can't upgrade or repair them anymore, just so you need to buy a new one.

I don't feel like I'm living in the future. In the 2000/2010s we were restricted by technology, now we are restricted by capitalism.

[robbinnnnn]

Had the pleasure of performing with an afghan poet (cool) in front of german charity ladies (not so cool) today. Charity ladies: You need to stop fooling yourselves. You are watching us, like your old husband is watching porn while you're away: self-serving, with the expactation of sweet old release (tears in your eyes). No sane person participates in these projects, unless they are paid well or lack experience/other opportunities to perform. Under the charity gaze, performers have two options: Tell their life as a sob story, or tell their life as an inspirational tale. I've seen this play out from behind the scenes now and frankly, I'm disgusted.

[slowtides]

we can't all be depressed, right? Right?

[godsfavoriteasian]

Welcome to America, where a prescription for 2 pairs transition glasses costs over $1000 I want to commit a violent act

[tybarbary]

wondering how the fuck people exist successfully. what's it like to be neurotypical? what's it like to not be disabled? dear younger me, don't ever take your youthful energy and resilience for granted, because it sure as shit does not last.

[clowningaroundmars]

you can tell disney is STRUGGLING lately

offering subscriptions of disney+ for like 3 bucks

hiring remote data entry positions for like 18 bucks an hour, emphasizing that anyone can apply (ads i see on yt nowadays)

tons of ppl making "disney fucking sucks and heres how its impacting their revenue" videos

yeah.

[artdeck15]

https://www.behance.net/gallery/177759245/Gorilla-logo-design

[arcanuscaballus]

[decolonize-the-everything]

Idk how many other people are noticing but there is a hard crackdown happening on pirating sites and even scanner sites like mangadex.

My suspicion is that since companies have reached the maximum userbase (even Netflix has to split up profiles by address to artificially create/force more users) they will now start attacking anything people use to Avoid paying for services.

Welcome to late stage capitalism, I suggest you swiftly aquire any media you care about and don't currently own.

Because when there is only one place to get it, you won't be able to afford it.

[dee-the-red-witch]

One more time, with FEELING? (April Pinned)

Now that we're past the first, let's do this. One. More. Time.

I'm Dee. Queer lesbian trans woman. Just she/her for the pronouns. Not your Responsible Adult, and while I'm safe for MY work, I'm self employed, my bitch of a boss gives zero fucks about adult content, and I believe in a healthy education. Kinky. Poly. Separated. Witch-adjacent. Occultist. Possibly cute/hot according to others. Sex and body positive. What do I do? Art- leatherwork, digital art, and these days, tattooing and tattoo flash. (Click that link for the goods. Tattoos, for locals only, by appointment, etc.)

Writing- One book (with accompanying tarot deck), two more in edits, several more in progress. Completely unscheduled film/tv reviews and weekly tarot spreads.

I'm also in the process of dealing with a massive work backlog, a life starting to fall apart in a few ways, a transition surgery I'm desperately trying to fund the expenses for, and, y'know, all the wonders of being transfem in late-stage capitalism in a christofascist country.

Yes, that's a lot. Welcome to my life.

Let's get the usuals out of the way. Tipping should be mandatory. Terfs, fash, bigots, can and should fuck off out of here. No, I will not tag NSFW or mature, because it ends up getting creators targeted half the time. And because if you're on here you can learn to consume media critically and censor your own damn experience without me doing it for you. Plastics suck, including your precious vegan leather. Land back. Do it alone. Do it weird. Do it scared. No I don't know what a jerma is, and do not tell me. Yes I do swear. A lot.

I love fantasy, horror, cassette futurism, cyberpunk, brutalism, and all sorts of stuff with it. You want my discord or server? Ask me for either. Yes, I still take voice recording requests, and yes, it's the only form of 'content' I do, though I absolutely support creators of other types like mad. You want to help out? Scroll back up and hit any of those links, or just throw money at me screen here.

Otherwise, that's it. Yes, my inbox and messages are still open for now.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - May 15, 2023

🐕 - Now It's a Paw-ty

1. World's oldest ever dog celebrates 31st birthday

Bobi was born on 11 May 1992, making him 31 years old, in human years. A big birthday party is planned for Bobi today, according to Guinness World Records.

It will take place at his home in the rural Portuguese village of Conqueiros in Leiria, western Portugal, where he has lived his entire life.

2. The FDA has officially changed its policy to allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that they’ve eased restrictions on blood donations by men who have sex with men in an effort to address blood shortages. The new policy recommends a series of individual risk-based questions that will apply to all donors, regardless of their sexual orientation, sex, or gender. Gay or bisexual men in monogamous relationships will now be permitted to donate blood.

3. Illinois passes bill to ensure community college credits transfer to public universities

The Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill that would help community college students transfer to public universities.

It would ensure that certain classes taken at community colleges could be transferred to any higher education institution in the state. Some schools currently only count community college coursework as elective credits.

4. Brazilian President Lula recognizes 6 new indigenous territories stretching 620,000 hectares, banning mining and restricting farming within them

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has decreed six new indigenous reserves, banning mining and restricting commercial farming there. The lands - including a vast area of Amazon rainforest - cover about 620,000 hectares (1.5m acres).

Indigenous leaders welcomed the move, but said more areas needed protection.

5. More than 1,000 trafficking victims rescued in separate operations in Southeast Asia

More than 1,000 trafficking victims were rescued in separate operations in Southeast Asia over the last week, officials in Indonesia and the Philippines said. 

Indonesian officials said Sunday they freed 20 of their nationals who were trafficked to Myanmar as part of a cyber scam, amid an increase in human trafficking cases in Southeast Asia. Fake recruiters had offered the Indonesians high-paying jobs in Thailand but instead trafficked them to Myawaddy, about 567 kilometers (352 miles) south of Naypyidaw, the capital, to perform cyber scams for crypto websites or apps, said Judha Nugraha, an official in Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

6. A peanut allergy patch is making headway in trials

An experimental “peanut patch” is showing some promise for toddlers who are highly allergic to peanuts. The patch, called Viaskin, was tested on children ages one to three for a late-stage trial, and the results show that the patch helped children whose bodies could not tolerate even a small piece of peanuts safely eat a few.

After one year, two-thirds of the children who used the patch and one-third of the placebo group met the trial’s primary endpoint. The participants with a less sensitive peanut allergy could safely tolerate the peanut protein equivalent of eating three or four peanuts.

7. Critically endangered lemur born at Calgary Zoo

The Calgary Zoo has released pictures of its newest addition, a baby lemur. The zoo says its four-year-old female black-and-white ruffed lemur, Eny, gave birth on April 7. The pup’s father is eight-year-old Menabe. The gender of the pup has not been confirmed but the Calgary Zoo says the pup appears bright-eyed and active and is on the move.

The black-and-white ruffed lemur is registered among the 25 most endangered primates in the world, due mostly to habitat loss and hunting.

----

That's it for this week :)

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[rabbit-surfboard]

Fictional podcast recs

One of my friends got into audio drama and I just sent them a whole list of recommendations to go through, I thought someone who follows these tags might also appreciate it and perhaps have some more to throw in. I resisted the urge to throw in the little blurb about audio dramas as a weird little medium and their tropes that I wrote up. It was something to the effect of nodding at how the medium has rapidly been improving since Welcome to Nightvale started, also how a lot of the tropes that tie the medium together are products of the indie podcast scene being accessible and primarily based in audio. Also at how well horror works in the format. Those paragraphs went unsaved but writing first about the medium in general helped me to reflect on a lot of the things that make audiodramas appealing or repulsive to me for discussing each show in brief beyond just explaining what they're about.

All recommendations are tagged for the tldr.

Fiction podcast recommendations in no particular order:

The Magnus Archives

Horror

The biggest criticism I ever had of this podcast’s voice acting from episode 1 turned out to be a relevant plot point. This thing is probably the best of the best, but I would never recommend it to someone unfamiliar with podcasts because the listener only notices a plot hook somewhere between episodes 20-40 and that’s daunting in the face of a 200 episode show. Getting sucked in rewards you with 200 episodes of thoughtful content and a great explanation for most of the weird things this show chooses to incorporate.

Old Gods of Appalachia

Horror

Fantastic production quality on this ongoing show. Many seasons with interconnected lore and a hell of a narrator. It’s not my personal favorite but it’s quite excellent.

Red Valley

Found footage mystery

One of the newer shows I’ve gotten into, Red Valley is well-crafted. It becomes compelling very quickly with a rapid pace that slows down to land in a neat spot for a while so you can savor the cool parts. The production quality is excellent and the two main voice actors have excellent chemistry. The third and final season is currently being produced.

The Silt Verses

Horror

Often compared to American Gods, this newer podcast made by an experienced team is doing a lot of creative and fresh things at once. The magnificently fucked up religious system of The Silt Verses is both a neat plot vehicle and cleanly works as a criticism of late stage capitalism, where many podcasts like to jab at capitalism this one is much more pointed in its commentary. Episodes are long and very well produced. All the credits in the third season have been mostly diegetic and add flavor to the world.

Archive 81

Found footage horror

Slow to start but by season 2 the production quality and plot are among the best in the game. Unfortunately, on an extended hiatus.

Ars Paradoxica

Science fiction, historical

Very well produced considering its age, this is a highly regarded show among people who follow the medium. Excellent time travel mechanics here. The plot drags a bit by the end because time travel stories must violently contort themselves into a conclusion, but the first season or two are fantastic and it’s always nice to have an ending instead of interminable hiatus.

Caravan

Gay demons n stuff

Showed up, did magic and gay shit, disappeared and went on hiatus probably with some kinda unsatisfying cliffhanger seeing as I don’t remember the plot. Could I recommend it in good faith? Not until they at least cough up season 2. I don’t remember it being bad and that alone is notable for the medium.

Mabel

Gothic horror

This is the deepest cut on the list except for maybe Caravan. Lesbians pine at each other for increasingly complicated reasons, eventually devolving into them doing datura and then spewing cryptic poetry together for the rest of their days. The production quality is fair. The slow windup and creepy house are American-gothic af. This show has had a few hiatuses, but each time it comes back significantly more intriguing.

Welcome to Nightvale

Goofy spooky news broadcast

Old and iconic, not very consistent. Sometimes explores emotional, tense, spooky, or funny scenes well, but the show is really focused on being local news for an ooky spooky desert town because Cecil is damn good at his job. Don’t come here looking for plot, it’s a fun vibe and I don’t know that anybody’s ripped it off and notably improved on this classic. Above average production quality for its time which improved through the years.

Alice isn’t Dead

USA road trip, horror

Made by at least one of the Nightvale writers, totally different show with a lesbian trucker making wry observations of some magnificently twisted shit seen around the United States. The producers know how to run a show, so the production is pretty good.

Tanis

Found footage horror

Tanis is not good. However, it was the first fiction podcast to make me ask “Is this real?” and hesitantly believe it for a frankly embarrassing number of episodes. The stories in the first season were interesting and the lore is just some big-tent conspiracy style of cramming a bunch of fun Wikipedia research into what turns out to be an increasingly nonsensical plot. Every season after the second, I return to hate-listen and am gaslit into thinking the show might low-key rock a few episodes before the finale, which is routinely frustrating and makes sure to throw out any good plot points Terry Miles comes up with. The acting is routinely terrible, and the frame narrative allows lazy and frequent retcons, ruining what I think is a good premise. Also it’s incomplete.

The Black Tapes

Horror

Terry Miles started this show before Tanis began releasing about 5 months later. I think of it as one of his earlier works because it behaves like Tanis with an added layer of cringe from a time waster of an awkward romance(?) between the two main characters. I couldn’t finish this show. You won’t see this recommended as often as it used to be online because there’s many better shows now, but this used to be a big deal. There’s a bunch of memes making fun of the annoying cadence of the characters’ speech and iconic sponsorship reads in both this and Tanis. If you’re interested in some cringe atop your creepypasta podcast, the two are interchangeable.  

Rabbits

ARG investigation

Not as horror focused as Terry Miles’ other shows, the cringe is dialed down and the show is better for it. Tanis and The Black Tapes are more well known, I think the only reason more people don’t think about this one is because the first two don’t inspire trust in the production or narrative quality of this show, but I remember it being fine for a season. I have not gone back to catch up now that more is out.

Malevolent

Horror

Inspired by The King in Yellow, one man performs two voices and verbally abuses himself with aplomb. Having a blind main character with an extra voice in his head is a frame story I haven’t heard yet (unless it came up in the magnus archives and I don’t remember), the concept works out great for the frame of a podcast to deploy the environmental imagery that foley cannot communicate. It also prevents the podcast trope of lengthy exposition about visual surroundings from sounding awkward or potentially impacting someone’s character development to show setting.

Wolf 359

Comedy, science fiction

A crew of whacky characters is stuck in deep space, hanging out and researching a star. Since that’s not actually very interesting they crack jokes and fuck around for a slow burn until interesting stuff happens. Good but not great, this one is long and satisfying and a bit less heavy than all the horror this medium often focuses on. Decent production quality.

The White Vault

Found footage horror

I lost patience with this podcast even though the overarching story seemed very cool – it progresses very slowly yet appears to grow bigger and more confusing instead of deigning to answer basic questions for a frustratingly long drag through the first four seasons. I worry that this frustration may be the point and the Patreon gated stories are the drivers for this tendency towards the confusing patchwork of ideas this show communicates. The production quality is good though.

The Left Right Game

Found footage horror

Genuinely great reddit creepypasta got turned into an overproduced podcast – I say “over” in comparison to the voice acting quality because it’s kind of impossible to sell some of the lines, which makes sense considering the source. Brief, complete, punchy, interesting, and just a little odd to hear such a clean production but a creepypasta this fun deserves the effort.

Wooden Overcoats

Comedy

Surprisingly good production quality for its age, and also a refresher from the usual tropes of the medium. Just a chill sitcom about a funeral parlor in a small town. I haven’t finished this 4 season show yet but its good.

The Black List Table Reads

Movie script readings

Some movie scripts just short of making the cut to be turned into a full Hollywood production were well liked enough by a group of film nerds that sat down to act them out as a podcast. Half of the episodes are interviews with screenwriters, and the other half see a script read all the way through by actors. They’re all rejected for different reasons so there’s a pretty broad spread of genres. My favorites were Blood From a Stone and Balls Out.

[fashionlandscapeblog]

The blandification of fashion is very real, guys. It has been virtually impossible to find inspiring content for the past 2-3 seasons and I blame it on the rise of quiet luxury and late stage capitalism. The latter means that the fashion industry is designing as simply as possible (minimalism does not equal boring) not because of 'sustainability' as some people seem to put it, but to save on material, details. patterns, etc to increase profits in order not to go bankrupt in a system that demands increasing economic growth. The demand for quiet luxury has been welcomed by the fashion industry for this very same reason, but in my opinion, people who wear this 'trend' do not like fashion, since wearing nondescript clothing has nothing to do with style and individuality, but on the contrary: it makes you a clone. It has also nothing to do with minimalism and less with sustainability, because it is a logical fallacy to believe that absolute simplicity has a positive environmental impact, neither do the socalled 'capsule wardrobes'. You can buy a sequin skirt or something with a pattern or a very distinctive design, but if you wear it all the time, it is far more sustainable than a Loro Piana cashmere sweater you think you 'invested in', yet never wear. Capsule wardrobes and basics are a myth, as you will wear in real life what sparks joy in you the most (I'd rather wear my asymmetric tops than any 'basic' white shirt), not what a brand/influencer/magazine tells you to buy. Capsule wardrobes are a very individual thing based on your personality, not a cookie cutter formula. To achieve a wardrobe that you love and wear for years is a very organic and eventual process, definitely not based on what a Vogue site tells you to buy now, but on what you find yourself and love.