#anti dystopia

[betterworldinitiative]

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[nando161mando]

If you want to know why people have lost faith in capitalism, this might help

[sinensis26]

"Oh so you think murder is okay now? You support MURDER?"

Yes. Full stop. Ive spent my entire life watching school shootings happen, seen my country blow billions of dollars on unnecessary wars, and stood in the middle of peaceful protests that get mocked and ignored. I did everything right, and learned that whats "right" simply makes you easier to ignore by the people who hold power.

I grew up in the sweet and docile "Babysitters Club" era, and have watched the next generations cut their teeth on "Hunger Games" and all kinds of dystopian lit. What did you all think was going to happen, when you kept tightening the noose on kids who were reading about revolution between active shooter drills?

I dont like murder, nor do I think most people do. But my god, you cant desensitize a nation full of people and still expect them to mourn their oppressors.

[feminist-space]

A Company Reminder for Everyone to Talk Nicely About the Giant Plagiarism Machine

by Amanda Bachman

"Hey team. It’s your CEO. I know your time is valuable, so I’ll cut right to the chase: It’s come to my attention that some of you have been bad-mouthing the Giant Plagiarism Machine™.

I’d like to remind you that our company policy is pro–Plagiarism Machine™. We’re a tech-forward, future-oriented company that doesn’t shy away from the promise of new innovation—even if that innovation is a Giant Plagiarism Machine™ that copy-pastes existing innovation into fake sentient sentences.

Lately, it feels like some of you aren’t the techno-optimists I took you to be. You’ve been heard uttering slurs like “I’m worried about my job stability” and “I just don’t think it’s positive for humankind,” neither of which sounds remotely optimistic or techno. I’ve even heard shocking reports of teams failing to incorporate plagiarism into their processes, because—I can’t believe I have to repeat this—“it’s not helpful.”

Team, hear me when I say that this is harassment, and it must end. Put yourself in your coworker’s shoes—say, a coworker with really nice, designer footwear, who has invested their personal fortune into the Giant Plagiarism Machine™, along with other intellectual-property-theft futures. Imagine how that coworker (could be anyone!) might feel working alongside such Negative Nancies.

Folks, that’s just not who we are. This is and has always been a company of risk-takers who are unafraid to move fast and break things. Or at least, that’s what I thought, until a bunch of you started bringing up the many merits of proceeding cautiously and keeping things unbroken.

It just really comes as a shock that such accomplished intellectuals, who’ve spent their entire careers pushing the upper bounds of human achievement, could be judgy about a machine that runs the entirety of human imagination through a shredder and glues together what comes out.

I guess I understand. I, too, was once a little skeptical of the Giant Plagiarism Machine™. But that was before I attended The Conference for Big Boy Business Owners™. Here, I learned that my fellow titans of industry have been re-orging to “leverage plagiarism” and “minimize thought-waste.”

It was at that very same conference that I learned critical thinking takes up 20 percent, sometimes 30 percent, of company time. It’s clear to me that some of you are not focused on the profit potential of outsourcing all of our thinking to a machine capable of remixing thoughts that have come before.

And sure, most of you are hired for your intellectual capabilities. But you don’t need to worry about losing your jobs to the Giant Plagiarism Machine™. As I always say, people are more powerful than plagiarism. (At least until the next economic downturn, during which I will quietly decide that, hey, maybe plagiarism was the dark horse all along.)

The way I see it, we’re family. It really does disappoint me that so many brilliant colleagues—whose genuine breakthroughs I’ve profited from for years—would be so quick to condemn this newer, stupider way that I and others like me can make money off your life’s work, through stealing.

So as we move forward, I want to hear a real turnaround in attitudes, troops!

Because, at the end of the day, you don’t really have a choice."

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

On the edge of tears listening to 1984 by George Orwell (this is my first time reading it) and hearing the words “By 2050, earlier, probably, all real knowledge of oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron. They’ll exist only in newspeak versions; not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be” whilst living in a world where people are using AI to summarise books into paragraphs to read them.

[whereserpentswalk]

You were born to be a sacrifice. When you first exited your mothers womb the oracles decided that would be your fate. They tattooed your hands and forehead so everyone would know.

When you turn twenty, they'll take you to the church, and they'll set you on fire. And then when your body is burned they'll give your ashes for the angels, and the angels and saints will be proud, and bless your community and family with great riches. Or at least that's what they say.

When you were young it didn't seem to mean anything that you were born to die young. Nobody cared, they just saw you as another kid. But it was always there. Adults would ask other kids what they wanted to be when they grew up, but they'd ask you what you would do once you were a ruler in the court of heaven. They'd tell other kids about marriage and sex and having children, but for you that would just be for other people, you'd die a virgin.

And at a certain age, you were removed from school. Because they said you wouldn't need it. That you shouldn't be wasting your time on such things. And you didn't understand, but you understood that all your freinds were upset that they wouldn't see you anymore. Not as much at least. And people talked about you so much differently from then on. You weren't complimented as strong, or as smart, or as ambitious, you were pretty, and pure, and brave, and dutiful. And everyone talked about how proud they were of you, how wonderful it was that you were going to die for them.

They were so nice to you. They gave you so many gifts and jewelry. You got to spend all day inside playing video games, and you got the best toys and got to go to movies and plays when you wanted to. Soldiers in power armor would bow when they saw you, and robots and cyborgs would turn off their lights. And you sat at a special place in church, and the clothing you wore was diffrent then everyone else's. And people talked about how wonderful you were, and how pretty you were, and how much they loved having you when they knew you wouldn't be on this world for long. And they were so proud of you when they showed you the platinum clothing you would wear on the day of your sacrifice. And you didn't understand why but all of the compliments sounded sad.

As you grew older things changed. The other children went through puberty, but you didn't, they gave you surgery to prevent it, ans told you how pure you were for not producing blood or seed. And you were old enough to understand that you would die, that you would burn, and it would hurt, and that nobody really knew for sure what happened after peopled died. And you saw a sacrifice, and saw the pain they were in, and there weren't any angels, there were only priests watching and chanting, and the smell of burning skin.

Your parents and family started to care much more how you behave. To make sure you're polite. To make sure you're a good sacrifice, who the angels will like. And meanwhile while all your other freinds are going to college, and talking about becoming artists, or starship pilots, or scientists, you know you'll only ever have one ending. But still, everyone loves you, and you don't have responsibilities, but still sometimes you think about how much diffrent life would be if you were born differently.

You've started meeting people who've left the faith, or people who didn't grow up in it, people who believe in diffrent religions or in no religion at all. And your heaven seems less and less certain every day. According to imperial law you're allowed to be sacrificed, but if you choose not to they can't force you. But if you choose not to you can never be a part of your faith again, and your family will be disappointed in you forever. All your family and community, everyone who you ever knew, will consider you a failure, a coward doomed to hell for not going through with what the cosmos planned for you. And all that pride and joy they felt about your fate would be replaced with anger that you never became what they were so happy and proud about you being. You don't think you believe in heaven anymore, but you still might choose to die, if it means they're proud... it's what you're raised to do, you don't know who you'll be if you choose to leave.

Better choose fast darling, it's only a few months away now. You don't want them to be upset.

[shutinthenutouse]

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Turning YA book selection into purely romance and romantasy needs to be studied, as well as tiktokification of reading. Skipping paragraphs without dialogue, finding simple plots too difficult to understand, not even remotely analyzing the text, ignoring inconsistencies and blindly following trends and what author spoon-feeds the readers, etc. It essentially boils down to wanting to read just porn without saying you want to read porn. Nothing wrong with that, except instead of admitting it, people have turned to doubling down that these objectively bad books are the pinnacle of self-care, progress and being a girlboss.

I’ve seen booktokers on tiktok (before I deleted tiktok) say they “didn’t get” older booktok books like Cruel Prince, Six of Crows, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and other good books or had to DNF them because it was too “boring” and "too much politics, no smut”. People have been tiktokified or have never read a book that wasn't romance or YA to begin with, so please go read one. It's good for you to broaden your horizons. Besides, YA never has a lot of politics, it's YA. Not even when YA dystopian books were thriving did it have too much politics.

I'm not shaming anyone for wanting to read smut or smutty books but there is no need to turn YA into just a combination of tropes. YA is an age category, it doesn't need dumbing down or becoming more sexual. There are plenty of smut books in YA, new adult, adult, etc. There is no need to shit on and make good YA books unpopular. Writers are getting hurt because the publishing houses would rather publish same mediocre books over and over with slightly different plot and names than good ones. And teenagers in that age category need to have a variety of books to choose from. Instead, they have the same thing over and over, mediocre smut with problematic undertones. Y'all realize Wattpad exists for that and it's free, right?

[daybringersol]

its actually insane how everything we buy now is just. unfinished. every clothes. every cloths. just. loose threads everywhere. ripped fabric. i should be able to get a refund, but i need this thing, i need something like it, something that will fulfill this purpose. what am i gonna get instead ? another crudely made excuse of a product ? an actual thing that will cost more than my rent and has a forty percent chance of being just as shoddily made ? everything capitalism has ever promised us is rotten, nothing more than mold dust & worn out wishes hanging by loose threads. im done.

[nando161mando]

Gary Stevenson: ‘Economists have been all wrong about almost everything for 15 years now’

[alethianightsong]

Bioshock: Why Individualism is a shitty philosophy to build society on

Bioshock 2: Why Collectivism is a shitty philosophy to build society on

Bioshock Infinite: Why American Exceptionalism is a shitty philosophy to build society on.

[feminist-space]

Tweet by Briana Mills, LMFT, dated June 22, 2024:

"The term 'cost of living' should radicalize you."

[sparksinthenight]

If the economy NEEDS workers working in degrading, dehumanizing, dangerous jobs where they have very little power, then you need to get a different economy. Any world that relies upon the exploitation and abuse of the workers needs to be burned to the ground and rebuilt. We can make a society where no one has to work a job that’s physically, mentally, spiritually, socially, emotionally, or environmentally unhealthy or unsafe for them. We need to create that society.

[whereserpentswalk]

Personal property is illegal.

It's been that way for years. Nobody is allowed to own anything. The war on personal property started with the war on piracy combining with the war on drugs. Personally property finally became illegal when the Supreme Court™ ruling that declared that corporations were people was elaborated upon, and it was decided that individual citizens legally weren't people, and thus constitutional rights only applied to corperate entities. Now it's so commen that most people find the idea of owning something to be either alien or disgusting.

Everyone lives in rented homes. Their clothing and furniture is useally rented, but if they want to have it personally they can have a personal license to use it (though some conditions apply). It's pretty convenient, the computer company owns your computer so they'll fix it for you. Your clothing doesn't need to hold up for that long if you're just renting it, at the small cost that it can't be modified. And when you wear out your toothbrush, it's likely you already have a perception for the toothbrush company.

Food is a bit more complicated. You don't own the food you eat, you just own a license to eat it. This does mean, that if you missuse it somehow you have to pay whoever sold you the food extra. Though repaying debts is easy, as any purchase made with FedCoin™ is saved to the blockchain. Restaurants force people to vomit their meal back up if they kick someone out. And there are certain things you aren't allowed to do with the food you own. You're especially never allowed to share it, or serve it to someone who didn't buy it.

Children learn first with their toys that they don't own what they have. The box for every Dinosaur™ Baby Doll™ and Action Figure™ they play with states proudly that they aren't buying a toy, they're buying a license to play with it. So they understand. Children learn from their parents and teachers that they should never break their toys, they'll have to pay the toy company for damages. And they learn never to share, that they have the license to play with their toys but not to give them to other children. They learn that sharing is something dangerous and bad people do.

If you need any organ transplants or artifical organs then you don't own the organs or machines inside of you. Most people can only ever afford to rent there. If you pay the medical company every month your pace maker will work perfectly, and of course if you don't pay for a month, it shuts off like anything else in the world that doesn't serve a company's bottom line. And with new LGBTQIA+ and LGBTQIA free with ads services, anyone can get bottom surgery if they want, they just need to be prepared for pain if they can't continue to afford their new genitals. (Pro tip for anyone worried about their genitals getting repossessed, if you were able to get a womb transplant, get pregnant if you think you won't be able to pay on a month, they can't legally remove your genitals if it means harming a fetus).

And of course, it's quite easy to censor media now. They don't need to outlaw anything, just have the companies decide they don't want to sell you something anymore. Books don't need to be banned when they're all the property of some big online retailers, they just need to be recalled, or no longer available to rent. With the new Haze Code™ technology you don't even need to pull a film with one or two problematic from streaming, it's enough to just remove whatever element can't be shown from modern audiences. And it's like the original cut doesn't exist. They can even go after individuals if they say the wrong thing, if someone makes unfortunate comments about the war on Mars, or about the rights on genetically engineered organisms, they might find a lot of the things in their house to be reclaimed by their owners, as they've violated the terms of service, and it'll be a lot harder to get replacements, as companies don't want to be known to sell to certain kinds of people.

The bill of rights sure is a thing, but there's no need for the government to want to violate it when everything is owned by companies who are so happy to go along with their interests. No need to violate the first ammendment when a company owns every means of communication. No need to violate the second ammendment when a weapon will lock up if someone is deemed dangerous whose using it. No need to violate the fourth when everything the state would want to search is owned by those who would let them search it. And if someone's in enough debt, or is afraid of the wrong thing getting repossessed, the thirteenth can even melt away.

Of course, their are secret places where people still own things. The first object most people will ever truly own will be the illegal drugs they buy on the street, or the pirated movies they download onto their computer. There are computers and robots that have been modified to serve only the person who uses them, and have no loyalty to those who made them, and such things can access websites where far more things are treated. Deep into the hearts of cities, where suburban families find it too scary to go, you'll find markets in abandoned building where art owned by their artists are sold, and clothing made to last is sold to their wearer, and food grown in community gardens in shared. The companies call it piracy, and both parties call it tyranny, because it scares them. If you own the world, nothing will scare you more then losing the smallest peice of it.

[mars-0326]

does anyone know if Elon Musk was kicked outta art school?