#end of ownership

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing”

20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with Chris Anderson, who was then the editor in chief of Wired. I'd publicly noted my disappointment with glowing Wired reviews of DRM-encumbered digital devices, prompting Anderson to call me unrealistic for expecting the magazine to condemn gadgets for their DRM:

https://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/is_drm_evil.html

I replied in public, telling him that he'd misunderstood. This wasn't an issue of ideological purity – it was about good reviewing practice. Wired was telling readers to buy a product because it had features x, y and z, but at any time in the future, without warning, without recourse, the vendor could switch off any of those features:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/29/cory-responds-to-wired-editor-on-drm/

I proposed that all Wired endorsements for DRM-encumbered products should come with this disclaimer:

WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS. THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE — BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS.

Wired didn't take me up on this suggestion.

But I was right. The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you've already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations. Inkjet printers were always a sleazy business, but once these printers got directly connected to the internet, companies like HP started pushing out "security updates" that modified your printer to make it reject the third-party ink you'd paid for:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Now, this scam wouldn't work if you could just put things back the way they were before the "update," which is where the DRM comes in. A thicket of IP laws make reverse-engineering DRM-encumbered products into a felony. Combine always-on network access with indiscriminate criminalization of user modification, and the enshittification will follow, as surely as night follows day.

This is the root of all the right to repair shenanigans. Sure, companies withhold access to diagnostic codes and parts, but codes can be extracted and parts can be cloned. The real teeth in blocking repair comes from the law, not the tech. The company that makes McDonald's wildly unreliable McFlurry machines makes a fortune charging franchisees to fix these eternally broken appliances. When a third party threatened this racket by reverse-engineering the DRM that blocked independent repair, they got buried in legal threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Everybody loves this racket. In Poland, a team of security researchers at the OhMyHack conference just presented their teardown of the anti-repair features in NEWAG Impuls locomotives. NEWAG boobytrapped their trains to try and detect if they've been independently serviced, and to respond to any unauthorized repairs by bricking themselves:

https://mamot.fr/@q3k@hackerspace.pl/111528162905209453

Poland is part of the EU, meaning that they are required to uphold the provisions of the 2001 EU Copyright Directive, including Article 6, which bans this kind of reverse-engineering. The researchers are planning to present their work again at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg this month – Germany is also a party to the EUCD. The threat to researchers from presenting this work is real – but so is the threat to conferences that host them:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/researchers-face-legal-threats-over-sdmi-hack/

20 years ago, Chris Anderson told me that it was unrealistic to expect tech companies to refuse demands for DRM from the entertainment companies whose media they hoped to play. My argument – then and now – was that any tech company that sells you a gadget that can have its features revoked is defrauding you. You're paying for x, y and z – and if they are contractually required to remove x and y on demand, they are selling you something that you can't rely on, without making that clear to you.

But it's worse than that. When a tech company designs a device for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades, they invite both external and internal parties to demand those downgrades. Like Pavel Chekov says, a phaser on the bridge in Act I is going to go off by Act III. Selling a product that can be remotely, irreversibly, nonconsensually downgraded inevitably results in the worst person at the product-planning meeting proposing to do so. The fact that there are no penalties for doing so makes it impossible for the better people in that meeting to win the ensuing argument, leading to the moral injury of seeing a product you care about reduced to a pile of shit:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

But even if everyone at that table is a swell egg who wouldn't dream of enshittifying the product, the existence of a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature makes the product vulnerable to external actors who will demand that it be used. Back in 2022, Adobe informed its customers that it had lost its deal to include Pantone colors in Photoshop, Illustrator and other "software as a service" packages. As a result, users would now have to start paying a monthly fee to see their own, completed images. Fail to pay the fee and all the Pantone-coded pixels in your artwork would just show up as black:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

Adobe blamed this on Pantone, and there was lots of speculation about what had happened. Had Pantone jacked up its price to Adobe, so Adobe passed the price on to its users in the hopes of embarrassing Pantone? Who knows? Who can know? That's the point: you invested in Photoshop, you spent money and time creating images with it, but you have no way to know whether or how you'll be able to access those images in the future. Those terms can change at any time, and if you don't like it, you can go fuck yourself.

These companies are all run by CEOs who got their MBAs at Darth Vader University, where the first lesson is "I have altered the deal, pray I don't alter it further." Adobe chose to design its software so it would be vulnerable to this kind of demand, and then its customers paid for that choice. Sure, Pantone are dicks, but this is Adobe's fault. They stuck a KICK ME sign to your back, and Pantone obliged.

This keeps happening and it's gonna keep happening. Last week, Playstation owners who'd bought (or "bought") Warner TV shows got messages telling them that Warner had walked away from its deal to sell videos through the Playstation store, and so all the videos they'd paid for were going to be deleted forever. They wouldn't even get refunds (to be clear, refunds would also be bullshit – when I was a bookseller, I didn't get to break into your house and steal the books I'd sold you, not even if I left some cash on your kitchen table).

Sure, Warner is an unbelievably shitty company run by the single most guillotineable executive in all of Southern California, the loathsome David Zaslav, who oversaw the merger of Warner with Discovery. Zaslav is the creep who figured out that he could make more money cancelling completed movies and TV shows and taking a tax writeoff than he stood to make by releasing them:

https://aftermath.site/there-is-no-piracy-without-ownership

Imagine putting years of your life into making a program – showing up on set at 5AM and leaving your kids to get their own breakfast, performing stunts that could maim or kill you, working 16-hour days during the acute phase of the covid pandemic and driving home in the night, only to have this absolute turd of a man delete the program before anyone could see it, forever, to get a minor tax advantage. Talk about moral injury!

But without Sony's complicity in designing a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature into the Playstation, Zaslav's war on art and creative workers would be limited to material that hadn't been released yet. Thanks to Sony's awful choices, David Zaslav can break into your house, steal your movies – and he doesn't even have to leave a twenty on your kitchen table.

The point here – the point I made 20 years ago to Chris Anderson – is that this is the foreseeable, inevitable result of designing devices for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades. Anyone who was paying attention should have figured that out in the GW Bush administration. Anyone who does this today? Absolute flaming garbage.

Sure, Zaslav deserves to be staked out over an anthill and slathered in high-fructose corn syrup. But save the next anthill for the Sony exec who shipped a product that would let Zaslav come into your home and rob you. That piece of shit knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. Fuck them. Sideways. With a brick.

Meanwhile, the studios keep making the case for stealing movies rather than paying for them. As Tyler James Hill wrote: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing":

https://bsky.app/profile/tylerjameshill.bsky.social/post/3kflw2lvam42n

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/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-james-hill

Image: Alan Levine (modified) https://pxhere.com/en/photo/218986

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[artibirdi]

I like to imagine that my designs for the voices are just chilling in eternity, getting really bored with one another. Someday that may change, but for the time being these two fight constantly for control over the pristine blade.

[azurem]

Inkmare but I actually believe they'd like the idea of playing into the concept of Ink as a prize™. Mainly because of how dramatic it is (they both love their theatrics) but also because it's just the way they naturalize the one truth they can't deny: at the end, they're not equals. They won't be if a truce isn't reached, at least.

Like. Of course they see each other as respectable beings and all, but their final difference in standing falls to aggression. Depending on who "wins" the final fight (either Nightmare ends up ruling the multiverse — either Ink lets Dream/the multiverse decide Nightmare's fate once he's defeated) this position either changes in favor of Nightmare's position (he'd raise in power, per say) or against it (he'd fall to imprisonment), but Ink's (if neither of them snitched on the other) remains. Nightmare's the one who has the most to win and the most to lose.

ANYWAYS its very late and my brain isnt working. I feel Nightmare would like to play into the hypothetical of his victory only. So I think he'd joke around once or twice with the idea of getting Ink as a prize once he wins cuz he's kinda a freak like that.

(also, very inkmare but they're very much. Symbols. To each other. Ink's favor is the multiverse to him — it's their help that brings him access to the whole multiverse. So it'd make sense for him that ownership of the multiverse suggests ownership of Ink themself) (also not on topic but Nightmare would be "the world" to Ink aka his connection to the characters as his companions/fellows/equals yadda yadda. So Nightmare is the "intra" for Ink while Ink is the "meta" for Nightmare. To connect to the people versus to connect to the beyond kinda thing or smth)

[snowyh2o]

Look, all I’m saying is that if Alastor was really just after manipulating Charlie like putty in his hands, he could’ve done so much more during their walk to Cannibal Town than just stand there bored. Instead of trying to break up Charlie’s relationship with Vaggie and paint himself as the “only voice of reason”, he takes her to Rosie to get her issues sorted and cleans his monocle.

Yeah sure, part of that is because has no interest in someone else’s love life but also. It’s not that hard to pretend to be interested? Offer some affirming hums here and there. Say something like “oh I completely understand where you’re coming from, Charlie. Why if she was lying about something as big as this, what else could she be hiding from you?”. Play into her insecurities, drive a wedge between Charlie and her biggest support. And even if it goes nowhere, and they mend their relationship, it’s not like Alastor wouldn’t be saying anything Charlie isn’t already subconsciously thinking. He could even play it off as “concerned friend”! There’s no reason not to have said something, if that was ever his goal in the first place.

Instead he indirectly helps Charlie work through her conflicting emotions and mends their relationship by way of introducing her to Rosie, someone Alastor must know is big on romance and offers phenomenal relationship advice if only through second hand exposure of having known her for so long.

Just like how Alastor doesn’t need her soul, Alastor doesn’t need “complete control over Charlie’s actions”, he doesn’t want a doll to puppet around, or to have her emotionally vulnerable and isolated. What he needs is Charlie to be supported, stable, and capable of making her own decisions, acting independently, and standing up against those that would oppress her. A mindless doll who can’t act on her own is worthless to Alastor.

Alastor says “[Charlie’s] filled with potential that I could guide”. And while he says it in a sinister way, while he’s clearly scheming something, I think he’s being honest about wanting to be the one to help Charlie reach her full potential. Whatever that potential may be, and why he wants to achieve it remains to be seen.

(But assuming Lillith is the one holding his leash, and he’s hoping Charlie will be the one to break it, then he’d need Charlie to be capable of standing on her own against her own mom, the person she’s closest to and has looked up to her whole life. She might have to do that regardless, considering where the season ended.)

[theirwolfbicanthrope]

Jumping off from this discussion with @ladykatibeth, but I want to talk about the parallels between Friedrich Harding and Count Orlok. I think there are a lot to be found, and in a way this gives some insight into Orlok more, imo.

In a lot of ways, Orlok and Friedrich mirror each other, both in personality/status, but also in the ties they have to Ellen and Thomas, respectively. The film itself imo draws up parallels - both via dialogue and in specific context of moments between Orlok/Thomas and Friedrich/Ellen.

Obviously we know Orlok is jealous and resentful of Thomas' connection with Ellen, but so to I think Friedrich is...not necessarily jealous of Ellen's ties to both Thomas and Anna, but neither is he all that thrilled or happy about it. She's an Other, and he doesn't like the potential scandal, the gossip she could cause. He resents when her mental health deteriorates and it pulls Anna's attentions from him. And even though technically she's of a higher class than Thomas, it's pretty clear that her mental illness in a lot of ways negates that (in Friedrich's view) and could potentially harm Thomas' ability to progress in life in a way that Friedrich approves of.

"I will be addressed as the honor of my blood demands it!"/"Know your place, madam!"

Orlok takes great offense of Thomas not addressing him properly, and when Ellen is finally too exhausted and frustrated to keep speaking with difference to Friedrich, he immediately bristles and takes it as insult. (Granted he is sleep-deprived and scared about his family, but this is something that has been building up for some time.) These moments between Orlok and Thomas vs. Friedrich and Ellen mirror each other (and also show how both Ellen and Thomas struggle to meet the "standards" of their gender roles, imo).

Orlok is the powerful figure tied to Ellen who feels possessive of her and will not take this outsider speaking to him with anything less than the respect he believes he is due. Friedrich comes across in much the same way, as Thomas' friend and benefactor and Anna's husband.

Thomas is a threat to Orlok's connection with Ellen. Friedrich, imo, sees Ellen as a scandal waiting to happen, and therefore a social threat to Thomas and Anna (and himself - and really, I believe he views Thomas and Anna as extensions of himself; one could also argue Orlok sees Ellen in a similar light; a possession).

Then there's Friedrich's dynamic with Anna as foreshadowing/a mirror to Orlok's with Ellen.

"I cannot resist her."/"He cannot resist her blood!"

Friedrich even says the 'cannot resist' line twice - first to Thomas, then again to Anna herself at the beach (which is then interrupted by Ellen, helping to lay more groundwork for his growing weariness and resentment of her).

I do not think it's coincidence that this phrasing is used for both Friedrich's love for Anna and Orlok's obsession with Ellen. The script itself even says when the men find Friedrich dead with Anna that 'he could not resist her'. The fact that Thomas finds his best friend dead in the embrace of his dead wife! This is such purposeful foreshadowing of what he will face at the very end.

"He could not resist her."

This is about Friedrich - but it is also Orlok's own undoing.

[canisalbus]

I had a scrap piece of paper and drew the little freakish dog 👍 I have been silently enjoying your art for like a couple months now? I found it randomly on uploaded Pinterest and was like “oh huh that’s rad” and yeah he’s such a lovely sad little beast

.

[louisinart]

PSA for folks who just got a cat/dog or are considering getting a cat/dog from former vet receptionist:

As early as you can, sit down and ask yourself the question: am i willing to let this critter get very ill and/or die without medical intervention? Am i willing to watch them decline (or choose euthanasia) and not take any steps to prolong their life? I know it sounds harsh, but I've met people who both love their pets and don't see the point in putting a dog through chemotherapy. Personally, I don't see the point in casting judgement on those people -- including if you discover that you're one of them. If this is you (and you're really, really sure about it), you're all set.

If instead you end up deciding that the life and wellness of your pet is worth fighting for, sign up for pet insurance. Do it right now. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and (if you can) avoid the vet until you have. Many pet insurance companies refuse to insure animals with a preexisting condition, which means anything that the vet finds could damage your ability to get covered. Even if they were examined at the shelter, there's a chance the shelter vet missed something that your neighborhood vet won't. Don't take that risk! It's better to have insurance when you don't need it than not be able to get it when you do.

And I can hear you asking: what's so important about having pet insurance anyway? And the answer is something every pet owner will eventualy learn: Vet bills are medical bills. At the vet i worked at, check-in appointments were $75, meds could run you anywhere from $30-100 a bottle, and most non-routine surgeries (which are the majority of surgeries) cost thousands. I once watched a family rack up $16,000 to bring their dog back from liver failure. In my personal life I've met people who are saddled with thousands in medical debt for a pet that didn't end up making it. Vet bills are medical bills and, like medical bills, they can ruin your life if you're not ready for them.

At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet you are also committing to care for them when they're old and sick. It's not a question of whether you'll need to get medical care for your pet but when, and its Very Easy to only realize you need pet insurance when it's already too late.

Short of hoping they go missing when they're still young, in my experience you have three options: get pet insurance, commit to not treating medical issues, or take on thousands of dollars worth of costs. How you navigate that choice is up to you, but I would strongly advise avoiding option 3.

[crosswire]

"EXORCISE" by Josephine Blackwell, as published in Junk Literary and Arts Journal. Photograph of me by @adamshallperish.

you can read the full electronic edition of Junk vol. III HERE.

[szilverer]

Okay going off those tags about ghostie's yandere genes being activated, now I just have the mental image of Poor Edward pretending his love for the orphanage is romantic, or at least just overdramatizing his priority for it, solely to see if it makes Reisz jealous.

Probably not the best idea he could have, but I imagine Eddie would love to see Reisz actually being possessive over him.

OH 👁️👁️ SORRY i only saw this today but. hehe. HEHEHE. you're SO right. it would make him so very very happy <3 to find out that his wifey actually feels something as intensely as he does did.

this kabedon doodle isnt actually related i just had it lying around and it felt relevant to the subject

I'm trying to think if there's a period in my timeline where he could have had this idea with the Orphanage specifically, but Reisz has always kept him so confused and starved with their back & forth (visiting so sporadically, being controlling & strict but also randomly nice & fun, just generally keeping him on his toes) that he's simply. Not strong enough to deny himself their company

So he might have tried once or twice when the moonmilk was halfway fizzing out but. Rei just wouldn't take it seriously at first LMAO (it's a bloody building? not a people?). def Not the reaction he was hoping for! And then eventually they tell him to cut the weird crap or they're leaving & he's like . Tsk. Fine .

BUT YEAH this is a KEY point of their stupid dynamic: the fact that Reisz is even more jealous than him but ☝️ neither are aware of this

i dont think i ever like. mentioned any of this side of things before so am taking the opportunity. i also must preface by saying they weren't anywhere near this bad with their other past flings:

At this point if Edward as much as suspected this it would be exploited really fast and it would either advance the relationship at breakneck speed (good ending!) or one of them would go too far and ruin it all very badly possibly with a death count. (game over). and to clarify Reisz is not set on harming the hypothetical third parties here. theyre set on harming HIM bc how dare he.

(sometimes the H on their name stands for hypocrite)

The thing is that Reisz is so sure their Edward would not – will not – ever be interested in anyone else that this possessiveness never comes out. It's a certainty of life like. Entropy. Or math. Stuff like that. don't ask me where this guarantee is coming from i dont even know

Unfortunately, after all this time, Edward is Also so convinced his spouse doesn't feel anything of the sort towards him that the idea to test it out further never even crosses his mind. my eddie seems to be more isolated than the average (oopsie) so it's not like there's a lot of opportunities to come across a random dreamer/bohemian willing to flirt with him either

...but it crossed my mind a while ago bc ngl the reisz, too, needs to get pikachu surprised and pay for their sins sometime.

this is Extremely unlikely to happen but i never know what tf the future holds for these two. genuinely.

TL;DR:

[kalosian-woods]

Clemont is just really funny in general i think. he's just like that, realistically theres so much to unpack about him;

he made an entire invention where he spoke to the mayor and was spread out across the town of the uni he was in which he got in at the age of maybe like 8.

he's a gym leader. he lost his gym to his invention,

there was the slightest chance he could've been mind controlled.

his bag is a bag of holding

he can't run

his entire mental state is the way it is because of a single mistake that wasn't even his fault

There's so much to unpack about him and the creators were like; "yeah anyways!"

okay but seriously, i think we as a fandom neglect the fact that if it wasn't for Clemont's anxious(???) paranoid(???) quick thinking(???) overly prepared(???) he probably he would've gotten mind controlled. like what was up with that.

-⚡(you can call me clem anon! its also just really funny and the fact that i've so far only exclusively talked about him makes it even funnier. electric anon is okay too !)

Clemont is his own bag of holding lol, there really is SO MUCH with him and I'm shaking you on the shoulders rn clem nonnie. Please. How is it possible that there is so much to him as it is. I need to study him under a microscope.

With the first point, that always made me laugh in a way lol. Him at the age of possibly eight created a power source slash Electric Pokemon recharger for a whole town/city. The mayor has noticed his efforts. This is before he is a Gym Leader, and this is the place where he made the promise to Shinx (a promise that he broke, not by any fault of his own, but by the very thing that brought them together in the first place).

The way he actually just straight up lived in Prism Tower, or at least that's how it felt, along with Bonnie. Their father is in the same city with a house but they won't bother with that and he doesn't bother them until they are MIA for at the very least a few weeks if not months. His reasoning for being a Gym Leader is to wield Electric Types from every region and become an Electric-Type Trainer that the world has never seen. The fact that he can be this ambitious with battling gets me (and also his learning from school carrying over c':)

His bag is also a mechanical marvel (not Volcanion, sorry). His Aipom Arm has only malfunctioned once (1 time), and he's easily able to lift Bonnie into the air with it. Also we never see this beyond the first ep but it has an inflatable airbag??? That is actually safe and comfortable to land on even with the everything in his bag as it is.

Even after the whole series and after everything they've ever went through, he still cannot run. Only one time he has ever sprinted ahead (in this realm/dimension) and that was to get to a festival about Zapdos of all Pokemon (and maybe that inventing fair as well??). No one comments on it beyond that one moment. He's also tried to make shoes to help him go up hills quicker but he never tried that one again lol (he forgot he even had it until Serena mentions the monorail, in which also, wow. this gang i swear).

That's actually one of the saddest parts (and something I can totally relate with). The way that we see him so happy and open with Shinx beforehand, ready to learn and be hands on and playing outside even with all the work that he had. And then we hear about how he lost his Gym, how his Pokemon disregard his words and his invention doesn't see him as worthy or strong enough, and it really is him just living out a nightmare of his own making in a way. His fear from back then keeps haunting him with the mistakes that he makes now, and even after meeting with Luxio again you can see the way he just... accepts that he's no longer wanted or forgiven. He's fine with it. He rather everyone have a better life than he does. Just,, he needs a hug. Lots of them.

HELP PLS you've said exactly what I've been thinking off this whole time!! Geez, I thought I was alone in thinking that we brush off whatever happened to Clemont in 'The Needs of Many!' like I get that we lose Greninja, but hello? He got straight-up kidnapped right in front of our eyes! He was going to be made into a superhuman (which has some very very worrying connotations beyond what is already happening). He too was blasted by the Mega Evo Energy, and even if he did resist the mind control, there's got to be other effects as well. If his friends weren't OP and reckless as they were he would've actually been carted away to who knows where and it would've been a matter of time until his preventive measures were found out. And the way he already had a counter against it, against the beam specifically (and for it to be able to work without any issues) is also so sad and worrying in a way?? It's definitely paranoia to me, it was very specific (more than usual, anyways), small enough to hide and easy enough for him to grab. Poor boy :(( I need to just sit down and think every time I remember this is an ep that exists because they just went ham with it, didn't they??

[ectonurites]

............well at least i have the peace of mind that my dad doesn't know our current address lmao

[eachuisge-cc]

to be clear I'm changing the TOU because I don't want to fuck up anyone's day and I don't want to see the recolors taken down or make anyone feel like they shouldn't use them. it's clear a ton of work went into them and they look great and I'm not gonna be an asshole and make my unclear rules someone else's problem.

[aeolianblues]

I am not sure I like the conversations where we westernise every single thing, see every societal phenomenon from the lens of developed countries, and especially see everything through the perspective of Britain and America. Like when we talk about the concept of class divide. Yes it exists everywhere, but the needs, demands and challenges of every section of society differs across countries.

For example, I’ve often though about how the comparison of working classes across countries doesn’t make sense— does it make sense to compare the working class of a country impoverished by colonisation, one with all safety nets removed because of centuries of wealth, labour and brain drain? The idea of a social safety net has been a 70-year exercise in India following 250 years of colonisation. Anything that could be done to protect the working classes (using British definitions) is a victory that defies the logistics, budgets and circumstances of the country. The ‘dole’ is not a thing in this country. Never has been. The closest I can think of a scheme that temporarily helps educated people who have been laid off. It’s simply not a comparison that can be made to developed countries, for how much money the country itself has, and for population and the accompanying logistical/admin that it would take. Herculean task.

There’s also a social and cultural aspect to it. Society doesn’t fall into easy, neat separations of ‘poor, working class’ and ‘rich, upper class’. Caste is a terrible muddying factor in Indian society, something that is still an ongoing fight for rights and equal treatment. All the money in the world could mean nothing if you’re from a ‘lower’ caste. You’d have to read up on it to know about it, there’s no real equivalent for it that I could use to explain it in western terms.

And that’s talking about the working class alone… who are the middle class? The Indian middle class are certainly not the British middle class. The British middle class would only rival the top 5% of India— the ‘crorepatis’. What you’d call millionaires in your mathematical system. The Indian equivalent of the British middle/upper middle class? Those are Indians that have second and third homes outside of India :) no one that lives and works here. Possibly long-time celebrities, who also don’t really live here. Like I said, different systems. Essentially, the Indian equivalent of the British middle class is… the British middle class. That’ll be middle class British Indians for you. So middle class Brits.

The upper class… I don’t even know enough about the lives of the proper rich beyond their charitable PR ventures. There are a number of billionaires and such here too. It is true here as well that their numbers have grown while the workers of the country have languished. The pandemic made it more precarious for everyone, and that hasn’t quite shown signs of recovering. The rich have got richer and everyone else is hung out to dry. Surprisingly, the only economic class that may have a true equivalent around the world is the rich that fuck us all over. Should’ve seen that coming?

[mikereads]

I finished Two Broke girls and I am happy I finished it but also so annoyed about that ending. Ugh!

[severinaprince]

Have any of you ever had this heart-wrenching experience where you see an amazing fanart of some character, that dies in canon relatively young, but is depicted in their would-have-been old age? Fanart where the character has grey hairs in their head, fanart with expression lines and textured skin, where it is undeniable that the character lived.

I remember the first time when that happened to me with a character I adored and really wished they could have had the opportunity to live and enjoy life, not just survive.

That shit brought me to tears.