#get your shit together zuckerberg

[usagi-zakura]

Holy fuck Facebook...

...yes I admit I am on Facebook... why?

Because my whole family is there and its just an easy way to keep in touch with all of them.. but today randomly I got logged out... both on my PC and my phone....

Tried logging in again...Wrong password.

Tried resetting the password. Got an error. Tried again. Got an error.

Reset the password to my email. Then tried resetting the facebook password. Got an error...

Then I got an email that the password had been changed... from my PC... Panic.

Tried resetting it again. Error.

The email had not been changed. I was still getting reset-codes. And my phone app registered that "yes this is the unit you log in to normally. Go on in except wrong password..."

So I asked my brother to check for anything weird on my account.

He was logged out too...

So I googled it... and finally some "good" news... well good news for me. Bad news for Zuck. Me and my brother's accounts are not the problem... its Meta that's having the problem. Several users across the world are experiencing the same issue.

That takes a load of but HOLY SHIT that was stressful... Now the question is when I log back in...which password will I have to use? :p I did get an email saying it had been changed... but which attempt was it? Because I did different ones every time in case the system just thought it wasn't good enough...

I may have to reset it again once this issue has been fixed :p

[gallifreyriver]

Reminder that Zuckerberg actively lobbied with Republican PR firms to make TikTok illegal because he couldn't compete with it.

Reminder that for all its faults TikTok has brought tons of awareness to important issues that barely got any coverage until they blew up on TikTok, and more that still barely got any mainstream coverage even after they did.

Reminder that TikTok has become the largest and easiest place for people to come together and organize, and has 150 million active users in the US.

Reminder that congress, especially conservatives, stand to gain a lot by banning it, because it means less people will hear about all the problematic (fascist) shit they're trying to pass, such as the 300+ anti-trans bills, the bills seeking to make abortion a felony punishable by death, or how they're trying to remove the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). They also get to 'look tough' against China.

Reminder that claims of concerns over data privacy are bullshit, because China could literally just buy our data if they wanted it. Tech companies just like and including Facebook collect and sell our data all the time. China wouldn't need to build an app to get it.

Reminder that banning TikTok sets a precedent that Congress could come for literally any other social media they deem 'a threat' and ban that too. Yes, even your personal favorite one.

Reminder that we should care about this and instead of saying "Good Riddance TikTok!" we should be actively trying to stop this violation of free speech and stop handing more power to fascists just because we personally don't like a thing or think it's cringe. This is bigger than your personal tastes.

Please sign this letter from the ACLU to your members of Congress and urge them to listen. There's also a hearing this Thursday on March 23rd at 10am EST in DC where the TikTok CEO will be testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing will be open to the public and will also be live streamed online.

I don't care if you hate TikTok or think it's "cringe." If you all actually hate Facebook and fascists as much as you say you do, then you won't stand for letting them win this fight to ban it.

[losticaruss]

not sure if people have already posted about this but i think it's important to share. i know they've posted follow-ups on tiktok (and maybe ig), including the statement that it is OFFICIALLY happening CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY. DECEMBER 24 AND 25. there's also an official list that includes, but isn't limited to, spotify, tiktok, ig, ANY meta products, hulu, netflix, and the like. genuinely this is SOSOSO important

[ID: a tiktok from @/skyfisherforskyfish.

audio begins:

"i've moved on from feeling spiteful. im officially feeling... diabolical. the next big thing we can do to harm big business- after you've cancelled your amazon subscription, after you've cancelled your audible, after you've moved your money out of big banks and into local credit union, after you've figured out a way to buy local- the next big thing, ladies and gentlemen, is the data strike of Christmas 2024. why would a data strike be effective? because data is the most valuable asset on earth, right after human suffering from denying people who need healthcare, healthcare. that is actually the reason behind the tiktok ban. it's not about national security, it's about the data war that's happening between the united states and china. Christmas is a very pivotal moment, because all of the gifts are purchased, and now companies get to observe what you do with the money and gifts you've been given. your data is critically important right now for training their models and training their campaigns going forward on how consumer behavior is influenced by the holidays. that's not the only thing. following the shooting of the united healthcare ceo, the surveillance state has absolutely exploded in popularity- as you can see, many cities particularly los angeles (where i live) expanding their budgets for next year to use video surveillance on its populations. it's horrifying! it's dystopian! it's entirely preventable. the data strike is one to two days where we simply get off social media. you do not give them a second of your time for advertising dollars, for data mining, for any of it. this would not only kneecap the marketing budgets of big businesses, which have already been spent, they've already been expended, you will only ruin their r.o.i.. you will also prevent them from furthering the expansion of the surveillance state. you could directly say fuck you to zuckerberg and musk easily, with no pain. further, it's a great opportunity because during the holidays, we're pretty busy anyways, and you're there with family. and i know you're like 'oh, i don't want to hang out with my family, i just want to tap out!' challenge yourself. even if you're not having a good time, just have a time, rather than being completely numbed out by your screen, don't you think? one day won't kill you. two days would be a superhuman feat and i would be so impressed, i'd be so proud of you. you could also save on carbon emissions, because it requires a lot of energy to run this app (tiktok) and all of its servers, and every other social media. i have already seen such an enormous amount of collective action taken- people cancelling their amazon subscriptions, people taking their money out of big banks, going to local credit unions, decentralizing their purchases, starting small, local community gardens, going back to their libraries- people are taking action, and just because you don't see it online does not mean it's not happening. in fact, i want you to be absolutely aware that the reason you're not seeing it online is because it is happening. together, we can do the data strike of Christmas 2024. please share this video, please encourage your friends and family to take this shit seriously because the effect and the impact we could have on the market, on the surveillance state, and on the environment is legitimately enormous, and i believe in us. thank you for watching, i know this video is long, i know you've got shit to do. have fun scrolling. talk to later, bye."

/end ID]

[soda-n-dinos-andmore]

✨I have brain rot✨

so here! Have more incorrect quotes!!! (This time with more blorbos included)

California : sighs I have no friends… Alaska: Alaska: coughs Bitch, what am I? A roach?!

Gov: Hey, Florida? Florida, playing a video game with the squad: What? Gov: Can I share something with you from earlier today? Florida: Wh- what is it, Gov? Gov: Well, I sent you a text early in the morning. Florida: Mhm. Gov: Because I have to go out of town for a weekend this month. And, so I was like- I won't give specific dates, but I was like, do you have any preference whether I go this weekend or the next weekend? Florida: Yeah? Gov: Your response. Florida: trying not to crack up Gov: At 9:30 in the morning. Gov: "motherfucking Jesse Eisenberg jesus Christ motherfucking Facebook movie jesus can you believe this shit" Florida: laughing Gov: No- no- no punctuation. Random capitalization. Florida: You just made me dieeee… Gov: So I respond, "I have no idea what we're talking about right now." Gov: 45 minutes pass. I get a text from you. Gov: "goddamn created Facebook and fucking lawyers and shit right fucking winklevoss twins goddamn rowing the boat fuck yo shit i cant even fucking believe this shit have you seen this shit fuck I just watched this shit fuck Jesse eisenberg man" Florida: wheezing with laughter Gov: I respond "Florida, you're scaring me." An hour passes- Gov: You respond, "motherfucking spiderman Spiderman you put in the time fuck put in the time motherfucking built shit with his bare hands fucking best friend shit jesse eisenberg" Gov: "im very tired" Florida: struggling to breathe Gov: And- and I'm just like, "No- no worries, Florida, I'll- I'll do most of the talking at the hangout today-" Gov: IMMEDIATE, like, response, like I'm talking 5 seconds later, Gov: "no man ill just talk all day shit man you have to be so interested in the shit I have to say about the Facebook movie fuck dude I just watched it a year and a half ago fuck Jesse Eisenberg man he fucked over Spider-man crazy Winklevoss twins rowing Trent Resin or did the soundtrack fuck this guy who invented Facebook I don't like dying I can't think of who the fuck invented Facebook All I can think is who played the guy who invented Facebook who the fuck invented Facebook" Gov: And then, in all capital letters, two hours later, Florida: falling over with laughter Gov: "MARK ZUCKERBERG."

Washington: Please, California , after everything we’ve been through together. You can’t do this. Washington: I’m sorry California . Washington: I’m begging you. Don’t do it. California : It has to be done. Washington: California : Washington: California : Places +4 Uno.

Massachusetts : Everything’s fine, Maine. New York: Massachusetts , I know your relationship with the english language is strictly casual, but you- I- deep inhale ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU WHAT’S NOT FINE.

Maine: H-how do you ask someone out? Louisiana : Well, first- Florida: Don't ask them, they asked me out in a McDonalds parking lot. Maine: …And you said yes?

Gov: Are you an ‘arr’ pirate or a ‘yo ho ho’ pirate? Nevada: I’m a ‘I’m not paying $600 for photoshop’ pirate.

[thecrystaljoy]

Yeah fuck tiktok y'all.

1. The source code for tiktok is now coming from a location in North Carolina that houses Facebook servers.

2. This censorship is already wild. Look at this

I don't even know what this person is talking about, but it's from December and there is a TikTok in-app notification telling me to check sources. And when I try to share it, it limits me to only sharing it to one person to limit the spread of misinformation.

3. They are officially changing literal facts to align with right wing bullshit. When you search Taylor Swifts song 'the smallest man who ever lived', the autofill changes it to the smallest woman who ever lived.

Another creator shared that and I just did it myself to confirm and get that screenshot.

4. There is absolutely no mention of Palestine at all, anywhere on the feed.

Tiktok is dead. Fuck what Biden said, we've been living in a corporate oligarchy for years now and he's been apart of it.

We are now officially moving into fascism with state controlled media.

I have my own understanding of what's going on outside because of my spirituality, but simultaneously no matter what went on politically, this year is going to be forced conformity.

But anytime you force something, the pendulum always swings back, even harder in the other direction.

As an individual, I say the best thing to do is use TikTok with an extreme sense of scrutiny if you must and delete your accounts and refuse to download any other account or app from Zuckerberg or Musk.

I unfortunately have to keep my Instagram for now for private reasons, but the moment I can, I'm deleting that shit.

When we all lock in and move together, we can make really cool things happen, like what happened with red note. Honestly, the only social media that's safe is here and blue sky. Google's not even safe because they're also a part of the oligarchy. YouTube is a halfway house for now, but I still don't like them.

People are holding out for Neptune, and I'm hopeful, but Neptune as an app is taking venture capital investors which basically means it won't be safe from trying to be bought out/controlled by the oligarchs or the government.

I'm holding out hope for Astreth, which will be called Pebble from my understanding. Its an organically started app by tiktok users that I believe has been in the works for a while through volunteers.

Anyway.

Other than that, the best thing you can do is not let them control your emotional state. Avoid doom scrolling, limit usage, two times or three times a day, and small increments if you can't avoid scary or upsetting information.

Staying grounded and ensuring your inner peace is the best way of saying fuck you to the people who are forcibly trying to scare and intimidate you.

[alexjcrowley]

Whatever you're doing, drop it right now and go watch BlackBerry. I can give a million reasons to watch it and I will.

This movie has everything.

You loved The Social Network and you never really found something quite like it? Go watch Blackberry, then. You got the love triangle, you got the genius who displays neurodivergent traits overtly, the Best Friend, the other woman a.k.a. the real businessman.

BUT, big wonderful but, it's ugly. It's painfully uncool, staged and at the same time terribly realistic. They all look like shit and you can't help but love it. None of that Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg that make you want to jump into a foursome, here the business cool guy (Glenn Howerton from IASIP) is balding and wearing a suit he clearly stole from Micheal Douglas from Wall Street and he looks unfuckable. The Best Friend has a ninja turtles wallet. They're all ugly, but let me be clear with what I mean: I am fucking sick of seeing fashion models on screen, I am talking about ugliness not as insult but as a punch of reality straight in the face. None of that tiktok black cat gamer boyfriends, these 40 year old men should all burn their entire wardrobe and sue their barbers, I love it.

And yes, at the very beginning (just there) the movie is set in the 80s, and thank God it's not Stranger Things/It chapter one aesthetic, it's disputable shirts and the most pathetic athletic hair band you'll ever see.

You said found family? These tech guys are all Best Friends and party together and dance and have movie nights in the middle of the day in which they watch Indiana Jones and They Live.

The first third of the movie is basically The House Bunny for business companies, with Glenn Howerton sweeping in, giving a makeover to the company, toss those glasses away and make it the belle of the ball, so much that quaterback is asking her to dance.

And it's directed with the camera movement of a mockumentary, hand-held camera baby. And I am telling you this as someone who is getting pretty sick of the overabudance of mockumentaries, I hear you if you're complaining, but this is so good you get over it.

How is the story of the Blackberry phone handled, you ask? Well I am no expert, but I think they did a brilliant job. The Social Network is about Facebook but also about connections and human relationships changing, here you see how the phone industry was changed by Blackberry. In TSN you never actually saw how The Facebook was impacting the world, just the main characters' lives. Here you got the other face of the medal.

The soundtrack? It fucking slaps. I don't know the titles of all the songs in the soundtrack, but sure as hell I am going to look for them. And every movie that has Joy Division in it has my respect.

Oh, if you're a cinephile, I must advise you to be real careful watching this movie, because the amount of movie quotes contained in it could make YOUR BRAIN EXPLODE. Same goes for nerd culture quotes, there are just tooo many and you could risk loving them too much.

Afraid this movie it starting to sound too wholesome and happy? Oh, don't worry, there's enough corruption and angst to fill a Scrooge McDuck money deposit. You got corruption arcs, you got a big deal of actual corruption, calls from the SEC, you got fucking espionage, you got straight up lying, committing crimes, betraying your best friend, one of the few man who looks worse as a villain than as a hero, you got bastardization arc, you got Onceler-ization arc, you got Mark Zuckerberg equivalent of "We're not putting ads", you got "Stop, this isn't you".

But I understand, it's not enough for you. How about the FUCKING Apple-Blackbarry War, uh? How about that? Might interest you? With a flavour of tragedy because you already know who prevailed, but you're living the story from the side of the losers. Doomed by the narrative, ladies and gentlemen.

You got resentment building up, you got workers' discontent growing, you got sales dropping, in TSN you stopped very little after the explosion, now you get to see the whole thing collapse. It's the Western Roman Empire and it's 476 AD. It's "we could have it all". It's epic and terrible and destructive and it's the story of fundamental changes in the phone market and what phones came to be. It has an ending that it's bitter and happy and delightfully ironic and leaves you wondering what if.

I had one, one complain about this movie: it all starts in Waterloo and you don't put Waterloo by Abba? But I take back my complain, and if you, like me, are into 60s music you're going to love it. They're one of my favourite bands, if you know who I am talking about, so I was elated.

Go watch BlackBerry. Go. Right now. This is how I spent my one night off, this is how I ended a very shitty day and I was not disappointed. Watching this movie has been the best thing to happen to me today.

[emmashouldbewriting]

are they banning it entirely?? they just banned it on government phones here, but grant shapps is apparently not giving up his tiktok addiction and it's hilarious. he's quite the star over there it seems

Buckle in, Emma. It's gonna get wild.

It's currently banned on government devices by presidential directive. Congress is considering legislation to ban it outright. There was a hearing today on the Hill with the TikTok CEO. If you've ever watched how Congress interviews or talks to the tech industry in a hearing, they ask really assholey gotcha questions (for instance -- "why are children on your app?" "we don't" "Then how come my 4 year old granddaughter was able to get an account?" "Because children will falsify data like they do to every other app and get around age screening. When we see that, we immediately block and ban the account." "Aha! You do let children into your app!" **not a direct quote but similar). They also never let the witness speak and will talk over him or purposely misconstrue his answers to craft the narrative they want.

The protests in France are more polite and civil than the way these legislators were treating the CEO.

Anyway, Congress is saying we need a TikTok ban because it's a matter of national security (too many Americans are using the app and China is stealing all of our data through the app). There are also two subplots/side stories:

1 -- too many Americans are getting the news from TikTok and not mainstream media channels (check out the East Palestine train crash and how social media dug up a ton of stories about Norfolk Southern that they tried to bury) so mainstream media is pissed that they're not getting ratings and Congress is pissed because they can't hide their shenanigans and power grabs anymore. *this is the quiet part they're not supposed to say but they do. Because they're all old assholey farts.*

2 -- Zuckerberg wants TikTok. He's wanted it for years and for his metaverse. (Psst...there's a reason why Instagram rolled out the reels and why reels are TikTok dupes.) So Zuck keeps going to ByteCube with offers to buy TikTok. ByteCube keeps telling him to go pound sand. Zuck went to Congress and whined about it. One of the proposals the US govt has on the table right now is an offer to ByteCube/China is that if they sell TikTok (or the North American branch) to a non-Chinese investor, then they won't ban TikTok. Gee, I wonder who's going to step up... This proposal has actually been leaked through 'official' channels to get the American public so riled up about it that we rise up against ByteCube/China to force the sale. But what our septuagenarians in Congress don't realize (*because they take his money*) is that Zuckerberg is more dangerous with our data, privacy, and farming than ByteCube has proven to be and there are protests now, but they're protests against Meta and Zuck that are causing Meta, FB, and IG stock to drop. *I mean, we might not have our shit together to protest as spectacularly as the French, but we can hit them where it'll hurt the worst: their bank accounts, because guess what. Most of them have stock in Meta, FB, and IG.*

I told you it was a ride.

i've read this about four times since it came in lol and i've also had my besties' input. i said to them a few days ago it STINKS of zuckerberg being butthurt that he's not on top anymore

like i get the whole china thing, i really do, but it's his shitty ass platforms with all their dumb 'suggested posts' I DON'T WANT TO SEE that are the problem. i hardly scroll on FB because none of them are mildly related to my interests and i can't turn them off!!!!

[transienturl]

Zuckerberg honestly did quite a good job with the video, it seems, and the fact that I was first linked to it by someone near the center of the Apple sphere is proof of that.

(I say "it seems" because I didn't watch the whole thing, because you can't seek through videos on instagram, which sure is a thing Zuckerberg did not honestly do quite a good job with, jesus christ, get your shit together.)

[tomwambsgans]

i fully believe that (on top of likely a conservative and/or catholic upbringing) tom has managed to totally repress his homosexuality by rationalizing his lack of real for desire for women as simply having really high standards. shiv was a fixation of his for the promise of power that a relationship with her wielded, which he internally attached to her objective physical asthetic and his sexual narcissism that allows him to be aroused by the mere concept of sex that involves himself. plus frankly inside of him, underneath all his bullshit, is a genuine drive for romance and true love and specifically monogamy, the romanticization of which is yet another factor in his attachment to shiv. yes, he loves her, but a lot of circumstances outside of him being innately attracted to women had to come together to make that happen. there's a lot of sense of obligation, both to her as a person and to his duty of being successful. of being the right kind of man.

ntm that when they have their stag night arrangement, part of tom struggling to get someone is def partially that he's using rules outside of himself to decide what woman he wants. as in, trying to decide which women he's supposed to want. ultimately the woman he chooses looks a lot like shiv - objectively striking, with cat-like features. it's really easy to think that you're attracted to women when you simply tell yourself that your type is the ones that "look interesting" (which i say from experience, lol)

and y'know it's funny, for all that tom clearly turns his desire for men into violence and control and other classic toxic masculinity-esque type shit, he still has a genuinely kind of... foppish way about him? like, yeah by definition all these rich guys technically do, but tom is different, and not just because he wasn't born into it. if the roy boys have the zuckerberg vibe, his is dorian gray. he's airy, he's dramatic, he's... dare i say, softer? in a way that there's plausible deniability for - the way that wealth is often correlated with some effeminacy, especially for british old money types. moreso, the way that money is an excuse for effeminacy. when a working-class guy cares about designer brands, is extremely hygenic, loves wine, etc, he's automatically assumed to be gay; when a rich guy cares about all those things? no one bats an eye. and i really do think that if it wasn't a factor in him pursuing it in the first place, then tom at least now essentially uses his exuberantly wealthy lifestyle as a tool to buffer his inclinations. perhaps even to the extent that he can sometimes have this sense of awareness of what he is and that he only chooses not to do anything about it.

which is then wild for its self-fulfilling nature - he's deeply ambitious for the sort of power that can protect him, but as he's moved higher and higher his environment only became more and more hostile to actually being himself.

......and THEN of course along came greg, who is genuinely key to tom accepting himself somewhere down the road (or at least coming the closest that he COULD get) bc he's the man through whom tom is gonna be able to subvert the heterosexual path that he'd set for himsef - push his wife down the stairs and marry him instead - proving that he doesn't need all that in order to Succeed with a capital S. at which point would at the very least be the thematically, narratively perfect moment for him to be fully grounded in what he really wants. he just needs to see with his own two eyes that it's not going to be world-shattering and then he can take it.

[iceman-maverick]

behold, toby ziegler modern au

this man is timeless so he’s pretty much the same except the things that annoy him are different 

more modern au! 

okay let’s go

toby has a major superiority complex over josh and sam about social media. he thinks they’re mindless, millennial sheep (moment of silence for the fact they’re millennials) that are imprisoned by the chains of mark zuckerberg. that being said, he is compulsively, bodily and spiritually, obsessed with stalking the interns on linkedin. 

toby and donna have a 749 day long Words With Friends streak going on. he considers it to be the most stable relationship in his life. 

if you’ve read my previous modern post, you’d know that toby has been banned from the west wing spotify for war crimes. to combat this, he is now single-handedly trying to kickstart the Pandora Renaissance. 

toby has beef with john green, no he will not elaborate.

...but i will LOL he wrote a scathing review of the fault in our stars when the movie came out and now is perma-banned from vidcon (?? he wasn’t even invited in the first place?) 

instead of the insider trading issue from season one, toby’s NFT and bitcoin activity gets outed by a congressional hearing. josh almost has a heart attack over it. 

cj has a particularly tough day with the press compounded by her dad getting worse, so toby sets up one of those electronic picture frames in her office and loads it up with pictures of her family and the staff. it doesn’t fix everything, but it sure does make her smile :) 

toby ordered an uber on charlie’s phone one time but forgot to log out. that was over three years ago and charlie’s still charging toby’s card whenever josh and he order ubereats.

before joining the campaign, toby had a moderately successful blog where he would provide vicious, in-depth analysis of different mommy food bloggers. you know the ones where kathy tells you her life story before giving you the snickerdoodle recipie. he’d straight up be like “not only is this utterly irrelevant to the properties of cake flour, you’ve managed to use every form of your incorrectly in a single post about your great-grandpappy’s time in the war. great-grandpappy would be ashamed of you and what you’ve made of his bloodline.”

the entire west wing prefers to use google docs but toby’s hill to die on is that word is the better software (i mean he’s right but he doesn’t have to be so fucking annoying about it). he accidentally corrupts the final draft of the state of the union while trying to convert it over. donna saves the day, but he still blames sam. 

toby is aware of west wing fanfiction and he is not fucking happy about it. especially when he realizes how popular he is with +40 year old housewives. it unnerves him. josh likes to print out different y/n toby fics and tape them to his office door. 

no matter what their relationship status is, toby never kicks andy off of his netflix. he checks in from time to time to see if she’s still watching the real estate show they used to watch together. 

toby has literally never had a fully charged cellphone a day in his life. ginger walks around handing out portable chargers all day long and he still somehow is under 15% at all times

toby purposefully kicks over those food delivery robots whenever he has a chance. it makes donna cry. 

sam goes around his back and puts out a stronger message against school vouchers on the POTUS social accounts than toby wanted to, so he retaliates by switching all of sam’s devices to Bing.  

one night while drinking, josh and sam find toby’s pinterest account. they’re expecting super cringe, if not incriminating, shit but instead find extremely thoughtful boards put together of the different people toby writes for. it helps him get a better understanding of the person and lets him get more comfortable with their voice. 

josh almost cries when they find the board titled Lyman 20-?? 

and lastly,,,,toby loves minions, mostly because of how much cj hates them. he’s a particular fan of kevin. he finds little motivational minion quotes and sends them in the senior staff groupchat, but jed thinks they’re sincere so he’s just like “...thanks for that toby”

[youngbloodslut]

celebrity crush | 2/??

a/n: the first interview is mostly based off of dove cameron and ava max’s interviews with popbuzz

summary: actress! reader somehow manages to bring up her crush on calum hood in every interview

pairing(s): calum hood x reader, platonic! reader x tom holland

warning(s): swearing? slight mentions of kinks

“She’s at it again mate,” Ashton smirked as he carried his laptop over to Calum who was sat on the sofa. He flipped open the computer and hit play on y/n y/l/n’s newest interview.

“C’mon, I don’t wanna-” Calum rubbed his hand over is face and shook his head.

Ashton ignored him and turned up the volume to drown out his protest. “Shhh.. watch.”

“Hey guys, I’m y/n y/l/n and this is the Pop Buzz Tower of Truth.” You spoke as the title popped up on screen.

“I think I’m gonna end up tipping it before I can even get one block out,” You said as you tried to carefully pull of a wooden block. 

“That will never work,” Calum heard a voice from off camera say and recognized it as Tom Holland. He tried not to frown as you laughed and mocked him.

“Y’know what, we’re leaving that one.” You laughed, leaving the original block alone and easily pulling out another block.

“There we go. Okay, what was the last movie or tv show that make you cry? Dead Poets Society. I love Dead Poets Society so much and Tom had never seen it so we watched it after finishing yesterdays interviews.” You placed the block on top of the tower. “And he cried.”

The camera crew laughed as Tom shouted a, “Hey!”

“Tell us one thing about you that we don’t know. Um, this is hard because I’m always saying stuff that I shouldn’t be. Um, I’m an Oxford comma worshiper.” You said, unsure whether or not that’s interesting enough.

“Oxford comma?” A crew member behind the camera questioned.

“Yeah, y’know, the comma that comes before ‘and’ when making a list. I hate that people don’t use it because then I get all confused. Like if I were to write ‘Lizzie, Tom, and Robert are going to the party’ and I don’t add a comma before ‘and’ then it seems like Tom and Robert would be arriving at the party together. But some people who don’t use the Oxford comma could mean that all three people were showing up separately so I never know. Y’know what I mean?”

The camera crew were all silent after her rant and Calum chuckled a bit to himself. He thought it was cute that you were so passionate about the smallest things. Ashton looked over to him as Calum admired you through the screen. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew Calum secretly liked how much you talked about him.

“No,” Tom responded honestly

“Ugh,” You rolled your eyes dramatically and looked into the camera, “See, these are the type of guys you got to look out for: Un-grammarly men.” You joked.

“Un-grammarly isn’t a thing.” Tom laughed.

“Well if it were a thing, you’d be one.” You fired back at Tom.

“Anyway, who is your favorite artist right now? Um, probably Wallows, I love them and their music.”

“I was really expecting Calum Hood to be honest.” Tom shouted from across the room.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I just forgot about him like that. I love you Calum Hood. I love 5sos.” You held up your hands into a heart shape and moved your hands from side to side. 

You then dropped them and grabbed another block. “Sorry, I keep forgetting that people are actually going to see these interviews. Like, he could literally see this. Dude, I hope he doesn’t.” You paused, “Oh god, do you think he knows about my crush on him?” You had been mentioning him for years and it had never once occurred to you that he could actually see these. 

Calum laughed at the irony of the situation. Here he was watching a video of you saying you hoped he’d never see said video.

“This is humiliating.” You mumbled though you didn’t seem to actually care, “Who was your first celebrity crush? Oh uh, definitely Andrew Garfield. I remember when I first watched the Social Network and I was like obsessed. My friend and I both watched it over 10 times within like two months. And then would continuously make Mark Zuckerberg jokes. But of course, Calum Hood now owns my heart.” You put the block on top of the tower. “I’m actually doing really good, I thought I’d knock it down by now.”

“Describe in detail the worst date you’ve ever been on. Okay so I was like fifteen right, and, well I’m not even sure if this counts as a date. I think he considered it a date so I guess it was but basically we were in the car, he was sixteen so he could drive. We were in the drive through, we had already ordered, and he started feeling around in is pockets and I was like oh god, cause I knew what was about to happen. He was like, ‘oh no i think i lost my wallet’, and I was like its fine I’ll pay. I really didn’t mind. I ended up paying, we got our drinks and without missing a beat, we hadn’t even pulled out of the drive through, he was like’oh here’s my wallet.’ I really didn’t mind paying for my coffee, I wouldn’t mind paying for both of our coffees. But him going out of his way to lie, and then not even lie well, was so irritating.” She placed the block on the top and picked up a new one.

“What is the most useless idem you’ve ever purchased? Um, I bought a seven foot giraffe while I saw drunk once.” The block was added to the top, the tower now taller than you. “He’s in my living room if you wanted to know.”

You grabbed the next block carelessly, immediately regretting it when the tower fell behind you, “Oh shit, well I guess we’re done then.” You said nonchalantly, looking at the blocks on the floor. “I don’t think I’ll be playing this again anytime soon. Love you guys,” You held up your hands, “Love you Calum Hood.” You winked before the outro began to play.

“She must really love you, Cal.” Ashton poked Calum’s cheek annoyingly, “She’s got no shame.”

Calum wouldn’t admit it, but as soon as he got home he looked you up again. He clicked on the same video Ashton showed him and scrolled through the comments. 

y/nscalumhoodkink: MOMOMOMOMOMOM

datemey/n: Queen of Jenga

ashtonfletchersbitch: Y/N LITERALLY IS ME

5esohes: no because y/n y/l/n and calum hood together is my kink

noemptywalletshere: not only does y/n own this fandom, but my ass too

He couldn’t help but laugh at the comments no matter how interesting they were. But something in the back of his head kept yelling at him. She doesn’t acting like you. Shes just likes your music, nothing more. He sighed and clicked out of the video and was about the close his laptop when his cursor handed on a video. 

Y/n Y/l/n foaming at the mouth while talking about Calum Hood for 5 minutes straight.

He clicked on it a little too quickly and waited for it too load. 

“Calum Hood choke me challenge.” You stuck out your tongue and threw up a peace sign with an innocent look plastered on here face. 

“Bro imagine if Calum Hood saw this?” “Oh he would definitely fall for you after this video”

The third thing to pop up was a tweet from 2015 just saying: #marrymecalumhood

“Calum Hood send me hand pics. This is a demand, not a request.”

Calum continued to watch the entire video. Normally, the thirsty comments would have made him uncomfortable, but them coming from you made his heart race and cheeks flush.

God, what was happening to him?

[pyroclastic727]

Owl House said fuck capitalism

So this episode was interesting. Lilith pretty much killed her sister. Why the fuck would she do that?

Even more interesting: why is Belos like that? How did Hooty put his head through one of those guards? Who the fuck is the Titan, and why does everyone like him? And how are these all tied together?

This episode was a metaphor for capitalism

...and another delicious step towards radicalizing the youth into dismantling this fucked-up neo-feudal system.

We’ll start with Belos. 

Emperor Belos is a weird name, don’t you think? We all thought it was spelled “Bellows,” but it wasn’t. In fact, it’s five letters, starts with Be, ends with os, and describes a megalomaniac emperor that restricts people’s freedom in order to accumulate wealth for himself.

Sound familiar?

Emperor Bezos Belos created capitalism. He saw the beauty of magic and decided to make himself the most powerful.

Belos created a system that destroys the masses and boosts his power.

 I’m dipping into fan theory a little, because the fan theory fits. We know that people get branded with coven magic that makes it so they can only specialize in one area. We know that Belos is the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles. We know that the excess magic, magic created by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

It’s the same system that many viewers see all the time. A job takes up all your day and tires you for the night, so you can only do one skill for the rest of your life. Jeff Bezos is the most powerful man in the United States. Excess money, money taken by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

The magic goes to Belos, like how the money goes to Bezos. Belos created capitalism, and he won it.

The guards aren’t real. 

Look, we’ve never seen their faces. They’re all the same. Why would you work so hard to get to the top, just to become a nameless, faceless killing machine?

Oh, also Hooty stuck his face through one. There is nothing under the armor.

Why? Well, it’s the same reason you see all those celebrities going around flaunting their wealth and bragging about how hard they worked. Like all those songs about how they grind every day and work harder than everyone else while you’re out clubbing, and that makes them dope. And then you take a closer look at them and see that they had a small loan of a million dollars fueling them, or an entire talent agency behind them, or their dad was a famous country star in the 80′s. 

They’re fake. They’re hollow. They’re a ploy created by the capitalist emperor to try to delude you into working harder. 

Let me put this into perspective. I guarantee that every single one of you has heard stuff like this: “Hard work makes you successful.” “I put in the work, and that’s why I’m successful.” “If you work hard enough, then you can be as successful as Mark Zuckerberg.” 

And unless you’re a robot or really lucky, I’m sure all of you have failed at this. Maybe they told you that hard work would make you good at math, so you spent 22 hours a week working on calculus, only to pass it by 3 percentage points and have it destroy your perfect 4.0 GPA. Maybe they told you that if you talked to people enough, then you would make friends, so you spent a lot of time talking to people, only to end up lonely and friendless. Maybe they told you that if you did well in school, you would get a good job, so you spent all your time working hard to be a good student, and then ended up in a soulless, dead-end job.

The guards are there to delude you. Look, who really gains from you being productive? The answer is the ruling class, the CEOs, the government, the bourgeoisie. It has always been that. All you get from working is a paycheck that lets you survive. They get a paycheck that lets them get rich. Just like Belos gets the magic and productivity of the specialized coven witches.

The guards are there to trick you. The truth is that nobody can join the Emperor’s Coven. It’s just there to make you think that hard work will make you successful. Then you spend your entire life working hard, trying to prove to the person in charge that you’re worthwhile. You give your whole life to the Coven, and they give you nothing. 

Magic is supposed to be something you pursue for fun. Being skilled at things, being good at something beautiful...that’s supposed to be something you do because you want to. But they took that and made it into a source of productivity. It doesn’t matter if you make good content. All people fucking care about is if you upload the day of premiere, if you make a lot of content quickly, if you maintain a million different conversations with strangers who expect you to be the most interesting person in the room. They don’t care how it hurts you. They don’t care how you crack from the stress. How you cry when you think no one can see you, and then you check your phone and someone can see you, someone did see you, and you have to put on your face and be the charming, magnetic person they want you to be. (oh by the way that’s why I wasn’t online much last week)

And it ruins it. Suddenly you can’t watch The Owl House without being stressed. You can’t make any content. You can’t make spells as powerfully as you want to. Your passion is replaced by perfectionism and insecurity, a voice telling you to keep being the best at what you do, or else they’ll forget you and let you die.

There’s also the Titan. 

So nobody has mentioned him before, because in addition to the Boiling Isles being a hellscape full of witchcraft and queerness, it’s also full of atheists. 

But suddenly we have people saying all this shit about him? Shit like, he gave witches the gift of magic, and then they learned to use it in a civilized manner, since being uncivilized was disrespectful?

I mean, first off, that’s fucking wrong. The island gives people magic. The island, which just so happened to be shaped like a titan-sized human. But the island/titan gives everyone all types of magic. Hell, even Luz gets to use magic, and she’s human. 

It sounds really fucking familiar. (tw for discussion of homophobia and colonialism and misogyny). It sounds like when the news is on and they show some Tr*mp supporter talking about how fetuses have more rights than people and it is their holy duty to take away a woman’s control over her body and force her through unbearable pain and into an 18-year commitment she didn’t want to make. It sounds like all the times people tried to say homosexuality should be illegal, citing a single line in a book written two thousand years ago and heavily edited by a European king. It sounds like all the times people said God wanted them to conquer, to own the entire earth, to force the other races into pain to support them.

This is that bullshit thing people do where they commit awful sins and justify it by citing the will of God. 

Or, it’s the Coven using religion as an excuse for evil.

Look, the Emperor’s Coven is clearly colonizer-coded. Saying that people’s original form of magic was wild (and showing a picture with the same joyous, rowdy energy of an 18th or 19th -century Black or indigenous party), and that it was God’s will for them to be “civilized?” Sounds like that thing that powerful white people did where they went and murdered people and forced them into their twisted capitalist system. God, gold, and glory, is what they said, because history books just love to omit the gore.

Lilith is passing the abuse cycle along. 

You know, like a good little colonizer. God I fucking hate her. She’s a MILF, in the sense that she’s a Mother I’d Like to Fling off a cliff. 

Ah, enough screaming about how much I want to drown Lilith in a tub of Hooty’s mucus. Let’s go into why I want to do that, and how she took the evils of capitalism and just...adopted those.

So, Lilith is sick and twisted for what she did to her sister. But, uhh, that’s the point. You see, there are so many other people out there like Lilith who would do the exact same thing, if given the chance. These are the people who do mean things when the teacher isn’t looking, and then act nice and try to frame you. These are the people who will hate you if you’re better than them. These are people who would do anything to bring you down, if you dare outperform them.

It’s greed, my friends. The mental illness that capitalism blesses us all with.

Lilith herself said it: she dedicated her entire life to the Coven. What she wanted was to be the best. And she almost was...except for her own sister. Someone who lived with her, annoyed her at home, bested her at school. Someone she could never beat, no matter how hard she worked. And her sister was younger than her, too! How insulting was that? Lilith wanted to be the best, and someone in her exact situation did better than her.

Lilith was insecure. And it consumed her.

But why? Why does insecurity consume her? I mean, no one can be motivated by insecurity forever. Well, not unless someone conditions it into you.

The lovely thing about the capitalist system is the morals it teaches you. Things like: “You’re only useful if you’re the best.” “Being school smart makes you smart, while being social smart or sports smart or creative smart or fandom smart is worthless.” “Your worth can be quantified by numbers and is based off arbitrary measures like your income or your grades.” Things that can and will drive us crazy if we let ourselves believe them.

And it did drive Lilith crazy. She got so twisted by a society that said being good at magic is her only worth. Look, Lilith used to be good at things, probably. She was good at sports. At times, she slips up and does an okay job of being Eda’s sister. She has a powerful presence when she’s in a room. And she’s wicked good at manipulating people. 

But that didn’t matter. Lilith bought into the lies. She let herself believe that magical skill was the only way to measure her worth. And since she needed to be the best, she hurt Eda for it.

The beautiful thing is, Eda didn’t buy that. "It’s my power, kid. And before you showed up, I spent my whole life wasting it.” Is what Eda said, as she used up the last of her power, the last of her life, to save Luz. In her final moments, she proved that she’s not like them. She’s stronger than them.

None of this matters. Not magical prowess. Not the hierarchy. Not the promise of joining the Coven and having more power than anyone else.

The only thing that matters to Eda is her family. Her real family. Her Luz, King, and Hooty. And by extension, Willow, Gus, and Amity. Those are Eda’s real reason for fighting, for dying: to protect them. Look, there’s no way she would’ve come out of that fight alive. She has a family, and her love for them is stronger than greed or jealousy or capitalism. 

Lilith never understood that. She thought the water of the womb was thicker than the blood of the covenant. Or, that the water of the womb and the blood of the covenant are stronger than the bonds of found family. She thought it didn’t matter if Eda loved, her, only if the Emperor loved her. Fucking bitch.

And now, a little something to worry about, before we go. Amity Blight. The girl who wanted to join the Emperor’s Coven more than anything, who dedicated her whole life to doing well in school, to being the best, to being perfect.

And then she met Luz. She fell for Luz. Now she’s in a tricky place, where habit and conditioning want her to join the Emperor’s Coven, but her heart wants her to do the impossible and destroy capitalism.

She wasn’t in this episode. Funny that being injured and unable to work ended up saving her from watching her future mother-in-law die. So she bought some time.

But Luz’s true mom is dead. This is the second mom she has lost, and she’s only fourteen. As powerful as King and Hooty are, Luz needs Amity. Luz needs Amity to support her and help her get back her mom.

So Amity has to make a choice. Fear and insecurity, or love and a high chance of death? 

She’ll probably choose death. Because that’s the message that this family-friendly show is giving us kids. Fuck capitalism. All you need in life is to do what makes you happy and be with the ones you love.

[einsteinsugly]

Hyde and Donna, the Friendship Headcanons...

-They both love black coffee. Both Jackie and Eric think it's gross. Especially Jackie, who hates coffee.

-They also both love black licorice. Once again, both Jackie and Eric think it's gross.

-When Donna's still a DJ, Hyde makes song requests. All the freakin' time. He doesn't say his name, but Donna knows it's him.

-Donna always hooks Hyde up with concert tickets, and when Donna leaves DJing behind and Hyde has connections through Grooves? He repays the favor.

-They always watch MTV: Unplugged together. They both love Clapton's unplugged version of "Layla." Well, Eric does too, but Eric sings, so…

-They both love Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry," and they blast it whenever it comes on. Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" is another gem, too.

-They both analyze lyrics together, with pens in hand. Later on, when mainstream music truly goes to shit, they continue the tradition. But with snark and sass.

Hyde: Shh, girl. Shut your lips. Do the Helen Keller, and talk with your hips. *With a dramatic pause* Wonder what that means.

Donna: Betty Friedan rolling in her grave?

Hyde (with a groan): Yep.

-They both are the loudest critics when it comes to a particular travesty known as media consolidation, and they both hate Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg with a burning passion. Hyde hates Disney too, but Donna has a soft spot for Brave. Blame the Clinton era (literally, the Telecommunications Act of 1996).

-Donna is a huge fan of Ruth Bader Ginsberg (and hates Antonin Scalia), but they both fervently question the existence of the Supreme Court as an institution. As it doesn't serve the people, since the justices are literally appointed for life (like a freakin' king or queen), and only serves its donors. Like everything else, but it's particularly obvious and egregious.

-They're both the firmest progressives of the gang, but Donna has more faith in the system as a whole, and tries to reform it from the inside. Donna constantly tries to get Hyde to vote, but to no avail. He considers voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary, though. At least he's voting for someone, and not against someone.

-When Donna's a journalist, Hyde requests revolutionary topics. In fact, the whole gang requests topics, but she only listens to Hyde's, Eric's, and Jackie's. Well, except when Hyde goes all conspiracy nut and Jackie offers something that's better off in the gossip column. And she refuses to go undercover at the Playboy mansion in Chicago, despite Kelso and Fez's frequent requests. But Gloria Steinem did it, Donna!

-They're the cool parents (as separate entities, of course), and Jackie and Eric are the sticks in the mud. They constantly and consistently bring it up, too. 'Cause it's true.

-They're more like brother and sister, but the cool, chill kind (unlike Eric and Laurie). They help each other through the hard times at the dawn of the eighties, and poke fun at each other along the way.

-Behind the scenes, Hyde profusely apologizes for being such a dick when he romantically pursued her. His dick was thinkin', not his brain, and the crush was misplaced. He just wanted what Forman had/was going to have, point blank.

-Jackie and Eric are the talkers, and Hyde and Donna are the listeners. Most of the time, anyway. But they definitely air their grievances, and they're not afraid to do it, either.

[bisluthq]

So I’ve been looking into NFTs and crypto lately because I just wanted to try and understand it, despite not being a tech person.

my understanding of NFTs is a lot of them are just a status symbol and bragging rights, but literally any piece of digital content can be an NFT. This ask could be an NFT that you, Nat, could sell, even though you don’t own tumblr. Like the dude who made twitter - Jack - he sold his first tweet for a ridiculous amount of money and someone now owns the digital code to that tweet. Anyone can screenshot it or copy and paste it and print it on a t shirt, anyone can access the code to it, also unless specified at the time of sale, Jack could sell his tweet as an NFT another 100 times and there is nothing the person who bought the first NFT can do to try and stop or stall it.

Where it actually gets cool to me though is that tech is going FAST in developing virtual reality stuff. Like Zuckerberg changing Facebook to Meta is all part of eventually turning all online experiences into an emmersive experience - that’s the goal anyway. Like does anyone remember Google Glasses? You could wear them as sunglasses and using your voice say “google pictures of cats” and it was meant to be able to show you pictures of cats through the glasses, but you’re meant to still be able to see through the glasses at the same time - like spy glasses with grids on them in movies. Idk how that project went lmao but tech peeps were loving it. Right well now the tech has gone from that idea to being the idea that everyone will have a virtual reality headset of some sort and say in a zoom / Skype group chat, you can essentially turn yourself into a sim and all the people you chat with have an avatar/ sim and it’s like you’re sitting at a table with them and depending where you turn your head, you see the room as a 3D thing instead of a pic on a screen of them talking.

Ok so now with the visual art NFTs, the NFTs you have can be used to decorate your virtual / sim world. So you could host your zoom meeting in something that looks like a London street, or a beach, or a replica of your bedroom etc etc etc. some people are already designing art galleries where all the art is digital and then they can have the option of inviting people to come and view it - like any website - OR they can put up a paywall and charge admission. It sounds ridiculous because yeah, if they say they have all of Banksy’s art in their gallery, they would’ve paid heaps for it, but we can google it to get the same experience, however some people think there will be a market for more virtual experiences and instead of scrolling Instagram by ourselves, we’ll put on our virtual reality headset and “meet” with friends and “visit” an NFT gallery and talk about it all in real time together. The use for graphics goes further, tbh I’m really not convinced they’ll be worth money (and most art NFTs crash in value as soon as they’re bought and are sold for only 20% of what they were first bought for 💀 which is why it’s easy for people to think it’s part of a crime organisation because who would sell something at an 80% loss within a month.... but whatever....)

The other big place for NFTs is the gaming industry. I’m not a gamer except for words with friends and candy crush type games lmao, but holy shit gamers spend a LOT of money! So since I’m not a gamer I’m just going back to the Sims example because it’s one I understand. So atm heaps of games have you constantly buying stuff to advance in an endless story and it’s like ‘if you want to fight this dragon you need one of these swords that you need to buy additionally’ or ‘you need more land to expand your castle’ or ‘you have to have a special piece of clothing to complete this task’ — I consider these to be like expansion packs for the sims lol. Well some games would release something like an outfit but only have it available for a limited time. So people bought this limited time outfit, but then when they advanced in the game they eventually had no use for that outfit anymore, but other players did - so they sold them to the newer players. The original gamers had money to spend on new shit in the game and the new gamers had the cool outfit they missed out on and everyone was happy. Then people realised some gamers REALLY wanted that special outfit and they sold it for twice the price, because new gamers were prepared to pay that much. It’s like it all the sim expansion packs sold out in store and the only way to get them was going on eBay, only by the time they got to eBay, the game was 10x as popular and 10x as many people wanted the expansion pack, so the sellers could make a fair profit selling them again.

The gaming tech keeps getting bigger and moving at a fast rate so another popular NFT to buy atm is in game land. The idea behind owning land in the game is a lot like land in real life, it depends on the location and the stuff around it as to how much it could be worth. So let’s say to play a game you have to cross a field, if you buy the digital space that field fits on, you can charge a tax for people to cross it. Games already do this, and it’s usually a coin of the in game currency; the currency isn’t worth anything outside of the game, but you can use “real” money to buy more of the game currency to advance further faster. The way games are going, the thought is that you could convert the in game currency to real world money. Maybe it’ll be bitcoin or some other form of crypto, but if tech people can do what they want to where you can swap game coins for a real life coin - people will make a LOT of money by owning digital land. I was reading about it and actually thought it sounded good, but most plots of digital land in places that are expected to make a profit are starting at SIXTY THOUSAND USD 💀 $60,000 USD. I thought it’d be like $20 lol.

There are also some people who talk about “digital real estate” as if it will replace real world real estate because cost of housing is too much, so they expect us to sit in a one bedroom apartment and then put on our virtual reality headset and enter our mansion — that we have to pay a lot of real money for ??? — and invite friends over to our virtual homes while we sit on the couch of our actual home, but I can’t see that idea taking off.

You can buy a whole lot of other NFTs that will be able to be used in games - like costumes, add ons (weapons, special powers etc) and scenery, which again can be traded from one gamer to another, or rented / taxed that could see it profitable, but my current understanding is that it’s like buying bricks for a house before you have land to build on — the NFTs are the bricks and the tech is the land — cause atm we can’t do everything I’ve mentioned, but tech developers are working towards making it real, which could happen in six months or six years etc.

But yeah I did a lot of research into it cause I thought maybe there was a possibility of making money selling digital art as NFTs instead of via red bubble designs lol. There is, but there’s a lot of work to get started and build hype to be successful at it.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk, I hope NFTs still exist by the time I’ve finished typing all this

Damn dude just found this and thanks for teaching us about NFTs and tech I guess.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Zuck calls Apple a monopolist

The copyright scholar James Boyle has a transformative way to think about political change. He tells a story about how the word "ecology" welded together a bunch of disparate issues into a movement.

Prior to "ecology," there were people who cared about owls, or air pollution, or acid rain, or whales, and while none of these people thought the others were misguided, they also didn't see them as being as part of the same cause.

Whales aren't anything like owls and acid rain isn't anything like ozone depletion. But the rise of the term "ecology," turned issues into a movement. Instead of being 1,000 causes, it was a single movement with 1,000 on-ramps.

Movements can strike at the root, look to the underlying  economic and philosophical problems that underpin all the different causes that brought the movement's adherents together. Movements get shit done.

Which brings me to monopolies. This week, Mark Zuckerberg, one of the world's most egregious, flagrant, wicked monopolists, made a bunch of public denunciations of Apple for...monopolistic conduct.

Or, at least, he tried to. Apple stopped him. Because they actually do have a monopoly (and a monoposony) (in legal-economic parlance, these terms don't refer to a single buyer or seller, they refer to a firm with "market power" - the power to dictate pricing).

Facebook is launching a ticket-sales app and the Ios version was rejected because it included a notice to users that included in their price was a 30% vig that Apple was creaming off of Facebook's take.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/28/21405140/apple-rejects-facebook-update-30-percent-cut

Apple blocked the app because this was "irrelevant" information, and their Terms of Service bans "showing irrelevant" information.

This so enraged Zuck that he gave a companywide address - of the sort that routinely leaks - calling Apple a monopolist (they are), accused them of extracting monopoly rents (they do), and of blocking "innovation" and "competition" (also true).

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/zuckerberg-apple-monopoly

Now, there are a bunch of Apple customers who consider themselves members of an oppressed religious minority who'll probably stop here (perhaps after an angry reply), and that's OK. You do you. But I have more to say.

Apple is a monopolist, sure, but more importantly, they are monoposonists - these are firms with "excessive buying power," gatekeepers who control access to purchasers. Monoposony power is MUCH easier to accumulate than monopoly power.

In the econ literature, we see how control over as little as 10% of the market can cement a firm's position, giving it pricing power over suppliers. Monopsony is the source of "chickenization," named for the practices of America's chicken-processing giants.

Chickenized poultry farmers have to buy all their chicks from Big Chicken; the packers tell them what to feed their birds, which vets to use, and spec out their chicken coops. They set the timing on the lights in the coops, and dictate feeding schedules.

The chickens can only be sold to the packer that does all this control-freaky specifying, and the farmer doesn't find out how much they'll get paid until the day they sell their birds.

Big Chicken has data on all the farmers they've entrapped and they tune the payments so that the farmers can just barely scratch out a living, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and dependent on the packer for next year's debt payments.

Farmers who complain in public are cut off and blackballed - like the farmer who lost his contract and switched to maintaining chicken coops, until the packer he'd angered informed all their farmers that if they hired him, they would also get cancelled.

Monopsony chickenizes whose groups of workers, even whole industries. Amazon has chickenized publishers. Uber has chickenized drivers. Facebook and Google have chickenized advertisers. Apple has chickenized app creators.

Apple is a monopsony. So is Facebook.

Market concentration is like the Age of Colonization: at first, the Great Powers could steer clear of one another's claims. If your rival conquered a land you had your eye on, you could pillage the one next door.

Why squander your energies fighting each other when you could focus on extracting wealth from immiserated people no one else had yet ground underfoot?

But eventually, you run out of new lands to conquer, and your growth imperative turns into direct competition.

We called that "World War One." During WWI, there were plenty of people who rooted for their countries and cast the fighting as a just war of good vs evil. But there was also a sizable anti-war movement.

This movement saw the fight as a proxy war between aristocrats, feuding cousins who were so rich that they didn't fight over who got grandma's china hutch - they fought over who got China itself.

The elites who started the Great War had to walk a fine line. If they told their side that Kaiser Bill is only in the fight to enrich undeserving German aristos, they risked their audience making the leap to asking whether their aristos were any more deserving.

GAFAM had divided up cyberspace like the Pope dividing the New World: ads were Goog, social is FB, phones are Apple, enterprise is Msft, ecommerce belongs to Amazon. There was blurriness at the edges, but they mostly steered clear of one another's turf.

But once they'd chickenized all the suppliers and corralled all the customers, they started to challenge one another's territorial claims, and to demand that we all take a side, to fight for Google's right to challege FB's social dominance, or to side with FB over Apple.

And they run a risk when they ask us to take a side, the risk that we'll start to ask ourselves whether ANY of these (tax-dodging, DRM-locking, privacy invading, dictator-abetting, workforce abusing) companies deserve our loyalty.

And that risk is heightened because the energy to reject monopolies (and monoposonies) needn't start with tech - the contagion may incubate in an entirely different sector and make the leap to tech.

Like, maybe you're a wrestling fan, devastated to see your heroes begging on Gofundme to pay their medical bills and die with dignity in their 50s from their work injuries, now there's only one major league whose owner has chickenized his workers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8UQ4O7UiDs&list=FLM6hLIAIO-KfsNFn8ENnftw&index=767

Maybe you wear glasses and just realized that a single Italian company, Luxottica, owns every major brand, retailer, lab and insurer and has jacked up prices 1,000%.

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glasses-lenscrafters-luxottica-monopoly-20190305-story.html

Or maybe the market concentration you care about it in healthcare, cable, finance, pharma, ed-tech, publishing, film, music, news, oil, mining, aviation, hotels, automotive, rail, ag-tech, biotech, lumber, telcoms, or a hundred other sectors.

That is, maybe you just figured out that the people who care about owls are on the same side as the people who care about the ozone layer. All our markets have become hourglass shaped, with monop(olists/sonists) sitting at the pinch-point, collecting rents from both sides, and they've run out of peons to shake down, so they're turning on each other.

They won't go gently. Every Big Tech company is convinced that they have the right to be the pinchpoint in the hour-glass, and is absolutely, 100% certain that they don't want to be trapped in the bulbs on either side of the pinch.

They know how miserable life is for people in the bulbs, because they are the beneficiaries of other peoples' misery. Misery is for other people.

But they're in a trap. Monopolies and monopsonies are obviously unjust, and the more they point out the injustices they are EXPERIENCING, the greater the likelihood that we'll start paying attention to the injusticies they are INFLICTING.

Much of the energy to break up Big Tech is undoubtedly coming from the cable and phone industry. This is a darkly hilarious fact that many tech lobbyists have pointed out, squawking in affront: "How can you side with COMCAST and AT&T to fight MONOPOLIES?!"

They have a point. Telcoms is indescribably, horrifically dirty and terrible and every major company in the sector should be shattered, their execs pilloried and their logomarks cast into a pit for 1,000 years.

Their names should be curses upon our lips: "Dude, what are you, some kind of TIME WARNER?"

But this just shows how lazy and stupid and arrogant monopolies are. Telcoms think that if they give us an appetite for trustbusting Big Tech, that breaking up GAFAM will satiate us.

They could not be more wrong. There is no difference in the moral case for trustbusting Big Tech and busting up Big Telco. If Big Tech goes first, it'll be the amuse-bouche. There's a 37-course Vegas buffet of trustbustable industries we'll fill our plates with afterward.

Likewise, if you needed proof that Zuck is no supergenius - that he is merely a mediocre sociopath who has waxed powerful because he was given a license to cheat by regulators who looked the other way while he violated antitrust law - just look at his Apple complaints.

Everything he says about Apple is 100% true.

Everything he says about Apple is also 100% true OF FACEBOOK.

Can Zuck really not understand this? If not, there are plenty of people in the bulbs to either side of his pinch who'd be glad to explain it to him.

The monopolized world is all around us. That's the bad news.

The good news is that means that everyone who lives in the bulbs - everyone except the tiny minority who operate the pinch - is on the same side.

There are 1,000 reasons to hate monopolies, which means that there are 1,000 on-ramps to a movement aimed at destroying them. A movement for pluralism, fairness and solidarity, rather than extraction and oligarchy.

And just like you can express your support for "ecology" by campaigning for the ozone layer while your comrade campaigns for owls, you can fight oligarchy by fighting against Apple, or Facebook, or Google, or Comcast, or Purdue Poultry...or Purdue Pharma.

You are on the same side as the wrestling fan who just gofundemed a beloved wrestler, and the optician who's been chickenized by Luxottica, and the Uber driver whose just had their wages cut by an app.

[almondmilklatte]

squid game spoilers /// i don’t know how to do a read more

the most frustrating read of gihun’s character is that he’s a piece of shit because he… doesn’t pull himself together after playing a death game like at the beginning I might agree with that evaluation but as someone else said the games really brought his best instincts to light. he shouldn’t have won because of that because it’s true those games are a bit about having to lose your humanity but he kinda refused to do that and it slays of him. and ultimately the game makers don’t care as long as they get a show so wtvr. a lot of people wanted him to spend the money to change the world but I think an explicit thread of the series is that money doesnt and shouldn’t have that power. like him not touching that money because it’s at the cost of human life and suffering… Elon Bezos Zuckerberg etc etc could never. I’m just so frustrated because to call him a piece of shit for not using the money and not reaching out to the families and fixing the world is really putting a lot of undue responsibility on this one dude to what end capitalism??? and I really like and think it makes a lot of sense that he’s not interested in participating in this world that values money over suffering like spending money wouldn’t really fix that fundamental flaw 🤔