#how does viral marketing work

[screamingfromuz]

Hi there! I am reaching out because someone sent me a question about how to help Gazan civilians without accidentally helping Hamas or spreading more hate against Israelis. I honestly feel lost on this myself, but as far as I can tell you are someone who has done real activism in Israel. Do you have suggestions for diaspora Jews who want to help fight for peace?

So a small disclaimer to the Gaza problem. We have 2 main problems with getting aid into Gaza, the first is the limited amount of aid that is allowed in, sending more money cannot make it go in faster. Problem number 2 is that much of the physical aid ends in Hamas's hands or in the black market and there is nothing we can do with that. I have heard recommendations to wait and see who opens a field hospital on the Rafah border crossing, and donate to them. Despite that, here are some charities to help Palestinians both in and out of Gaza.

I will admit, most of my activism is focused on deradicalization on the Israeli side and solidarity work, so I had to ask around for some of those charities. Some of the groups I know of do not currently have an international donation link, so if I get more good ones, I'll make another post.

Gaza:

Medical aid for Palestinians-

Anera-

Doctors without borders-

Palestinians outside of Gaza and Peace movements:

Palestinian red Crescent- they also work in Gaza, but as the main source for Palestinian ambulances in the WB, I put them here.

mistaclim (Looking the occupation the the eye)- this group is helping to protect Palestinians from the illegal settlers

Keshet- this is a big one. they support Bedouin communities in normal times, and now they are working on getting bomb shelters to the unrecognized villages, and providing a mental health first aid line.

standing together- totally biased, as I am a member of this organization.

Women wage peace- a feminist based solidarity group

Haqel- they represents Palestinians in cases related to land ownership and access. there work is still ongoing even during the war

Center for Jewish non Violence - a diaspora org that also does a lot of work in the South Hebron Hills.

[drdemonprince]

At one point he was down in between my legs, fingering me, and he made a throwaway comment about probably being Autistic. 

I leaned back, trying to relish what pleasure I was getting. “Well, we can talk about that subject, if you like,” I said vaguely, not really wanting to bring my professional life into things. 

He kept working away at my body, kissing between my lips and thighs. “Oh I know who you are,” he said suddenly. “Your book changed my life. In a way, I guess this is me thanking you.” 

I made him exit my body and we went to the kitchen to hash it out. It turned out he was a big fan of many things I’d written. 

“I’ve seen you around the neighborhood many times,” he confessed. “But you posted online that you don’t like when people come up to you, and so I always decided to leave you alone.” 

He said, “Your book is the reason I got divorced, actually. My ex-husband was a therapist, and when I showed him your book and said I thought I might be Autistic, he didn’t believe me. We have been separated for a year.” 

He asked, “Did I just make this weird, telling you when I did that I was a fan?” I told him that if he’d said it sooner, I would have never fucked him at all. 

People never realize that when they approach me, what they are doing is dragging me into work. It doesn’t matter whether I was at breakfast, or an orgy. I was just some guy standing there, enjoying his beer, but now they have made me the known scholar and author. And sure, my job might be meaningful, but that doesn’t mean I like to work. 

I tell my friend that I no longer want to be a public figure, and that I am planning how to make it all end. She tells me, “You’ve got to do what is the best for you, even if it’s something that the rest of us wants and can’t imagine giving up.” 

I ask myself, did I want this? It would be more flattering to say I didn’t, and play the role of the hermetic author whose work developed its own life purely because it was so good. But that isn’t true. 

From the moment I got a Myspace account in high school, I was publishing essays about my political views. I serialized multiple novels on Tumblr, guerilla marketing them with giveaways and custom-made images until they hit the Kindle sales charts. I have made memes, tried starting viral trends, coined phrases, and given hundreds of hours’ worth of media interviews. I write prescriptive nonfiction, for Christ’s sake. Of course people seek guidance from me. I offer it up! 

I have been strategic about how I dress, and my video backdrops, and retaken clips of myself speaking over and over again until they sounded right. I’ve hosted debates with my most vicious critics while I’m in the shower, started public beef with creators who had larger accounts than I did, and rushed to my keyboard when upsetting news broke, because I alone was possessed of the most correct take on it.

I wanted this. I didn’t know what this was, this internet fame I was chasing, but I did all I could to make it mine. I thought that by writing so much, I would one day be able to escape myself, maybe really feel connected to other people. Instead it has meant never being able to stop thinking about myself: how I am seen, what I am working on, how it all fits together, what comes next. It has also meant being spoken about, theorized about, and criticized, and developing a firm exoskeleton of disdain between myself and the world. 

I believe now that that it is immoral for any person to be listened to by ninety thousand other people. Holding authority and status like that runs counter to my anarchic ideals. I am not more important or correct than anyone. I should not be trusted to tell people which commodities to buy, which companies not to support, what to read, what to think, what words to use, or how to conduct their lives. 

All the other animals know there is no one way that a creature “should” live. There is only the way that it does. The world has no consciousness, no beliefs. It cannot pass judgment. We only feel so watched and evaluated because we have covered the planet with so many millions of our eyes. But we can stop performing dignified human goodness at any moment. 

I think that celebrity is an evil, corrupting force that pits the human instinct for bonding against itself. Instead of appreciating the singing of our friends around the fire, we stream Chappell Roan until stalkers break into her house. Rather than playing card games together, we stan Twitch streamers, filling up their chats with highlighted messages until they acknowledge us. We long to be famous novelists because then we would have the social permission to write, and we don’t have the money or time to enjoy the activity on its own. 

I wrote about Chappell Roan, stalker stans, and how turning art into content creation ruins the work, and the creator's life. It's free to read in full (or have narrated to you by the app!) on Substack.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long, bloody lineage of private equity's looting

Tomorrow (June 3) at 1:30PM, I’m in Edinburgh for the Cymera Festival on a panel with Nina Allen and Ian McDonald.

Monday (June 5) at 7:15PM, I’m in London at the British Library with my novel Red Team Blues, hosted by Baroness Martha Lane Fox.

Fans of the Sopranos will remember the “bust out” as a mob tactic in which a business is taken over, loaded up with debt, and driven into the ground, wrecking the lives of the business’s workers, customers and suppliers. When the mafia does this, we call it a bust out; when Wall Street does it, we call it “private equity.”

It used to be that we rarely heard about private equity, but then, as national chains and iconic companies started to vanish, this mysterious financial arrangement popped up with increasing frequency. When a finance bro’s presentation on why Olive Garden needed to be re-orged when viral, there was a lot off snickering about the decline of a tacky business whose value prop was unlimited carbs. But the bro was working for Starboard Value, a hedge fund that specialized in buhying out and killing off companies, pocketing billions while destroying profitable businesses.

https://www.salon.com/2014/09/17/the_real_olive_garden_scandal_why_greedy_hedge_funders_suddenly_care_so_much_about_breadsticks/

Starboard Value’s game was straightforward: buy a business, load it with debt, sell off its physical plant — the buildings it did business out of — pay itself, and then have the business lease back the buildings, bleeding out money until it collapsed. They pulled it with Red Lobster,and the point of the viral Olive Garden dis track was to soften up the company for its own bust out.

The bust out tactic wasn’t limited to mocking middlebrow family restaurants. For years, the crooks who ran these ops did a brisk trade in blaming the internet. Why did Sears tank? Everyone knows that the 19th century business was an antique, incapable of mounting a challenge in the age of e-commerce. That was a great smokescreen for an old-fashioned bust out that saw corporate looters make off with hundreds of millions, leaving behind empty storefronts and emptier pension accounts for the workers who built the wealth the looters stole:

https://prospect.org/economy/vulture-capitalism-killed-sears/

Same goes for Toys R Us: it wasn’t Amazon that killed the iconic toy retailer — it was the PE bosses who extracted $200m from the chain, then walked away, hands in pockets and whistling, while the businesses collapsed and the workers got zero severance:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/06/01/how-can-they-walk-away-with-millions-and-leave-workers-with-zero-toys-r-us-workers-say-they-deserve-severance/

It’s a good racket — for the racketeers. Private equity has grown from a finance sideshow to Wall Street’s apex predator, and it’s devouring the real economy through a string of audactious bust outs, each more consequential and depraved than the last.

As PE shows that it can turn profitable businesses gigantic windfalls, sticking the rest of us with the job of sorting out the smoking craters they leave behind, more and more investors are piling in. Today, the PE sector loves a rollup, which is when they buy several related businesses and merge them into one firm. The nominal business-case for a rollup is that the new, bigger firm is more “efficient.” In reality, a rollup’s strength is in eliminating competition. When all the pet groomers, or funeral homes, or urgent care clinics for ten miles share the same owner, they can raise prices, lower wages, and fuck over suppliers.

They can also borrow. A quirk of the credit markets is that a standalone small business is valued at about 3–5x its annual revenues. But if that business is part of a large firm, it is valued at 10–20x annual turnover. That means that when a private equity company rolls up a comedy club, ad agency or water bottler (all businesses presently experiencing PE rollup), with $1m in annual revenues, it shows up on the PE company’s balance sheet as an asset worth $10–20m. That’s $10–20m worth of collateral the PE fund can stake for loans that let it buy and roll up more small businesses.

2.9 million Boomer-owned businesses, employing 32m people, are expected to sell in the next couple years as their owners retire. Most of these businesses will sell to PE firms, who can afford to pay more for them as a prelude to a bust out than anyone intending to operate them as a productive business could ever pay:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

PE’s most ghastly impact is felt in the health care sector. Whole towns’ worth of emergency rooms, family practices, labs and other health firms have been scooped up by PE, which has spent more than $1t since 2012 on health acquisitions:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/17/the-doctor-will-fleece-you-now/#pe-in-full-effect

Once a health care company is owned by PE, it is significantly more likely to commit medicare fraud. It also cuts wages and staffing for doctors and nurses. PE-owned facilities do more unnecessary and often dangerous procedures. Appointments get shorter. The companies get embroiled in kickback scandals. PE-backed dentists hack away at children’s mouths, filling them full of root-canals.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/17/the-doctor-will-fleece-you-now/#pe-in-full-effect

The Healthcare Private Equity Association boasts that its members are poised to spend more than $3t to create “the future of healthcare.”

https://hcpea.org/#!event-list

As bad as PE is for healthcare, it’s worse for long-term care. PE-owned nursing homes are charnel houses, and there’s a particularly nasty PE scam where elderly patients are tricked into signing up for palliative care, which is never delivered (and isn’t needed, because the patients aren’t dying!). These fake “hospices” get huge payouts from medicare — and the patient is made permanently ineligible for future medicare, because they are recorded being in their final decline:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

Every part of the health care sector is being busted out by PE. Another ugly PE trick, the “club deal,” is devouring the medical supply business. Club deals were huge in the 2000s, destroying rent-controlled housing, energy companies, Mervyn’s department stores, Harrah’s, and Old Country Joe. Now it’s doing the same to medical supplies:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/14/billionaire-class-solidarity/#club-deals

Private equity is behind the mass rollup of single-family homes across America. Wall Street landlords are the worst landlords in America, who load up your rent with junk fees, leave your home in a state of dangerous disrepair, and evict you at the drop of a hat:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/16/die-miete-ist-zu-hoch/#assets-v-human-rights

As these houses decay through neglect, private equity makes a bundle from tenants and even more borrowing against the houses. In a few short years, much of America’s desperately undersupplied housing stock will be beyond repair. It’s a bust out.

You know all those exploding trains filled with dangerous chemicals that poison entire towns? Private equity bust outs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/04/up-your-nose/#rail-barons

Where did PE come from? How can these people look themselves in the mirror? Why do we let them get away with it? How do we stop them?

Today in The American Prospect, Maureen Tkacik reviews two new books that try to answer all four of these questions, but really only manage to answer the first three:

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-06-02-days-of-plunder-morgenson-rosner-ballou-review/

The first of these books is These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs — and Wrecks — America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/These-Are-the-Plunderers/Gretchen-Morgenson/9781982191283

The second is Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, by Brendan Ballou:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brendan-ballou/plunder/9781541702103/

Both books describe the bust out from the inside. For example, PetSmart — looted for $30 billion by RaymondSvider and his PE fund BC Partners — is a slaughterhouse for animals. The company systematically neglects animals — failing to pay workers to come in and feed them, say, or refusing to provide backup power to run during power outages, letting animals freeze or roast to death. Though PetSmart has its own vet clinics, the company doesn’t want to pay its vets to nurse the animals it damages, so it denies them care. But the company is also too cheap to euthanize those animals, so it lets them starve to death. PetSmart is also too cheap to cremate the animals, so its traumatized staff are ordered to smuggle the dead, rotting animals into random dumpsters.

All this happened while PetSmart’s sales increased by 60%, matched by growth in the company’s gross margins. All that money went to the bust out.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2021/09/27/the-30-billion-kitty-meet-the-investor-who-made-a-fortune-on-pet-food/

Tkacik says these books show that we’re finally getting wise to PE. Back in the Clinton years, the PE critique painted the perps as sharp operators who reduced quality and jacked up prices. Today, books like these paint these “investors” as the monsters they are — crooks whose bust ups are crimes, not clever finance hacks.

Take the Carlyle Group, which pioneered nursing home rollups. As Carlyle slashed wages, its workers suffered — but its elderly patients suffered more. Thousands of Carlyle “customers” died of “dehydration, gangrenous bedsores, and preventable falls” in the pre-covid years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/opioid-overdoses-bedsores-and-broken-bones-what-happened-when-a-private-equity-firm-sought-profits-in-caring-for-societys-most-vulnerable/2018/11/25/09089a4a-ed14-11e8-baac-2a674e91502b_story.html

KKR, another PE monster, bought a second-hand chain of homes for mentally disabled adults from another PE company, then squeezed it for the last drops of blood left in the corpse. KKR cut wages to $8/hour and increased shifts to 36 hours, then threatened to have workers who went home early arrested and charged with “patient abandonment.” Many of these homes were often left with no staff at all, with patients left to starve and stew in their own waste.

PE loves to pick on people who can’t fight back: kids, sick people, disabled people, old people. No surprise, then, that PE loves prisons — the ultimate captive audience. HIG Capital is a $55b fund that owns TKC Holdings, who got the contract to feed the prisoners at 400 institutions. They got the contract after the prisons fired Aramark, owned by PE giant Warburg Pincus, whose food was so inedible that it provoked riots. TKC got a million bucks extra to take over the food at Michigan’s Kinross Correctional Facility, then, incredibly, made the food worse. A chef who refused to serve 100 bags of rotten potatoes (“the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in my life”) was fired:

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/michigan/prison-food-worker-i-was-fired-for-refusing-to-serve-rotten-potatoes/69-467297770

TKC doesn’t just operate prison kitchens — it operates prison commissaries, where it gouges prisoners on junk food to replace the inedible slop it serves in the cafeteria. The prisoners buy this food with money they make working in the prison workshops, for $0.10–0.25/hour. Those workshops are also run by TKC.

Tkacic traces private equity back to the “corporate raiders” of the 1950s and 1960s, who “stealthily borrowed money to buy up enough shares in a small or midsized company to control its biggest bloc of votes, then force a stock swap and install himself as CEO.”

The most famous of these raiders was Eli Black, who took over United Fruit with this gambit — a company that had a long association with the CIA, who had obligingly toppled democratically elected governments and installed dictators friendly to United’s interests (this is where the term “banana republic” comes from).

Eli Black’s son is Leon Black, a notorious PE predator. Leon Black got his start working for the junk-bonds kingpin Michael Milken, optimizing Milken’s operation, which was the most terrifying bust out machine of its day, buying, debt-loading and wrecking a string of beloved American businesses. Milken bought 2,000 companies and put 200 of them through bankruptcy, leaving the survivors in a brittle, weakened state.

It got so bad that the Business Roundtable complained about the practice to Congress, calling Milken, Black, et al, “a small group is systematically extracting the equity from corporations and replacing it with debt, and incidentally accumulating major wealth.”

Black stabbed Milken in the back and tanked his business, then set out on his own. Among the businesses he destroyed was Samsonite, “a bankrupt-but-healthy company he subjected to 12 humiliating years of repeated fee extractions, debt-funded dividend payments, brutal plant closings, and hideous schemes to induce employees to buy its worthless stock.”

The money to buy Samsonite — and many other businesses — came through a shadowy deal between Black and John Garamendi, then a California insurance commissioner, now a California congressman. Garamendi helped Black buy a $6b portfolio of junk bonds from an insurance company in a wildly shady deal. Garamendi wrote down the bonds by $3.9b, stealing money “from innocent people who needed the money to pay for loved ones’ funerals, irreparable injuries, etc.”

Black ended up getting all kinds of favors from powerful politicians — including former Connecticut governor John Rowland and Donald Trump. He also wired $188m to Jeffrey Epstein for reasons that remain opaque.

Black’s shady deals are a marked contrast with the exalted political circles he travels in. Despite private equity’s obviously shady conduct, it is the preferred partner for cities and states, who buy everything from ambulance services to infrastructure from PE-owned companies, with disastrous results. Federal agencies turn a blind eye to their ripoffs, or even abet them. 38 state houses passed legislation immunizing nursing homes from liability during the start of the covid crisis.

PE barons are shameless about presenting themselves as upstanding cits, unfairly maligned. When Obama made an empty promise to tax billionaires in 2010, Blackstone founder SteveS chwarzman declared, “It’s a war. It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”

Since we’re on the subject of Hitler, this is a good spot to bring up Monowitz, a private-sector satellite of Auschwitz operated by IG Farben as a slave labor camp to make rubber and other materiel it supplied at a substantial markup to the wermacht. I’d never heard of Monowitz, but Tkacik’s description of the camp is chilling, even in comparison to Auschwitz itself.

Farben used slave laborers from Auschwitz to work at its rubber plant, but was frustrated by the logistics of moving those slaves down the 4.5m stretch of road to the facility. So the company bought 25,000 slaves — preferring children, who were cheaper — and installed them in a co-located death-camp called Monowitz:

https://www.commentary.org/articles/r-tannenbaum/the-devils-chemists-by-josiah-e-dubois-jr/

Monowitz was — incredibly — worse than Auschwitz. It was so bad, the SS guards who worked at it complained to Berlin about the conditions. The SS demanded more hospitals for the workers who dropped from beatings and overwork — Farben refused, citing the cost. The factory never produced a steady supply of rubber, but thanks to its gouging and the brutal treatment of its slaves, the camp was still profitable and returned large dividends to Farben’s investors.

Apologists for slavery sometimes claim that slavers are at least incentivized to maintain the health of their captive workforce. This was definitely not true of Farben. Monowitz slaves died on average after three months in the camp. And Farben’s subsidiary, Degesch, made the special Zyklon B formulation used in Auschwitz’s gas chambers.

Tkacik’s point is that the Nazis killed for ideology and were unimaginably cruel. Farben killed for money — and they were even worse. The banality of evil gets even more banal when it’s done in service to maximizing shareholder value.

As Farben historian Joseph Borkin wrote, the company “reduced slave labor to a consumable raw material, a human ore from which the mineral of life was systematically extracted”:

https://www.scribd.com/document/517797736/The-Crime-and-Punishment-of-I-G-Farben

Farben’s connection to the Nazis was a the subject of Germany’s Master Plan: The Story of Industrial Offensive, a 1943 bestseller by Borkin, who was also an antitrust lawyer. It described how Farben had manipulated global commodities markets in order to create shortages that “guaranteed Hitler’s early victories.”

Master Plan became a rallying point in the movement to shatter corporate power. But large US firms like Dow Chemical and Standard Oil waged war on the book, demanding that it be retracted. Borkin was forced into resignation and obscurity in 1945.

Meanwhile, in Nuremberg, 24 Farben executives were tried for their war crimes, and they cited their obligations to their shareholders in their defense. All but five were acquitted on this basis.

Seen in that light, the plunderers of today’s PE firms are part of a long and dishonorable tradition, one that puts profit ahead of every other priority or consideration. It’s a defense that wowed the judges at Nuremberg, so should we be surprised that it still plays in 2023?

Tkacik is frustrated that neither of these books have much to offer by way of solutions, but she understands why that would be. After all, if we can’t even close the carried interest tax loophole, how can we hope to do anything meaningful?

“Carried interest” comes up in every election cycle. Most of us assume it has something to do with “interest payments,” but that’s not true. The carried interest loophole relates to the “interest” that 16th-century sea captains had in their cargo. It’s a 600-year-old tax loophole that private equity bosses use to pay little or no tax on their billions. The fact that it’s still on the books tells you everything you need to know about whether our political class wants to do anything about PE’s plundering.

Notwithstanding Tkacik’s (entirely justified) skepticism of the weaksauce remedies proposed in these books, there is some hope of meaningful action. Private equity’s rollups are only possible because they skate under the $101m threshold for merger scrutiny. However, there is good — but unenforced — law that allows antitrust enforcers to block these mergers. This is the “incipiency standard” — Sec 7 of the Clayton Act — the idea that a relatively small merger might not be big enough to trigger enforcement action on its own, but regulators can still act to block it if it creates an incipient monopoly.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

The US has a new crop of aggressive — fearless — top antitrust enforcers and they’ve been systematically reviving these old laws to go after monopolies.

That’s long overdue. Markets are machines for eroding our moral values: “In comparison to non-market decisions, moral standards are significantly lower if people participate in markets.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20130607154129/https://www.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/markets-erode-moral-values

The crimes that monsters commit in the name of ideology pale in comparison to the crimes the wealthy commit for money.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Edinburgh, London, and Berlin!

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/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farbenizers

[Image ID: An overgrown graveyard, rendered in silver nitrate monochrome. A green-tinted businessman  with a moneybag in place of a head looms up from behind a gravestone. The right side of the image is spattered in blood.]

[technofeudalism]

Taller Nepantla: "So where do art and artists stand within this new techno-feudal political landscape?"

1) Artists don’t own anything.

We don’t own the studios. We don’t own the galleries. We don’t own the production of materials. We don’t own the newspapers. We don’t own the art schools and universities. We don’t own the mechanisms of art distribution. We don’t own our work. We don’t even own our own art. Artists have no labor protections and are content to work individually to perpetuate their own myth or pray to the sacred algorithm to go viral. By being atomized we are exactly like a feudal peasant of the Middle Ages, who lives in extreme precariousness giving away part of his crops to his local king. The art world, its industry, its weight, its impact, its trend, everything belongs to other people. Did you know 80% of the art-market is own by a small group of Mega Collectors? Those who control the means of artistic production control the artists.

2) By not owning anything, artists and cultural workers only rent.

We no longer sell handmade works, but instead we sell our hands for work. More and more the creative and artistic sector sells services rather than art. Artists need multiple jobs in order to invest in their art practice. Even more, just as in the feudal stage of history, we work the land in a territory that does not belong to us, the land belongs to the landowner. In this land artists will always pay rent, a tax, to the feudal lord. We use GOOGLE to send emails We upload our art to INSTAGRAM We educate ourselves through YOUTUBE We communicate through TIKTOK We pay to use ADOBE SUIT We buy materials through AMAZON We move through UBER We send files through WETRANSFER Every time we use these platforms, we generate money for the feudal lords.

The art world depends on these platforms, which collect our information and our data, to sell.

When a service is free, our attention is the product. That is, it is impossible for an artist to establish himself as an artist without generating money for the landowners who own the technological platforms. That is, the art world depends on these products. It is impossible to be an artist without using these technologies. Techno-feudalism keeps artists in a situation of -permanent-precariousness dependence on technological platforms. Just like in medieval times, peasants live off the crumbs offered by the crown, living in a house, working on land, and eating food that does not belong to them. Technocapitalists don’t want artists to own the means of artistic reproduction. Technocapitalist instead build a world where everything is rented. Every stage of artistic production from how you imagine an artwork, how you study an artwork, how you draft and artwork, how you build an artwork, how you show an artwork, how you distribute an artwork, how you perceive an artwork, and how you think about an artwork, is all determined by apps and tools which you rented from a tech corporation.

3) Artists SUBSIDIZE the profits of technological platforms.

That is, we pay an inflated price for these services directly from our pockets. The art world depends on the underpaid work of our services. If there were fair wages in the art world, then the entire pyramid wuld be destroyed precisely because it depends on the fact that most artists do not earn a fair wage. All the art we produce and share is being used to train algorithms to better sell us products. When a platform is free, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, we are the product that is sold. Even more, artists subsidize the entire artworld. We work for free. We work for low wages. We work for exposure. We are the “volunteer army” Jerry Saltz brags about. The artworld benefits from not paying us what we deserve.

4) The entire art world depends on the platforms of the Clouds.

All museums, galleries, fairs, biennials, and auctions depend on the technological infrastructure dominated by feudal landowners. In other words, there is a dependence on these technologies in order to promise an interconnected, cosmopolitan, and immediate “art world.” The feudal landowners who own the technological platforms, having no competition, can impose whatever price they want, and the art world must obey. They can raise prices without losing customers. The price we pay to use TechnoCapitalist services is completely arbitrary. It does not correspond with the quality of the service but rather to the whims of the landlords. One day, black ink for printing is free, the next day it costs $5.99 a month as a part of a subscription package. We are looking at you Anish Kapoor.

5) The algorithm decides what counts as talent as long as it can generate profits.

Algorithms are increasingly deciding what counts as “value.” Major collectors will be able to systematize the works on the market in order to deduce, through algorithms, the value of a work and whether it is a good investment. The algorithm has more power than art critics and art historians. An artist will then adapt to the algorithmic trends of his time, in order to go viral. A work of art that goes viral can change the artist’s life. NFT’s are just one example of techno-feudal experiments in the arts. NFT’s promise decentralization and transparency, but end up replicating the worst aspects of capitalism, feudalism, and what new technologies can do.

In short, the art world is interconnected with techno-feudalism. We artists are technologically and socially dependent on a system that exploits us. It is important to increase media literacy so that artists can build alternative technological systems to cut dependence on monopolistic companies. A king’s mindset is always to grown and conquer. In the end, the artworld’s investment in techno-feudalism will actively bring the destruction of other smaller artworlds in the global south. Techno-feudalism will produce a homogenized, sanitized, apolitical universal art, that privileges creations that protect the artworlds overlords."

[foxaftershocks]

Ghost Boy (Lars Pinfield x f!Reader)

Synopsis: You and Lars have a pretty contentious relationship. Until you don't

Words: 3.1k

Basically some fun enemies to lovers stuff

“What is this?”

You looked up from your laptop, fingers stilling on the keyboard. Dr Lars Pinfield, the bane of your existence and the most combative towards your work, was standing over you, holding up a phone. The screen was playing a video, a TikTok edit of him around the lab playing with one of those viral songs.

“A video,” you replied with a small shrug.

“Why would you post this to the internet?” he demanded.

“I’m the lab’s social media manager. What do you want from me? I’m giving the people what they want,” you replied, already tired of the conversation.

Lars had never understood the point of you in the lab. You weren’t a scientist like the rest of them, but you were a one person communication team, educated in science communication and marketing. You were there to ensure their reputation continued to soar and they continued to get funding for their experiments and tech. It was a pretty simple concept. You let the world know how cool they were, and they could continue doing what they wanted.

Lars hated it. He’d made it clear that he thought there was no point to you being there and that you only got in the way of the real science. He hadn’t realised how the modern day functioned in so many ways. You were the one writing the press releases. You rewrote the grant applications that got them money. You explained exactly what it was they were doing so people couldn’t complain about their secrecy.

In truth, it was your dream job. You got to hang out with all kinds of paranormal phenomena and then show the world how cool the lab was. Your friends had grown tired of you constantly talking about, and yet you couldn’t stop. So for one of the scientists, the one you probably admired the most in the entire lab, to be so dismissive of your work was crushing.

“No one wants this,” he snapped.

“Really?” You raised a single eyebrow at him, “videos and photos with you in them perform the best. People demand to know who you are. They want more of you. So I made a tongue in cheek video acknowledging that. It is our best performing video.”

You were never going to admit that you fully understood why people liked the video so much. You felt like you might be half of the views by yourself. You’d never admit it, but that nerd had something about him. If you didn’t know any better, you might think you had a crush on him. Which would just be stupid.

“You’re meant to be telling people about the science,” he said, “that’s why you’re here. Not for this shit.”

“That shit is the foot in the door that gets people in to listen to the science,” you replied, waiting for him to understand something he never would.

“No one is listening to any science with this,” he snapped.

“What’s wrong, Lars? Does getting attention from women scare you? Not used to it so you don’t know how to react?” You laughed.

He scowled at you before storming off, muttering under his breath, most likely insulting you. You rolled your eyes, going back to the press release you’d been working on before he’d interrupted you. Something crashed in the background and you rolled your eyes again.

The next time he found you, you were filming in front of the containment units, explaining how proton streams were used in the trapping of ghosts. His phone was thrust in front of your face and you sighed.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“Hello to you too, Lars. Is the science cooperating today?” You smiled sweetly up at him.

“You posted another one,” he snarled.

“The ladies were clamouring for it. I can’t disappoint our audience,” you replied, “now if you’ll excuse me I’m trying to talk about actual science, Lars. You probably don’t understand it. What I’m doing is very complicated.”

You gently patted him on the shoulder, giving him a faux commiserating look. His scowl darkened and you pouted up at him.

“Stop doing this,” he said.

“I hate to tell you this, ghost boy, but people like pretty people being the ones to tell them stuff. So I’ll keep posting your pretty face, and then they’ll listen to me be smart with the science. ‘Kay?”

“No, not “’kay”.” He used air quotes which made you glower up at him, “I’m the scientist. I’ll talk about the science.”

“Sure. How about you take over? I’m sure I’m not nearly as good as you at explaining proton streams without using all that technobabble you like so much,” you said, stepping back from him to let him take over the video.

“I don’t have time for this. I’m doing actual science,” he said.

“Whatever you say, ghost boy. But your fans will be disappointed,” you said with a small shrug.

He looked to the camera then back at you, adjusting his glasses on his nose. You offered him a winning smile and he shook his head.

“Fine. You’re probably getting the science wrong anyway,” he said.

You grinned to yourself as you skirted around him, standing behind the phone set up with the ring light. You gestured for him to start speaking but he looked at you blankly.

“I was explaining how the proton streams capture ghosts,” you said.

“Well, they’re made of a stream of positively charged ions which counters the negative charge of the ghosts,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing.

“Sure, and what are ions?” you asked.

“Ions are just atoms or groups of atoms that are charged positively or negatively,” he replied, “obviously ours are charged positively.”

“And how do they get that way?”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. You could feel the smirk on your face, his obvious frustration only making the moment sweeter. You sauntered back into frame, shoving him over to stand beside him, looking into the camera.

“So atoms are made up of three things. Protons, which have a positive charge, neutrons, which are neutral, and then you have the electrons which have a negative charge. The protons and the neutrons are together in the middle of the atom as the nucleus, and then the electron orbits around the nucleus. Depending on how many protons and electrons their are, atoms can have different charges, which is how they bond together into molecules,” you said, turning to look at him at the end to see how he was reacting.

“Everyone knows that,” he scoffed.

“Do they?” you asked, “not everyone pays attention in their science classes. Plenty of people don’t even turn up to them. Start with the basics and build up to the more complicated stuff.”

He rolled his eyes but he gestured for you to continue.

“Right, so if ions are made up of atoms then the charge is to do with how many protons and electrons those atoms have. Our proton streams use positively charged ions, meaning there are more protons than electrons,” you said, back to the camera.

“Our proton packs can strip the electrons from the atoms to positively charge the proton streams. And because ghosts are negatively charged, the proton streams hold them in place so we can lower them into the trap which holds them until they can be brought to a containment unit just like this one,” Lars said, gently patting the red metal door behind him.

“So there you go, Gina. That’s why you always see the ghostbusters with those massive backpacks on when they’re running around the city,” you said.

“That’s it?” he asked, sounding incredulous, “that’s the entire thing?”

“Bite sized science. Short enough to not lose their attention, factual enough that they learn something,” you said.

You weren’t sure how to interpret the look on his face but you didn’t have time to unpack it before he walked off, not even bothering with a goodbye. You chuckled, stopping the recording and taking your equipment back to your desk.

Editting the video, you couldn’t help but smile at the screen. There was something about watching your interaction with Lars that had you laughing to yourself. You shouldn’t have found it as amusing as you did. Something in your chest began to warm as you watched it over and over again. Eventually you had to slam your laptop and focus on something else or else you’d just watch him on repeat.

You had to ignore that it was one of the better performing science explainer videos you’d posted in quite some time.

“Hey, ghost boy,” you said, sauntering up to his desk a few days later.

His eyes were slow to look up at you. You held out the bag of chips you were eating, offering him some. He considered you a moment before his hand slipped into the bag. You rested against the edge of his desk, looking down at his work.

“Whatcha working on?” you asked.

“What do you want?” he asked rather than replying.

“Well, I was thinking since our last video did so well, we should do some more. Between your pretty face and my words we’d be unstoppable,” you said.

His eyes ran over you from behind those thick framed glasses and you found yourself feeling nervous about his answer. It wasn’t like you’d asked him on a date. His answer didn’t matter that much.

“I have better things to be doing with my time. Like actual science,” he replied, looking away from you.

“So you don’t want people to know about what you do?” you asked, “you don’t like talking about science with me?”

You saw a flush climb up his neck. You nudged his shoulder, offering him a wide smile.

“C’mon. We were amazing. Despite your personality issues, we make a pretty good team,” you said.

He muttered something under his breath that you didn’t quite catch. You lent closer, hoping to hear the acerbic comment you were sure he was making. He reared back, as if your presence was offending him, something so disgusting he couldn’t bare it. Your stomach swooped and you drew back again quickly.

“Never mind then. Clearly you’re so much busier than me and don’t have time for anything but nerd shit,” you said, “keep the chips.”

You got out of there as quickly as possible, not sure you’d be able to handle looking at his stupidly cute face anymore. The pressure behind your eyes was allergies, nothing to do with him. And the shame was just part and parcel for working on the internet.

You definitely were not feeling so bad because of Lars Pinfield.

Something made a soft noise as it was placed onto your desk. Raising your head from the cushioned position it had on your folded arms, you found the sweet scent of coffee wafting towards you. You reached for the mug, taking a long drink from it before looking up.

Lars was standing a few steps away, watching you. You gave him a small smile, sipping from the mug again. He readjusted his glasses, still watching you and you weren’t sure how to react. It had been a few days since you’d spoken to him, keeping your distance after the disaster that was your last conversation.

“Thanks, ghost boy,” you said, voice quiet.

“You were practically asleep at your desk. Who else is going to bother the scientists?” he replied.

“Aw, you do care,” you said, “have you been missing me?”

He scoffed.

“Or maybe you’re just jealous that I’ve been bothering all the other scientists instead of you,” you said, hiding your smile behind the rim of your coffee mug.

He couldn’t meet your gaze.

And then it hit you.

“You know my coffee order,” you said, looking down into the mug.

“I’m observant,” he replied, adjusting his glasses again, still not looking at you.

“Careful, ghost boy, or I’ll think there’s some sweetness under all that spice.”

That flush again. You wanted to know what it meant. You stood, ignoring him when he took a step back. Your fingers were soft when they brushed against the flushed skin, warm under your touch.

“What are you doing?” he asked, batting at your hand.

“You’re blushing,” you said.

Your fingers were still resting against his neck. You could feel how fast his pulse was thrumming and when you looked up into his face you found wide blue eyes staring down at you. Pink lips were parted and you felt frozen, caught up in his gaze.

You blink and he tore himself away.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said before quickly retreating.

Once again you were left feeling stupid, like you’d been rejected by your crush. The whiplash was staggering. You fell back into your chair, robotically drinking the coffee he’d made for you. You hated that it was perfect. You hated that he’d run away from you. You hated that he could make you feel like this.

It all came to a head a week later. You’d been avoiding him, and if your gut was right, he was avoiding you too. It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. None of it had been making any sense to you.

You were in the middle of setting up a shot of one of the ghosts when raised voices began to grow closer. You ignored it, used to the outbreak of arguments in the lab. Stress and frustration were not unusual in the parapsychology field.

“She’s making a mockery of us.”

Oh yes, you knew that voice.

“Lars, she’s just doing her job,” Winston said.

“She’s a distraction,” Lars said.

Turning the corner he looked furious. You blinked at him and he blinked back, clearly not expecting you to be right there.

“I hired her for this. There’s been a significant decrease in online outcry about the work going on here. The news hasn’t complained about the Ghostbusters in weeks. People seem to finally be understanding what we do here,” Winston said.

“Everything she does makes fun of us online. No one is taking us seriously here. Have you seen those videos of me she’s been posting? She doesn’t care about the science and she certainly doesn’t understand how important our work is here,” Lars complained.

“Are you kidding me?” burst from you, “do you seriously think I don’t care about this place?”

“I know you don’t. You wouldn’t make light of everything we do here if you did,” he replied, pointing his finger at you, “you have no idea how brilliant we are.”

“Seriously? You were a laughing stock before I got here. I did the research. I know how people talked about you. Because of me people understand what you do here. I write all your press releases so the news isn’t making fun of you. I rewrite all of your grant applications so you have money. I make it clear that what you’re doing here is very serious business and not just fucking around with ghosts. And if you think I don’t care, then you’re not as smart as you think you are. Of course I know how brilliant you are, Lars. I’m the person constantly telling the world exactly how brilliant you are. So don’t think I don’t know because I do. Probably better than anyone.”

He strode towards you, something fierce on his face. You held your ground, not going to be cowed by him again. You were sick and tired of him constantly looking down on your work just because it wasn’t science. He had no right to complain about you or the work you did.

He stopped in front of you and you stared up at him, waiting for the next acidic words out of his mouth. Instead, both of his hands came up to cup your cheeks and he was pulling you in. His lips landed on yours and you felt yourself freeze. He kissed you harder and you melted, hands landing on his chest.

Oh.

So that’s what the flush was about.

It took until Winston cleared his throat for the two of you to break apart. You looked up into his face, at a loss for words.

“I think I’ll leave you two to sort this out between you,” Winston said, “but I doubt you’re going to want her to leave now.”

He chuckled as he left, sauntering away from the two of you.

“You kissed me,” you said.

“I’ll do it again if you’re not careful,” he replied.

“You have to take me to dinner first.” You gently tapped his nose, “or agree to film more videos with me. You do kind of owe me. You did try to get me fired.”

“Fine,” he grumbled.

“Why do you hate them so much?” you asked, “are you actually uncomfortable with scores of women finding you hot? Because if so you should know that I’m one of those women that finds you hot.

“Of course you do. I don’t like the ones about me because it’s not about the science. They shouldn’t care about how I look but about what I do,” he said.

“And the one where we explained the proton streams?” you asked.

“It was so obvious how I feel about you in that one. People were talking about it in the comments. It wasn’t about the science, just speculation about our relationship. And I thought if you saw it you might… realise exactly how I feel about you,” he said with a soft sigh.

“Aw, ghost boy, I think I’ve figured it out.” You reached up, running your fingers through his hair, just like you’d once spent too long imagining doing, “and who cares if they’er speculating about our relationship. They’re still listening to the science as they do it. Foot in the door.”

His hands landed on your hips, pulling you a half a step closer.

“I suppose I can force myself to film some more videos with you,” he murmured.

“I think you’ll like the rewards you get if you do,” you whispered.

“Oh?” His nose brushed against yours.

“How about we do a pilot study right now?” you breathed.

“It’s so hot when you talk science to me,” he said.

Your lips pressed to his again and you sighed into his mouth. You thought you could kiss him for hours, doing nothing but melting into him until you didn’t know where you stopped and he begun. His arms curled around your waist and you found your back hitting the cool glass of the ghost’s prison, pressed against it with his body moulding to yours.

“Your hypothesis seems to be correct. I think I will like my rewards for filming your videos,” he murmured against your lips.

You kissed him again in response.

[klbmsw]

Superstar Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg goes viral for a knockout takedown of Donald Trump's collapsing presidential campaign.

This is one for the books…

"I think you were exactly right to describe it as distraction. The challenge of course is you have to say something if he attacks the service of military service members who earned the Medal of Honor," Buttigieg said to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.

"If he, you know, goes to the National Associaton of Black Journalists and blurts out something racist, obviously you have to deal with that," said Buttigieg. "But you have to deal with that quickly and then come right back to our message."

"Because I do think this is a kind of strategy. You might ask why would a politician do things like that but you know going all the way back to the days of him denigrating the service of John McCain, it's very clear that he does this for a reason," he continued.

"It's a twofold reason," Buttigieg explained. "One, is he wants people talking about him. And then two, he wants people not talking about the difference between our agenda and his agenda especially when you look at Project 2025."

"It's an amazing thing that Project 2025 is kind of the scandal of the year for the Republicans, the thing that they have had to do the most damage control around," he went on.

"Because look at what Project 2025 is. It's just their policies. It's nothing but a write-up of what they plan to do and they really don't want the American people focused on how Trump is about tax cuts for the rich and we're trying to make sure we have a fairer tax code," said Buttigieg.

"Or Donald Trump demolished the right to choose in this country. Now, Kamala Harris will lead the work to restore that right to choose," he continued.

"Or any other issue from climate to gun safety to education. You name it. Where the American people strongly agree with us and strongly disagree with him," he went on. "They don't want us talking about that. They don't want us talking about his record, results that even if you go by the measures that conservatives tend to pay the most attention to — like crime rates — that was worse under Donald Trump."

"If you're one of those folks who thinks of the economy in terms of the stock market — you know there's a lot more to the economy than the stock market but to some people that's pretty much the same thing — the DOW and S&P were worse under Donald Trump than they were under Biden and Harris," said Buttigieg.

"Energy production! One of the things you hear Republicans talk the most about. Domestic energy production is higher under Biden and Harris than it was under Trump,” he continued. “He can't afford for us to be talking about that so every couple days he's going to blurt out something outrageous so that we're talking about that instead."

As usual, Buttigieg's analysis is incisive and spot-on. Trump has no popular policies to run on so he's resorting to cheap tricks and distractions.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are offering a vision of a brighter future. Under their leadership, America will flourish and leave the fascist MAGA movement in

[canmom]

a big mercy in the world is that it's actually much harder to hijack someone's behaviour with some kinda visual stimulus than capital would like.

so despite the constant semiotic fusillades of advertisers trying to 'shit in your brain' as the ad hacking slogan goes, you still get better at shutting it out. the advertisers have to resort to more and more desperate means to try to get you to buy product. of course they sell this to their clients as subtle behavioral modifications that manifest without the target even realising. but despite the occasional breakout viral success, it's mostly just a zero sum desperate battle to remind you that they exist at all. most ad exposures are wasted on people who either were never going to buy the thing or were already going to buy the thing. advertisers mostly just copy other advertisers and follow fads but present themselves as the key to success like a court alchemist to a king. overall it's a cancer swallowing up more and more of its host.

this does not make it any less annoying.

anyway, ads are only one part of marketing, and since they kind of suck, the modern method to promote your shit is to try to get 'organic' promotion through word of mouth, positive user reviews on a storefront, etc. so of course many companies cultivate 'influencers', post shill reviews, buy fake metrics, and all that. since all these mechanisms then become immediately less trustworthy, an arms race develops of trying to camouflage the fake marketing speech as 'genuine', 'honest', 'unbiased' etc. the result of this on communication is bad, there's chaff everywhere, but once again the effort of the marketer trying to control you bounces off the wall that people hate it and will not go along with it if they can help it.

a more subtle approach is to just try and cultivate people assigning themselves the role of reviewer. this can create something a bit more symbiotic. the reviewer gets to build an identity out of consuming product and being a discerning connoisseur, and the stuff they like gets free marketing written about it. hence sites like goodreads and letterboxd. not only that but when the thing they like does well, the reviewer gets to feel proud that they acted as a kingmaker.

one weird upshot of all this is that a small company will get really worked up about a negative review on a platform from some rando and go out of their way to placate them. i feel like we're going to see more people exploiting this - ig the gacha mra shit in korea is in part a ripple of that, though those cunts went a lot further than just review bombing.

anyway I've participated in this machine. arguably all the writing about fiction i do on this blog is feeding into it. when i think about it, i think it stinks, but I'm not sure what else to do. there are authors i admire, and who are my friends, i want them to be read by people and have bread on the table.

obviously just because there are powerful actors whose primary concern is moving product doesn't reduce all the discussion of art to elaborate games around moving product. in some sense the 'product review' form is an invading force, best disregarded. but i feel like it would be unwise to ignore the ecological mechanisms underlying what gets made and how and what makes its way to my eyeballs... and how my own behaviours belong to that ecosystem. even if it's depressing to think in those terms.

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Swifts lyrics are so incredibly weak and inconsistent. I feel like she writes 1 or 2 lines with the intention of that becoming the tiktok sound of the week or a trending instagram caption and then half asses the rest. I wouldn't say I enjoy any of them, but some of her lines stick out from the rest of the song. She obviously doesn't care about the instrumentals and half the lyrics are mindless repetition for easy memorization. It all just seems like a lazy, self serving money hoarder got ahold of a synth and won't let anybody forget it.

This interesting- because I think you're quite right about it. She really wants her music to do well on Tik Tok.

It's embarrassing. I know there was a big buzz about the fact that she used the "Bejeweled" dance move that Tik Tok created on her tour. Swifties went nuts about it- and I saw a bunch of posts about "omg Mother cares about us" so her use of social media is clearly calculated. She knows that if she acknowledges anything that Tik Tokers make up- like a dance move, she is more likely to tap into that audience market and thus more likely to go viral.

What's odd about all this- is that I can't help but to wonder how she thinks this is going to last forever? She so clearly wants to be considered one of the greatest musicians to ever exist- yet all she does is pander to children.

I don't think she understands that her self-serving melodrama is not what creates long-lasting art.

For instance, "Hamlet" is full of melodrama- yet it is also a really nuanced mediation on the interrelation of the state and the metaphysical implications of family disrepair against the concept of national identity. Like the play is, yes, about some family drama, but it's also about something much more serious. It's the type of theme that will last forever and can be applied to the ailments of any nation on Earth forever- because it is a uniquely human subjectivity that drives onwards the constant shifting pressure of politics and identity.

Shakespeare managed to both have fart jokes in his plays and write about some of the most serious topics on Earth in the same breath- that is why his work will last forever.

Taylor Swift's work, however, is written for the ever-passing attention of the internet. She relies too much on pure subjectivity, and capturing brief, though meteoric, moments of public attention. It's made her a legacy of selfishness and melodrama- and very little else.

[agentnico]

Dune: Part Two (2024) review

I’m fully aware that the Dune sequel has been hit by acclaim from both critics and audiences, and I shall share my own thoughts in due course, but also whilst presenting itself as a serious and sophisticated piece of artsy science fiction tackling challenging themes of religion and politics, from a marketing standpoint this film has been a major farcical meme. From the popcorn buckets shaped like suggestive sand worms (or more so accurately as deformed buttholes) to the viral TikTok video of an unnamed man riding a makeshift sand worm around a cinema lobby on his way to Arrakis, or more likely to one of the gazillion screenings of Dune: Part Two. But yes, absolutely mad bonkers advertising techniques, and not at all reflective of how seriously and straight faced the actual film plays. Anyway, let’s talk Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuneee…..

Plot: Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he must prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Controversial opinion - I was not a fan of the first Dune. I thought it was all spectacle and no substance, and even then in regards to said spectacle, it was just sand. Lots of sand and bland dark visuals. I understand that the first movie acts as a massive exposition piece with lots of world building and introductions of all the characters and various political families and the spice trade and all that sweet jazz, but honestly it all felt so dragged out. Also a lot of narrative choices felt really immature and I did not buy it. In fact, the only memorable part for me was that female voice screaming on the music score every time something crazy happened, and my does that woman have some strong vocal pipe work! Like damn, her screams…. I really felt them!

Going into Dune: Part Two, I was very much of two mindsets. One was more so a feeling of obligation to watch it, as I wasted 3 hours of my life watching the first one that I felt I deserved some kind of closure for my efforts. The other being Denis Villeneuve. Aside from the first Dune, he’s a director that has constantly impressed me with his unique vision and style. Simply look at his past filmography! Prisoners. Enemy. Arrival. Sicario. All impressive pieces of genre filmmaking. Then there’s Blade Runner 2049, that took the classic Ridley Scott movie and managed to improve on it and become one of the most thrilling science fiction epics of the last decade. Also the trailers looked appropriately exciting, and it seemed like the second movie was actually gonna deal with some serious shit finally. Again, my problem with the first Dune wasn’t that it was slow. I mean, I can happily watch Paris, Texas any day of the week and be mesmerised by the empty yet beautiful takes of the American desert. It’s more-so that the first Dune felt aimless and messy. As for Dune: Part Two?

Well, if we’re going to use The Lord of the Rings terminology, and boy am I happy to refer to the dear-to-my-heart Middle Earth whenever I have the chance, then Dune: Part Two holds the scale of The Two Towers. I may not agree with all of it, and there are still some moments that drag, though The Two Towers is also guilty of that - I’m looking at you Treebeard! But overall this is one hell of a cinematic experience and achievement. Visually for one this is eye-candy. And yes, yet again there’s lots of sand, but this time around Villeneuve manages to find very creative ways to add/take away colour to make many sequences truly impressive. There’s an early scene where the Fremen are fighting Harkonnen goons in the desert and the entire thing is seeped in this blood orange palette, reminiscent of the Martian Chronicles, and then there’s the part where we are introduced to the Harkonnen home planet where the entire screen is drenched in hardcore intense black-and-white due to their sun only giving out white and black light, and instead of fireworks there are these watercolour stroked exploding in the sky, to of course the much talked about eye-dropping sand worm riding into battle scene that had the feel of the giant elephants appearing in The Return of the King, and yes that was another most delightful reference to Lord of the Rings! As I was saying though, the entire movie visually is certainly something to be in awe of.

Also Hans Zimmer’s score!! Of course the man’s a genius, having composed so many of cinema’s greatest musical compositions. I can recommend his Live in Prague performance! Hit after hit, and I find myself spinning it on my record player a good few times. Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two soundtrack feels like a thunderously bombastic continuation and expansion of the first film’s more quiet and moody opener, and that shift in tone allows for some truly spectacular weaving of the composer’s thematic tapestry for Dune – with the finest new thread being the absolutely gorgeous love theme for Paul and Chani. A truly beautiful piece that echoes the heartbreaking tragic nature of the central romance of the film. Needless to say I’ve already pre-ordered the limited edition coloured vinyl of Dune 2’s soundtrack from Mutant (the new Mondo).

As for the narrative, as that is where I felt the first film faltered the most in my humble opinion (which I share so publicly online). I really do feel like the sequel is a major set up, for since the first one focused more on the endless word building and set-ups, this movie is all about the character developments. The scope is still big with the various political and religious elements that are tackled and explored throughout, however at the same time Dune: Part Two manages to feel more intimate compared to its predecessor, with the unravelling of the romance between Paul and Chani, but more so the inner struggles of Paul Atreides, as he tries to balance his emotions of revenge with the feeling of wanting to belong somewhere, as well as his denial of being called the so-called Messiah to the Fremen people. Look, the idea of the chosen one has been a concept that has been done over and over again, however I felt here they managed to really make it feel unique and different, with Paul choosing not to take this major responsibility due to visions of the future where he sees this choice result in darkness and dread, yet at the same time realising he has no choice but to follow his destiny and calling. It’s powerful stuff.

The cast list is stacked in this one. Timothee Chalamet is a rising star, having previously excelled his dramatic chops in Call Me by Your Name and his charismatic whimsy in last year’s Wonka, but this is by far his most impressive acting feat. You truly feel his character turning from boy to man, and it’s a real and raw performance. Zendaya shares great chemistry with him, but also in her own right gives a strong turn as a warrior Fremen conflicted with what she sees and thinks. Javier Bardem’s Stilgar adds a slice of surprising humour to the mix, being so obsessed with Paul being part of the prophecy that anything he’d do, Stilgar would find that to be part of what has been foretold. Paul Atreides could literally fart and Stilgar would observe in wonder proclaiming “as it was written”. There’s also a tiny No Country for Old Men reunion with Bardem being joined by Josh Brolin, who’s alright by the way, though it’s a typical Brolin brute role. Charlotte Rampling as the Reverend Mother continues being truly despicable and honestly that wench deserves to be put in her place - the movie’s ending is very satisfying in this regard. There’s also some newcomers to the Dune world too. Florence Pugh as the Princess reminded me a lot of Padme from Star Wars, and Christopher Walken I felt was tad miscast as the Emperor. Don’t get me wrong, Walken is a great actor, but his way of speech has been impersonated and overdone so many times that it is difficult to take him seriously in a role like this. Minus a couple of strong deliveries Walken felt really lazy here. You know who wasn’t lazy though? Austin Butler! This guy understood the assignment, playing the psychotic nutter Feyd-Rautha and he’s truly unrecognisable. Even his voice is different. Gone is Elvis and in cometh his Skarsgard impression! He’s brutal and maniacal and was honestly superb, and I wish there was more of him in this movie.

Again, it’s far from a perfect movie. There are parts still that drag, and certain times where things feel surprisingly rushed, but overall this is an experience through and through, and unlike my feelings after the first film, here I find myself really looking forward to the inevitable third part. In fact f*ck it, who am I kidding - this movie is bloody incredible!! Like I can’t even - it’s abso-fricking-lutely spectacular!! And by the way I read a bit about the Frank Herbert Dune books now and the future sequels are gonna be mad, just saying. Paul’s son becomes this half-man half-worm known as the God Emperor! Things are gonna get weird! Anyway, Dune: Part Two - go see it if you haven’t already. And in Austin Butler’s voice: “may thy knife chip and shatter”.

Overall score: 9/10

[cementcornfield]

so at first i had a heart attack when i saw this viral tweet

because holy shit's that's 40 million per year ja'marr!!!

but then i saw joe goodberry (whom i have a love/hate relationship with 🥲) breaking it down on his twitter

and

so like, frankly, 32 per year over the next 6 years is incredibly reasonable for what ja'marr has brought and will continue to bring to this team! plus he can get the headlines that he's making more than justin (which i'm sure is important to him lmao) but he won't actually be (which i do think is fair. argue all you want about who the actual better receiver is, justin does have stats on his side at this point).

i'm sure the sticking point with the brown family is all that guaranteed money. but they DID give joe the most guaranteed money ever, and i think they also gave orlando more guaranteed money than they ever have for a tackle? i think they are getting there in terms of keeping up with how the market works these days, but they're gonna be kicking and screaming the whole time 🙃

[penguinlife]

Just an observation.

Last Wednesday, we had our year-end braai (bbq) at the office. I don't follow reality shows, but some of my colleagues do. As we were sitting around making small talk, as one does as a work event. They told me that the reality stars get paid according to online buzz. I was shocked, and they came with receipts. Now, this is specific to South Africa as all the articles they could find were specific to South African versions of American shows, but something about that made me think. Netflix was in charge of the WT. They had all those fan events that have been unique to Bridgerton. Did they have a separate contract/bonus deal with Nic and Luke similar to the reality show actors? Remember what a fan of reality shows Nic are? Also, she met Andrew Garfield at that event that Amelia from the Chicken Shop Date also were at, and it was literally the next day that it was leaked that he and Florence didn't hear cut when filming a love scene. It didn't garner the same buzz that the carriage scene did, but it is suspicious none the less. Also, remember the insane buz Andrew and Amelia got for their Chicken Shop Date episode and also remember that Andrew is also Nics costar in The Magic Faraway Tree. I am not saying the WT was all fake. We, as a fandom, would have spotted it by now. I think they leaned into the unnatural chemistry, and it sparked real feelings again.

I always find it funny when people think they can control SM and manipulate 'viral' as the old people call it. Why is one cat video viral but not all? Because no one can truly control the SM machine. I have completed enough social media marketing courses to know that no one can control it. Authenticity always outsells. Think of "Who the fuck did I marry" viral 62 part TikTok series. Nic is also a fan, btw. So it comes down to money, Antonia had caused Luke to miss out on some of his bonus when the fans turned on him. Nic tried to save the situation with her posts. Because she thinks herself to be more Social Media wise. But when the WT ended, so did their contractual obligation. But social media and the fandon are not a switch you can turn on and off. Their real feelings have become collateral damage, in my opinion. I stand by that they hooked up between Brazil and Italy. My theory in that has not changed.

A comment on Luke and A: Do you remember that friend post of them at the table at a wedding? Luke ran his hand up her arm in that very loveable way in June/July, if I remember correctly? That sold their relationship for me. But in my theory above, it was also before he found out how much papgate cost him. A knows about the bonus contract, and that is why Luke is still liking her posts. To give the illusion that they are still together. They definitely broke up in August/September. This all being said, we should be kind to them and not judge them too harshly. They were still mostly struggling actors until before the WT. It wasn't a normal press tour. Their relationship is more real and authentic than what any marketing team can come up with. My hope is still that they will rekindle what they had during the fliming of S3 and the WT.

As I am typing the next part, I realise this is going to infuriate some. Nic used JD at the festival to try and stop the Lukola train. He is a willing participant and friend, trying to catch some rays. But this is where Nic missed the authenticity part. Only a very small part of the fandom fell for it. She wanted the heat off of her and Luke before S4 filming started. I bet the end of the WT was super uncomfortable.

Now the sad part is, I have read some Benophie fan comments who are saying Polin is going to overshadow S4. Well, for the record. What Jess and her team did with Benedicts' story in S3 is to blame for it. Unless Paul is joining their love story in a throuple, what was the point.

[victimeyez]

Drabble: Tommy being accidentally hurt by one of the guys (like fingers between the door). They feel sorry for tommy’s pain and panic because he doesnt know what he did wrong.

This is not a bad idea at all, BUT - I think you are giving too much credit to the guys, lol. I should really include more of them bc I know I haven't explained hardly anything but, here's some lore dump I might someday figure out a way to wiggle in.

"Michelle" (Micheal, pronounced the french way, he is french-canadian) founded the business. Like many other kids on the internet, he stumbled across some rough sites with beheading videos and other shock factor stuff. Micheal was fascinated and started seeking them out, learning how to get into the deep web and exploring black market and black media sites.

Got a job at a Best Buy in Quebec, moved to IT, held off on the deep web shit for a while after a security scare. But he knew the kind of money people were making on the black market for way less work than he was doing, as long as they were willing to accept the risks. He got burnt out on working in a handful of years. Saw what other people were doing and came up with the first iteration of the business.

He and Rory met at an unrelated conference, but ended up partying and realized they kinda matched each other's freak. Micheal hated customer service and being the face, but Rory was great at it and had his own sadistic appetites. Michael shared the business idea but was still unsure about a lot of the factors, and luckily Rory knew exactly who they needed.

Rory and Caius worked at the same insurance agency, and had kinda picked up on each other's vibes after a little while working together. Both are unstable, but when one was out of control the other was good at talking them down, and vice versa. Rory had also bent an ear to Caius's relationship woes - (insert Homer Simpson crying "why does everything I whip leave me?!?!) lol. So they formed their little dream team.

Rory and Micheal seem a lot more hands off bc I don't spend hardly any time on their work, but they are no saints. Editing videos of Tommy to send to an encrypted paid subscription, creating ads, following viral darkweb trends, manually finding and targeting users with violent interests and deep wallets, you name it. Micheal stays up on security as well, but this work was his idea in the first place, he's pretty happy.

I spend less time on them because...

I have no idea how the dark web or online black market works and I am terrible with technology

I don't have the characters fleshed out as much, but that's doable to fix

I worry it is less interesting than the more direct whump between Caius and Tommy, as well as clients. But I'd like to work them in more, plan some chapters where they shoot "ads" with Tommy to take advantage of trends, and expand the universe a little bit with the other "entrepreneurs" they meet and how they link up with clients. I want to expand into them also taking video requests for stuff Caius can do to Tommy.

So, I don't have a good drabble for it, but I hope a lore dump will suffice for now. Thank you so much for writing in!

[literaticat]

Are successful authors ever industry plants? Is nepotism big in this industry?

I read about certain authors being industry plants (Alex Aster) but I just don’t understand how that would work…or why they would choose someone that had already published books with underwhelming sales to be their plant?

I understand that wealthy people will always have advantages when it comes to access to higher education and not needing to work to provide for themselves and in turn having more time to work on their crafts. Is there more to it than that though?

I don't really think "industry plants" or "nepotism" are things that plague publishing to an unusual degree. This feels like a conspiracy theory with little basis in reality. So short answers: No, not really, it wouldn't work, that's not a thing, and no, there's not really more to it than that.

Longer explanation:

I guess, sure, as in any industry, there might be SOME "nepotism" around publishing. Like if your mom happened to be a high-powered agent or publisher or author, maybe you'd be more likely to get into the publishing business in some way yourself and get some kind of a boost from your/your family connections. But I don't think that's something that is happening A TON or anything -- because let's be real, for the most part, publishing is not the most lucrative of careers. It's just as likely, if your mom was an agent or editor or author, you'd be like "for the love of god, keep me AWAY from publishing, I would actually like to make money!" or your mom would say, "for the love of god, go to LAW SCHOOL or something!"

Yes, of course, as you say, a person with a lot of privilege/wealth generally probs does have a boost in publishing -- they don't have to have twelve other jobs to make ends meet, they have more time to swan around and go to parties and schmooze, they have more resources, a safety net, etc. But I don't think that is something peculiar to publishing, I think privilege helps in ANY industry. (And, it's also very possible to do well in publishing with ZERO previous wealth or "connections" etc. Plenty of folks do! Many/most published authors never knew anyone in the publishing industry before they were published!)

According to Wikipedia, "Industry plant is a term used to describe musicians who become popular through nepotism, inheritance, wealth, or their connections in the music industry rather than on their own merits." (Obvs we are swapping "author" with "musician" and "publishing industry" for "music" here!) Further,  "Artists described as industry plants often present themselves as independent and self-made, but are alleged to have their public images manufactured for them by record labels." (publishers)

The idea that publishers are out there "creating stars" is kind of laughable and gives them more credit than they deserve. Now, might a publisher give media training to an author so they come across more "polished" in interviews, or push a certain narrative about an author when they are doing a PR campaign? Sure, of course. Might a publisher choose to promote a beautiful and charismatic young author a little extra based on the fact that they are beautiful and charismatic? Probably, yes, tbh. -- but they aren't CREATING the authors out of whole cloth. Those authors still have to like, do the work, write the books, submit the books, edit the books, etc etc.

I don't know much about the author you mentioned, but I just looked up this "industry plant" theory about her and it doesn't really make sense to me.

Nepotism? Her family is not, as far as I can see, involved in publishing in any way, so that's nepotism off the table. Wealth? Is the accusation that she, or the publisher, somehow "bought" her way to popularity? That's just not how that works. It's extremely difficult to "buy" or manufacture virality -- if publishers knew how to do that, I promise you they WOULD do that, but they do not. (Hence why publisher marketing departments trying to Make Fetch Happen via tiktok or whatever other social media doesn't usually work at all!)

As far as I can see, this is an author who had a lot of rejections, decided to make tiktoks, went viral, then the book got picked up by a publisher, got a movie deal, etc. This is a lucky thing, and a somewhat unusual thing, but it isn't totally out of left field or anything, and I'm failing to see where "industry plant" comes into the equation. She got a book deal because her tiktoks went viral and that brought her to the attention of the publisher (and also, presumably, because the publisher thought the book was good/ cool and there was obviously an audience for it, see viral tiktok). She didn't "present herself as self-made" per se -- she WAS self-made in the sense that she wrote a book, and then it got published? And the publisher didn't "create her public persona", because she wasn't connected with the publisher until AFTER the videos went viral.

Basically, I think if people (not YOU, but other people) are out there saying that some author -- especially a young woman author -- is "an industry plant" and only got whatever they got because they are wealthy, or young, or pretty, or a nepo baby, or have a certain background, or whatever it is -- it's likely jealousy, and maybe some misogyny, fueling that kind of talk. Because while sure, any of those things certainly might not HURT an author's chances of becoming popular / successful, they still have to do the work. There has to be A BOOK that THEY WROTE at the end of the day.

[strangebiology]

If You Want to Write a Good Book, Practice First

The book-writing community is so much weirder than the journalism community. Half the book writing/publishing groups I'm in are great, and the other half are full of posts like this:

"I’m working on a book and I’ve never published anything first. Never even crossed my mind and I still have no desire to do so."

"Hey, I’m new to writing! How do I publish a book?"

"Money doesn't matter! You have to write a book for the love of it! Never give up even if you have to spend every weekend for 20 years finding an agent!"

"i herd 7to hav 80k words write get agenet maniscrupt mine 7k words agent here can@ publishmy bok"

"I wrote a book for my dad. Writing it took five years and I published it five years ago. It sold 3 copies. Why is no one buying it? Do I need to take a marketing class?"

"I need an agent to represent me and a publisher to pay me, but I don't care if the book sells a single copy. I just want to have fun!"

None of these people are going to be traditionally published, and it seems they might not understand/care about writing for an audience in a competitive market.

Listen: I am not forcing anyone to delay or give up their publishing attempts. I couldn't stop you if I wanted to, and I don't. I'm just explaining that there are more successful processes for achieving certain goals but they take work.

I have asked people really earnestly and politely what appeals to them about publishing a full book if they don't want to publish short stories, articles, blog posts, or fanfictions. They immediately get really mad, so...maybe they're making a realization that they should have known before?

IF you want to have fun and write without anyone reading it, I encourage you just to write in Google Docs or Medium or Tumblr. You don't need an editor to have fun! And it literally does not need to be book-length!

If you just want your book out there, technically available and even printable to have and to maintain a fantasy they'll go viral, I suggest self-publishing.

IF you actually expect to make money and sell books and get representation, I encourage you to practice first. This is a profession that you and I are not special enough to luck into profiting from; it requires us to tend our craft and have respect for readers.

Anyway, I'm happy to give advice on publishing as long as you've googled your question first. I'm happy to hear explanations for why so many aspiring authors are...like this, so much moreso than I see in journalism or other professions like visual arts and sports. Like do they think writing a book saves a life or something? But if you're upset that I "killed your dream" with this post, go write your concerns in Google docs and do not send them to me.

[fischlcatgirl]

Liyue Social Media Use Headcannons

baizhu - facebook but only for arguing in facebook groups against antivaxxers. he is in there 24/7

changsheng - instagram

beidou - never has any signal out on the open sea. has a special elemental pager that ningguang has the button for to let her know when she is thinking of her

chongyun - forum poster. makes youtube videos about hunting down spirits but theyre so boring because where are the spirits. where are the spirits chongyun

gaming - regular grindr. most normal in the world on there. spends his breaks on tiktok. regular stuff

ganyu - part of the qixing work facebook group. twitter which she posts on once a year. master of the google suite. when google+ died so did a part of her

hu tao - has tried 4000 million different viral marketing tactics. is currently making zhongli run a tiktok arg. definitely has a tiktok shop

keqing - qixing work facebook. posts on the anti-archon 4chan board because thats the only place she can find anyone to actually talk to her about it and even then its rancid

ningguang - qixing work facebook. aforementioned pager.

qiqi - none. baizhu tried to give qiqi one of those kid phones that you can only play one game but she immediately lost it

shenhe - has the 1 cell phone she was given 15 years ago when cloud retainer invented them. uses it almost exclusively for calls because she can only text using the speech to text feature. yunjin put her contact in but shenhe only knows how to make calls from the actual phone app, not from contacts

xiangling - runs the intagram for the wanmin resturant. has put recipes up online but absolutely does the thing where she tells a sixteen page long story before actually getting to the recipe

xianyun - inventor of the cell phone. and also the internet. uses facebook to post the same five stories about ganyu and shenhe every year

xiao - thinks karma can travel through radio waves so he got rid of the one cloud retainer gave him when she invented them. occasionally makes calls using the wangshu inn landline but only to other adepti

xingqiu - active livejournal account. the only person commenting on chongyun's youtube videos

xinyan - music twitch streamer. on the worlds most obscure music sharing sites.

yanfei - teyvat version of the lockpickinglawyer

yaoyao - far too busy for any of that nonsense

yelan - has no personal social media but has created 1000 fake people she can become. these are interconnected profiles on websites that go back almost a decade. or more.

yun jin - has no personal social media but has a managed account for her personal brand. was in a documentary about herself once

zhongli - didnt bother remaking any of his accounts after he faked his death. he just deleted his posts and changed the name in his bio. being forced to run a tiktok arg for hu tao. he doesnt know how tiktok works and she is not helping him

[percyscart]

Hello! I wanted to say that I really love your stories and that they bring me so much joy!

Your works have been so much of an inspiration for me to do what I do and I really want to say thank you for that.

I'd like to ask, what advice would you give for new artists who are interested in opening their own art shop one day?

Aww, I’m really happy and honoured to hear that!

As for advice, here are some things I would have told myself when I was starting, everything is subjective and depends on the individual so do take it with a pinch of salt!

1. Start small!

It’s tempting to make large quantity orders because some manufacturers provide bigger discounts, but it’s very risky at the beginning because you don’t know what will sell. I personally rather sell out than have large stock that takes ages to sell preventing me from trying new things since you learn and change a lot at the start!

2. Draw what you love, not what is trendy or popular (eg drawing characters/relationships you love vs popular characters)

Personally, things that I draw out of love and inspiration are those that not only am I more proud of, but also sells better. If you’re passionate about it, it’s likely there’s people out there who are as passionate, and that’s where you find your niche and audience. Additionally, popular characters will most likely have well-known artists that draw for them already, so it’s difficult to breakthrough if you’re not passionate about it. If what you love overlaps with what’s trendy/popular, that’s fine!

3. Use social media wisely!

It’s the most useful but tiring tool to use. If people don’t see your stuff, they won’t know it’s out there, but don’t be too focused on numbers! Low numbers does not mean rejection, high numbers do not mean success. I’ve had plenty of reels/tiktoks with have high views and engagement that do not reflect the sales number. Don’t take data personally, consider it more as food for thought.

“why did this artwork not resonate with people? how can i improve it/showcase it better?” “why did this artwork (yours or others) resonate with people? how can i emulate this more?”

On the same note, photos/videos of your products always need to have good lighting! Sun and your phone camera is enough to start with. I recently enjoy taking photos holding my stuff against greenery.

These are some smaller thoughts:

- Try to post tiktoks only after your items are available to order (unless you’re just gauging market). I’ve had a video go viral (1m+ views) long before it was available online and when I did release it online, most people didn’t see it because that’s just how tiktok algorithm works :’) your followers are less likely to see your stuff, compared to twt/insta, imo.

- Many of my first customers became returning customers, so do ensure you treat your packages with care so they have a good experience! (i personally prepare thank you cards hehe)

- Keep packaging minimal so they are lighter and less waste. Additionally, I’ve started using less flashy packaging (brown instead of coloured) because I’ve heard coloured ones may be at risk of theft (unconfirmed). I keep decorative packaging inside only.

All the best to your endeavors!