#i don't pay for amazon prime

[hannahchronism]

wait what do you mean it's already out

[jakeperalta]

spent weeks psyching myself up to stand up to my mum and then immediately got shot down by her 😃👍

[charlotte-of-wales]

that IRS refund just hit, feeling #blessed

[peagnut]

the fact that it's actually cheaper to pay for prime shipping every time i purchase anything from amazon because default shipping is often equivalent to the price of the object itself

[eresia-catara]

sadness is the best emotional state to do shopping above €20 what are you talking about

[nexus-nebulae]

i wanna watch WordGirl bc i completely forgot how good this show is but i don't want to give amazon any money to watch it 😭😭😭

[theadhddragon]

Of course it was, too many arseholes bitching can't let people have nice things

I’m honestly just so sad.

[aangelinakii]

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE.

— every single day, every word you say.

summary : clark finds himself admiring you in moments you admire him.

note : sorry this is a little short but i've taken a long hiatus from proper writing for like over a month and i'm just trying to get back into it, so hopefully you guys can still enjoy :))

requested !

pristine white sleeves rolled up past his elbows, clark finally twisted off the tap, the steaming water streaming from the faucet hissing to a stop, and the bubbles began to spill down the drain, shining plates drying on the rack by the sink.

the skin beneath his curly black fringe was hot, and as soon as he peeled off the yellow rubber gloves, he was running his exposed forearm over his brow.

last night you did the dishes, so, naturally, tonight it was clark's turn.

once he had thrown the gloves carelessly on the edge of the sink, he was trudging into the living room, where you sat on the couch, flipping through the channels on the television.

you tore yourself away from the screen to look up at him as he rounded the sofa, leaning up with pursed lips. before your lids fluttered closed, you were able to catch a glimpse of clark's lips curling into a smile. "thank you for doing the dishes, my love."

with a groan, once he'd pulled away, clark lowered himself down onto the cushions beside you, an arm slinging over the back of the couch, grazing the back of your head.

"if it's what it takes for you to be happy..." clark gave a sigh, though you could tell by his small smile that it wasn't genuine.

he glanced at you from the corner of his oversized specs, and the dimple at the edge of his mouth deepened, the hand perched on the back of the sofa coming down to play with your hair. "what's on the film roll for tonight?"

trying to ignore the shiver brushing down your spine as one of clark's fingers softly raked over your scalp — and how gorgeous he looked with his messy hair and crooked glasses — you turned back to the tv, shrugging your shoulders. "there's nothing really good on tonight, but i was thinking maybe we could rent or buy something?" hopeful smile coming onto your face, you sent an eager glance clark's way. "you know i've really been wanting to watch that sydney sweeny and glenn powell film!"

"oh, anything but you?"

at that, your smile only grew, the apples of your cheeks aching with the pressure against them, and you turned back to him again.

pressing the buttons that led you to amazon prime, you gave a half-sheepish, half-excited shrug. "you remembered."

clark's chuckle reverberated through his skin, warming against the back of your neck, where his forearm lay achingly close. "it's only what you've been talking about since two pay-cheques ago."

on the tv, a grey line rolled in a circle, loadîg up the application, and you allowed the remote to fall slack at your side, forgotten about in the cushions as you repositioned yourself, stretching your legs out over clark's lap, taking up even more space on the couch. when you caught his eye, however, you found the shadow of a dimple etched into his skin, when prime finally loaded, and the light from the tv illuminated him.

he never minded you taking up space; you deserved every bit of space in this apartment as he did. he just thought you deserved it a little bit more.

one hand fell on the exposed skin of your ankle, finger drawing absent shapes along your flesh as you worked to get the screen onto the new romcom you'd been eyeing.

"should we buy it or rent it?" your voice came, a little uncertain now you were so close to getting what you wanted (which was to watch sydney sweeney and glenn powell fall in love in australia).

after a beat, "let's buy it." you glanced sideways at clark, who met your look with kind eyes. "that way, if you like it, you can watch it whenever. if you don't like it, we never have to touch it again."

something seemed to burst inside you — fireworks, a hot air balloon, a bomb — and you leaned forward in an instant, leaving the remote on the sofa beside you. your hands cupped the sides of clark's face, soft flesh against your soft grip, despite the eagerness of it, and his eyebrows shot so high they disappeared behind his curls.

"you are so freaking sweet, do you know that?" you gasped, like you couldn't find the air within your lungs to express it, cheeks aching once again.

a boyish laugh brushed past clark's lips, and his hand inched higher to your calf, taking it carefully in the palm that had picked up cars, buildings, stopped bullet trains on their track — and yet he ensured utmost fragility when it came to you.

his baby blue eyes glanced between yours, the arm that had been perched along the back of the couch coming to wrap carefully around your shoulders.

one of your hands moved from his jaw, up to brush into his stark black hair, pads of fingertips soaring through curls like a snake navigating the lush plants of the amazon — which, back on the glowing tv screen, was waiting for you to make a purchase.

forgetting all about sydney and her love story with glenn, your other hand moved from jaw to earlobe, taking the soft flesh into fingers. your fingers swooped from earlobe to nape of neck, and clark's change of breathing pace didn't go unnoticed.

"what's up?" clark managed to utter, lips trembling, despite the fact he saw you every day, every week, every month of every year, and had been for the past three of them.

you gave your own deep breath, in and out through the nose, and your hands found purchase against the sides of clark's face again, keeping his head steady as he stared at you, skin a glistening grey in the light of the television. "just you. you're everything."

clark's head twitched under your hands, and he seemed to remember he was in your grip, so his eyes nervously met yours. the heat of his ears reached the tips of your pinkie fingers.

"i don't think you should be the one who gets to say that."

[fixyourwritinghabits]

The Quick Guide of Taking Care of Yourselves

RIGHT ANYWAY, semi-functioning again. Here's some generic tips for Americans (and beyond) in these trying times.

Limit Your Social Media News Consumption

Seriously, you need to set specific times to be aware of what's going on, and then you need to put down your phone. Many of the things that are happening are beyond your control. Doomscrolling is paralyzing. Do not fall into despair loops. This helps no one and it especially does not help you.

Make a channel in your Discord group for dumping things in and leave it to that. Find ways to plug into your local community - talk to your local library, check your local subreddit, pay attention to local events. But you also must give yourself a break from all of the above for your own mental health.

Pick a set time at night and put down your phone. Don't scroll through it before bed, don't start scrolling the second you get up. Form firm habits that allow you to rest and take care of yourself. It's important to be aware of what's happening, but it does not require your constant attention.

Do Things For Yourself

In addition to making art, it's important to find ways to keep yourself grounded. Take a class you're interested in. Go to that book club. See if there's a local group into that hobby you want to start. Need to brush up on your technical skills? See if there's some online classes that you can take (and get a certificate for!).

Don't over-commit (I say, having signed up for three different activities this year), but it is vital to take time to do things for yourself to stay grounded. Having other things to focus on is going to help. I'm taking a strength-building exercise class and German lessons, and having to focus on squats and gendered nouns for certain hours of the day has been so helpful in keeping me going. Give it a try.

(You don't have to try German, just to be clear. I just think it's a neat language.)

You Do Not Have to Constantly Rearrange Your Priorities

I donate monthly to my local animal shelter. That's still going to be an important thing to do. I reblog things I don't have the funds to contribute to myself. That's still useful to do. I'm still going to pay for my patreon subscriptions, because I am supporting people I like and want to succeed.

There are some things you can do. If you are in a position to cancel Amazon Prime, you should probably do that. But some people can't, because they don't have a more reliable way to get certain necessities, and that's fine. If you're in a position to close your Meta accounts, that seems like a good call. However, while I've currently got mine locked down, I need my Instagram for professional reasons, and it's my only point of contact for certain people. I hate it, but I've made the decision to keep using it. There's no morally perfect options out there.

Think Local and Connect with Community

You cannot do anything about most of the terrible things happening. You can, however, make connections to the people around you and find ways to support yourself and others. You can find places to volunteer. You can participate in your local political groups and keep up-to-date on protests and political action. You can keep pressure on your local politicians with phone-calling and letter campaigns. Making connections to others will help you find ways to feel useful and help, even if it doesn't feel like you can.

Most importantly, though, MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. If you're a vulnerable minority in a deep red state or desperately need to keep your head down at your job, you need to make decisions that are best for you. You cannot help others if you yourself are also drowning, and that is okay.

There are still some small things everyone can do. Boycotts of certain products and companies (shout-out to all of Canada, keep it up and I hope for nothing but the best for y'all) is something you can do that doesn't put you at risk. Stay connected to like-minded friends. Stock up on masks and get your vaccines. Have an emergency-prepared plan in cases of natural disasters (always a good plan).

Hang in there. Sometimes you'll spiral, everyone will. But keeping your head above water and building steps to pull yourself up from those holes will be essential.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Two weak spots in Big Tech economics

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in AUSTIN on Mar 10. I'm also appearing at SXSW and at many events around town, for Creative Commons, Fediverse House, and EFF-Austin. More tour dates here.

Big Tech's astonishing scale is matched only by its farcical valuations – price-to-earnings ratios that consistently dwarf the capitalization of traditional hard-goods businesses. For example, Amazon's profit-to-earnings ratio is 37.65; Target's is only 13.34. That means that investors value every dollar Amazon brings in at three times the value they place on a dollar spent at Target.

The fact that Big Tech stocks trade at such a premium isn't merely of interest to tech investors, or even to the personal wealth managers who handle the assets of tech executives whose personal portfolios are full of their employers' stock options.

The high valuations of tech stocks don't just reflect an advantage over bricks and mortar firms – they are the advantage. If you're Target and you're hoping to hire someone who's just interviewed at Amazon, you have to beat Amazon's total compensation offer. But when Amazon makes that offer, they can pay some – maybe even most – of the offer in stock, rather than in cash.

This is a huge advantage! After all, to get dollars, both Amazon and Target have to convince you to spend money in their stores (or, in Amazon's case, with its cloud, or as a Prime sub, etc etc). Both Amazon and Target get their dollars from entities outside of the firm's four walls, and the dollars only come in when they convince someone else to do business with them.

But stock comes from inside the firm. Amazon makes new Amazon shares by typing zeroes into a spreadsheet. They don't have to convince you to buy anything in order to issue that new stock. That is their call, and their call alone.

Amazon can buy lots of things with stock – not just the labor of in-demand technical workers who command six-figure salaries. They can even buy whole companies using stock. So if Amazon and Target are bidding against one another for an anticompetitive acquisition of a key supplier or competitor, Amazon can beat Target's bid without having to spend the dollars its shareholders would like them to divert to dividends, stock buybacks, etc.

In other words, a company with a fantastic profit/earning ratio has its own money-printer that produces currency that can be used to buy labor and even acquire companies.

But why do investors value tech stocks so highly? In part, it's just circular reasoning: a company with a high stock price can beat its competitors because it has a high stock price, so I should buy its stock, which will drive up its stock price even further.

But there's more to this than self-fulfilling prophecy. The high price of tech stocks reflects the market's belief that these companies will continue to grow. If you think a company will be ten times bigger in two years, and it's only priced at three times as much as mature rivals that have stopped growing altogether, then that 300% stock premium is a bargain, because the company will have 1,000% growth in just a couple years. Tech companies have proven themselves, time and again, to be capable of posting incredible growth – think of how quickly Google went from a niche competitor to established search engines to the dominant player, with a 90% market share.

That kind of growth is enough to make anyone giddy, but it eventually runs up against the law of large numbers: doubling a small number is easy, doubling a large number is much, much harder. A search engine that's used by 90% of the world can't double its users – there just aren't enough people to sign up. They'd need to breed several billion new humans, raise them to maturity, and then convince them to be Google users.

And here's the thing: the flipside of the huge profits that can be reaped by investors who buy stocks at a premium in anticipation of growth is the certainty that you will be wiped out if you're still holding the stock when the growth halts. When Amazon stops growing, its PE ratio should fall to something like Target's, which means that its stock should decline by two thirds on that day.

Which is why Big Tech investors tend to be twitchy, hair-trigger types, easily stampeded into mass selloffs. That's what happened in 2022, when Facebook admitted to investors that it had grown more slowly than it had projected, and investors staged the largest stock selloff in history (to that point – hi, Nvidia!), wiping a quarter-trillion dollars off Meta's valuation in a day:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/03/stocks-plunge-after-facebooks-massive-sell-off-nasdaq-falls-37/

As Stein's Law has it: "anything that can't go on forever eventually stops." Growth stocks have to stop growing, eventually, and when they do, you'd better beat everyone else to the fire exit, or you're going to get crushed in the stampede.

Which is why tech companies are so obsessed with both actual growth, and stories about growth. Facebook spent tens of billions on bribes to telcos around the world, demanding that they charge extra to access non-Facebook websites and apps, in a bid to sign up "the next billion users":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/countries-zero-rating-have-more-expensive-wireless-broadband-countries-without-it

That wasn't just about some ideological commitment to growth – it was about the real, material advantages that a growing company has, namely, that it can substitute the stock it creates for free by typing zeroes into a spreadsheet for money that it can only get by convincing you to give your money to it.

"Facebook Zero" (as this bribery program was called) was about actual growth: finding people who weren't Facebook users and turning them into Facebook users, preferably forever (thanks to Facebook's suite of lock-in tactics that make it a digital roach motel that users check into but don't check out of):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

But plenty of the things that Big Tech gets up to are about the narrative of growth. That's why Big Tech has pumped every tech bubble of this stupid decade: metaverse, cryptocurrency, AI. These technologies have each been at the forefront of Big Tech marketing and investor communications, but not solely because they represented a market opportunity. Rather, they represented a more-or-less plausible explanation for how these companies that were on the wrong side of the law of large numbers could continue to double in size, without breeding billions of new customers to sign up for their services.

The tell – as always – comes in the way that these companies refute their critics. When critics point out that Facebook spent $1.2 billion on a metaverse product that only has 32 users:

https://futurism.com/the-byte/metaverse-decentraland-report-active-users

Or that practically no one buys anything with cryptocurrency:

https://www.mollywhite.net/annotations/latecomers-guide-to-crypto/

Not even when the government gives them free crypto and passes a law forcing merchants to accept crypto:

https://bitcoinblog.de/2024/09/02/weak-bitcoin-adoption-in-el-salvador-disappoints-the-president/

Or that hardly anyone uses AI, and what uses it does have are often low-value:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/oai-business/

The "narrative entrepreneurs" behind the claims of infinite growth from these technologies all have the same response: "That's what they said about the web, and yet it grew really fast! People who lacked the vision to understand the web's potential missed out. Buy [crypto|metaverse|AI] or have fun being poor!"

It's true – there were a lot of people who were blithely dismissive of the web, and they were wrong. But the fact that the web's skeptics were wrong doesn't mean that skepticism itself is foolish. People were also skeptical of Qibi, Beanie Babies, and the Segway – all of which were predicted to continue to increase in value forever and become permanently installed as significant facts in the economy. The fact that lots of people think something is stupid is not a reliable indicator that it is actually great.

So it's not just that capitalism adopts "the ideology of a tumor" in insisting that infinite growth is possible. The value in corporate claims to eternal growth is not aesthetic, it is material. If the market believes a company will grow, then that company gets to print its own money, which lets it outcompete mature rivals, which lets it grow some more.

But! When the company runs out of growth potential, the process runs in reverse. Not only do executives – whose portfolios are stuffed full of their own company's shares – stand to lose most of their net worth overnight, but once a company's stock starts to decline, it can expect to see an exodus of the key personnel who are compensated in now-worthless stock. That means that once a company hits a bad bump in the road that sets it off course, it needs to worry about losing all the skilled employees who can get it back on the road.

So growth is important, not for its own sake, but for how it affects the cost basis of companies, and thus determines their competitive outlook. But not all growth is created equal.

Remember when Facebook pissed away billions in a bid to capture "the next billion users"? Those users – people from poor countries in the global south – were not as valuable to Facebook as its US customers. The news that sparked a $250 billion, one-day selloff of Facebook shares wasn't merely about anemic growth – it was specifically about anemic growth in the USA.

American customers are worth more than other users to Big Tech – that's true even of users from other populous countries, and of users from other wealthy countries. Norway is rich as hell, but each Norwegian Facebook user is worth pennies on the kroner compared to American users. And there are brazilians of people in South America, but they're worth even less per capita than Norwegians are. Even the whole EU, with its 500m+ relatively wealthy consumers, is only worth a fraction of the US market.

Why is the American market so prized by Big Tech? Because it the only country in the world at the center of a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles. America is the only country in the world that is:

a) populous;

b) wealthy; and

c) totally lacking in legal privacy protections.

The US Congress last updated American consumer privacy law in 1988, when the Video Privacy Protection Act was passed to protect Americans from the high-tech threat of…video store clerks leaking your rental history to the newspapers. Despite the bewildering, obvious, serious privacy risks that have emerged since Die Hard was in theaters, Congress has done nothing to extend Americans' consumer privacy rights.

There are other rich countries where privacy law sucks, but they are small countries with few people. There are extremely populous poor countries with shitty privacy laws, but they're poor. Tech has to steal the private data of dozens of those people to make as much money as they can get from selling the data of just one American. And there are other rich, populous countries – like Germany, say – but those countries actually defend the privacy of the people who live there, and so the revenue tech gets from each of those users is even lower than the RPU for the undefended poor people of the global south.

America is exceptional in that it represents the one place where there are lots of wealthy people who are totally defenseless. We're an all-you-can-eat buffet for the privacy-annihilating voyeurs of Silicon Valley.

These are the two dirty secrets of Big Tech's economics. These companies are reliant on the fragile narrative of infinite growth, and that narrative isn't merely about global growth, but it is particularly and especially about growth in the USA.

Tech's power comes from an implausible story of discovering an endless stream of Americans to sign up and screw over. That story is extremely load-bearing – so much so that by the instant at which the first crack appears, collapse is only moments away. And boy, are there cracks:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/power-cut/

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/2025/03/06/privacy-last/#exceptionally-american

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[kanerallels]

But like...I wanna buy two of the books anyways...and I only have to spend 3 more dollars to get free shipping...NO I MUSTN'T

Someone tell me to not spend $35 on books on Amazon to get free shipping and just order off my mom's account like an adult

[rhiandoesfandom]

I think that the "under 18" audience of Helluva Boss is going to get bigger.

I only think this because most parents will have an Amazon prime account for their house, so their kid will watch it. And because it's a cartoon, parents won't pay attention to it unless they watch it with them.

Meanwhile us adults who watch it are

1. Some of us are boycotting Amazon at any time.

2. Amazon prime is an expensive subscription per month.

3. Some adults don't use Amazon Prime for the principle of the thing (I don't want to give Jeff Bezos money) kinda thing.

So we're more likely to just wait a month to watch it on YouTube. Or, buy a subscription to watch, then cancel right after lol.

Honestly, I think it's fine to watch if you're 15+. But that con panels for it should still be 18+. Those are just my own opinions on it. But I'm just saying I'm not going to be surprised if it happens.

[brehaaorgana]

ADHD money/budgeting system I'm currently using for my benefit is going well (I've been using it for like half a year now?), and I wanna recommend it.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT. 10/10 do recommend. Uhhh rambling about it and my generic disclaimers + gushing extensively under the cut but TL;DR I think it's great for ADHD ppl, I've used it for 6+ months now and I find it super SUPER helpful. also weirdly fun.

DISCLAIMERS:

Budgeting helps you understand/know your money, it can't make money appear where there is none.

Everyone should learn to budget even if you don't have much money (especially then)

This is NOT a magic trick solution. Just like everything else, it is an assistive tool. This is one of those adult things we can't simply opt out of without negative consequences, though.

My advice is based on something I am currently able to do. That is, I can spend an amount of money on this specific thing that works well for me. If you have no extra money to spend then previously I was tracking things in a notebook. So you can still do this.

I believe Dave Ramsey is a fundie fraud/hack and no one should listen to him about money.

DID YOU KNOW THEY CANCELLED MINT???

Okay? OKAY.

Ahem.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT.

It is called YNAB for short. The first 34 days are your free trial, and that is my referral link. If anyone uses it and then signs up for a subscription, we both get a month free. Also you can share a subscription with up to six people (account owner can see everything but individuals can pick and choose what they share amongst each other) so like...idk your whole polycule can be on one account. Or your kids. Whatever.

If you are a student, it's free for a year. If you aren't, a subscription is $99 for a year (paid all at once) or $14.99 monthly, which is equivalent to paying Amazon prime. Go cancel Prime and get this instead tbh.

They got a whole article just on ynab and ADHD. They also have like...a big variety of ways to access their info? They have a book, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, blog posts, q&A's, free live workshops you can join (you can request live captioning), emails they can send (if you want) a wiki, and so on. They got workshops on all kinds of topics!!

So whatever ends up working for your brain. It also has a matching app.

If you lost Mint this year they have a gajillion things for moving from Mint.

Also they have a "got five minutes?" Page which has a slider so you can decide how much attention/time you have before going on lol:

They only have 4 rules of the budget, they're simple and practical, and it doesn't get judgey or like...mean about your spending.

1. Give every dollar a job 2. Embrace your true expenses 3. Roll with the punches 4. Age your money.

THEN THEY BREAK THESE DOWN INTO SMALL STEPS FOR YOU! They even have a printable! Also these rules are great because there's built in expectations that things WILL HAPPEN and it's NOT all or nothing with a fear of total collapse into failure. Reality and The Plan don't always align, especially if you have ADHD. So it's directing our energy towards the true expenses and not clinging to The Plan!! over reality.

You can automate a lot of shit (you can sync with your bank accounts just like mint, but also automate tagging the categories of regular expenses/transactions). And if for whatever reason you accidentally do something that makes the budget look weird or wrong:

A) you can usually fix it somehow OR b) they have like, a button you can press that gives you a clean slate and archives the previous version of the budget for you.

So if you forget for a few weeks or months, or accidentally input something wildly wrong, or just don't want to look at a really terrible month anymore and feel like you need a fresh start you can usually either fix it or start fresh which is really nice.

The app also (for whatever reason) scratches my itch to have things like...have incentives or little game-like goals in a way mint never did? I don't know why. Filling up the bars or putting money into the categories to cover my expenses is satisfying lmao. You can also make a big wish expense category for all the fun shit you want, and fund it whenever you can and then you can see the little bar go up and that's fun.

Anyways I've been using it for like 6+ months now and I think it's really helped me when I use it.

[luyi]

The official English title of Tencent's cdrama is Three-Body. It's not only on Amazon Prime and multiple other paid streaming platforms all over the world, but also legal and free on youtube and viki with English subtitles. Here are the links (disclaimer: I don't know if there's regional restriction for your region. And they might be locked for paid member only at some point in the future, but at the time of this post, they are completely free):

watch on youtube (this is not the one on tencent's channel, but rather migu/咪咕's which is another chinese platform with the right to air three-body)

watch on viki

There's also an Anniversary version of the show that's more fast paced with 26 episodes instead of 30. You can pay to watch this version on WeTV or Tencent and Migu's youtube channels.

[moeblob]

Back at it again to tell you all, Clue (1985) is back to being free to watch (with ads) on youtube! And when I say free to watch (with ads), I mean I have already watched it with ad blockers.

I don't know when it was changed to being free again but people love to make it free then charge (Amazon Prime and Youtube are guilty of having it free with sub/free with ads then changing to you have to pay $3.99 regardless having prime/ads).

It is my favorite movie so I encourage you to grab an ad blocker if you don't already and go enjoy a 90 minute movie C:

[snepdotgay]

I hate this shit. Not only does cancelling a Spotify subscription mean clicking through four different screens begging you to reconsider, once you finally do cancel they hit you with this "cutesy" thing.

Cancelling Amazon Prime is the same, just without this saccharine "we'll miss you :(((((" stuff tacked on at the end. Like, under no circumstances should you hand it to Amazon, but at least they don't pull this.

anyway fuck you spotify, pay your artists.