#that's realistic!!!! there was effort put into this!!!

[breadnaan]

I would like to reiterate this point a little more strongly, and tie it back into one of the Great Big Lies of capitalism:

"Capitalism drives innovation"

I'm sure this is something we've all heard repeated hundreds of times, because this is one of the fundamental pillars of what I call the "brochure/sales pitch" description of capitalism. The argument always goes something like, "sure a more equitable society might be nice, but progress requires the ruthless competition of the free market to push the state of the art forward. Without the profit motive as incentive, no one would be rewarded for innovation! Sure capitalism has its faults, but it's the best system that we have and has advanced humanity tremendously!

Except none of that is true. Because the market provides zero incentive to innovate.

Let's look at the actual economics behind this claim. Say that I have a fantastic idea to either make a new product, improve an existing product, or to use resources more efficiently. I will still need to invest time and resources into developing and testing this idea to make it ready for market. The moment that I launch and reveal my new and improved product/process what will happen is all of my competitors in that market will see my work and think, "That's a great idea, I will do the same thing."

And that is the "intended" way for markets to work in the brochure version of capitalism. Competition is supposed to force competitors to adapt to the state of the art in their industry in order to remain competitive, so that the end consumer benefits from the competition by having access to "the best quality products possible at the best possible prices," which is another one of the bullet points on the brochure.

But this comes into conflict with capitalism incentivizing innovation, because as you might have noticed there was no incentive for me to be the one to innovate. In this scenario, I put time and resources into an idea that all of my competitors got for free once I entered the market with the fruits of that labor. Not only do I receive no competitive advantage for my innovation, but I'm actually coming out behind because I had to spend time and resources that my competitors did not need to spend in order to match my efforts.

If we want this hypothetical to be a little more realistic, there will be a brief period of time where my innovation gives me an advantage while I'm waiting for my competitors to "catch up to me," either because they need time to reverse engineer what I've done or because my innovation requires them to update/replace/modernize their tools and practices which takes some amount of time. But for any significantly impactful advancement which requires a meaningful investment of resources and months to years of research & development time, this brief window of small competitive advantage is no where near enough incentive for any business to invest in an idea that might not even pay out.

And this is where Intellectual property law enters the picture. IP law is a band aid on this whole mess that says "We know that the market is actually a uniquely terrible vehicle for rewarding and incentivizing intellectual work. We will solve this problem by granting temporary monopolies for products brought to market that utilize novel intellectual work."

Which, is incredibly wild for a number of reasons that have already been brought up on this post. I will assert that this is the "solution" provided for this problem because it is the solution that is valuable for capitalists. It effectively transforms intellectual work into property/capital that can be owned, complete with a publicly funded police state to enforce that ownership on behalf of the capitalist class. Both of these things are incredibly valuable for the economic class of people whose income is a function of the rent they are able to extract from the capital they own, and this legal framework allows intellectual work to simply be another thing that they can own and extract passive income from.

And ultimately, it "works" as a solution to incentivize innovation and intellectual work, because monopolization is incredibly profitable. But it is not "the market" that is providing that incentive, it is the publicly funded massive police state enforcing your monopoly that is providing that incentive.

Which, at that point, if we require public funding to make this entire thing function, why not just use that public funding to just pay people to do intellectual work and allow the public to enjoy the benefits of the thing that they are paying for?

And in fact, we already often do this. Because while this IP law band aid is somewhat effective, its scope is limited to only incentivizing intellectual work that can ultimately contribute to the creation of a product that can be brought to market. And "products that can be brought to market" is only a tiny slice of the things we care about when we're talking about innovation and intellectual work that contributes to the advancement of humanity. Even with IP law, capitalism contributes very little to the advancement of humanity. The things that we decide are priorities are prioritized using public funds, even in capitalist society. When the US was embarrassingly behind the Soviets in the Space Race, they didn't leave the shuttle program in the incapable hands of the market. Nor could they, because what consumer market exists for a lunar landing shuttle? In order to keep up, the US was required to create agencies to use their funds to simply pay people to do the intellectual work that a space program required, which is the same model most meaningful advancements follow.

And that doesn't even get into all the ways that IP laws hinder progress and innovation, from preventing people from iterating on previous work, to patent trolling, to abandoned but still protected works, and so on.

The only real accomplishment of IP law is giving capitalists another frontier of pseudo-property to accumulate and collect rents from.

patents are so fucking evil though. you can patent game mechanics and limit the kinds of games people are legally able to make. you can patent medicine to be the sole producer of that medicine. you can patent fucking, crops to ask a premium on specific variations of crops. it's so fucked

[beastlybardou]

10 Foot Beast or Pint-Sized Fury?

An Unexpected Questioning Post

For the last nine years I have been in the community, I have considered myself a werewolf. Not just because those are the most "popular" kintype, or because I like them, but because of some real, deep questioning too. However, lately, I've been wondering if I might have been mistaken all this time. I might be a wolverine instead?

Looking at my werewolf form side-by-side with a wolverine, all the most important things that I feel strongest about on my were-form are also present on wolverines. Large, hand-like paws, broad powerful head, small ears, thick crushing teeth, long sharp claws, stocky build, the ability to move quadrapedally but stand upright for short periods, thick bristly fur, its all there.

Here is a comparison.

Behaviorally, they also are fiercely territorial, distance running, northern predators, all of which are an established must. Frankly, their more solitary nature fits better with me. I've never been one to constantly be in a group. If I'm being honest with myself, I'm not much of a team player. I would rather just do it all myself and know that it's being done right (or that if it isn't its my own fault and I will learn) than worry about what someone else is doing.

I love my friends dearly, and I absolutely need to interact with them, but I also need my space when it's all said and done. Similarly, male wolverines have large territories that allow them to visit and play with their children and mates while still retreating back to their own space most of the time.

As a person, I'm kind of small for a grown man and people consistently underestimate me because of it, but I've won every fight I've been in and have always been told I'm a lot stronger than I look. Being a 10 foot tall near unstoppable beast sounds pretty great and has been what I identify with, but it also kind of feels like a power fantasy on my part. Plus, I think "I am a giant killing machine" is a thought a wolverine would have anyway. Being on the smaller side but still punching above my weight feels a little more realistic to my lived experience.

All of that speaks to me being a wolverine, but I do have some reservations. I've always howled. Ever since I was little, it's been one of my main vocal quirks. I very strongly feel connected to the concept of transformation and feel deeply seen by werewolf narratives because of it. And, on a more personal note, not being a werewolf would be kind of emotional for me because of all the time and effort and trust I've put on my identity. I've built so much of my personal mythos and beliefs around being a werewolf. It's been such a key part of how I've interacted with the world, myself, and my community for so long that I would be very sad to leave that behind and have been mistaken about it.

[sunnydayaoe]

I haven't shown it too much, but usually I'll draw dd with either no black feathers, or with black dye to make it look like he still has some. They don't grow in anymore :-]

[thenxthird]

i started at my new job so that means they r also employed

full sketch page vvv

[cokoweee]

Work really messed with my train of thought which is why it seems this is sooooooo…..out of place

Think of it as a time-lapse I supossseee.god my brain is mush. My bad y’all’s

<===—===>

[whiskerknittles]

Lest anyone be foolish enough to think I only have brainrot for Rimster--ITS OBSESSING OVER CAT HOURS TOO

[ganondoodle]

carefully attempted to draw (still sick); wanted to give Shargon another redesign, this is an older version of him but the basics should also go for his younger self (idk yet about his lung replacement design; arms are posed weird to make anatomy clearer)

(wip, oc art, Shargon, he/they)

[starflungwaddledee]

For the shipaganza

What if...

what if Coo and Starflung had a slumber party? Where they stargaze and do fun slumber party stuff? They deserve it (not forced ofc!!!)

you're right! i think they deserve it, too!

*✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ valentines shipaganza masterpost ✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ⋆˙⟡

[colinrobinsonscardigan]

Hurriedly posting this before I convince myself it's bad.

Anyway, the symbolism of Silco's eyes consumed me body and soul a few weeks ago and effects of that still linger, but I'm not smart enough to spin that out into an actual thought-out analysis, so instead you get this

[midnightfrappe]

What about making candy bracelets and Candy necklaces? Then the kiddos are safe and can still be creative?

'' I think that's not possible anymore, the candy attracts certain… pests. But! Who needs bracelets anyways? We still have much to do in the daycare, right, right?! ''

In reference to this previous ask

[thebramblewood]

AU in which the trio opens a fine dining restaurant. It's like The Bear but with vampires.

[kmesons]

Ninth House Miss Holloway doodles based on this post by @thearcanecat. hope you don't mind the tag and my taking inspiration from your AU! I love drawing her in Situations

[rosewheresheshouldntbe]

> Rose: Confess to Kanaya!

Rose: I love you.

Kanaya: Y Yo Ati, Rose.

> Rose: Get swallowed by something that looks like Venom.

> Rose: Get sent to super hell!

> Kanaya: Have something very gay and homophobic happen to you.

Kanaya: ...

What an absolute diversity loss. You find yourself thinking "love loses!"

[florallylly]

i feel like re: jonathan's camera, steve's reaction is way more focused on than jonathan's LITERAL CRIMES. like yes stevetommycarol like graffitied the movie theater and broke his camera, but jonathan... took illicit pictures of an underage couple THROUGH STEVE'S WINDOW. how would you feel? how would you react?

and jonathan never really faces any lasting consequences? he gets a new camera from steve. he eventually ends up with nancy. and nobody really finds out or punishes him for being a .... literal criminal....

meanwhile, steve reacting to it is treated like some huge thing bc he calls jonathan queer ?? like i get that it may be a little harder hitting considering the audience is (i think? i only know from the tumblr sample size) seems mostly queer, but context please. not excusing it, but it's the 80s during the height of the aids epidemic saur. and it's also easy to say things you don't necessarily mean in the heat of the moment. but guess what. he apologized. did jonathan?

other than that, name one thing that could actually categorize steve as someone who is Decidedly an Asshole. talking shit with his friends is such a non problem (do u not shit talk with ur friends...) and being popular doesn't mean shit unless there's evidence.

stop trying to give steve a redemption arc when he never needed ur absolution

[cargoshortsenjoyer]

This is Herbert West about to experiment on Jeffrey Combs. The concept originally came from @heliojip on here. He hasn't released his image yet though.

I had begun jokingly brainstorming how Jeffrey Combs would react if he was transported into the Reanimator universe and met Herbert. I think he'd escape with his knowledge of how horror movies work and how to act if you wanna be the survivor, and then go eat some keebler fudge magic middles (discontinued). Then Herbert would find him and Jeffrey would have to make up a reason why they look so similar, and he'd tell him that he was his REAL biological dad; the sperm donor to his actually adoptive father. Anyways if you want more of this headcanon tell me, it was fun

[a-can-of-soup]

Do y'all like her