Capitalism Is The Worst - Tumblr Posts

I think that's the thing that escapes a lot of profit-oriented owners of creative intellectual property. Brands are finite, mortal - and creative growth is crippled by the constant campaign to defend them from fan collaboration. Humans don't tell stories in vacuums - the narratives feed off of all the listeners that are constantly "yes, and...!"-ing with the version that speaks to them. It's foolish to deprive them of their sustenance. Imagine minecraft if it had not been open to fan alteration, modification, content-creation. There's much less chance it would have achieved the same level of influence it's had - not just in people who play it, but in its lingering influence on gaming more generally. Those who dipped a toe in minecraft might have done so because of let's-plays they happened on because of a comic they saw referencing a youtuber they googled and thereby discovered. A kid that never had the chance to even find out how they feel about video games is completely enthralled by their nerd-teacher's class sessions in the computer lab. That is a *much* deeper and longer-lasting influence than is enabled by advertising and content-policing. Homer's Odyssey is 3k years old at least, and it endures, not because it was profitable, but because it was something to interact with, to re-tell, to change, to adapt. There are people guarding its "real version," but they aren't keeping literal generations of fans from ficcing it to oblivion in every conceivable medium. Trying to maximize profit on pillars of human culture is like poisoning your grain supply to keep pests from taking any. You are huge and powerful, and your higher tolerance allows you your victory - but that poison is still there, limiting your growth, killing you as surely as it does the pests.

If I ever became unimaginably wealthy, my first act would be to purchase the rights to the Shrek franchise, including all associated media and ancillary intellectual properties, then immediately release the whole lot to the public domain. Not because I particularly enjoy Shrek as a character, but because such a popular character entering into the public domain would immediately become an omnipresent and inescapable cultural fixture, and it amuses me to imagine future anthropologists trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

this can't be true can it

I didn't know until recently.

But it turns out that advertisers tend not to use actual athletes in women's sports advertisements. 🤦🏾‍♀️

This is because many women who train extensively in sports, won't fit the delicate look of what mindless sexists deem to be an "appropriate" (lesser) amount of muscle development, size, and definition.

Advertisers will even prefer to find a model who isn't athletic in the slightest, then just slap athletic wear and gear on them, and use pictures of them running around for their commercials.

The problem is SO bad, that some women athletes will actually try NOT to train beyond a certain point: so that they can maintain the softer, feminine look that will attract corporate sponsors. 😰

...Meaning that these women athletes probably COULD perform even better than they already do.

However: if they can't get the sponsors to fund their their training and participation in the sport, then these women athletes can't afford to, right?….

Which ultimately loops right back around and affects what the general public thinks men and women are even capable of as far as physical prowress...and, artificially narrows our ideas surrounding the range of how men and women can naturally look when performing at high levels of athleticism….

Just another way that capitalism ruins everything!

Throughout human history there was an element of reciprocity that reliably happened between Earth and humanity.

Human and animal waste, food scraps, fallen leaves, garden trimmings, and other organic components; were almost guaranteed to be returned to the soil, to be broken back down into fresh soil...either via composting, or via burying the organic waste.

Substantial things made of metal or wood (or more recently, plastic) often got taken to the "junkyard".... and it wasn't uncommon back then for people to take a trip and purposely go browsing there: in order to find and repair, or else, break down old items into component parts, for reuse elsewhere.

Now?

EVERYTHING is landfill.

Everything just gets thrown all together into a garbage dump or a landfill... and I don't think that it is a coincidence that Earth is suddenly experiencing a problem with running out of topsoil in which to grow crops.

This has been compounded by the fact that the corporations throw away literal hundreds of tons of perfectly good food (organic matter that should at LEAST be returned to the soil to replenish the earth instead).

They do this because it then makes it possible to raise prices on their remaining supply of produce, according to their bizarre rules concerning supply and demand...

Is it any wonder that topsoil is disappearing, given these capitalistic changes, where now there is an artificially-increased rate of overextraction of resources from nature, coupled with a drastic decrease of sustained reciprocation?