#consumer choice

[goshyesvintageads]

AT&T Corp, 1983

[davidjhiggins]

Cold Consent

I currently have a stinking cold, which isn’t superbly great. However, the one upside is that taking things easier for a few days has given me time to think, leading to a revelation* that Goths (the aesthetic subculture not the Germanic tribal group) are the solution to the issues Google, Meta, and other internet-centric companies are facing with regulators challenging the design of their user…

[akwyz]

EU Targets Tech Giants with Pioneering Digital Markets Act Enforcement

Breaking News! The EU is taking a stand against digital monopolies! Six leading tech giants have been officially designated as 'gatekeepers' under the groundbreaking Digital Markets Act. A bold step towards a more open & fair digital marketplace.

In a monumental move designed to foster fair and open markets within the digital sector, the European Commission today designated six of the largest tech corporations as ‘gatekeepers’ under the newly enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA). This initiative marks the first instance of the commission utilizing the powers vested by the DMA to regulate large online platforms that substantially influence…

[devilfruitdyke]

we need to destroy the idea that girls should wear makeup. normalize bare faces on prom queens and flower girls and cheerleaders. no products at all instead of '7 product simple makeup routine.' no more 10 step skincare and regular facials and dermablading and gua sha just to be comfortable with yr natural face. i want to see eye bags on the funny librarian and acne on the swim coach and wrinkles on all our adult role models. i want to see a 16 year old girl that has never tried putting on eyeshadow. i want to see a 7 year old girl who doesn't have to go out and buy powder for her dance recital. i want to see trans women and girls everywhere to never have to wear makeup, regardless of how well they 'pass.' no more 'contouring to look masc' either. a post-beauty industry world is possible

reblogs are on but if you bring up the stage makeup point that i have addressed three times yr blocked on sight ☹️

[matthewarcher]

"Of course, consumer behavior is only part of the puzzle, particularly considering that the majority of fashion’s carbon footprint comes from the production of clothes. But collective change can help influence the industry at large."

nice to see these kinds of questions are being asked, and in vogue, no less.

[blorbocedes]

at this point I think at a personal level we need to look at the BDS movement carefully and try to implement it in our lives. your local cafe can make a starbucks quality caramel macchiato without co-signing genocide. learn how to pirate if you wanna watch Disney+ shows. lots of other shoe brands than puma! you've never needed a sodastream water in your life. instead of hungover mcdo beef grease fries, order some delicious latkes. and so on and so forth....... the power of the US dollar, and the euro/pound is quite unparalleled. so use it! make it publicly embarrassing to be seen with these brands, for influencers to advertise it, force their hand until they publicly cut ties with an apartheid regime, or watch their stock price plummet.

[communistkenobi]

The deeply moralist tone that a lot of discussions about media representation take on here are primarily neoliberal before they are anything else. Like the shouting matches people get into about “purity culture” “pro/anti” etc nonsense (even if I think it’s true that some people have a deeply christian worldview about what art ought to say and represent about the world) are downstream of the basic neoliberal assumption that we can and must educate the public by being consumers in a market. “Bad representation” is often framed as a writer’s/developer’s/director’s/etc’s failure to properly educate their audience, or to educate them the wrong way with bad information about the world (which will compel their audience to act, behave, internalise or otherwise believe these bad representations about some social issue). Likewise, to “consume” or give money to a piece of media with Bad Representation is to legitimate and make stronger these bad representations in the world, an act which will cause more people to believe or internalise bad things about themselves or other people. And at the heart of both of those claims is, again, the assumption that mass public education should be undertaken by artists in a private market, who are responsible for creating moral fables and political allegories that they will instil in their audiences by selling it to them. These conversations often become pure nonsense if you don’t accept that the moral and political education of the world should be directed by like, studio executives or tv actors or authors on twitter. There is no horizon of possibility being imagined beyond purchasing, as an individual consumer in a market, your way into good beliefs about the world, instilled in you by Media Product 

[keepingmyoptionsfluid]

I'm begging y'all to be sane. I get that it's exciting a show has got to 100 episodes and the show should celebrate that but also I need to be very clear (as someone who works in TV and has done for a fair amount of time), sometimes a big "milestone" episode are just a regular episode from a story perspective. Stop building it up to be something it probably won't be because the vitriol and ire that some of you have shown to the cast is frankly repugnant and you should be fucking ashamed of yourselves.

[general-cyno]

today in more zolu thoughts: yet another thing I find fascinating about zoro and luffy's relationship, which I believe the LA managed to capture pretty well despite the differences between it and the og source material, is that while zoro's capacity for loyalty and devotion where luffy's concerned are insane (the all-encompassing, heartfelt, lay down my life and dreams for you, follow you until death or the very end of everything kind of crazy), they're not entirely unconditional per se. the condition here being that he has to measure up to zoro's standards - that luffy has to prove himself a man worthy of following.

there are plenty examples of this in the manga, but I'll stick to where it and opla intersect. so manga!zoro pretty much stands firm with this condition when he agrees to follow luffy, warning him about not getting in the way of zoro's dream right away. opla zoro is a lot more reluctant to join in comparison, and he just seemingly goes along with the whole thing in a more "might as well" manner; even so, there's these few subtle moments where you can see him being struck awe by luffy's faith in himself/his dream (the dinner at kaya's) and showing exactly why he's a "different" kind of pirate (ie freeing the folks from orange town).

still, the most pivotal moment is zoro's fight with mihawk in both cases. this is where luffy has to really prove himself to zoro, for the first time. because talk of dreams and promises and not hindering them is nice and all, but can luffy really stand by what he says when push comes to shove? when the life of someone he cares about is on the line? and man. the answer is yes.

in the manga, by stopping johnny and yosaku from intervening and refusing to do so himself as well, even though he was deeply upset by zoro getting hurt, luffy proved he wouldn't go back on his word nor betray zoro's trust and the faith he had placed in him. in a similar fashion, opla luffy letting zoro go ahead with the duel despite his own apprehension/doubts and nami questioning both of their choices, is what finally led to zoro recognizing him as his captain out loud and accepting his role as a first mate.

I just think it's interesting that these two kind of make each other walk on a tightrope. only the world's greatest swordsman can stand by the pirate king's side. the pirate king can have the world's greatest swordsman by his side, if he proves himself worthy of it. but the best part? for me, it's that zoro and luffy are able to challenge one another this way (or set the bar that high) because they absolutely believe the other can rise up to it and beyond.

[daylighteclipsed]

Y’all ever think about if Sora falls to darkness that inside his heart will look like the Destiny Islands falling again

[loadinghellsing]

"does a person count as religious if they believe, but have lost their faith?"

If the answer is "yes"? Alucard is more religious then Anderson.

"more religious" as in "more consumed, motivated, and driven by their faith, and by their faith alone."

Combat is Alucard's prayer, it's in the blood spilled and the lives lost. Vlad lived, fought, and killed for his faith.

And him consuming the blood, is him taking that entire prayer from god, and claiming it as his own.

So if you take every act of faithless faith, and tally it up as a religious point. Well...

I feel it's safe to call him the most religious character in Hellsing.

His relationship with it is complex, and runs deep. Furious resentment, but also a sense of self loathing with what he's become. Torn between two extremes.

(conflicted grin/scowl)

-Additional note-

Alucard's quote; that dedicating yourself to god, or dedicating yourself against, is all the same.

Prompts an odd realization, that in Alucard's own terms, he could never have held the weight of a human life.

Because Vlad had been dedicated and faithful to an all consuming extreme. Alucard is just the other side of that same coin.

"If Satanists do not believe in the devil, who does?" - "Christians."

But if Alucard expresses two extremes of monstrosity, here's the thing that really gets me.

Anderson is a monster of neither extreme.

"Instrument of God", sure. but the main things is; Anderson doesn't want to be human. He doesn't want emotion, fear, heart, or pity.

He becomes a monster because of a human desire to not be overwhelmed with conflict. It's the desires of a tired man expressed through faith (not because of faith) that turns him into a monster.

he works at an orphanage, he has kids he care about. Such as Maxwell. Who he strikes down in "the name of god", be he strikes down with a human heart. With pity, sorrow, loss, and love.

Emotions that aren't because of his faith. It's human, it's who he is. And his faith is just another aspect of that identity.

So through those terms? Anderson became a monster in the most human way possible.

[dyrdeer]

I'm so happy that tech companies without anyone asking got rid of headphone jacks so that I can only play music through my car speakers via Bluetooth. A thing that notoriously works 100% of the time (hint it never has worked for me in 10 years of owning a phone. That technology FUCKING sucks and they got rid of something that Bluetooth isn't HALF as good or reliable as)

[forgotmynametag]

That one time the wholeass sun came careening down

[horseshoemybeloved]

Horseshoe: gorgeous gorgeous glass pipe

Sandman: Delta 8 sour watermellon fart blast atomic mango vape

Donnie: dry herb vaporizer with a locally grown sativa

Benzedrine: a 2.5mg indica gummy

[elftwink]

one thing thats so interesting about being a vegetarian is you get to hear all about everyones hypothetical activism that they care about very deeply when talking specifically about your diet and why it's stupid, but literally will never bring up ever again in any other context

[3gremlins]

not to keep having astarion thoughts but i was thinking about how it really would be a curse to be a vampire if you're already an elf. like for humans, it might be okay b/c we don't canonically live that long (relatively) and are squishy/underpowered af compared to the other peoples of faerun, so the win/loss of being a vampire isn't quite so bad (tho generally i feel like in the dnd universe there's way better ways to achieve durability/immortality if that's what you want).

but he was already a high elf- elves already have super long lifespans (up to 750 years per the wiki), can see in the dark, don't actually need to sleep and have inborn magic usually. like being a vampire really would be much more of a curse for an elf -esp a vampire spawn versus a full vampire since you've essentially got most of the bad and little of the benefits and are now beholden to someone else forever. so you go from being a creature with all the freedom in the world to one with very little.