#currency-less economy

[biznocrats]

https://social.digitalshoppingmall.net/content/perma?id=14630&cd1=4&cd2=4

[hollowwish]

You guys do realize a lot of watcher fans complaining about the six dollars don't just need to "cancel their disney+ or hulu subscriptions." They're the people who ALREADY can't afford streaming services. It's not that they should be supporting independent creators over big corporations, it's that they literally cannot afford to do either.

[princeofyorkshire]

i can’t believe piracy is such a sensitive topic on tumblr dot com i can tell you guys are not latin american

[aeide-thea]

At the Delphinbrunnen, Volkspark Friedrichshain, Berlin Photo by Thomas Lautenschlag, 2011

[probablyasocialecologist]

The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe. Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel’s credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost “junk bonds” levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel’s far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery. The majority of the money invested in Israeli investment funds was diverted to investments abroad because Israelis do not want their own pension funds and insurance funds or their own savings to be tied to the fate of the State of Israel. This has caused a surprising stability in the Israeli stock market because funds invested in foreign stocks and bonds generated profit in foreign currency, which was multiplied by the rise in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the Israeli Shekel. But then Intel scuttled a $25 billion investment plan in Israel, the biggest BDS victory ever.  These are all financial indicators. But the crisis strikes deeper at the means of production of the Israeli economy. Israel’s power grid, which has largely switched to natural gas, still depends on coal to supply demand. The biggest supplier of coal to Israel is Colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to Israel as long as the genocide was ongoing. After Colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are South Africa and Russia. Without reliable and continuous electricity, Israel will no longer be able to pretend to be a developed economy. Server farms do not work without 24-hour power, and no one knows how many blackouts the Israeli high-tech sector could potentially survive. International tech companies have already started closing their branches in Israel. Israel’s reputation as a “startup nation” depends on its tech sector, which in turn depends on highly educated employees. Israeli academics report that joint research with universities abroad has declined sharply thanks to the efforts of student encampments. Israeli newspapers are full of articles about the exodus of educated Israelis. Prof. Dan Ben David, a famous economist, argued that the Israeli economy is held together by 300,000 people (the senior staff in universities, tech companies, and hospitals). Once a significant portion of these people leaves, he says, “We won’t become a third world country, we just won’t be anymore.” 

19 July 2024

[paper-mario-wiki]

hey, it's totally reasonable to be scared, but also, think to yourself: what was the last generation that showed this much insistence on the fact that money doesnt exist and that capitalism visciously and inhumanely exploits the poor in a system which benefits only the elite? like, in all the kinds of non-academic mass media youve consumed (books, television, movies, history, etc) from, say, before 2010, how often did you hear anticapitalist rhetoric spoken without some tone of mockery?

at the very least, dont forget that it's not just you languishing in some obscure and overlooked political niche by yourself. seems that everyone all at once is noticing that the world stage on fire. that's not good, but i doubt that nothing good will come of it.

keep speaking up about what ails us. keep sharing/donating to relief and mutual aid funds. keep checking on your friends. remember, in a world where physical cash makes up less than 10% of the currency in the economy and the rest is theoretical numbers on a screen (i give $5 in cash to the bank, and i spend it with my card. you come to the same bank and withdraw the $5 in cash. the bank just added five ghost dollars to the economy) prioritize humans and human connection.

[aristotels]

look imma say this and then im gonna go do something productive bc this is taking up way too much of time.

do i think usamericans are inherently stupid or evil? no, i dont. i dont believe you are any less capable or dumber than the other people in the world. i do, however, think you have more responsibilities.

does it matter if a brazilian doesnt know where croatia is? not really. brazil doesnt have monopoly on world production or currency. brazil didnt instigate the fall of yugoslavia. brazil cant veto an un resolution. does it matter if a dalmatian grandma raising donkeys in vrlika doesnt know where laos is? not particularly; she doesnt vote for a president who has power to influence the global politics. croatian president cant stage a coup in venezuela. balkan countries dont dominate social or political discourse, they dont dictate economy, trends, or inflation. they dont dominate media, films, music, culture, language.

usa however does. the president of the usa has very real power to fund a genocide and single-handedly keep an apartheid existing. people from usa should know the effects their choices have.

imperialism isnt only visible in politics either. cultural hegemony is a huge part of it. oscars, online algorithms, social media, language - these all have influence on the rest of the world. the ways other countries are viewed in the usa is important. its REALLY not about "haha stupid usamericans", its about responsibility you have as a part of imperial core.

and before anyone goes like "wHy ArE yOu NoT cALLiNg OuT wEsTeRn EuRoPe" its not what this particular discourse is about. ive talked about it before. ill talk about it again because germany has more effect on my life than the usa. pls stop deflecting responsibility this way

edit: no this does not mean "please vote for genocide joe" it means the opposite holy shit this is the core reason for this entire fucking globegate or whatever. if youre voting for dems bc theyre "lesser evil" pls learn where palestine is and that to them there is NO lesser evil jesus christ biden is literally bypassing congress and vetoing un resolutions and sending billions of dollars and weapons and missiles to kill children on the other side of the planet. youre all insane if "vote blue" was your takeaway from this post

[dalishious]

Life in Rivain - What We Know Going Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard

For the first time in the game franchise, it has been confirmed that players will get the opportunity to explore Rivain. As such, we will finally be learning a lot more about Rivain upon its release. This piece is about the information we have thus far.

Location & Population

The Kingdom of Rivain, founded in -44 Ancient, is located on the northeastern peninsula of Thedas. Surrounded nearly entirely by water, its only land connection is Antiva.

Those native to Rivain are called Rivaini. Just like any nation in Thedas, there are different racial/ethnic backgrounds who live there – however, the majority of Rivain’s population is Black.

There is also a notable qunari population in Rivain, dating back to when they arrived in Thedas in 6:32 Steel. Kont-aar still exists as a large Qunari settlement in the northern part of the nation – it is regarded as peaceful.

The capital of Rivain is Dairsmuid, which sits on the Rialto Bay. Dairsmuid is the only place in Rivain that has any real Chantry control.

Relations

Because Rivain has a lot of flavour profiles found only in the northern part of Thedas, other nations highly value their food exports. As Rivain is friendly with the Qunari, they are willing to trade in Seheron, too.

Rivain has a “less-than-cordial” relationship with Tevinter. It also has an unserious rivalry with Antiva.

Culture

The Rivaini are traditionally a matriarchal society, believing that women are best suited to rule. Major decisions within a community rest on the head of elder women, who is often a Seer (see: Magic).

Rivain has a currency-based economy. However, there is, generally speaking, a greater value placed in making sure everyone has what they need over monetary gain. For example, if one community has a bad year the neighbouring communities will send supplies and labour to ensure its people do not suffer.

“The Rivaini people trace their roots to pantheist ancestors, and many in Rivain still believe that their god and the universe are one in the same.” —Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Rivain is has the most diverse range of spiritual beliefs in Thedas, because the Chantry failed to become the monopoly like they did everywhere else. The three most common spiritualties are Andrastianism, the Qun, and unnamed traditional Pantheism beliefs.

Daily life for an average citizen of Rivain differs greatly across the nation, because it is such a patchwork of cultures that co-exist in relative peace. Life in Kont-aar for example, is structured by the Qun, where life in a remote village in the southern tip would likely be highly influenced by the Raiders who call Llomerryn home.

Magic

Traditional Rivaini beliefs hold their Seers in high regard. Seers are female mages who specialize in peacefully communicating with spirits and even intentionally invite them into their bodies. They act as wise women and leaders of their communities, for whom people go to for guidance.

Twice a year, the Seers of Rivain gather in Dairsmuid to meet in council, forge trade agreements, and publicly pledge loyalty to Rivain's queen. This is called the Allsmet, and it is a fully celebrated festival with lavish feasts, gift exchanges, ceremonial gatherings, and music.

There was a single Rivaini Circle of Magi, located in Dairsmuid, but it existed largely as a façade to appease the Chantry. Unfortunately, when the Chantry sent Seekers to inspect the Circle in 9:40, they discovered the mages breaking Chantry law. The mages were allowed to freely be with their families, and were training female mages as Seers. The Seekers they invoked the Right of Annulment; they murdered all the mages of the Circle, and destroyed their library of books and artifacts.

Lords of Fortune

The Lords of Fortune are a guild of treasure hunters and dungeoneers, based out of Rivain. They can be identified by the decorations they were all over their body; trinkets they’ve collected over their years of treasure hunting. Sometimes they are hired by others to help out on a job, while other times they seek their own adventure. Anyone of any race can become a Lord of Fortune.

-----

References

Codex entry: Seers and the Allsmet (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Codex entry: The Annulment at Dairsmuid (Dragon age: Inquisition)

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

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[the-catboy-minyan]

always so funny to me how boycotters focus on shit like Coca Cola and McDonald's. like sure, ofc you should start buying less of these, they're unnecessary and unhealthy, but not giving them money isn't going to help Palestinians in any way, and saying "if you buy from x company you're an evil (((zionist)))" is wrong.

no one is gonna tell you "actually, you SHOULD keep buying starbucks", because nobody fucking likes starbucks, and it's your choice what to fo with your money, but when people say "Starbucks doesn't support Israel there's no reason to boycott it", that's what a lot of them are hearing.

if you boycott, go for companies that actually do harm and not just sell stuff in Israel. and if you're serious about boycotts, you'd go for more serious companies than fast food chains and snacks.

not to mention, publicly shaming companies for having business in a country is not gonna do anything to help Palestinians anyways? the only thing it does is shame israelis for existing. Israeli companies can't sell products abroad, Israeli companies can't do business with foreign companies, Israeli companies can't be allowed to have foreign products, you're trying to cut off Israel's line of business, you know who this will harm? the citizens, not the government who still gets tax money and funding from foreign countries.

foreign companies leave Israel due to loss of profits, Jewish and Palestinian Israelis lose jobs. Israeli companies lose business with foreign companies, get less money, have to lay off workers and eventually declare bankruptcy. produce supply decreases, prices go up, jobs get diminished, unemployment rises, the value of the currency goes down, taxes increase, and the only people who are suffering from this are the citizens. these are the perfect conditions for a dictatorship uprising, because in a poor economy where the poor get poorer, the people have less power than the rich.

your boycott will only help push the Israel's citizens into poverty and the government into a dictatorship. it might be too much to ask of you to care for Israeli lives (even if those are Palestinians with an Israeli citizenship) so I hope you understand this will harm Palestinians in the long term, because Israelis will not have the power to push back against their government anymore, and everything you see right now will be 10 times worse.

if you have proof a company is affiliated with the Israeli GOVERNMENT or MILITARY, fuck it, go nuts, but stop punishing companies for breathing in the direction of an Israeli.

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

[nem0-kn0ws-n0t]

Hermit Permits- or Hermitconomics101

I would just like to start off by saying I adore the concept. It's perfect. But also, I'm a massive nerd and I wanna talk about it.This is such a fascinating little economic model. Like, the usual hermitcraft economy is already so fascinating.

Warning-Long post! Also might Slightly skew your perspective of the Gimmick.

At first Glance, the Hermitcraft economy is the epitome of a Perfect Market economy -the basic selling/buying market you think of when thinking of markets-which has a few requirements

1. Homogenous products: gunpowder from Doc's shop is the same gunpowder from Tango's or Iskall or whoever sells it

2. No barriers to entry and exit: anyone can decide to sell. The technology's there. Any hermit can decide to make a farm or manually harvest something, set up shop and sell

3. Sellers are Price takers: If say, X and False are both selling copper ingots (for example), and X prices his higher than False (and they both keep their shops stocked), Hermits will buy from False. So X has to price the same (or lower but shhhh) than False.

4. Product Transparency: If you pay 1 diamond for a stack of iron blocks, you know you're getting 1 stack of iron. (usually) no shenanigans involved

And now the interesting point->

5. Many sellers- In a perfect competition market, the market is usually saturated with sellers, to the point that everyone needs to price the same, or at exactly the cost of production (or whatever needs to be to have the last seller joining the market to have economic profit of 0 but that's real hard to count in diamonds). Usually, this is done by having many firms coming in (free market remember) and undercutting each other until it's at the point where Supply is equal to Demand (yes, exactly the graph you're thinking of). In hermits' case, rarely is there more than one shop for an item unless there is an obnoxious amount of demand for it, and often, they'll buddy up in the same shop and split the profits and the work (I'm thinking of all the wood groups) for the highly in demand items. (More on that later).

So the sellers aren't usually competing with other hermits to sell resources- they're competing with the hermits' other way of procuring resources- The Endless Grind

Think about it- The rule of thumb for establishing the scope of a market (and its competition) is to ask yourself- where do I go if the shop becomes too expensive? In our real-life situation, we go to other shops- hermits just roll up their pixilated sleeves and get to work themselves. They are the alternative. (or Lag but stealing throws off all economic models so we're assuming it doesn't exist.)

A hermit shop, to have sales, needs to price its resources low enough that other hermits will see it as a better (cheaper) alternative than acquiring it themselves.

But Nemo, I hear you ask, isn't it always going to be cheaper to collect the material themselves? All the hermits already have all the tools/technology they'd need to get the resources they'd want, so shops wouldn't work.

But they do work, every season hermits "get rich" which implies there's something "wrong" with my model, which there is.

It's Time. That's the main currency in Hermitcraft.

Any hermits can decide to get any amount of resources with no real limit except Time. Sure, some hermits are more likely to build farms and have it done quicker than others, but all of them can decide to pick up a tool and just grind away (which they do, often). The point of the shops is to be convenient. You could spend 3 hours getting 15 stacks of oak wood, but you could also drop 30 diamonds at Ren's shop and get that done in less than a minute. Which, when you're a content creator on a tight deadline, already spending hours upon hours just building and editing and living outside of work, time is precious. So Time is the real trading currency on HC.

And so there comes a wrench in the plan as you have 2 "types" of goods- you have the Sellers' resources (that cost you diamonds but less time) and your own resources (which cost you Time but fewer diamonds)

Which invalidates point 3. Price Takers- There are 2 very different prices, which you are willing to pay at different times to different degrees. Somedays, they grind somedays they pay.

And thus, there goes the perfect competition model-

~~And in comes Monopolistic competition.

Now, listen to me, this is crucial ish- this is not the same as a Monopoly.

Monopolies imply there is 1 seller. 1. there is 1 way of acquiring the good (at this point in time) (everything is taken as if time is held constant). YouTube has a monopoly on hermitcraft videos (kind of). You can't watch Hermitcraft videos anywhere else, as the hermits don't upload their videos on other websites. If YouTube started charging 10000$ per video watched, you probably wouldn't watch hermit videos anymore. That's a monopoly.

Monopolistic competition is when a few firms sell slightly different products. Think Pepsi and Coca-Cola. They're functionally the same thing (don't @/me for this), but they both still work as companies, because people tend to prefer one over the other.

And thus our model. A monopolistic competitive market.

The real competition was not store vs store (unless for the bit), it was Sellers vs the Grind.

(There are also sunk cost fallacies exhibited, when hermits make their own farms for materials they know they'll need a lot of, which then reduces the time spent, especially with AFK'ing, thus the active time spent being reduced but server time still fluctuating but that can be hermitconomics 102 lmao)

But Back to this season-

With the introduction of Hermit Permits (which, is such a fun term, I wouldn't be surprised if they came up with that first before the concept) they are forcing there to be a single official seller. But hermits are still able to collect their own resources and make their own farms. So the market stays the same.

Which is probably not what you were expecting was it. All this fanfare but theoretically, the model doesn't change. It might change the point at which a hermits decides it's better to grind it out instead of spending diamonds, but not the theory.

But here's the second hole in this theory.

One of the first assumptions one makes about any market model is that everyone involved wants to maximize profits. (which irl, is making the most money).

But the same was as the real currency is Time, the real Profit for Hermits is Content (and engagement, and a whole bunch of parasocial scales to do with audience retention but I'm an economic major, not a sociology or business student damn it, we'll stick with Content) .

Theoretically, nothing changes in the economic model, but the result changes. The potential to change things up is massive, simply because they at least superficially changed something. Rebranding something, in a way that shakes up previously established norms- That's what they're getting out of it. Forcing people to do content about things they normally wouldn't even touch, which inspires viewers to be invested, so see our favourite blorbos overcome the challenge. It's a narrative device.

(If anything, I'd expect this to actually "promote the economy" as hermits would be motivated to stock up their shops, thus making more farms/farm building episodes, or the competition occurring from additional permits being circulated.)

So yeah. Hermitconomics 101- The not-so-perfect competition. Sorry If I burst some bubbles, I just think it's fascinating.

Thanks for reading to the bottom!

TL:DR :This is gonna be so fun, and the hermit economy makes economists everywhere cry

[dalliansss]

“Battle on two fronts,” Finrod says. He stands, and moves around the plates of food on the table. The half-touched plate of turkey he sets as Angband, then sets a cake in the supposed place of Hithlum, then sets a platter of lembas in the supposed location of Himring. Then he puts three unopened wine bottles in the place of Dorthonion. “The fighting will be concentrated on the Ard-galen.”

“Thargelion and Nargothrond can sustain a battle of such proportions for a thousand years,” Caranthir says. “But since you are asking all elven realms to put all our strength behind this venture, we will leave the fields and industries untended. The mines and smithies will be overtaxed with the need to constantly put forth weapons and implements of war. Other industries will slow production to a trickle, or even come to a halt entirely. Taxes shall be raised even higher, and the proceeds directed to war. Sumptuary measures shall have to be enacted by all territories, and the aristocrats will be the first to bear the brunt of such edicts. Then it will trickle down to the common families. You are asking everybody to tighten their belts– for an indefinite time. We have wealth, this is true, but wealth will run out if it is not replenished. Economy will take a dip, if not come to a standstill. Say that we win and manage to draw out Morgoth and all of his forces, what happens to us? Both Thargelion and Nargothrond will predictably have empty reserves by then. Currency will mean nothing. Everything will cost triple, quadruple. We will not have enough people to return to the farms, and rekindle other industries. The Eldar do not breed like dwarves and men.”

“Doriath is out of the question,” says Maedhros when the pause grows at the wake of Caranthir’s words. “But Turgon will have to show himself for such a great undertaking. The East will accept no less. Require from us our full strength, then Hithlum will have to give its everything also.”

Fingolfin’s face goes wooden. “Maedhros, neither Fingon nor I even know where Turgon is.”

“The same way we do not know what lies beyond the Ered Engrin. All war bears risk, this is true, but how are we certain Morgoth will even take the bait? What trap shall we concoct that will make Angband spew out everything it hides in its belly?”

“Make Doriath put Lúthien on a pedestal, or something,” Caranthir mutters. Maedhros shoots him a look, and he falls silent.

[hints of war / part 13 of Noldorin Finances / AO3]

[fortunelowtier]

I still 100% unironically wholeheartedly believe that this scuffed ass reality tv show from 2007 where CBS stranded 40 children in the middle of the NM desert a la Lord of the Flies is one of the most genuinely fascinating pieces of TV I've ever watched just because of how ABSURD it is on every level

-Their society is a bizarre Communism/Democracy hybrid whose entire economy is based on the barter system

-There is a set class system everyone is sorted into against their will who each get paid more or less money depending on how high or low they are on the ladder, and at the end of each episode they must compete in competitions to decide who gets to be at the top, with the "strongest" being able to get the esteemed title of "upper class"

-Every time they would complete a challenge, at the very end they were given a choice of 2 things that could be added to the town, to which the leaders of the teams would vote on which to get (For example, in one episode they had to choose between fresh produce or 50 pizzas). One of these things was letters from the children's parents, implying that the adults on site were receiving the mail from these kid's parents and deliberately withholding it from them

-In one episode the district leaders of each of the 4 teams (the classes) go out and find a chest full of buffalo nickels (the town's currency), they bring the chest to the town and naturally, this creates unprecedented inflation near instantly, as there's now a mass amount of currency that suddenly appeared in the economy

-Their entire society existed in relative stability until the moment religion was introduced in the form of various religious texts (Bibles, the Quran, etc), after which the town immediately started to go to shit. The Jewish kids and Christian kids were at each other's throats about which religion was """better""" (because they're children who had religion forced upon them at a young age before they were able to think for themselves but that's an entire can of worms I won't open), while the 1 (one) Hindu kid was trying to keep the peace

-At one point the kids start to crave meat, as their food up to that point was mostly canned goods and various produce, so one of the """eldest""" members of the group, (I say """eldest""" because he was still only like 14 or 15) who had worked as a butchers apprentice, took one of their chickens and lead the kids into the desert to where he then taught them how to decapitate, pluck, drain, and cook a chicken.

-One of the kids later did a Reddit AMA about his experience on the show, where he then disclosed various things that happened outside of the camera such as, but not limited to: Oil burns, a kid drinking bleach, scorpions, venomous snakes, an outbreak of herpes, the lack of showers, the lack of multiple toilets (up until I believe a few weeks in they only had one outhouse), etc etc etc

-The parents of these kids allegedly had to sign a 22 page waiver that was basically CBS going "If ur kids get hurt you can't sue us", specifically noting "acts of god" in the contract of things that they weren't to be held accountable for

-At the end of every week, the 4 leaders got together to choose which person would receive that week's "gold star", a star made out of 20,000 USD of solid gold (around 30k after adjusting for inflation), an unfathomable amount of money to give to kids who likely had no concept as to how much money 20 grand was

-The town used for Bonanza City is actually a ghost town/film set located just 20 miles from Santa Fe used as a filming location for movies like A Million Ways to Die In the West (2014) and The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981). The reason I bring this up is because it's the same film set in which 14 years later, Alec Baldwin would accidentally discharge a firearm on the set of Rust, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

To anyone asking where to watch this, I genuinely don't know. All of the 13 episodes used to be available on YouTube by someone who re-uploaded them in 2010, but the channel was terminated last year. I've heard that there are a few Google Drive folders floating around that have the raw MP4 files and you could watch them that way but you'd probably have to go digging for it

[lazarusemma]

obviously universities claiming “we can't divest from arms companies because tuition costs would rise” is on the face of it a facile claim—

(tuition, like all prices, is set to establish profit more than to reflect actual costs of production; student loan rates are famously high, and without debt forgiveness many people are already unable to pay them off; hopefully most people would agree to slightly higher tuition in exchange for stopping mass murder)—

but it’s a useful illustration of how privilege in the imperial core depends, by definition, on exploitation of the global south.

education is made available to a portion of the US’s population limited by wealth and other societal factors. it is inequitable even within the country. but as an institution, it is bound to & reliant upon the wealth of the country, which sits atop a global economy of neoliberalism and resource/value extraction. the only reason middle- or upper-class USAmericans have material access to “quality” education is because of their country’s deriving that wealth from oppression of the global south.

this is true on a literal, physical level—where do we get the paper for textbooks? where do we get the cobalt, aluminum, nickel for electronics? who makes our plastics or textiles, under what conditions, and what price do we pay for these items?

this is also true on an ideological level—what is printed in our textbooks, and in what language(s)? what websites are deemed trustworthy sources to cite academically, and whose authority makes that call? which currency is used to purchase materials from abroad, and who benefits from this?

notice also that none of the points raised above are exclusive to higher education. colleges and universities may be making headlines right now for being directly invested in the systems we want them divesting from, but all of the US's internal resources are driven by money, and the US's economic power comes from a history of settler colonialism, human rights abuses, and environmentally-unsound practices across the world.

this country has leveraged its money—collected by way of torture and murder of Black people, forced displacements and murder of Indigenous people, and non-sustainable exploitation of natural resources (along with white European settlers’ wealth, which of course has its own chain of wealth extraction as its source)—all to bring itself to the head of the global economy, produce a military meant to be too threatening for other countries to risk invoking, and enforce its hegemony across the production process.

our response to the claim that divesting would make tuition more expensive needs to be twofold:

1. challenging its veracity—no, it won’t;

2. challenging its value—so what if it does?

any serious justice movement needs to acknowledge that some things which are currently available will need to become unavailable (or less available, or less convenient) under an equitable system. for another example: projects like UBI would be great for residents of the imperial core, but in our current setup, UBI will be a privilege of those whose countries have the wealth to back it.

no liberatory project is complete without a complete restructuring of the systems that enabled inequity to begin with. for those of us living in the imperial core, this means accepting that even if increasing quality of life in the global south will/does cost us, the cost has to be considered worth the result!

[alainamama17]

The Perilous Path from Willful Ignorance to the Erosion of Democracy

Democracy thrives on the informed consent of its citizens. It is a system of governance that is rooted in the principle of collective decision-making, with the understanding that the electorate is knowledgeable and capable of making decisions that uphold the common good. However, when willful ignorance becomes prevalent within a society, the very pillars of democracy begin to crumble, paving the way for authoritarianism and, in its most extreme form, fascism.

Willful ignorance is the deliberate choice to ignore facts, dismiss expert opinions, and reject the evidence that challenges one’s preconceived notions. It is a conscious decision to remain uninformed or misinformed. This stance is not only a refusal to engage with reality but also a rejection of the responsibility that comes with democratic participation. When a significant portion of the electorate chooses this path, the consequences are dire.

The first casualty of willful ignorance is the truth. In a democracy, the truth is the currency of discourse, the basis upon which policies are debated and leaders are held accountable. When the truth is devalued, misinformation and propaganda flourish. Demagogues, who are adept at exploiting fears and prejudices, find fertile ground to sow division and discord. They present themselves as the sole bearers of truth, promising simple solutions to complex problems. Their rhetoric is seductive to those who have chosen to shield themselves from the complexities of the world.

As these demagogues gain power, the institutions that are the bedrock of democracy—free press, independent judiciary, and open elections—come under attack. The demagogue’s narrative is one of us versus them, where dissent is portrayed as disloyalty. Willful ignorance allows such narratives to take root, as it creates a populace that is less likely to question authority and more likely to accept the erosion of their freedoms in exchange for the illusion of security and order.

The transition from democracy to authoritarianism is often gradual. It begins with the undermining of trust in institutions and the normalization of attacks on those who bring inconvenient truths to light. Over time, the checks and balances that prevent the concentration of power are weakened. The rule of law is replaced by the rule of the leader, and the democratic process becomes a mere facade.

In its most extreme form, willful ignorance can lead to the rise of fascism—a system of governance characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Fascism thrives on the vilification of the “other” and the glorification of a mythical past. It requires a populace that is willing to trade its autonomy for the promise of national greatness.

In conclusion, willful ignorance is not just a personal failing; it is a societal hazard. It is the antithesis of the informed citizenry required for a healthy democracy.

[olderthannetfic]

Do you think that more het-oriented fanfic-writing spaces are more gender-balanced? Or maybe only some of them, with significant enclaves of mostly-men and mostly-women?

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If we're asking about fic writers in aggregate, every study of het-heavy FFN and Wattpad reveals a shitton of women. There are no dude-heavy fic spaces on that scale, het-filled or otherwise.

People like to argue about this, but we're talking the difference between spaces with literal millions of accounts and spaces with maybe a hundred thousand.

If we're asking about individual smaller spaces where fic writers hang out, then yes, there are some that are mostly men at least as far as we know, and those spaces tend to have a fair amount of het.

I suspect but cannot prove that something like Edward/Bella fandom at its height was significantly less queer than your standard m/m fandom on AO3, but it probably wasn't significantly less female.

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Just based on numbers, I'd expect more dudes to write fic about Ladies Hot than Dudes Hot.

A more significant trend is that men tend to be trained that they should be paid for their labor and tend to have more hope, sometimes justified, of going mainstream with their hobby efforts. That doesn't mean every dude does it with every hobby, but it does have a dampening effect on the kind of gift economy culture we saw on LJ or whatever.

IME, even guys who are doing things for the good of the community are often expecting more direct respect and less of the amorphous social ties that are the currency of many fic fandoms. They might also be more directly solving a tangible problem or doing something that will get them an advantage in their job even if it isn't directly paid. (Compare dudes doing open source coding to dudes writing fanfic, for example. And yes, yes, notallmen, but we're talking big picture here.)

Combine gendered patterns in fiction consumption overall, some gendered social patterns, and social forces against giving shit away for free, and the patterns we see with fic qua fic are perfectly predictable.

The patterns for barely-renamed expies in "original" stories that could one day be monetized, now...