BobQuasit
I boycott all the products of big corporations as much as possible. I’m not even slightly tempted to try Threads.
I’ve been on the internet since the mid-80s, so I’ve pretty much seen it all. The current era has been characterized by widespread corporate takeovers, relegating independent sites to the backwaters of the internet at best. Forums for public comment used to be common, particularly on news sites; now they’re mostly gone, relegated to a few massive sites and services which are heavily censored, swarming with bots, and easily controlled.
Free speech was mostly the rule; now it’s strictly forbidden, particularly speech against the interests of corporations and the ruling class. Even if you DO find a place online where you can speak against the oligarchy, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be speaking into a void.
You can have all the free speech you want, as long as no one ever hears you.
The process of enshittification rules the day. Search engines which used to provide useful results now produce nothing but advertising and bot-fodder; on a recent Google search for blog entries about a topic of public interest, I literally got no results other than advertising. Blogs have effectively been eliminated from general public view, unless you go specifically looking for one that you already know about.
Technologically, broadband is the sole province of massive corporations which provide the shittiest service possible at the highest prices. There used to be talk of setting up small internet networks that would be outside the control of corporations and the government (which are now, of course, the same thing); that’s utterly forgotten now. Governments all over the world now have kill-switches for the internet that can be used at any time, and that very definitely includes the United States.
There was a time when it was hoped that the internet would finally give power to the people. Instead, it’s being used to enslave us even more.
The closest thing I’ve seen to any sign of hope over the last several decades is the development of the Fediverse.
It’s not superhero fatigue or franchise fatigue. It’s bad writing fatigue. Seriously, I don’t know why Hollywood keeps choosing terrible writers for huge projects, but as long as they are doing that they are going to keep getting what they deserve.
And speaking of huge projects, from what I’ve heard Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny cost $295 million to make rather than 250. And that’s not counting publicity and marketing, which brings it to 400 million if not more. That means they need to make at least $800 million to break even. No matter how you slice their opening weekend, they are in huge trouble. And given that Elementals and The Little Mermaid both bombed hard along with most other Disney movies of the last few years, I’d say that Disney is in serious trouble too!
On the other hand, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was rather well written, and from what I’ve heard it did rather well at the box office. Which is just more evidence that if you have a decently-written film the public WILL go and see it. We’re just avoiding crap, that’s all.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that hauling poor old Harrison Ford away from his bong and forcing him at the age of 80 to make shitty movies is tantamount to elder abuse. As for The Flash, coddling wannabe cult leader and mental defective Ezra Miller was just the icing on the cake. The movie was just badly written.
Frantic last minute reshoots and rewrites are a dead giveaway that something is seriously wrong with a production. But that that is happening so often in Hollywood in the last several years is clear evidence that Hollywood itself has completely lost their way. I don’t know if they can right that ship, and to be honest I don’t much care. If they won’t provide people with the good entertainment that they want, eventually somewhere else will. Maybe Bollywood or China.
The internet and even the web didn’t need profit for many long years before the web went commercial. I’ve been publishing my own website since 1996 without advertising or asking for donations. I just publish it because I love the topic. Profit is NOT the be-all and end-all of existence.
Don’t believe me? How much would you sell your children for?
You can’t become a billionaire without being incredibly evil. They are literally working to kill off all life on the planet.
As for giving them the benefit of the doubt? Seriously? Anyone who suggests that has got to be getting a nice paycheck from the plutocrats.
Anyone else reminded of this scene from Firefly?
They’re missing the Alien Queen from Aliens, Lo Pan from Big Trouble In Little China, Bennett from Commando, ED-209, Dick Jones, and Clarence Boddicker from RoboCop, The Thing from John Carpenter’s The Thing, Roy Batty from Bladerunner…I’m sure there are more.