Posts by pjandy@a2mi.social
(DIR) Post #AQ6Nkbm6v0ZB1JskZk by pjandy@a2mi.social
2022-11-29T16:51:42Z
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@drhafezster looks like quite a place!
(DIR) Post #ARVJcYeSoTeMNtLjzU by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-01-10T15:17:20Z
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@SrRochardBunson Decopunk, eg
(DIR) Post #ASY60XapUmjpsoUPKK by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:29:04Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon I think the question of how involved the state should or shouldn't be is a separate issue. I think the issue raised here was that capitalist incentive structures push toward consolidation, which makes it hard for small independent firms to compete, and then capitalism incentivizes the large consolidated firms toward blandness in the name of mass appeal. See walmarts next to shuttered mom-and-pop stores, the 57th Marvel movie, etc.
(DIR) Post #ASY6R6UONJCvdn91SC by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:33:52Z
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@elliswyatt @zamallama @HLGEM @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon I think that's a fairly reductionist, idealized view of one individual person's ability to successfully compete against the likes of Amazon.
(DIR) Post #ASY6VMUsneSqRlP8s4 by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:30:41Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon that might be fine for you in terms of how you make a living, but it generates a bland, soulless culture in the process, which sucks to have to live in.
(DIR) Post #ASY6df5rXhSERIevs8 by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:36:07Z
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@elliswyatt @zamallama @HLGEM @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon Amazon owns Audible, which is the biggest producer/seller of audiobooks
(DIR) Post #ASY6yNXvygq66BfTtI by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:39:52Z
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@elliswyatt @zamallama @HLGEM @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon You're saying audible doesn't produce audiobooks? ...I think they do. Let's assume they don't. What difference does that make for the larger point that "capitalism => bland soullessness"?
(DIR) Post #ASY7oemBAAymauG7Ye by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:49:21Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon If I have to rely on audible for sales of my exciting audiobook, and they have their own boring version, that's the one that's going to get promoted. That's core to Amazon's business model - if an independent seller is doing well, they promote their own version of those produces and squeeze out the little guy. That's a market distortion as much as anything "the state" might do...
(DIR) Post #ASY8XPMbJUNLpAdNSK by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T21:50:41Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon same as walmart's practice in the 90s of lowering prices until the competition went under, and then raising them back up with they were the only game in town. ...the idea of a "pure market" is a myth - everyone with any leverage is creating distortions. The only question is in whos interest.
(DIR) Post #ASY9i3tXhmwQVZZrhA by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T22:10:33Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon McD and Walmart have both relied on public assistance to subsidize their workers when they are paid poverty wages, for one. And in Amazon's case, when the person who runs the market is also the lowest bidder and also controls which products are put in front of you when you're in the market, that isn't really a "free market" - strings are being pulled. The fact that its a corporation rather than government pulling them seems arbitrary.
(DIR) Post #ASYAtVwrqJVYee9p8C by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-10T22:23:50Z
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@elliswyatt @HLGEM @vivsmythe @rabia_elizabeth @bookstodon ok it sounded like you were saying they should make their exciting audiobook and let the market decide because capitalism is great, more than making the case that free market capitalism doesn't actually exist. But that's cool. I'd go one step further to say that free markets are a myth, and any society that claims to based on a free market economy is in an unstable state tending toward corporatism, if not there already.
(DIR) Post #ASsRVS9Jtu7yIuIEN6 by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-20T17:04:07Z
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@science_quotes I like that sentiment, but there’s an important distinction between applying the best science in an attempt to understand the universe, and understanding the universe as it really is. There are important discoveries since Sagan said those words in circa 1980 - dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe for example - meaning that no one, then or now, can really claim to “grasp the universe as it really is.”
(DIR) Post #ASzZWMeFzwjpGwQdM0 by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-02-24T03:36:39Z
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@arstechnica that looks like a Beksinski painting.
(DIR) Post #ATG69GokQo2gdoLZgm by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-03-04T02:57:56Z
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@Glastomichelle that’s awesome
(DIR) Post #ATHrk0NpO09DODjYDg by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-03-04T23:25:55Z
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@Tilopa @bleakfuture I don’t want to blame victims, but also feel like everyone has to be lifting where they stand. I do what I can to try and keep things sane in Michigan. My ability to influence politics in SC is nil. No one can lift the whole country at once. I don’t know what do to about the steady drumbeat of terrible news. I think stories need to be shared alongside an explicit call to action. Otherwise what are we actually doing?
(DIR) Post #ATHrouobW2CJZIbEA4 by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-03-04T23:26:49Z
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@Tilopa @bleakfuture I don’t want to blame victims, but also feel like everyone has to be lifting where they stand. I do what I can to try and keep things sane in Michigan. My ability to influence politics in SC is nil. No one can lift the whole country at once. I don’t know what to do about the steady drumbeat of terrible news. I think stories need to be shared alongside an explicit call to action. Otherwise what are we actually doing?
(DIR) Post #AbUEzJZkov0mL0TELw by pjandy@a2mi.social
2023-11-05T05:39:28Z
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@aljazeera why isn’t there an international response of some kind?
(DIR) Post #AdelTBMfuZq4NmQDMe by pjandy@a2mi.social
2024-01-09T03:13:48Z
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@alchemistmuffin @cfb this is too stressful