Rex
3yr ago
I should have noted that I’m mainly curious about the meta commentary on normies changing opinion on piracy.
Commercial interests seemed to have convinced the median online person that piracy is not ethical. Given that pirating media is quite easy to do and quite easy to rationalize, how were they so successful? We’re they successful, or is it just that social media moderation is so tight that any pro piracy voices are silenced.
Rex
3yr ago
For games, major publishers like Ubisoft and Epic have created competing storefronts and pulled software from Steam. At one point, Netflix was a one stop shop. Now there are dozens of competing services. Prices are increasing. Catalogs are thin. Give it some more time for music.
To your other point. I don’t think it’s strictly a matter of rationalization or low iq. Though that is the case for many. There is a sincere group of people that believe data should be free and shared are widely as possible Almost as a terminal goal in and of itself. It may seem ridiculous to us who are steeped in capitalism, but this mindset exists.
And finally, I’ve read plausible explanations that privacy has minimal effect on sales. In most cases, if piracy were off the table, the person would simply just not consume the media. With zero marginal cost to produce an additional product, there is no economic loss.
Rex
3yr ago
I’d like to solicit themotte’s thoughts on the ethics of piracy. Specificlly movies, software, and music.
Sharing copyrighted data has been a part of the internet landscape for as long as there has been networked computers. I know it traces back to the bbs days and likely even earlier than that.
Back in the early aughts I was involved in a forum where we would scan for unsecured FTP servers and then fill them with the latest movie music and software releases straight from the groups who actually created and distributed the files. The beauty of this is that you were transferring between commercial networks so the speeds were ludicrous.
This was not long after Napster popularized file sharing and typical online user was very much of the opinion that copying data and sharing it was not equivalent to stealing. Maybe it was the circles I traveled in and my age at the time, but nearly everyone was ethically fine with downloading media. The only reason one wouldn’t do it was that there you needed some minimal level of technical know how to find more than just music on p2p networks. The only folks opposed to it were media corporations, some artists, and a small amount of corporate shills.
Once iTunes, steam, Netflix’s, Spotify, and other commercial options became available, most people stopped file sharing and simply bought media. It was a common to hear the refrain that piracy was a result of lack of access to media online. If there was ease of access and a fair price, most people would be happy to purchase software. This sentiment is still common but I sense it’s become less prominent over the last few years. The streaming environment has become quite fracutured and has impaired both the ease of access and price point for legally consuming media online.
The point of this post is to suggest that people’s opinion on the ethics of media piracy is diametrically opposed to where it was for most of the internets history. The median online opinion that I see is that piracy = theft. Many of these people are young and have been thought from an early age that piracy is not ethical. I suspect that many have also changed their opinion as they age and perhaps are not working at software/medi companies where piracy not affects them directly.
From a personal perspective, I stopped pirating media when iTunes and steam hit the market because it was in fact easier to obtain things legally and I was happy to pay.
That changed about 4 years ago when I realized that I could not in good conscience pay money to Hollywood and leftist game developers. I am happy to pirate their software and steal their movies because the alternative is so distasteful to me. I will occasionally really enjoy something and find the creators to be acceptable enough to support. In those cases I will purchase something after the fact to support people that I agree with. I encourage everyone to do the same. Enforcement of file sharing these days is non-existent. You can pretty much use the the pirate bay without worry and ignore the occasional email from you isp asking you to stop. Though there are many other alternatives out there that don’t take long to find.
Rex
3yr ago
I think this is true, but becoming less true over time. /r/switchpirates is a decent niche sub for hacking the Nintendo switch. It was perhaps decent at one time, and while there is a wealth of information there, it’s become incredibly autistic. Some users created a guide that has a very specific workflow and is pinned. Anyone asking any questions is immediately pointed to the guide and offered no help. Anyone who has a problem is met with “start over and redo the guide” or “you didn’t follow the guide properly, try again”. The user base is profoundly unhelpful. It’s some autistic nerd (for lack of a better term) mentality that they have discovered the right way to do something, all other approaches are inferior and need to eliminated.
It’s quite shocking this place even exists given that it vaguely promotes piracy.
The last time I saw a Reddit thread on the ethics of piracy, about 80% were strongly opposed to it. Contrast this to the median online opinion on piracy 10 years ago. And 20 years ago. I suspect it’s a combination of different people and changing opinions. But it’s clear that TPTB have corrected the population.
Rex
3yr ago
Yes. Out of habit sometimes I log in to read movie reviews. The last few weeks I would check out the Succession sub to see what people are saying. The comments are the absolute lowest tier garbage of any platform. Messages are typically under 200 characters, repeating lines of dialogue, cheering on a character, or the most basic observations you could imagine. Zero insightful or thoughtful replies. Twitter and YouTube comments are significantly more interesting.
It’s sad how far the internet has fallen.
Rex
3yr ago
I have a difficult question that you don’t have to respond to if that’s your choice. And I ask this sincerely. How does a trans woman plan for middle age and thereafter? As challenging as it must be for a young person to be trans, it strikes me that biological male bodies age very distinctly. It must be a whole different set of challenges. I know I have a bit of a beer belly myself. And while I’m fortunate to have my hair, I suspect most males have to worry about going bald. Ear hair was nonexistent until I hit 40. It seems like a something that is challenging under the best of conditions becomes completely insurmountable.
Rex
3yr ago
Do you live or spend time In a major city with crime and violence? I can say from experience that your comments ring true as of 5 to 10 years ago. Things are changing. And random violence: shootings, stabbing, and beatings have all increased over the last 3 years in what used to be safe an busy city neighborhoods and CBDs. Often times the victims are not caught up in risky behavior, just wrong place wrong time and specifically targeted.
Anecdotal fwiw
Rex
3yr ago
Sure - but they certainly have the same biases as the media, PMC, cathedral, etc. Do you think they would publish a poll that resoundly rejects the trans narrative? I'm not even suggesting that they do this consciously. Similar to the experts who were dictating COVID science, I think they respond to incentives and believe the bullshit theyre slinging is the best answer. Best, of course, is not synonymous with a accurate description of reality.
Rex
3yr ago
It seems there is a loud minority of people familiar with professional physicists that believe this to be the case. They make a compelling argument from what I’ve seen. That Sabine woman from Germany is a good example. I think there are others
Rex
3yr ago
I can’t go into detail on how I know this, but 2 years ago I saw a major auto mgf’s long term plan and by 2030 (I forget exactly) ICE was estimated to be 30% of sales.
I have no doubt that the majors have known this was coming down the pipe.
It’s happening.
Rex
3yr ago
Is there any hope of a true populist government? Said another way, say the Finns party and coalition win, will they be able to meaningfully implement their will?
I’m guessing the answer is no. And I’m increasingly thinking that the answer is no even if there were a significant majority government that took power.
The Americans and EU will not allow it and will colour revenution any threat. They tried it in Turkey and seemed to have failed. And they’re trying it in Israel right now.
Democracy is broken.
Rex
3yr ago
Yes. But the vast majority of people either don’t really know what that means or really think about it to it’s logical conclusion. At least I don’t think they do.
Rex
3yr ago
I’ve been to the poorest villages in India and the Philippines. Literally beyond the edge of civilization. Cell phones everywhere. You’d have to go to certain regilious communitities to really get what you’re after. And it’s probabaly invite only.
Rex
3yr ago
That’s an interesting obvervation. I’ve heard the poles are quite Catholic but if that is even remotely generalizable, that is a major problem and they have missed the point.
Rex
3yr ago
Assuming you are Protestant, is it as easy (acknowledging that this is no way “easy”) as finding a new church?
As a Catholic, this is quite a big problem as the whole apostolic succession thing is pretty important to us. Kinda hard to leave. Though I seem to understand that Orthodox Church makes the same claim. And it seems many Catholics do make that jump.
Rex
3yr ago
Take it with a grain of salt but this does show you what was changed and gives some context. Episode 2 specifically. You can skip 1.
I was Jesuit educated and honestly, it was all very palatable when I was 16 and could talk circles around my parents on current doctrine. But I’m starting to wonder, what if they were wrong? The video above shows some examples of the church really taking the edge off things. Specifically what St Paul said about how unworthily taking the Eucharist is inviting Gods judgement. I haven’t been to confession in 2 years…
The Jesuits teach you extremely abstract concepts of heaven and hell. To the point where you can conclude that one can pretty much sin as much as you want and you will be forgiven. And hell is an absence of god for eternity, not the fire of damnation.
What if they’re wrong and what they teach is either intentionally or unintentionally the product of being on the wrong track for generations?
As for Vatican 2. The suggested reforms seem fairly reasonable. The actual implantation was left to a smaller committee where one cardinal ran roughshod over the process and radically changed everything. And why? In the name of ecumenicsm? If that’s even remotely true, it’s an awful shame.
Im rambling a bit but you should check it out. I will say that the more I engage with more traditional Catholicism, the more fulfilling it is. I happened to luck into finding a very good parish when I was getting married. It’s still a novus ordo mass, but radically different than your cookie cutter Irish or Italian American suburban parish.
Rex
3yr ago
Regardless of whether or not this particular group or ad worked, there does appear to be a wide scale attempt to infiltrate and subvert Christianity. It’s been around for a long time, but it seems like it’s been more intense over the last couple years.
On a unrelated note, I’ve recently learned a bit more about the Vatican II changes. I’ve been aware of VII for a long time, but after getting into it in more depth, the actual implantation of the counsel was worse than the suggestions. I only bring this up because it seems quite clear to me that loosening up doctrine is what is killing these regions. Perhaps someone should try going the other direction.
Rex
3yr ago
The interesting part of this to me more so than the loss f humanities a the surge of STEM majors. I guess students got the memo. I highly doubt this will work out like they planned. We will just turn STEM into what a college degree became. A bunch of middling graduates that are for the most part, not particularly useful to business and certainly not future members of the PMC.
Rex
3yr ago
I think this sentiment is universal amongst trump voters that are paying attention. I wonder if it will significantly demoralize and hurt turnout in 2024. I was significantly engaged with electoral politics till the 2020 election. Now I couldn’t care less about the latest Washington drama. I wonder if they will suck me back in once the presidential season commences.
Rex
3yr ago
I say rigged quite specifically. A game can be rigged without secretly changing the score.
Suggesting that the massive changes to mail in voting is just par for the course is intellectually dishonest. The total vote increasing something like 20 million is evidence that something significant changed in how elections were operated. The fact these were pushed through so quickly is another major problem even if in principle the concept is sound (in opinion, it is not sound).
I strongly disagree that all of my points are just a continuation the same old gaming of the system. But perhaps you are right and I am wrong. If that’s the case, perhaps democracy has always and will always be total bullshit.
Either way, they may have gotten rid of trump, but at what cost. This is not an ingediant for a stable political system.
Rex
3yr ago
The election was 100% rigged. It’s a real shame that we’re even talking about dominion machines changing votes and I don’t even know who to blame.
It was rigged because of widespread voting rules being changed unilaterally immediately prior to the election to facilitate mail in voting. I have no doubt that votes were harvested and the spirit of the law behind how voting works was violated in mass.
It was rigged because the media “fortified the election” with a deluge of lies and messaging about trump, as per the Time Magazine article.
It was rigged because intelligence community and deep state spent years lying about Russiagate and using every lever they have to oust trump.
It was rigged because Twitter and Facebook and nearly every other tech company used all of their institutional power to actively influence voters minds and hide relevant information such as the Biden laptop. They don’t even have plausible deniability on this. They actively mislead and lied to people.
Maybe there is no proof that election administrators in deep blue territory like Atlanta and Philadelphai were changing or finding votes at the last minute. And that’s a big maybe because I do believe that these administrators are both curruport and capable of actively rigging the results in their counties. These are true believer Democrats that have been told Trump is an existential threat to democracy and the free world. They have the means, motive, and incentive.
The fact that we’re talking about the dominion machines is a shame.
Rex
3yr ago
Thanks for the interesting perspective. I dont have much to add other than Rod Drehr isn’t what I would call dissident right. From what I know he is firmly in the old guard and on the way out.
Most of the newer voices explicitly talk about leveraging art to win or hold ground.
So your're saying its not about protecting the Sudan LGBTQ+ populations?
I'm half kidding of course, but thank you for the run down.
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