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Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

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Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#11

Post by musicale »

fancyfredbot wrote: post #3

I think the most obvious examples of this are the Apple and Android app stores. We know exactly how much money the end user is paying for these, and so unlike the tik-tok video with 800k views we can easily understand their value. We also know Apple/Google are taking is 30% of that value. It's not just individual creators on social media that are suffering from this but also large companies.

It's almost like they copied the business model (and platform fees) from other walled garden game stores and systems.

Why should any game developer (Epic for example) have to pay the same amount to Apple or Google that they are currently paying to Nintendo or Sony for the same game?

Do we need some new laws to force Google to allow other game stores for Android other than Google Play? Maybe one from Amazon or something. Or some stores in China.

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#12

Post by musicale »

AI firms seem to be doing a bit of "regulatory entrepreneurship", claiming fair use and/or that copyright claims do not apply, and trying to move quickly before any regulation takes hold (while encouraging any regulation that would create new market barriers and enrich incumbents.)

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#13

Post by matrix87 »

> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists.

Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency?

Given the context of the article, the choice of words is either extremely poor taste or an antisemitic dogwhistle

He does have another article [0] where he just hand-waves away LF Celine's antisemitism [1], so if I had to guess it's the latter

[0] https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-most-cynical-novel-ever-...

[1] "The German officer and writer Ernst Jünger stated in his Paris war diaries that Céline told him on 7 December 1941 "of his consternation, his astonishment" that the Germans did not "exterminate" the French Jews." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Ferdinand_C%C3%A9line#An...

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#14

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

matrix87 wrote: post #13

> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency? Given the context of the article, the choice of words is either extremely poor taste or an antisemitic dogwhistle He does have another article [0] where he just hand-waves away LF Celine's antisemitism [1], so if I had to guess it's the latter [0] https://www.honest-b…

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency."

It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive.

By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites will recognize it in such cultures" seems extremely unlikely. In order to be hidden (a dog whistle), it also needs to be more broadly understood as innocuous.

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#15

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #7
fancyfredbot wrote: post #3

I think the most obvious examples of this are the Apple and Android app stores. We know exactly how much money the end user is paying for these, and so unlike the tik-tok video with 800k views we can easily understand their value. We also know Apple/Google are taking is 30% of that value. It's not just individual creators on social media that are suffering from this but also large companies.

The strategy is not to build a product but a marketplace, where others will build products and you will take a cut. App stores are the largest marketplaces. Instead of taking a cut from levels produced for a game, articles published on a website, videos published on YouTube, or plugins developed for some enterprise software, they take a cut from all applications developed for a platform. But the principle is the same…

There's a network to consider. Yes, a creator might wish to choose a platform that is less abusive (for example, that takes a smaller cut).

Well, Bandcamp exists, but it doesn't have the reach that Spotify has.

Creators need to be willing to jointly create the marketplace platform themselves, or they need to be ready to constantly struggle against the interests of the platform's owner.

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#16

Post by entropicdrifter »

aesh2Xa1 wrote: post #14
matrix87 wrote: post #13

> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency? Given the context of the article, the choice of words is either extremely poor taste or an antisemitic dogwhistle He does have another article [0] where he just hand-waves away LF Celine's antisemitism [1], so if I had to guess it's the latter [0] https://www.honest-b…

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites…

To be clear, the argument you're making is that it's blatantly antisemitic rather than a dogwhistle?

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#17

Post by matrix87 »

aesh2Xa1 wrote: post #14
matrix87 wrote: post #13

> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency? Given the context of the article, the choice of words is either extremely poor taste or an antisemitic dogwhistle He does have another article [0] where he just hand-waves away LF Celine's antisemitism [1], so if I had to guess it's the latter [0] https://www.honest-b…

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites…

Idiomatic maybe in alt right circles. I've never seen anyone else use it as a figure of speech like this

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#18

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

matrix87 wrote: post #17
aesh2Xa1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites…

Idiomatic maybe in alt right circles. I've never seen anyone else use it as a figure of speech like this

Idiomatic in just the broad culture. Whatever alt right people do with it, and its special context in their bigotry, is another thing.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shekel

> shekels, Slang. money; cash.

Re: Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?

#19

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

entropicdrifter wrote: post #16
aesh2Xa1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites…

To be clear, the argument you're making is that it's blatantly antisemitic rather than a dogwhistle?

No, there are two arguments.

First is that I don't find this use to be sufficient evidence to go around claiming that the author is an anti-Semite. It seems more likely to be idiomatic than to be a dog whistle.

Second is that I feel the word has divisive cultural baggage in our current culture.

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