@pondpossum / pondpossum.tumblr.com
this is my main blog, so i like and follow from here
art blog: @opossauce
active side-blogs: hermitcraft/trafficblr -> @wizardscar, dps -> @neilperrysboyfriend, aesthetic -> @cottonmouth-kiss, wc -> @opossum-heart
ā commissions: paused ā
To this day I still think "I wish squids were real" is the funniest example of ascended canon ever. Like, the first Splatoon game comes out, someone makes a Miiverse post just saying "I wish squids were real" (already peak comedy), "I wish X was real" becomes a meme in the Splatoon community and gets reposted everywhere.
Then two years later Splatoon 2 comes out and
Literally iconic
Interesting to call this āconfiscatingā when itās just making the rich pay their fair share, especially considering all the stolen wealth from the bottom 99% and historic tax evasion.
Besides the obvious, the hidden benefit of this is that it provides an endpoint to runaway growth.
The biggest problem with capitalism, the reason it's so destructive to the planet and to the workers and even, ultimately, to the capitalists, is that, after a certain point, the money's just a way of keeping score. The number at the bottom of the column has no bearing on what you can buy or do; as a result, there's no such thing as enough. The number can always be bigger.
Under this proposal, once you hit $1 billion, you've won capitalism. You beat the game, achieved the maximum score; you're finished. There's nothing more you can accumulate. You now have to find a purpose in life other that the relentless pursuit of profit. (And if we're really lucky, it might be something that actually benefits other people, but even if not, it's unlikely to be as damaging as whatever it is you were doing to get that $1 billion.)
Instead of companies expanding endlessly, like tumors, there's a point where, when all the major stakeholders are maxing out on profit, it makes sense to just hold steady. Keep doing/making/selling whatever it is you do/sell/make, but stop trying to do/sell/make more of it every year.
The problem with a tumor--what makes it cancer--is that it keeps growing and growing, until eventually it's taking up so much space and consuming so many resources that the surrounding tissues can't function. The tumor doesn't have to do anything better than the other tissues in order to crowd them out; it just does it faster. Stop the uncontrolled growth, and it's something you can live with.
Stopping the uncontrolled growth of capital means more opportunities for multiple businesses--big and small--operating in the same sector, since it doesn't make sense for any one company to gobble up too much of the market share. That, in turn, means more choices for customers--and workers, since they can take their skills to another employer doing similar things. It means less waste, as there's no longer an economic upside to spewing cheap goods out of a fire-hose before you even know whether anyone wants to buy them. That could mean slower, more thoughtful use of resources in the first place, but at minimum, it's going to mean not manufacturing products only to immediately throw them away.
So sick of this overly negative meme that shows up every single fucking month so made my own version.
What we need to do is convince all the disney adults in america that high speed rail would be a preferable way of getting to disneyworld compared to driving or flying. We could maybe harness their fondness for the monorail or something, but this is a group of people that has time, income, and passion that we could leverage. If we could direct 5% of the enthusiasm they have for limited edition popcorn buckets into calling their representatives and demanding high-speed interstate rail, we could get it by 2030
on my knees begging pleading PLEASE do a two second google search before reblogging incendiary news/information and donāt take everything posted on tumblr at face value and also recognize that often details are exaggerated/played up to scare people or make them mad. learn to do your own fact checking and critical thinking PLEASE
yeah haha you got your news from a destiel meme #reblog to inflict it on your followers! Ok now is the information in the meme correct and presented accurately? people on here (rightfully) rag on tiktok and twitter for spreading misinfo but itās just as bad on tumblr too
fun fact: people can and often do lie on the internet
this should go without saying but fact checking is especially important with medical advice. jesus christ
can i just say the weird standard people try and hold queer romcoms(and queer media but) in general is so weird
its always "its too juvenile" and "its too wholesome" but then its "this is too sexualised" and apparently queer ppl having sex scenes is automatically "fetishizing". Always "too corny" "too angsty" and dont get me started on people who act like something has to be bad representation just because they didn't like it
"its cringey" it is a fucking romcom bro. like half of the appeal of a romcom is the kinda cringey fun of it all . not your thing? fine go watch something that is but god stop acting like one romcom is gonna dismantle the movement for queer rights.
In recent years, Google users have developed one very specific complaint about the ubiquitous search engine: They canāt find any answers. A simple search for ābest pc for gamingā leads to a page dominated by sponsored links rather than helpful advice on which computer to buy. Meanwhile, the actual results are chock-full of low-quality, search-engine-optimized affiliate content designed to generate money for the publisher rather than provide high-quality answers. As a result, users have resorted to work-arounds and hacks to try and find useful information among the ads and low-quality chum. In short, Googleās flagship service now sucks.
And Google isnāt the only tech giant with a slowly deteriorating core product. Facebook, a website ostensibly for finding and connecting with your friends, constantly floods usersā feeds with sponsored (or ārecommendedā) content, and seems to bury the things people want to see under what Facebook decides is relevant. And as journalist John Herrman wrote earlier this year, the ājunkification of Amazonā has made it nearly impossible for users to find a high-quality product they want ā instead diverting people to ad-riddled result pages filled with low-quality products from sellers who know how to game the system.
All of these miserable online experiences are symptoms of an insidious underlying disease: In Silicon Valley, the userās experience has become subordinate to the companyās stock price. Google, Amazon, Meta, and other tech companies have monetized confusion, constantly testing how much they can interfere with and manipulate users. And instead of trying to meaningfully innovate and improve the useful services they provide, these companies have instead chased short-term fads or attempted to totally overhaul their businesses in a desperate attempt to win the favor of Wall Street investors. As a result, our collective online experience is getting worse ā itās harder to buy the things you want to buy, more convoluted to search for info
Cory Doctorow has a similar concept of enshitification:
Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
ā¦
This is enshittification: Surpluses are first directed to users; then, once theyāre locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once theyāre locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.
ā¦
Enshittification truly is how platforms die. Thatās fine, actually. We donāt need eternal rulers of the internet. Itās okay for new ideas and new ways of working to emerge. The emphasis of lawmakers and policymakers shouldnāt be preserving the crepuscular senescence of dying platforms. Rather, our policy focus should be on minimizing the cost to users when these firms reach their expiry date: Enshrining rights like end-to-end would mean that no matter how autocannibalistic a zombie platform became, willing speakers and willing listeners would still connect with each other.
-Cory Doctorow. The āEnshittificationā of TikTok (archive link)
To add to this, I believe Tumblr has evaded some of this because of it having always had a niche audience and an abundance of porn. But the first steps of enshitification on Tumblr are the 2018 porn ban and the release of Tumblr live. Letās be loyal to the community and not to the platform.
it does feel a little bit like being gaslit that the internet is slowly getting worse in barely perceptible ways- itās validating to see an article that says, āyes, itās not that youāre getting old and somehow losing your google proficiency, GOOGLE IS WORSE THAN IT USED TO BE.ā
Amazon literally shows you fewer search results if you sort by user reviews instead of āAmazon recommendedā, and I remember that it didnāt used to do that
Sounds like itās time for me to write up
So like. I know this isnāt what the post is about but like. Firefox is *right* there. And itās free. And you can add a bunch of extensions like *actual adblockers that work.* And scripts that tell corporations trying to collect your data to go fuck themselves, like Privacy Badger and Privacy Possum. And you can import your bookmarks and passwords with *literally* just two clicks of a button so you donāt lose anything.
So like. You donāt *have* to put up with Google. You can, absolutely, just ditch it. Let it rot in peace while you go make your internet experience habitable again.
Hereās a link to download it on windows. Go do it. And install uBlock Origin. Two clicks again. Thank me later.
What is with people who ostensibly use the same Internet I do who seem to believe Firefox, duckduckgo, and adblockers can undo all this shit? Firefox is not magic.
I use Firefox! In fact, I use IceRaven. I grappled with the extensions-to-mobile Collections project mozilla themselves seems to have forgotten to get back at least *some* of the benefits lost from using Kiwi/chrome re-skinned (hey mozilla no rush but you introād this years ago and you still have no built in translation). Iāve got the free version of Blokada on my phone. About:config messed with. F-droid. Phone is (well, was -forgot the damage an update can do) rooted. NewPipe instead of Youtube, xmanager for Spotify. Every single day I force myself to use duckduckgo like I donāt know thereās a 70% chance Iāll have to take my ass to google anyway. Miles of extensions just for blocking ads and content farms
NONE OF THESE TACTICS/COMPANIES ARE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO COMPLETELY REVERSE ENSHITTIFICATION.
What is mozilla gonna do about steam pushing connect 3 and hentai games to my recommendations? Why would all of the other search engines be impervious to SEOification? Did Privacy Badger bring porn back to Tumblr? Did you hear about reddit switching to a paid API model, killing staple make-reddit-usable project Pushshift? Hell, remember when AdBlock Plus was the belle of the ball? A Firefox staple? Only to get - you guessed it! Enshittified.
This is my ongoing pet peeve, like is it an ongoing astroturfing campaign? Gaslighting just for fun? do you even use the stuff you recommend? Because I do. I put more effort into curating my Internet than the average guy so I sit here with a bewildered look each time you guys come here and insist an individual downloading a different browser can overcome a hundred different companies conspiring against them. You are literally on the unfixably enshittified website right now. Nothing you download to your pc will undo FOSTA-SESTA
one day i will be recognized for my contributions
Today's crab is: patiently waiting and polite
lesbian flag color-picked from this crab...
LESBIAN PRIDE FLAG CRAB FLAG COOL CRAB FLAG!
(yes all those words are needed)
Please add a custodian paid $12/hour cleaning the whole fucking office complex (who the boss doesnāt even give healthcare coverage to) for added accuracy
The fact that it doesnāt matter that the LGBTQ case was based on a faulty premise and the fact that conservatives already are trying to get rid of minority scholarships just shows that the criminal legal system is a farce and is so ideological motivated. we wonāt be able to undo this damage for a lifetime thanks to this Plessy v. Ferguson ass court.
