Who owns you, baby? And once you finally answer that question, whether you’re a #MAGA moron or a tree-hugger genius, the future might just open up to you instead of being dark and dreary like the transplanted roots of #Trump’s pee-pee-hair. Or maybe not.
So here’s the thing, dear worst-reader. Have you seen the brilliant advert from the makers of some fancy-pants computer game that totally demolishes the universes greatest (most profitable) corporation and thereby turning corporate hierarchy into exactly what was going on back in 1984 but kinda upside-down, if not inside-out? I’m referring, of course, not to Orwell’s book, 1984, that so ingeniously, and obviously, predicted the end of my beloved & missed #Americant–as republicans and conservatives turn the country into a $hithole of suburban hell, newspeak, big-brother bat$hittery, etc. Indeed. I’m referring to the 1984 of Steve Job’s wet-dream that would become one of the most famous adverts of all-time. An advert that was supposed to show the world that Apple ain’t evil. But before I get too far off worst-subject.
One of the most astonishing things to this expat every time I would traverse the Atlantic to visit mother back in the new country (#Americant), was the reality of how the country was nothing if not a bastion of modern day corporate monopolisation run amok. By-the-buy, the word monopoly is pretty much synonymous with corporate, if not Econ-school newspeak’s: vertical industry. And so. Whether it’s your cable company, bank or grocery store, there are so few choices when it comes to how/what you consume, that it’s no wonder the country is stuck in an internal mind-battle of good and evil, right vs wrong, #MAGA hat or rational thought, etc. There are simply too few choices when it comes to consuming-to-survive, which means, ultimately, you’re value as a citizen is dependent on who/what sets that value. Capisce?
Of course, worst-writer can’t get too detailed about this sort of stuff on account I ain’t no economist, but instead I am just your average wannabe pseudo social scientist. (Or maybe not.) What is clear to me, in these times of greed-galore, is that even if you can make the case that there are a few cable companies or phone companies or banks, etc., that give the illusion of choice, it most certainly doesn’t contradict the idear that industry itself isn’t monopolistic. Take grocery stores, for example. Even though there are a few stores to choose from, the chickens and eggs that are sold there are from monopolies, hence vertical industry. But. Again. I’m probably getting into territory beyond my capacities. So let’s move on.
I for one was tickled to death when I first saw the vid above. Epic, the maker of the game Fortnite, nails it. I mean, why didn’t I think of it. As an Apple fanboy, I’ve been frustrated with the company’s direction for years. I hate how they have been turning my Mac into a device that only they can control. That’s the reason I’m not an iOS fan, btw. iPads are horrific to me in how the system is so shut off from the world. Now that Apple is turning Mac hardware into the same monolithic system, it’s quite possible that I will move to Linux in the near future. I’ve already replaced my home network Macs with Linux based SBCs. All of my media players, too, are on raspberry pi hardware–also because I can’t stand the idear of “subscription” music services, I won’t touch an Apple HomePod. But. Again. Allow me to die-gress.
Let’s break the video down, shall we? Epic Games rightly claims that it is Apple in 1984. Keep in mind, back then, Steve Jobs hated Apple’s main competitor: IBM. Almost identical to the original, here an animated female runs into the corporate conference room with big brother Apple on the screen telling the groupthink corporate automatons (of Silicon Valley): “…platform unification directives”. The female then releases her unicorn hammer into the screen, destroying it. As she walks out of the conference room we read the following:
Epic Games has defied the App Store monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming “1984”.
Even though I’m not a gamer and have never even seen Fortnite, I’m all in regarding what they’re trying to do. This is yet another battle in the war of #Americant that has been suffering a long, slow death by a thousand little political (right-wing, Neo-liberal policy) cuts since Ronald Dip$hit Reagan filled peoples heads with subpar acting talent that can only be followed by the vulgarity of white trash reality TV in the form of President Orange Shit. And let’s not forget all the wars of choice that have sucked the life out of post WW2 middle class greed run amok. Has there ever been a generation so deserving of seeds sown! But, again, I die-gress.
The thing that bugs me the most about all this greed and one sided politics is how so many can’t see through the grift that is #Americant. It’s as though the pledge of allegiance or the star spangled banner was draped over the rotting corpse of your mother because something has to hide her murder and you’re just playing around with rainbow $hit fresh from a unicorns… But I die-gress.
Rant on.
-T
Links that motivated this post:
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