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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 days

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The specific process by which Google enshittified its search

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

All digital businesses have the technical capacity to enshittify: the ability to change the underlying functions of the business from moment to moment and user to user, allowing for the rapid transfer of value between business customers, end users and shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

Which raises an important question: why do companies enshittify at a specific moment, after refraining from enshittifying before? After all, a company always has the potential to benefit by treating its business customers and end users worse, by giving them a worse deal. If you charge more for your product and pay your suppliers less, that leaves more money on the table for your investors.

Of course, it's not that simple. While cheating, price-gouging, and degrading your product can produce gains, these tactics also threaten losses. You might lose customers to a rival, or get punished by a regulator, or face mass resignations from your employees who really believe in your product.

Companies choose not to enshittify their products…until they choose to do so. One theory to explain this is that companies are engaged in a process of continuous assessment, gathering data about their competitive risks, their regulators' mettle, their employees' boldness. When these assessments indicate that the conditions are favorable to enshittification, the CEO walks over to the big "enshittification" lever on the wall and yanks it all the way to MAX.

Some companies have certainly done this – and paid the price. Think of Myspace or Yahoo: companies that made themselves worse by reducing quality and gouging on price (be it measured in dollars or attention – that is, ads) before sinking into obscure senescence. These companies made a bet that they could get richer while getting worse, and they were wrong, and they lost out.

But this model doesn't explain the Great Enshittening, in which all the tech companies are enshittifying at the same time. Maybe all these companies are subscribing to the same business newsletter (or, more likely, buying advice from the same management consultancy) (cough McKinsey cough) that is a kind of industry-wide starter pistol for enshittification.

I think it's something else. I think the main job of a CEO is to show up for work every morning and yank on the enshittification lever as hard as you can, in hopes that you can eke out some incremental gains in your company's cost-basis and/or income by shifting value away from your suppliers and customers to yourself.

We get good digital services when the enshittification lever doesn't budge – when it is constrained: by competition, by regulation, by interoperable mods and hacks that undo enshittification (like alternative clients and ad-blockers) and by workers who have bargaining power thanks to a tight labor market or a powerful union:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

When Google ordered its staff to build a secret Chinese search engine that would censor search results and rat out dissidents to the Chinese secret police, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)

When Google tried to win a US government contract to build AI for drones used to target and murder civilians far from the battlefield, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/technology/google-pentagon-project-maven.html

What's happened since – what's behind all the tech companies enshittifying all at once – is that tech worker power has been smashed, especially at Google, where 12,000 workers were fired just months after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years. Likewise, competition has receded from tech bosses' worries, thanks to lax antitrust enforcement that saw most credible competitors merged into behemoths, or neutralized with predatory pricing schemes. Lax enforcement of other policies – privacy, labor and consumer protection – loosened up the enshittification lever even more. And the expansion of IP rights, which criminalize most kinds of reverse engineering and aftermarket modification, means that interoperability no longer applies friction to the enshittification lever.

Now that every tech boss has an enshittification lever that moves very freely, they can show up for work, yank the enshittification lever, and it goes all the way to MAX. When googlers protested the company's complicity in the genocide in Gaza, Google didn't kill the project – it mass-fired the workers:

https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/statement-from-google-workers-with-the-no-tech-for-apartheid-campaign-on-googles-indiscriminate-28ba4c9b7ce8

Enshittification is a macroeconomic phenomenon, determined by the regulatory environment for competition, privacy, labor, consumer protection and IP. But enshittification is also a microeconomic phenomenon, the result of innumerable boardroom and product-planning fights within companies in which would-be enshittifiers try to do things that make the company's products and services shittier wrestle with rivals who want to keep things as they are, or make them better, whether out of principle or fear of the consequences.

Those microeconomic wrestling-matches are where we find enshittification's heroes and villains – the people who fight for the user or stand up for a fair deal, versus the people who want to cheat and wreck to make things better for the company and win bonuses and promotions for themselves:

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-dont-be-evil/

These microeconomic struggles are usually obscure, because companies are secretive institutions and our glimpses into their deliberations are normally limited to the odd leaked memo, whistleblower tell-all, or spectacular worker revolt. But when a company gets dragged into court, a new window opens into the company's internal operations. That's especially true when the plaintiff is the US government.

Which brings me back to Google, the poster-child for enshittification, a company that revolutionized the internet a quarter of a century ago with a search-engine that was so good that it felt like magic, which has decayed so badly and so rapidly that whole sections of the internet are disappearing from view for the 90% of users who rely on the search engine as their gateway to the internet.

Google is being sued by the DOJ's Antitrust Division, and that means we are getting a very deep look into the company, as its internal emails and memos come to light:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Google is a tech company, and tech companies have literary cultures – they run on email and other forms of written communication, even for casual speech, which is more likely to take place in a chat program than at a water-cooler. This means that tech companies have giant databases full of confessions to every crime they've ever committed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Large pieces of Google's database-of-crimes are now on display – so much, in fact, that it's hard for anyone to parse through it all and understand what it means. But some people are trying, and coming up with gold. One of those successful prospectors is Ed Zitron, who has produced a staggering account of the precise moment at which Google search tipped over into enshittification, which names the executives at the very heart of the rot:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

Zitron tells the story of a boardroom struggle over search quality, in which Ben Gomes – a long-tenured googler who helped define the company during its best years – lost a fight with Prabhakar Raghavan, a computer scientist turned manager whose tactic for increasing the number of search queries (and thus the number of ads the company could show to searchers) was to decrease the quality of search. That way, searchers would have to spend more time on Google before they found what they were looking for.

Zitron contrasts the background of these two figures. Gomes, the hero, worked at Google for 19 years, solving fantastically hard technical scaling problems and eventually becoming the company's "search czar." Raghavan, the villain, "failed upwards" through his career, including a stint as Yahoo's head of search from 2005-12, a presiding over the collapse of Yahoo's search business. Under Raghavan's leadership, Yahoo's search market-share fell from 30.4% to 14%, and in the end, Yahoo jettisoned its search altogether and replaced it with Bing.

For Zitron, the memos show how Raghavan engineered the ouster of Gomes, with help from the company CEO, the ex-McKinseyite Sundar Pichai. It was a triumph for enshittification, a deliberate decision to make the product worse in order to make it more profitable, under the (correct) belief that the company's exclusivity deals to provide search everywhere from Iphones and Samsungs to Mozilla would mean that the business would face no consequences for doing so.

It a picture of a company that isn't just too big to fail – it's (as FTC Chair Lina Khan put it on The Daily Show) too big to care:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Zitron's done excellent sleuthing through the court exhibits here, and his writeup is incandescently brilliant. But there's one point I quibble with him on. Zitron writes that "It’s because the people running the tech industry are no longer those that built it."

I think that gets it backwards. I think that there were always enshittifiers in the C-suites of these companies. When Page and Brin brought in the war criminal Eric Schmidt to run the company, he surely started every day with a ritual, ferocious tug at that enshittification lever. The difference wasn't who was in the C-suite – the difference was how freely the lever moved.

On Saturday, I wrote:

The platforms used to treat us well and now treat us badly. That's not because they were setting a patient trap, luring us in with good treatment in the expectation of locking us in and turning on us. Tech bosses do not have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/22/kargo-kult-kaptialism/#dont-buy-it

Someone on Hacker News called that "silly," adding that "tech bosses do in fact have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years. That's literally the business model of most startups":

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40114339

That's not quite right, though. The business-model of the startup is to yank on the enshittification lever every day. Tech bosses don't lie in wait for the perfect moment to claw away all the value from their employees, users, business customers, and suppliers – they're always trying to get that value. It's only when they become too big to care that they succeed. That's the definition of being too big to care.

In antitrust circles, they sometimes say that "the process is the punishment." No matter what happens to the DOJ's case against Google, its internal workers have been made visible to the public. The secrecy surrounding the Google trial when it was underway meant that a lot of this stuff flew under the radar when it first appeared. But as Zitron's work shows, there is plenty of treasure to be found in that trove of documents that is now permanently in the public domain.

When future scholars study the enshittocene, they will look to accounts like Zitron's to mark the turning points from the old, good internet to the enshitternet. Let's hope those future scholars have a new, good internet on which to publish their findings.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

#pluralistic #ed zitron #google #microincentives #constraints #enshittification #rot economy #platform decay #search #ben gomes #code yellow #mckinsey #hacking engagement #Prabhakar Raghavan #yahoo #doj #antitrust #trustbusting

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impankajkk · 2 years

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#Proexcellency Provides Oracle Fusion SCM Online Training.#Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management is a cloud-based product developed by Oracle. It is used in managing supply and demand. It also manag #demand #and material requirements. It combines business processes taking into account the changing needs of the supply chain of modern enterprises.#with maximum flexibility and low risk. The key elements related to Oracle Fusion cloud SCM are manufacturing #inventory #cost management #order management #planning #global order promising #pricing #shipping execution #and product management.#The new updates of Oracle fusion cloud SCM are:#Production Scheduling: It increases the factory output by utilizing the resources for different industries. It also helps customers manage #real-time work order sync with Oracle Manufacturing #and real-time analytics for monitoring the schedule performance.#IoT Production Monitoring and asset monitoring: This feature allows the customers to monitor the characteristics of their resources or asse #Procurement Capabilities: Improve and simplify the process of obtaining goods and services with pre-bidding auction capabilities #which helps the suppliers to prepare better for negotiation #mastering the contract variables for improving contract information accuracy and the powers of expanded purchase order distribution #which will help the customers to collaborate more effectively.#Order Management Capabilities: This feature was added to improve the user experience and productivity for order management. It also enables #Lot split #Merge #Translate services: These services allow customers to divide lots into small units #then merge these small lots into a big lot and translate or move them using REST and FBDI (file-based data import) to meet the requirements #Maintenance Work requests by Oracle Help desk: This feature improves the responsiveness and improves the maintenance of assets by allowing #Qualify goods for Agreements related to trades: It delivers increased competitiveness and enhanced margins. Using this feature #the users can qualify the products to global trade agreements for supporting process internal transfer orders and customer sales orders.

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beroeinc22 · 2 years

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Business risk management — Beroe

There are inherent dangers with every provider. The actions of this third party could present the client organisation with a number of difficulties and dangers. And the more suppliers there may be engaged, the bigger these issues may be, the bigger the organisation.

Quick response times in adverse or unforeseen occurrences are ensured by a well-defined supply chain risk management strategy. Early risk detection makes it possible to better control those hazards. It assists businesses in adhering to industry requirements for safety and compliance. Maintaining client satisfaction and the company's brand value also benefit from supplier risk management. It ensures that supplies and production go as smoothly as possible. These are only a few advantages of managing supplier and business risk management, which is why procurement teams treat supply chain risk management seriously.

#Business risk management #risk management #supplier risk management #beroe

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ruggiezz · 7 months

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— TWST CHARACTERS PLAYING ROBLOX : twisted wonderland

[synopsis] twisted wonderland characters play roblox and some of them fail miserably

[characters] heartslabyul, octavinelle, and scarabia

[extra] play roblox, is very entertaining, especially apeirophobia, 10/10 would reccomend. adeuce is a package deal you can't separate them. i may or may not have gotten carried away writing these

★﹕RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS — word bomb

He didn't even want to try it at first. That's a game for kids, right? He's occupied with his studies. Then you introduced him to Word Bomb, a game where he could show off the fact that he read an entire encyclopedia when he was a kid. He destroys people in the game; like, ok, you're supposed to write a word with the letters they give you, but how did Riddle come up with the word "uvulopalatopharyngoplasty"?

Now he plays in his free time, but he does it like his family's honor is at risk. He only lost once since he started playing, and he took it personally.

★﹕TREY CLOVER — bloxy bingo

One of the two who decided to pick a chill game. Trey is just trying to take a break; why are people insulting him in seven different languages because he won once? This game feels like he is in a retirement home playing with old people, except the old people are beefing with each other and buying like six different sheets to fill and have more chances to win. A kid even wrote him a whole paragraph in a language he couldn't even read; the only thing he knew was that they insulted his entire bloodline. At the end Trey got frustrated, but not to the point of fighting kids on Roblox.

★﹕CATER DIAMOND — 3008

Cater is not as nice as Trey; he actually does fight kids on Roblox. No, 'Progamerkiller1234', you cannot stay at his fort; it took him three days in the game to make it aesthetically pleasing; no, he doesn't care that the employees are chasing you and that you're about to die; that sounds like a you problem. People have tried to steal his place from him before, and he won't take the risk again. At this point, Cater doesn't even care about the SCP aspect of the game; he's just there to do a whole mansion with the furniture and to show off his pretty avatar. Now, if you ask him to let you stay at his place, he will let you, since you aren't a random person trying to rob him. But please help with collecting food while he's building.

★﹕ACE AND DEUCE — apeirophobia

It started with Ace saying something along the lines of "let's play this game just to laugh at how dumb it is", and somehow progressed into Deuce screaming because a Smiler scared him, Ace screaming because Deuce startled him, and you having to carry them through the game. The backrooms suddenly aren't funny anymore, but Ace doesn't want to quit because he "can't lose to a kid's game". So now the three of you keep replaying and replaying the game, dying in the most stupid ways possible. A Doppelganger killed you, the Titan Smiler caught Deuce because he got stuck, and a Skin Stealer kept killing Ace. You even had to spend 2 hours replaying the funrooms level, and when you thought the horrors were over, you lost the next level.

Please free Deuce from this suffering. It's 4 am and some random entity is chasing him, his throat will be sore tomorrow from how much he screamed. And never mention ever again that Ace screamed because he got startled when Trey knocked on his door.

★﹕AZUL ASHENGROTTO — work at a pizza place

The second Azul started playing, he overthrew the manager and took their position. There's a problem though: nobody works in this game; Azul has to do everything, and I mean everything. He's the cashier, the chef, the delivery guy, and the supplier; he's running around doing all the work. If he could name himself the employee of the month he would, but he's the manager, so the game doesn't allow him. This game got him stressed, and they didn't even pay him well.

Did that teach him to pay his Mostro Lounge employees better? No, the only thing he learned is that he shouldn't play Roblox again because, clearly, nobody there takes having a business seriously.

★﹕JADE LEECH — murder mistery 2

If you don't know what the game is about, it's a game where you're assigned a role every round: citizen, murderer, or sheriff; guess which one is his favorite role. Jade is having a blast; he acts like a pro in the game, and he always wins whenever he is the murderer. The worst thing is that nobody suspects he's good at playing because he has the basic Roblox skin; he refuses to change it because it's useful when playing. He is passively aggressive in the chat whenever someone provokes him, either that or he's just making fun of some random kid who got angry at him.

★﹕FLOYD LEECH — ragdoll engine

The only thing you do in that game is make your character suffer; Floyd likes that very much. The first thing he did was throw himself down the stairs, and then he just couldn't stop. Throwing himself off the highest stairs he could find, down a building, launching himself from a cannon—he just finds it extremely funny to see his character suffer. But his favorite thing is pushing other players. He's a menace; you can be doing your own thing, then he randomly approaches you and starts pushing you around, and he won't leave you alone. I mean, at least he isn't pushing people down the stairs in real life.

★﹕KALIM AL-ASIM — bee swarm simulator

The other one who chose a chill game. It's repetitive, yes, but Kalim is having the time of his life. You caught his interest the second you mentioned the cute bees; they all had cute faces and everything. He got emotionally attached to his bees, so now he plays every time he can. You know those types of players that you see and they make you think they have been playing for years? That's Kalim, except he has only been playing for a month; he has already spent a ridiculous amount of money on the game and on his avatar. He will show you his bees as if they were his kids.

★﹕JAMIL VIPER — natural disaster survival

Stressed, really stressed. Tell him why his character fell off a building because of a tsunami, or why he blew up, or why a meteorite fell on him. WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS LIMB? DID IT FLY AWAY WITH THE TORNADO?? There's so much going on, he's confused and can barely keep up. He has to admit that it's funny when your character dies for some random reason though, you're receiving the same treatment the game gave him.

"WHERE DID MY HAIR GO? WHY AM I BALD??" Jami said a few seconds before a tornado sent him flying.

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mamamittens · 1 year

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Oh, Sweet Child of Mine (Pt. 8)

Platonic Yandere Whitebeard Crew & Reader-Insert

Main|First|Previous

Warnings: None (besides yandere behavior, but this is part 8 and you get the picture by now).

If yandere content makes you uncomfortable, please do not read this series and block the tag 'oh sweet child of mine' as well as relevant tags such as 'one piece yandere'.

Remember, you guys (at least some of you) voted! And your actions have consequences 😘

Word Count: 1,268

To say Twin-Blade leaving for a ‘mission’ was dramatic would be an understatement. He cried woefully into your shoulder, picking you up several times as though he was going to take you with him.

“—and don’t forget to eat while I’m gone! My division is the best but I know it won’t be the same with me not cooking!” Twin-Blade cried out, receiving a smattering of offended blustering for his ridiculousness. Marco shoved his head away from you with an irritated sigh.

“The sooner you leave the faster you can come back, Thatch. Quit freaking them out.”

Twin-Blade pouted, arms still firmly locked around your shoulders.

“But they haven’t said goodbye yet! Or told me how much they’ll miss me when I’m gone! How can I leave my newest sibling in such conditions?!” Twin-Blade begged. You reflexively cringed.

“Yeah… I’m not doing that. Please let go, Twin-Blade.”

He froze, eyes wide as he blinked. Slowly, he looked at you with teary eyes.

“At least call me by my name!” Twin-Blade cried out desperately.

“No.” You huffed, pressing both hands against his chest to no avail until Marco shoved his finger into Twin-Blade’s forehead and pushed.

He stumbled back with a pitiful sputter before grabbing his pack. Taking a low stance and pointing at you accusingly.

“Fine! But I want a hug when I come back! With a happy smile and everything!”

“Why? Do I get to leave when you return?” You asked dryly, receiving an irritated sigh from Marco beside you as Ace cackled.

“No! Because you’re happy to see me, damnit!” Twin-Blade huffed.

“Oh…” His face brightened for just a moment. “Then no.”

He grumbled, waving to the rest of the crew that was seeing him off with a small party to retrieve medication for Whitebeard.

“…It’s kinda weird you guys don’t have a regular supplier.” You commented as the small crew sailed off with no additional fanfare or waterworks.

“We haven’t managed to get an island under our protection that manufactures the medicine we need. And it would bring undue attention to go to a specific pharmacy not well within our territory. This is easier, though a little convoluted. It’s not like it’s rare medication.” Marco commented.

You made a noise of understanding.

“The marines have several labs hidden away for all their research and medical needs. Never been to any of them myself, though they considered sending me there when my devil fruit was discovered.” You pondered what that would have been like. You’d… never heard anything too telling about it. But considering how intense the discussion was you gathered that there was some… issues with the labs.

“…Do you even know what they planned to do with you?” Ace asked curiously. You looked at him and made a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“I got the impression that I was going to be assigned to someone specific as a partner before they started wondering if there were side effects to my devil fruit. At that point, even I wasn’t sure what it could be. Whoever it was, they didn’t want to risk anything unexpected.” You sighed. “I went through a lot of partners, but they were all kinda dicks. Before and after being exposed to my fruit. I thought that maybe a side effect was like… an over-inflated ego trip but you both have been in contact with me for some time and you’re not—well, I mean—you’re weird but still weird? Maybe it depends on the person’s psychological profile…” You shrugged.

“Dicks? Hm… did your ‘partners’ have anything else in common?” you blinked at Ace.

“Actually, yeah. They did. None of them were high ranking or especially strong, likely in case something went wrong with their power, but there was one specific thing they all had in common with their devil fruits.” You admitted.

--*--

“Commander Thatch! We’re being followed by a pirate ship!”

“Heh! Well, let’s say ‘hello’, boys!”

--*--

“They had to do with heat.”

--*--

“Is that?!”

“No way!”

“C-Commander! That’s a devil fruit!”

--*--

“A-Admiral Akainu, sir! Here’s the file you asked for!” A nervous ensign stuttered out. Akainu looked over his shoulder, cigar butt grinding between his teeth as he hissed.

“Leave.” He growled, snatching up the remarkably thin folder. Despite his temper, he kept his hand cool—or as cool as it ever was underneath his leather glove. His opposite hand however, dripped small bits of magma onto the carpet. The fire snuffed out under his heel as he threw it onto the desk.

The file fell open, papers scattering across the surface with a picture clipped to the main page.

This glasses reflected light underneath the standard marine cap, a bright beaming smile captured for the record keeping boys.

Akainu had thumbed through a copy of the file several times, keeping a close eye on any updates as they occurred. Minor injury reports, transfers, the works. But none pissed him off more than the status box stamped in red.

CAPTURED.

WHITEBEARD PIRATES, XX/XX/XXXX – [-/-/-].

STATUS: UNKNOWN, PRESUMED COMPROMISED.

At his own insistence, there was an addendum added to the file permanently.

IF FOUND, REPORT DIRECTLY TO ADMIRAL AKAINU FOR RETRIEVAL.

His cigar burned into nothing but ash on his lips as he sneered.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be back soon, my dear. And I’ll make sure it never happens again.” Akainu hissed, plucking up your picture with his melting fist clenched tight behind his back to prevent any damage. “We’ll bring real Justice to those filthy pirates. And I plan to make them scream for thinking they could corrupt you.”

He flicked his wrist, flinging molten lava against the far wall where a collage of Whitebeard Pirate bounty posters were pinned. The whole collection bursting into fire and falling to the floor in a rain of ash.

Soon.

--*--

Thatch watched as the Moby Dick came into view, their mission successful. Several months worth of medication in the hull as well as a smattering of general supplies to bulk up with just in case.

Marco promised him a party and Thatch was arriving with a whole new reason to celebrate.

The massive fruit nestled under his arm, purple spikes and green leaves poking into his clothes. He wondered if you’d know what it could do or if he’d have to look it up himself. He was hopeful you could both bond over it at the very least, though he was still on the fence about eating it. It was a big decision to make. And he’d made it this far without a devil fruit.

Who knows, maybe it did something really cool?

--*--

You looked out at the sea with a frown. You couldn’t see where it was coming from exactly, but you felt a devil fruit at the edge of your senses.

“What is it, my child?” Whitebeard asked. You had stopped rubbing Stefan and Kotatstu’s bellies, standing up straight as you shivered.

“…I-I don’t know.” Your heart stuttered in your chest as the devil fruit grew closer. Swallowing hard, you looked up at Whitebeard. “I think it’s a devil fruit? But…”

You looked back out at the sea again as Stefan whined.

“What do you sense?” he asked again, tone serious and almost worried.

“… It feels hungry. Hungry and dark. Like the shadows under your bed or at the end of a very long hall.” You replied faintly, cold sweat breaking out.

It felt like the edge of the void.

And the void was looking back at you. Reaching out with tendrils long and twisted and starving for more.

#one piece yandere #yandere whitebeard crew #one piece whitebeard crew #oh sweet child of mine #platonic yandere #reader insert #who guessed it was Akainu?#it's all downhill from here (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧#yandere akainu

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hyperlexichypatia · 9 months

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There’s a viral post on Facebook that says “Who’s the worst person you ever met and why is it the boyfriend you had when you were 19?” Of course, most of the responses involved the brain maturity myth – young women’s boyfriends are terrible people because young women are too neurologically immature to make better choices (while anyone of any gender can have a boyfriend, in context this seems to be referring to women in heteronormative relationships). Obviously, in my ongoing quest to push back against the brain maturity myth, I wanted to propose some alternate explanations. One obvious one is selection and confirmation bias – women who didn’t have a terrible boyfriend when they were 19 aren’t going to engage with this content. The past tense of “had” and “when” do some work here; people who are still in relationships with the partners they had when they were 19 aren’t included in this either. But even taking that into account, let’s say that having dated a truly terrible boyfriend in one’s young adulthood is a very common experience among women who’ve dated men. Why is that? “Young women are bad at picking men” is simply not a sufficient explanation, even if we suppose that it’s true. Sure, younger women have less experience at selecting partners than older women have, and may be more economically desperate (both much better explanations than “brain immaturity”), but that can only explain so much. If Alice is going grocery shopping for the first time, and Brenda has been grocery shopping for 20 years, it's likely that Brenda knows more grocery shopping tricks than Alice. Brenda probably knows more about checking expiration dates, seals, and other indicators of quality. While Brenda isn't immune to accidentally buying a rotten fruit, Alice is more at risk of it.

But if over half the fruit in the supermarket is rotten, that's not down to anyone's shopping skills. That's a problem to take up with the store manager, or the supplier, or the health department.

We need to speak to masculinity's manager. If a sizeable portion of men who date women are persistently morally terrible, no amount of “women choosing better” will change the situation. We can’t musical-chairs our way out of this one. One effect of the brain maturity myth is to convince young women that having morally decent partners is an unreasonable expectation. If you’re a young woman interested in a romantic relationship, society tells you, and you date men your own age, you can’t expect them to treat you well, because they’re neurological children who are too immature for burdensome adult responsibilities like being considerate of a partner. And if you date men older than you are, you can’t expect them to treat you well, because anyone who would date a neurological child like yourself must be a moral reprobate in the first place. Of course for people who believe in this narrative, this outcome is a feature, not a bug – they believe that young women shouldn’t be in serious romantic relationships in the first place. Young women, in this worldview, should avoid serious romantic commitments until they’re neurologically and financially (which they regard as the same thing) “ready” for them.

But does that actually lead to better results? At least anecdotally, a common complaint of women in the age range for socially approved serious relationships (late 20s through 40s, say, with partners of similar age ranges) goes like this: “When my partner and I were dating, he treated me well, but when we got married, moved in together, and/or had children together, he turned into a useless, obnoxious jerk.” If the explanation for a 19 year old man treating his partner badly is “He’s too neurologically immature” (and the explanation for a 19 year old woman partnering with a man who treats her badly “She’s too neurologically immature to know better”), what’s the explanation for 40 year old, 50 year old, 60 year old couples in the same situation? The pattern would seem to suggest that as young men mature, they go from being openly misogynistic and abusive, to learning to conceal their abusive misogyny until they’ve convinced their girlfriends to become wives, partners, or coparents.

I also need to point out, again, that I have never seen the brain maturity myth used to argue for restricting the rights of abled cishet young men. I have only ever seen it used to restrict the rights of young women, young disabled adults, and young queer adults and teens. If anything, abled cishet young men, especially otherwise privileged ones, benefit from being considered immature (“He’s just a kid, he doesn’t know any better”) while every other demographic of young people has their alleged immaturity used as a reason to restrict their personal freedoms.

So why do so many women have shared terrible experiences of awful boyfriends when they were younger? It can’t actually be because they were too neurologically immature to select better partners, since that wouldn’t explain why so many straight men were terrible partners in the first place. It can’t actually be because young men are too neurologically immature to treat their partners well, because so many older men also treat their partners badly. It might be, then because society as a whole devalues women, especially young women and otherwise multiply marginalized women, and classifies them as fair game for mistreatment. Straight men are taught that they’re owed a girlfriend or wife, and this requires no action on their part of treating her well, at least past the initial courtship phase of the relationship. The explanation then, is misogyny. And patriarchy. And kyriarchy. And systemic oppression.

So can we stop blaming young women now?

#ageism #patriarchy #feminism #classism #liberation

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avatar-news · 11 months

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Read The Legacy of Yangchen Chapter One: Depths now!

Courtesy of Polygon, you can now read F. C. Yee’s Yangchen Book 2 Chapter 1 for free ahead of the novel’s release on July 18th!

In it, the main villain Chaisee gets some backstory...

Check it out below:

Chapter One: Depths

Chaisee understood from an early age that to be successful, you needed to be willing to go further than others thought possible.

To wit—the villagers of her little unnamed island dove for prized cucumber-sponges far below the glistening surface of the waters, where sunlight faded and ears threatened to burst. No one in the Mo Ce considered such a feat viable or worth the risk.

But Chaisee’s people ignored the prevailing wisdom. Without the aid of waterbending, they trained their bodies to accept the pressure, their minds to embrace the signals that they were dying. Dive after dive, they forced their way farther into the depths and scraped their hands raw against the slimy spikes of the reef to come up with little puffballs of a creature that, once carefully killed and dried, would fetch a generous string of coins on the open market.

She and her fellow villagers willingly took on the often-fatal endeavor again and again so they might eat for another season. And faraway nobles washed their faces with the cured exteriors of cucumber-sponges, the softest touch known in the Four Nations. A mutually beneficial agreement based on one party’s willingness to torture themselves and the other side’s complete distaste for the slightest physical discomfort.

As Chaisee grew older, she began to manage the village’s books. She took over from her father the negotiations with haulers who came to collect the sponges, pearls, dried shellfish meat—the secret was to spy on other suppliers while using uncharted islands as stashes to control market prices. She had no reason to suspect her future would contain any disturbances to this arrangement other than the occasional monsoon.

The ship that broke the cycle arrived with battened sails and swooping foredecks. Strangely, it bore flags of both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. The party that came ashore in longboats was led by junior ambassadors from both countries. In front of Chaisee’s assembled village, they read a proclamation decreeing that the inhabitants of this island would no longer be allowed to produce certain goods of the sea. By a vanishingly rare agreement between Earth King and Fire Lord, the exclusive rights had been granted to some merchant they’d never heard of in a faraway city that was completely landlocked.

This can’t be, Chaisee’s father had said, hushing her with a raised hand. Suddenly the negotiator again. We protest this decision. You must at least give us the chance to formulate a response. To buy time, he resorted to their island’s customs of hospitality. Let us entertain you tonight as honored guests. We can talk of bargains in the morning.

The officials agreed. They needed to reprovision and take on fresh water anyway. While the ship’s quartermaster negotiated the purchase and loading of supplies, a feast was quickly put together for the important visitors and their crew.

The general nervousness among the villagers ebbed as they shared good food and drink with the sailors around the burning fire in the square. The meal would remind these strangers that the island was home to families like theirs and that a measure of humanity should prevail over dictums sent from afar.

Chaisee did not partake wholeheartedly. She stayed removed and observed, as was her habit, which meant she saw in full when one of the sailors picked up a torch and flung it into the largest hut. Like one might offer a bone to a guard animal. She wasn’t fast enough to stop him or speak out.

The building was the one used to store the drying cucumber-sponges, and in their raw state the dusty, porous bodies of the sea creatures were better than the best tinder. The roof blew out with a roar, spewing heat and flame and embers over the adjacent huts. The fire spread so fast that half the village was ablaze before the screaming started.

Chaisee remembered the reactions of the ambassadors who had obviously given the order, their faces lit by the blooming, dancing flames. They rolled their eyes, snorted in contempt, and departed as calmly as they came. Annoyed with the whole affair at best. Her father was too distraught, occupied with fighting the fire, to prevent the outsiders from reaching their longboats and leaving the shore unimpeded.

She watched the delegation go, understanding that a confrontation would have achieved nothing. The letters they bore granted them the power and voice of their rulers. There were no criminals here; her livelihood burning away was the law enacted. She might as well have tried to exact justice from the leaders of the Four Nations themselves. What fool could aspire to that?

We weren’t strong enough to keep this from happening, she thought as her neighbors desperately tried to carry water to the fire in buckets, gourds, cupped hands, wailing as their futures dissolved into smoke. We didn’t have the right friends.

Working yourself to the brink of oblivion was pointless if you couldn’t defend the life you made. Maneuvers, deals, negotiations were simply dance steps. Pageantry. The true arbiter waiting at the end of the performance was violence.

Chaisee’s ruined village was a kiln that baked the lesson into shape. She kept it in mind as she sought work on islands closer to the official Fire Nation archipelago. The form held hard and without cracks as she made her name in trade, mastering the codes of business spoken in every country while accumulating leverage over her partners and rivals alike. When the Platinum Affair clamped across the world, she was quick to see opportunity and predicted correctly how it would condense power even further into a few hands.

By the time she became eligible for the role of Zongdu in Jonduri, the war had already been fought and won. In the minds of the shangs, there were no rational choices other than Chaisee to lead the city. Her selection was unanimous.

In many ways, Zongdu Henshe, her counterpart in Bin-Er, was of a similar mindset as Chaisee. Though he was a fool who squandered information and resources with no regard for strategy or long-term consequences, he had successfully ground her plans to a halt by threatening to turn over everything he knew to the Earth King. He’d stolen the fruits of her labor, her means of becoming immune to harm in all the ways her little childhood village was not.

Henshe’s waywardness had posed a greater threat than any of the brilliant men and women whom Chaisee had tangled with in the past. The wise could be counted on to do what was wise; there was no predicting the actions of a buffoon. But now Henshe was gone, and with him her assets. Chaisee had been left without a move. She could only sit and wait.

“Mistress.” Chaisee’s newest attendant announced herself, pausing on the warped floorboard by the door of the nursery. Each shift of the girl’s socked feet produced a squeak like a pained bird. “Mistress, you have a—”

The baby woke. A scorching wail rose from the teak crib in the corner.

Chaisee rubbed her forehead, taking care not to cover her face completely. “I just got him to sleep!” She had to raise her voice, something she never used to do, in order to be heard.

“I’m sorry, Mistress, but you have a letter and—”

“Leave it and get out!” The attendant scurried over, laid the envelope on the desk in the nursery, and fled for her life.

She didn’t see Chaisee drop her snarl as soon as she was gone. The girl would report back to Fire Lord Gonryu that her mistress was cracking under the strain, uncharacteristically showing more emotion. Perhaps frustrated by her child. Distracted, and therefore less of a threat.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Chaisee’s son was a sharp reminder for her to stay focused. And his cries were a perfect deterrent to eavesdroppers. Taking her time, as calm as if she were listening to the serenade of a babbling brook, Chaisee opened the letter. She drew a chair over to the crib and rocked it gently while she read.

The message was nonsense. But it was written in a hand she recognized and contained hidden signals that let her know exactly where to find the person who’d sent it.

Her son quieted down, but she knew he would start howling again if she stopped rocking. Perhaps his skin was prone to rashes. A frustrating prospect, when she already bathed him with cucumber-sponges, which were much more expensive these days than back when she was a girl. She went through an amount that would have made her younger self gasp, but there was no softer touch she could resort to.

Chaisee folded the paper back up with one hand and looked around. The nursery she’d constructed in the mountaintop estate was dark and cool, a respite from the sweltering heat outside. But the entire house would pass to the next Zongdu of Jonduri once her term ended.

She’d have to leave this place behind soon and start over again. Those were the rules laid out by the heads of state, who never had to worry about moving on from what they’d built while they were still alive. The Avatar, young Yangchen, was like that too. She would be the bridge between humans and spirits for her own little eternity before she passed and a new Avatar was born.

There were a lot of powerful people in the way of Chaisee’s ambitions, laying exclusive claim to permanence. They’d be sovereigns of their domains until the very day they died, never having to fear their status being stripped away, never knowing what it was like to be naked and vulnerable.

Chaisee could be the last person standing among them, if she chose the right path, proved herself willing to go to depths beyond reckoning, and remained a step ahead of the other players in a game that could reshape the Four Nations themselves. An outrageous folly, but one she had the means for. And the will.

She looked at the letter again and smiled. With the right incentives, anything was possible.

#chronicles of the avatar #yangchen series #the legacy of yangchen #chaisee #excerpt

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thedarkestgreys · 6 months

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I don’t want you to miss me, it’s tearing me apart- fexi

a follow up to this one here! The fact that Lexi even let him cross the threshold of her moms house felt like more than Fezco could even hope for.

He was being completely honest when he told her that he hadn’t meant to disappear for so long. That night, when everything went to shit, they ain’t gotta whole lot of time to prep an exit plan with a dead body is chillin’ on the couch, you know what he’s saying?

They had fully expected the Feds to come knockin’ down their front door, only to be surprised as fuck when it was Laurie and her goon squad. In return for coverin’ the tracks of the misdeeds done at the O’Neill brothers home, they had to work off a favor for their supplier - simple enough. Fez had naively thought he and Ash would leave for two or three weeks - just enough time for everything to settle down - and then slip right back into their lives in East Highland when the work was done.

But nothin’ with Laurie was ever that easy, was it?

“She kept you in New York City for eight months?” Lexi asks incredulously as Fez finishes explainin’ what had gone on since the night he skipped town.

He rubs an anxious hand across his scar. “We was travelin’ up and down the East coast for a while, but yeah, mostly based out of New York City ma.”

Lexi’s fingers grip the edge of her moms sofa as she worries at her bottom lip with her teeth. “What exactly did she have you doing all that time?”

“Had us selling at universities mostly,” he replies, picking anxiously at a rip in his jeans. “All ‘em fancy ass ones you told me about last year? Buncha old money East coast motherfuckers attend those joints Lex, they got money to fuckin’ spare.”

Beside him, Lexi curls in on herself a little, planting her chin on her knees as she hums her acknowledgment.

“So like,” she starts, foot tapping anxiously on the couch cushion. “Why didn’t you try and reach out?”

Fezco heaves a sigh, falling back into the cushion behind him, eyes closed as he thinks about his answer. He has a lot of fuckin’ guilt attached to that one - ‘cause he knows he had avenues to do that exact thing - but the risk here outweighed the reward in his mind. If Laurie had found out he was in touch with Lexi… he don’t even wanna fuckin’ think about it.

“It didn’t feel right baby.” He finally settles on something that’s mostly the truth.

“But letting me think you were dead was fine?” Lexi snaps, the anxiety that had previously been in her voice giving way to anger. “Do you even know… did you even think about what I was fucking going through back here?”

Fez turns his head to face Lexi, her brown eyes brimming with tears. Quietly he reaches out his hand, finding hers where it’s still gripping the edge of the cushion for dear life, and wraps his fingers around hers.

“Course I fuckin’ did,” he responds hoarsly, watchin’ as a couple of tears manage to spill down Lexi’s cheeks. “Thought about you every fuckin’ day Lex, but talkin’ to you would have made it worse.”

“Made what worse?” Lexi cries, tears falling freely down her face now. “I would have been content knowing you were alive goddammit. Fezco, I would have taken missing you over thinking you were dead any day of the fucking week.”

Jesus fuckin’ Christ this conversation is somehow even harder than telling her everything that got them to this point. “Lexi. I had to put my head down and work my fuckin’ debt off to get back here, to get back to you. It woulda been harder to do if I was thinkin’ ‘bout how much I didn’t want you to miss me, but I promise that shit was tearin’ me up the whole damn time.”

Silence engulfs them then, Fezco soothing small circles over Lexi’s knuckles as she wipes furiously at her tears. It’s like a sadder, more heartbroken version of the night they watched Stand By Me. Fez doesn’t try to force a conversation, just allows Lexi to take all the time she needs to collect herself - he’s always been a patient man when it comes to the girl beside him.

Finally she clears her throat and he looks up to her. “Does showing up at my house mean you’re back? You said you didn’t know where else to go, and I have no idea what that means.”

Fez heaves a giant sigh, cause it would be hella nice if things were that fuckin’ easy. When they were told they had their leave to come back to Cali, he thought that was that, you know? Leave it up to fuckin’ Rue to screw things up for him even when she thought he was dead.

Yeah girl, I’m back. But um… things ain’t quite square with our supplier yet. New information got dumped on me while we were drivin’ back. Dropped Ash off at our new place and knew I needed to come talk to you.”

Lexi's eyes go wide and he knows he needs to continue.

“Issa ‘bout Rue.”

#Fexi #bex writes things #scaponigifs

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saetoru · 6 months

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I just read your post about Ai and can I just share that I work in archeology and I'm absolutely terrified of the way AI is becoming normalized within research. The University I work for recently granted our department a large budget for this research project, and instead of hiring new people, or taking even taking in undergrad students as assistant researchers, my superiors have been using ChatGPT. It's absolutely insane to me that it is being recommended for us to use it to create surveys and organize our collected data. we are even being told to use it if we're having trouble writing the summary reports that help us continue getting funding.

I use it almost everyday, and it is not 100% accurate. Its actually wrong a lot of the time when you're using it to do more advanced math so it's very worrisome that it's being used for quantitative research. it is so easy for things to be wrong and no one to even notice.

YES ITS SO SCARY !!! im in healthcare management and the company i’m working with is a supplier for hospitals and the way they use chat gpt to compare pricing and break down data and even just write emails for summaries is so scary because the calculations aren’t always correct and they admit that !! and they still use it !! means for breaking down data aren’t always the most effective. and it’s especially scary bc my friend who is a pharm tech has been consistently complaining that more and more drugs have become hard to order in larger quantities and they are having loads of shortages. they’ve had to limit how much they can give at a time significantly in a few pharmacies in my area and it’s like. if you chat gpt things like calculating when it comes to supplying things for the healthcare industry, you heavily risk accidentally miscalculating how you split things up or wtv the case may be and already scarce items will be even more scarce. it’s just a very very nauseating thing to hear — and young ppl especially !! the company i’m working with has also cut back so many interning spots with data analytics bc they rely on ai to do it !! there are so many young individuals that are slowly being robbed of experience they desperately need to build their careers and the economy isn’t exactly helping with the case either, and :,) it’s just. a rly rly big area for concern bc there seems to be no regulation whatsoever and i can’t wrap my head around it.

and besides the professional aspect, there’s also the social aspect you have to consider. ai generated images are becoming more and more accurate and we’re living in a time where we can start to make anyone’s voice and faces be generated to say / look however we want. there are so many dangers to that i don’t even think i need to go into but from every standpoint all ai screams to me is a way to make life more and more miserable instead of efficient :,)

#asks!

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box-this-lap · 6 months

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F1 Driver's Championship winners who switched teams right after they won it

This post was inspired by a question asked by @vro0m the other day. Although they were asking about drivers who left WCC winning teams, i thought drivers champions who ditched their teams would be interesting as well.

Juan Manuel Fangio, 1956->57; Ferrari->Maserati. (was known to drive for a different team after each of his championship wins up yo this point, but its important to note those times had to do with his teams leaving the sport. The only time it was his decision was 1956->57)

Alberto Ascari, 1953->1954; Ferrari->Lancia (Not paid enough, perhaps on the grounds that he was risking his life)

Denny Hulme, 1967->68; Brabham->McLaren (can't find a source on this one but he was extremely close to Bruce McLaren and had driven for him in other race series. To give an idea of why i think their closeness could have been a factor, he was considered a man of fewer words and emotions than Kimi Raikonen, but openly weeped at Bruces death in 1970 during a testing accident)

Jackie Stewart, 1969->70; Matra->Tyrell (this could be semantic. Matra International was a "privateer" team from 1968->69 which was actually a collab between Tyrell the man and the french company Matra. The name of Stewart's team changes from 69-70 because Tyrell the man prefered maintaining a working relationship with Ford whereas Matra was moving on to Chrysler. Wikipedia articles partially seem to think the Tyrell team is basically a continuation of the Matra International team the year prior since Tyrell the man was technically the team owner of each. Matra however enters a works team in 1970 that also ran one race in 1969 so its confusing. )

Jochen Rindt, Honorable mention; he died in the Italian GP practice in 1970. He had such a big lead he still won the championship in spite of his passing.

Nikki Lauda, 1977->78; Ferrari->Brabham (Nikki's huge accident that almost killed him in the 1976 season changed his outlook on racing in exceptionally poor weather conditions. As a result, he refused to race in the 1976 Japanese GP, and lost the championship to James Hunt in the process. Ferarri was pissed about this and it deteriorated his relationship with Ferrari severely for the 1977 season. After being treated so poorly (even in the driver lineup from his point of view) he decided to leave despite winning the championship. Its important to note however that he's believed to have won by consistency despite the car's outright slower pace, so he might have also had technical concerns)

Nelson Piquet, 1987->88; Williams->Lotus (in 86 and 87 Piquet was racing alongside Nigel Mansel in a WCC winning Williams. According to Piquet he had an agreement with team owner Frank Williams that he would be the number one driver for 86, an agreement he felt was neglected after Frank got in a car accident and left the team in the management of Mansel's race engineer. Specifically, he was upset that Mansel was not ordered to let him pass for the race win on two occasions that year, and had he been let through he would have been champion rather than Alain Prost. The relationship never recovered from that, but for some reason Piquet waited to leave. It is worth noting that he signed for Lotus before winning the 87 championship. Additionally Mansel finished first in more races than him that year but lost because of Piquet's podium consistency)

Alain Prost, 1989->1990; McLaren->Ferrari (ho boy. Long story partially short, Prost believed Honda (engine supplier) favored Senna, and therefore so did McLaren for the 1988-89 seasons, to the point of even giving Senna a better engine in the 1989 season. Supposedly for the 1988 season a Honda employee confirmed the suspicion while speaking to Prost in person, but promised he'd do his best to change that for 89. Prost did not believe this had occured, as he felt his car was underperforming Senna's in 89. His biggest piece of evidence was that while running a better straight-line-speed setup than Senna in Mexico, he still was not being able to pass Senna by engine power on the straight. For Honda's part, they had a major press event where they tried to explain technically why Senna's driving style suited the engine better, but the employee giving the interview kept referring to prost by his surname but not Senna, which is a sign of a stronger personal relationship in Japanese culture and was taken as a sign of bias)

Nigel Mansell, 1992->93; Williams->N/A (retired)

Michael Schumacher, 1995->96; Benneton->Ferrari (Schumacher's official statement is that he abandoned his contract with Benneton a year early due to "the teams damaging actions in 1994" to use wikipedias wording. The teams actions include: software shenanigans where the car was found to have the supposedly unused ability to correct bad manual starts, which would give the driver the ability to have perfect starts regardless of their affectiveness with the clutch; ignoring a black flag for a safety car overtake; and having a skidblock that was so worn down it suggested Benneton was ignoring aero regulations)

Damon Hill, 1996->97; Williams->Arrows (this one doesny count because it was outside of Hill's control, but it's really funny. Williams sacked him in favor of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, whom i have never heard of and apparently would only ever win 3 F1 races in his career. Hill chose Arrows not because they were the best team with an offer, but because they wanted to pay him the most. His career sucked after that)

Fernando Alonso, 2006->2007; Renault->McLaren (wikipedia straight up just doesnt explain this. A reddit thread gives a lot of uncited opinions as to why, but a significantly large number of their users cite that McLaren was seen as a consistently top team in this era while Renault was seen as volitale. With Alonso signing for 2007 as early as late 2005, heres some possible factors: Renault's bizzare lack of commitment to staying in the sport; McLaren winning more races in late 2005 than Renault; Renault's success was partially attributed to weird tire rules).

Jenson Button 2009->10; Brawn->McLaren (Brawn was bought out to become mercedes, but was left to its Brawn leadership to still run the team. Jenson won the championship because of dominance at the beginning that was cut short by not developing the car enough. He still won overall, but Jenson asked for a larger focus on in-season developement for the next year as a condition for staying. Ultimately, he was spoked off when he discovered mercedes didnt have enough sponsors for their plan yet)

Nico Rosberg, 2016->17; Mercedes->N/A (retired)

#f1 #f1 history #nico rosberg #fernando alonso #michael shumacher #damon hill #alain prost #nelson piquet #niki lauda #jochen rindt #jackie stewart #denny hulme #alberto ascari #juan manuel fangio #motorsport #motorsport history #tw death

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mariacallous · 26 days

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Nasir Mansoor has spent 40 years fighting for Pakistan’s workers. Whether demanding compensation on behalf of the hundreds of people who died in a devastating 2012 factory fire in Karachi or demonstrating against Pakistani suppliers to global fashion brands violating minimum wage rules, he’s battled many of the country’s widespread labor injustices.

Yet so far, little has improved, said Mansoor, who heads Pakistan’s National Trade Union Federation in Karachi. Despite spending most of his time dealing with issues in the country’s garment sector, labor laws are still routinely flouted inside factories. Not even European Union trade schemes such as the Generalized Scheme of Preferences—which benefits developing countries such as Pakistan but requires them to comply with international conventions on labor rights—have helped curb violations in an industry notorious for them. Regulations and trade protocols look good on paper, but they rarely trickle down to the factory level. “Nobody cares,” Mansoor said. “Not the government who makes commitments, not the brands, and not the suppliers. The workers are suffering.”

But change might finally be on the horizon after Germany’s new Supply Chain Act came into force last year. As Europe’s largest economy and importer of clothing, Germany now requires certain companies to put risk-management systems in place to prevent, minimize, and eliminate human rights violations for workers across their entire global value chains. Signed into law by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in January 2023, the law covers issues such as forced labor, union-busting, and inadequate wages, for the first time giving legal power to protections that were previously based on voluntary commitments. Companies that violate the rules face fines of up to 8 million euros ($8.7 million).

For decades, Western companies based in countries with highly paid workers and strong labor protections have sourced from low-income countries where such laws don’t exist or are weakly enforced. While this business model cuts costs, it’s made it incredibly difficult for workers to seek justice when problems arise. Given the garment sector’s long history of poor labor conditions—whose victims are a predominantly female workforce—rights groups say the industry will feel some of the highest impacts of new due diligence laws such as Germany’s.

Until now, promises made by fashion brands to safeguard workers stitching clothes in factories around the world have been largely voluntary and poorly monitored. If the promises failed or fell short and that information became public, the main fallout was reputational damage. As governments come to realize that a purely voluntary regimen produces limited results, there is now a growing global movement to ensure that companies are legally required to protect the people working at all stages of their supply chains.

The German law is just the latest example of these new due diligence rules—and it’s the one with the highest impact, given the size of the country’s market. A number of other Western countries have also adopted similar legislation in recent years, including France and Norway. A landmark European Union law that would mandate all member states to implement similar regulation is in the final stages of being greenlighted.

Although the United States has legislation to prevent forced labor in its global supply chains, such as the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, there are no federal laws that protect workers in other countries from abuses that fall short of forced labor. That said, a proposed New York state bill, the Fashion Act, would legally require most major U.S. and international brands to identify, prevent, and remediate human rights violations in their supply chain if passed, with noncompliance subject to fines. Since major fashion brands could hardly avoid selling their products in New York, the law would effectively put the United States on a similar legal level as Germany and France.

Abuses in textile manufacturing have been well documented. Horror stories about brutal violence or building collapses make the news when there’s a major incident, but every day, members of a predominantly female workforce live on low wages, work long hours, and endure irregular contracts. Trade unions, when they are allowed, are often unable to protect workers. A decade ago, the European Parliament described the conditions of garment workers in Asia as “slave labour.”

As of January, Germany’s new law applies to any company with at least 1,000 employees in the country, which covers many of the world’s best-known fast fashion retailers, such as Zara and Primark. Since last January, German authorities say they have received 71 complaints or notices of violations and conducted 650 of their own assessments, including evaluating companies’ risk management.

In Pakistan, the very existence of the German law was enough to spark action. Last year, Mansoor and other union representatives reached out to fashion brands that sourced some of their clothing in Pakistan to raise concerns about severe labor violations in garment factories. Just four months later, he and his colleagues found themselves in face-to-face meetings with several of those brands—a first in his 40-year career. “This is a big achievement,” he said. “Otherwise, [the brands] never sit with us. Even when the workers died in the factory fire, the brand never sat with us.”

Nearly 12 years on from the 2012 fire, which killed more than 250 people, violations are still rife for Pakistan’s 4.4 million garment sector workers, who produce for many of the major global brands. Several of these violations were highlighted in research conducted by FEMNET, a German women’s rights nonprofit, and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a Berlin-based nongovernmental organization, into how companies covered by the Supply Chain Act were implementing their due diligence obligations in Pakistan. With the help of Mansoor and Zehra Khan, the general secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, interviews with more than 350 garment workers revealed the severity of long-known issues.

Nearly all workers interviewed were paid less than a living wage, which was 67,200 Pakistan rupees (roughly $243) per month in 2022, according to the Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Nearly 30 percent were even paid below the legal minimum wage of 25,000 Pakistani rupees per month (roughly $90) for unskilled workers. Almost 100 percent had not been given a written employment contract, while more than three-quarters were either not registered with the social security system—a legal requirement—or didn’t know if they were.

When Mansoor, Khan, and some of the organizations raised the violations with seven global fashion brands implicated, they were pleasantly surprised. One German retailer reacted swiftly, asking its supplier where the violations had occurred to sign a 14-point memorandum of understanding to address the issues. (We’re unable to name the companies involved because negotiations are ongoing.) The factory complied, agreeing to respect minimum wages and provide contract letters, training on labor laws, and—for the first time—worker bonuses.

In February, the factory registered an additional 400 workers with the social security system (up from roughly 100) and will continue to enroll more, according to Khan. “That is a huge number for us,” she said.

It’s had a knock-on effect, too. Four of the German brand’s other Pakistani suppliers are also willing to sign the memorandum, Khan noted, which could impact another 2,000 workers or so. “The law is opening up space for [the unions] to negotiate, to be heard, and to be taken seriously,” said Miriam Saage-Maass, the legal director at ECCHR.

After decades of issues being swept under the carpet, it’s a positive step, Mansoor said. But he’s cautious. Of the six remaining global fashion brands contacted, three are in discussions with the union, while three didn’t respond. Implementation is key, he said, particularly because there has already been pushback from some Pakistani factory owners.

Last month, EU member states finally approved a due diligence directive after long delays, during which the original draft was watered down. As it moves to the next stage—a vote in the European Parliament—before taking effect, critics argue that the rules are now too diluted and cover too few companies to be truly effective.

Still, the fact that the EU is acting at all has been described as an important moment, and unionists such as Mansoor and Khan wait thousands of miles away with bated breath for the final outcome. Solidarity from Europe is important, Khan said, and could change the lives of Pakistan’s workers. “The eyes and the ears of the people are looking to [the brands],” Mansoor said. “And they are being made accountable for their mistakes.”

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 months

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When private equity destroys your hospital

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW in PHOENIX (Changing Hands, Feb 29) then Tucson (Mar 9-10), San Francisco (Mar 13), and more!

As someone who writes a lot of fiction about corporate crime, I naturally end up spending a lot of time being angry about corporate crime. It's pretty goddamned enraging. But the fiction writer in me is especially upset at how cartoonishly evil the perps are – routinely doing things that I couldn't ever get away with putting in a novel.

Beyond a doubt, the most cartoonishly evil characters are the private equity looters. And the most cartoonishly evil private equity looters are the ones who get involved in health care.

(Buckle up.)

Writing for The American Prospect, Maureen Tcacik details a national scandal: the collapse of PE-backed hospital chain Steward Health, a company that bought and looted hospitals up and down the country, starving them of everything from heart valves to prescription paper, ripping off suppliers, doctors and nurses, and callously exposing patients to deadly risk:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-02-27-scenes-from-bat-cave-steward-health-florida/

Steward occupies a very special place in the private equity looting cycle. Private equity companies arrange themselves on a continuum of indiscriminate depravity. At the start of the continuum are PE funds that buy productive and useful firms (everything from hospitals to car-washes) using "leveraged buyouts." That means that they borrow money to buy the company and use the company itself as collateral: it's like you getting a bank-loan to buy your neighbor's mortgage out from under them, and using your neighbor's house as collateral for that loan.

Once the buyout is done, the PE fund pays itself a "special dividend" (stealing money the business needs to survive) and then starts charging the business a "management fee" for the PE fund's expertise. To pay for all this, the PE bosses start to hack away at the company. Quality declines. So do wages. Prices go up. The company changes suppliers, opting for cheaper alternatives, often stiffing the old company. There are mass layoffs. The remaining employees end up doing three peoples' jobs, for lower wages, with fewer materials of lower quality.

Eventually, that top-feeding PE company finds a more desperate, more ham-fisted PE company to unload the business onto. That middle-feeding company also does a leveraged buyout, pays itself another special dividend, cuts wages, staffing and quality even further. They switch to even worse suppliers and stiff the last batch. Prices go up even higher.

Then – you guessed it – the middle-feeding PE company finds an even more awful PE bottom-feeder to unload the company onto. That bottom feeder does it all again, without even pretending to leave the business in condition to do its job. The company is a shambling zombie at this point, often producing literal garbage in place of the products that made its reputation. Employees' paychecks bounce, or don't show up at all. The company stops bothering to pay the lawyers that have been fending off its creditors. Those lawyers sue the company, too.

That's the kind of PE company Steward Health was, and, as the name suggests, Steward Health is in the business of stripping away the very last residue of value from community hospitals. As you might imagine, this gets pretty fucking ugly.

Steward owns 32 hospitals up and down the country, though its holdings are dwindling as the company walks away from its debt-burdened holdings, after years of neglect that have rendered them unfit for use as health facilities – or for any other purpose. Tcacik's piece offers a snapshot of one such hospital: Florida's Rockledge Regional Medical Center, just eight miles from Cape Canaveral.

Rockledge is a disaster. The fifth floor was, at one point, home to 5,000 bats.

Five.

Thousand.

Bats.

(Rockledge stiffed the exterminators.)

The bats were just the beginning. One of the internal sewage pipes ruptured. Whole sections of the hospital were literally full of shit, oozing out of the walls and ceiling, slopping over medical equipment.

That's an urgent situation for any hospital, but for Rockledge, it's catastrophic, because Rockledge is a hospital without any hospital supplies. Steward has stiffed the companies that supply "heart valves, urology lasers, Impella catheters, cardiac catheterization balloons, slings for lifting heavier patients, blood and urine test reagents, and most recently, prescription paper." Key medical equipment has been repossessed. So have the Pepsi machines. The hospital cafeteria had its supply of cold cuts repossessed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/1agc1j4/comment/kolicqo/

It's not just Steward's nonpayments that reek of impending doom. Its payments also bear the hallmarks of a scam artist on the brink of blowing off the con. The company recently paid off a vendor with five separate checks for $1m, each drawn on "a random hospital in Utah" (Steward recently walked away from its Utah hospitals; its partners there are suing it for stealing $18m on their way out the door).

This company – which owns 32 hospitals! – has resorted to gambits like sending photos of fake checks to doctors it hasn't paid in months as "proof" that the money was coming (the checks arrived 22 days later).

Steward owes so much money to its employees – $1.66m to just one doctors' group. But the medical staff keep doing their jobs, and are reluctant to speak on the record, thanks to Steward's reputation for vicious retaliation. Those health workers keep showing up to take care of patients, even as the hospital crumbles around them. One clinician told Tcacik: "I watched a bed collapse underneath a [patient] who had just undergone hip surgery."

Rockledge has nine elevators, but only five of them work – the other four have been broken for a year. The hospital's fourth floor has been converted to "a graveyard of broken beds." The sinks are clogged, or filled with foul gunk. There's black mold. Nurses have noted on the maintenance tags that the repair service refuses to attend the hospital until their overdue bills are paid. The fifteen-person on-site maintenance team was cut to just two workers.

Steward is just the latest looting owner of Rockledge. After the Great Financial Crisis, private equity consultants helped sell it to Health Management Associates. The hospital's CEO took home a $10m bonus for that sale and exited; Health Management Associates then quickly became embroiled in a Medicare fraud and kickback scandal. Soon after, Rockledge was passed on to Community Health Systems, who then sold it on to Rockledge.

Steward, meanwhile, was at that time owned by an even bigger private equity giant, Cerberus, which then sold Steward off. That deal was performatively complex and hid all kinds of mischief. Prior to Cerberus's sell-off of Steward, they sold off Steward's real-estate. The buyer was Medical Properties Trust, who gave Cerberus $1.25b for the real-estate: three hospitals in Florida and three more in Ohio. Steward then contracted to operate these hospitals on MPT's behalf, and pay MPT rent for the real-estate.

This complex arrangement was key to siphoning value out of the hospital and to keeping angry creditors at bay – if you can't figure out who owes you money, it's a lot harder to collect on the debt. The scheme was masterminded by Steward founder/CEO Ralph de la Torre. De la Torre is notorious for taking a massive dividend out of the company while it owed $1.4b to its creditors. He bought a $40m yacht with the money.

De la Torre was once feted as a business genius who would "disrupt" healthcare. But as Steward's private jet hops around "Corfu, Santorini, St. Maarten and Antigua" as its hospitals literally crumble, he's becoming less popular. In Massachusetts, politicians have railed against Steward and de la Torre (Governor Healey wants the company to leave the state "as soon as possible").

Florida, by contrast, is much more friendly to Steward. The state Health and Human Services Committee chair Randy Fine is an ardent admirer of hospital privatization and is currently campaigning to sell off the last community hospital in Brevard County. The state inspectors are likewise remarkably tolerant of Steward's little peccadillos. The quasi-governmental agency that inspects hospitals has awarded this shit-and-bat-filled, elevator-free, understaffed rotting hulk "A" grades for quality.

These inspectors jointly represent a mismatched assortment of private and public agencies, dominated by a nonprofit called Leapfrog, the brainchild of Harvard public-health prof Lucian Leape, who founded it in 2000. Leapfrog likes to tout its "transparent" assessment criteria, and Steward are experts at hitting those criteria, spending the exact minimum to tick every box that Leapfrog inspectors use as proxies for overall quality and safety.

This is a pretty great example of Goodhart's Law: "every measurement eventually becomes a target, whereupon it ceases to be a good measurement":

https://xkcd.com/2899/

But despite Steward's increasingly furious creditors and its decaying facilities, the company remains bullish on its ability to continue operations. Medical Properties Trust – the real estate investment trust that is nominally a separate company from Steward – recently hosted a conference call to reassure Wall Street investors that it would be a going concern. When a Bank of America analyst asked MPT's CFO how this could possibly be, given the facility's dire condition and Steward's degraded state, the CFO blithely assured him that the company would get bailouts: "We own hospitals no one wants to see closed."

That's the thing about PE and health-care. The looters who buy out every health-care facility in a region understand that this makes them too big to fail: no matter how dangerous the companies they drain become, local governments will continue to prop them up. Look at dialysis, a market that's been cornered by private equity rollups. Today, if you need this lifesaving therapy, there's a good chance that every accessible facility is owned by a private equity fund that has fired all its qualified staff and ceased sterilizing its needles. Otherwise healthy people who visit these clinics sometimes die due to operator error. But they chug along, because no dialysis clinics is worse that "dialysis clinics where unqualified sadists sometimes kill you with dirty needles":

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-dirty-business-of-clean-blood

The bad news is that private equity has thoroughly colonized the entire medical system. They took hospitals, fired the doctors, then took over the doctors' groups that provided outsource staff to the hospital:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets

It's illegal for private equity companies to own doctors' practices (doctors have to own these), but they obfuscated the crime with a paper-thin pretext that they got away with despite its obvious bullshittery:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted

The financier who decides whether you live or die depends on an algorithm that literally sets a tolerable level of preventable deaths for the patients trapped in the practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/05/any-metric-becomes-a-target/#hca

Private equity also took over emergency rooms and boobytrapped them with "surprise billing" – junk fees that ran to thousands of dollars that you had to pay even if the hospital was in network with your insurer. They made billions from this, and spent a many millions from that booty keeping the scam alive with scare ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/21/all-in-it-together/#doctor-patient-unity

The whole health stack is colonized by private equity-backed monopolies. Even your hospital bed!

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

Then there's residential care. Private equity cornered many regional markets on nursing homes and turned them into slaughterhouses, places where you go to die, not live:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/23/acceptable-losses/#disposable-olds

The palliative care sector is also captured by private equity. PE bosses hire vast teams of fast-talking salespeople who con vulnerable older people into entering an end-of-life system before they are ready to die. Thanks to loose regulation, the nation is filled with fake hospices that can rake in millions from Medicare while denying all care to their patients (hospice patients don't get life-extending medication or procedures, by definition):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

If you survive this long enough, Medicare eventually tells the hospice that you're clearly not dying and you get kicked off their rolls. Now you have to go through the lengthy bureaucratic nightmare of convincing the system – which was previously informed that you were at death's door – that you are actually viable and need to start getting care again (good luck with that).

If that kills you, guess what? Private equity has rolled up funeral homes up and down the country, and they will scam your survivors just as hard as the medical system that killed you did:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/09/high-cost-of-dying/#memento-mori

The PE sector spent more than a trillion dollars over the past decade buying up healthcare companies, and it has trillions more in "dry powder" allocated for further medical acquisitions. Why not? As the CFO of Medical Properties Trust told that Bank of America analyst last week, when you "own hospitals no one wants to see closed." you literally can't fail, no matter how many people you murder.

The PE sector is a reminder that the crimes people commit for money far outstrip the crimes they commit for ideology. Even the most ideological killers are horrified by the murders their profit-motivated colleagues commit.

Last year, Tkacic wrote about the history of IG Farben, the German company that built Monowitz, a private slave-labor camp up the road from Auschwitz to make the materiel it was gouging Hitler's Wehrmacht on:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

Farben bought the cheapest possible slaves from Auschwitz, preferentially sourcing women and children. These slaves were worked to death at a rate that put Auschwitz's wholesale murder in the shade. Farben's slaves died an average of just three months after starting work at Monowitz. The situation was so abominable, so unconscionable, that the SS officers who provided outsource guard-labor to Monowitz actually wrote to Berlin to complain about the cruelty.

The Nuremberg trials are famous for the Nazi officers who insisted that they were "just following order" but were nonetheless executed for their crimes. 24 Farben executives were also tried at Nuremberg, where they offered a very different defense: "We had a fiduciary duty to our shareholders to maximize our profits." 19 of the 24 were acquitted on that basis.

PE is committed to an ideology that is far worse than any form of racial animus or other bias. As a sector, it is committed to profit above all other values. As a result, its brutality knows no bounds, no decency, no compassion. Even the worst crimes we commit for hate are nothing compared to the crimes we commit for greed.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/28/5000-bats/retaliation#charnel-house

#pluralistic #Rockledge Regional Medical Center #private equity #looting #Steward Health #ponzis #maureen tcacik #Medical Properties Trust #Ralph de la Torre #Massachusetts #florida #Cerberus #too big to fail #pe #guillotine watch

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shantitechnology · 5 months

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ERP in Manufacturing: What You Need to Know for Business Growth

In today's dynamic business landscape, manufacturing companies face numerous challenges, from volatile market demands to complex supply chain management. To thrive in this competitive environment, organizations are increasingly turning to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In this blog post, we will explore the significance of ERP systems for manufacturing companies, their role in software development companies, and the key factors that contribute to business growth.

Understanding ERP Systems for Manufacturing Companies

The Core of ERP: Integration and Automation

ERP systems are comprehensive software solutions designed to integrate and streamline various business processes within an organization. For manufacturing companies, ERP serves as a centralized platform that connects different departments such as production, inventory, procurement, finance, and human resources. The integration of these processes results in improved communication, data accuracy, and operational efficiency.

Key Features of ERP in Manufacturing

1. Production Planning and Scheduling:

ERP systems enable manufacturing companies to optimize production processes by providing real-time insights into resource availability, production capacity, and demand forecasting. This ensures that production schedules are aligned with market demands, reducing the risk of overproduction or stockouts.

2. Inventory Management:

Efficient inventory management is crucial for manufacturing companies. ERP software helps organizations maintain optimal inventory levels, minimize carrying costs, and prevent stockouts. It also facilitates better demand planning and order fulfillment.

3. Quality Control:

ERP systems play a vital role in maintaining product quality by tracking and managing every stage of the manufacturing process. This includes monitoring raw materials, production processes, and finished goods to ensure they meet industry standards and customer expectations.

4. Supply Chain Visibility:

With ERP, manufacturing companies gain better visibility into their supply chain. This visibility helps in identifying potential bottlenecks, reducing lead times, and enhancing collaboration with suppliers. A transparent supply chain is essential for meeting customer demands and maintaining a competitive edge.

5. Financial Management:

ERP systems provide robust financial modules that help manufacturing companies manage budgets, track costs, and generate accurate financial reports. This financial transparency enables informed decision-making and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.

ERP for Software Development Companies: A Unique Perspective

While traditionally associated with manufacturing, ERP systems have found their way into software development companies as well. The principles of integration, automation, and streamlined processes are just as applicable in the software industry.

Project Management and Collaboration

In software development, ERP systems assist in project management by centralizing tasks, timelines, and resource allocation. This ensures that development teams work cohesively, deadlines are met, and resources are utilized efficiently. Collaboration is enhanced through shared data and communication channels, leading to improved project outcomes.

Resource Allocation and Time Tracking

ERP software allows software development companies to optimize resource allocation and track time spent on different projects. This data-driven approach enhances project planning, improves resource efficiency, and provides insights for future capacity planning.

Scalability and Flexibility

Software companies often face rapidly changing project scopes and client requirements. ERP systems provide the scalability and flexibility needed to adapt to these changes seamlessly. Whether it's adding new features, accommodating changes in project timelines, or expanding the scope, ERP systems empower software development companies to stay agile.

Key Considerations for Implementing ERP in Manufacturing

1. Customization and Flexibility:

Manufacturing companies should look for ERP solutions that offer customization options to align with specific industry needs. Flexibility is crucial, considering the diverse manufacturing processes and business models.

2. User Training and Change Management:

Successful ERP implementation requires thorough training of users and effective change management strategies. Employees need to understand the benefits of ERP and be comfortable with the new system to ensure smooth adoption.

3. Data Security and Compliance:

Given the sensitive nature of manufacturing data, security is a top priority. ERP systems must comply with industry regulations and provide robust security features to safeguard intellectual property, customer information, and business-critical data.

4. Integration with Existing Systems:

Seamless integration with existing software and systems is essential for a smooth transition to ERP. Compatibility with other tools and technologies ensures that there is no disruption in day-to-day operations during the implementation phase.

5. Scalability for Future Growth:

An ERP system should be scalable to accommodate the growing needs of a manufacturing company. It should support expansion into new markets, additional product lines, and increased production volumes without compromising performance.

Conclusion: Driving Business Growth with ERP

In conclusion, ERP systems have become indispensable tools for manufacturing companies seeking sustainable growth in a competitive market. By integrating and automating core business processes, ERP not only enhances operational efficiency but also provides valuable insights for strategic decision-making.

For software development companies, the adaptability of ERP systems offers a unique advantage in managing the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the industry. The principles that make ERP effective in manufacturing—integration, automation, and streamlined processes—are equally applicable and beneficial in the software development landscape.

As businesses continue to evolve, embracing ERP is not just a technological choice; it's a strategic one. Those who invest in robust ERP solutions position themselves for improved competitiveness, increased profitability, and sustainable growth in the long run.

#ERP systems for manufacturing companies #ERP for manufacturing companies #ERP for software development company #ERP software for manufacturing companies #India #Gujarat #Vadodara #ERP India #Business Solutions #manufacurer #ERP software

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schrijverr · 5 days

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What Happens in Hong Kong…

What if the fight in 1x19: Unfinished Business had gone a little differently and Tommy learned about Oliver kidnapping him in Hong Kong?

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: mentions of canonical violence and canonical character death

~~~

Oliver is still off balance about today as he wanders back into the club. Seeing the Count like that, deciding not to kill him, it’s strange. There was a time where he wouldn’t have hesitated to put that arrow in his brain, but today he couldn’t do it.

He wonders how he’s changing. There is so much darkness inside of him that he ripped out and put into this persona, transmitting it from Kapyushon to the Hood. But now that darkness is leaving the Hood and he isn’t sure if it’s leaving him all together, or if Oliver Queen is reabsorbing that darkness.

A movement catches his eyes and he instinctively focuses on it, assessing it as a threat.

It’s Tommy and he immediately feels guilty about putting Tommy in the threat category, even though he knows his brain just works that way. He spots the folder in Tommy’s hand and sees an opportunity to make up, calling out a “Hey,” that stops Tommy in his tracks.

“How are we doing?” Oliver asks. He knows the other man is mad at him, but he doesn’t know how much. The question feels neutral enough to get a gauge on where they stand, before making his next move.

“In the black,” Tommy answers curtly, not meeting his eyes. Still mad then. It’s confirmed when Tommy coolly asks: “Did the Hood get his man?”

“Well,” Oliver lets out a breath, “we won’t have any problems with Vertigo anymore.” He isn’t sure if the question was genuine, but he’d rather not risk it. Plus, maybe showing he did some good will make Tommy less mad.

It doesn’t seem to work. Tommy keeps his back turned to him and is now counting money. If he wants to make it right, he’s going to have to do better than pretending it didn’t happen. It’s difficult for him, but Oliver manages to start: “Look, Tommy, I’m sorry-”

“I’ve caught up the bookkeeping and all my notes on the inventory are in there, along with the list of supplier that we use,” Tommy cuts him off.

An uncomfortable feeling crawls down Oliver’s throat and constricts his chest, but he doesn’t want to read into the situation. Doesn’t want to believe what his brain clicks together. Doesn’t want to assess all possibilities and plan. He doesn’t want to let Tommy go. So, he falls into an easy pattern that has always come to him and plays dumb, saying: “Okay? I don’t see why you’re telling me that.”

Tommy turns around, meeting his gaze with eyes he barely recognizes. He has never seen Tommy upset with him like this.

“This club is important to me,” Tommy tells him, then walks forward accusingly. “But for you it’s just a front. You want me to keep your secret, help you be this thing you’ve become, but you refuse to see me for what I’ve become. I’ve got just a bit more self-respect for that.”

Each and every word hits him in his chest and he watches helplessly as Tommy walks away. His brother in all but blood is leaving his club – their club – with nothing more than an, “I quit,” thrown over his shoulder.

Oliver can’t let that happen.

Tommy is his rock, always has been. Being able to work with him is one of the best thing that has happened to him. Tommy is such a joy, so innocent and untainted by all the darkness Oliver carries inside him. When he’s with him, he can almost forget his own darkness.

There is a truth to Tommy’s words. He doesn’t see Tommy for who he has become, not entirely at least, and that hurts. Because Tommy isn’t the same. He has gotten more mature. Oliver just saw that same happiness and mistook it for immaturity, because his own happiness has been beaten out of him so he could survive and he can’t fathom surviving while being happy, can’t fathom living instead of surviving.

“Wait,” he calls out, before Tommy can open the door, needing him to stay.

A relief washes over him when Tommy pauses, however, he doesn’t turn around, just stills as he waits to see what will come out of Oliver’s mouth next. It’s terrifying, because he has lost the way he would charm himself out of trouble, replaced it with beating the problem until it’s gone. But now he has to talk and hope it’s enough to keep his friend.

“It’s not-” he starts, then realizes that saying it’s not you, but me, probably isn’t the best idea. He bites his lips, then starts again: “When I was on the island, I- I wasn’t alone.”

Tommy makes a confused noise and turns just a bit, throwing a glance Oliver’s way. He knows everyone wants him to open up about what happened there, talk to them. Whether it’s concern or morbid curiosity. Tommy isn’t immune either.

He could talk about Slade, how he turned in a matter of minutes due to drugs in his system. How he’s had friends turn against him. But he doesn’t. It won’t work. Because it’s not Tommy, who is the problem; it’s him.

“There were these group of mercenaries, who were trying to set up a base of operation there. Off the grid,” Oliver twists the truth. He’s sure Amanda Waller won’t like him talking about her involvement there and he doesn’t fancy A.R.G.U.S. showing up on his doorstep any time soon.

“I ran into a special ops, who’d been trying to stop them, but got stranded on the island when his plane was shot down. He helped me survive and get away from these men, but he’d gotten shot. We had targets on our back,” Oliver says, watching as Tommy turns around fully now, listening intently, though with a confused frown on his face.

“There were these herbs in a previous hideout we’d used and we needed them to treat his wound, so I went to get them,” Oliver explains, glad he found a good way to present this, though a little sick for what he was about to admit next.

“When I got there, I found a man. He was tied up, beaten bloody,” Oliver says, swallowing thickly as he remembers him. “He told me he was on a school trip on a fishing boat and it went down, that he washed up here and was found by those mercs, who were about to kill them until they’d been called away for a scuffle. Me and my friend, probably.”

Tommy is now letting go of the handle. Oliver has successfully convinced him to stay and listen, interesting him enough to not want to leave. A part of him wishes he would have failed, so he doesn’t have to actually get to telling this part.

“He begged me to cut him free, terrified those men would come back and finish what they started,” he says, dragging it out, because he doesn’t want to say it, until he has to. He is quiet for a beat, taking a harsh breath, before he rips the band aid off: “I didn’t cut him free. I left him there.”

Oliver looks at the ground, determined not to see Tommy’s expression and glad for that determination when an outraged Tommy exclaims: “What the hell, man! Why not?”

He looks up, his eyes filled with emotions that are warring in his chest as he admits: “Because I didn’t know him, Tommy. I left him there to die, because I couldn’t confirm his story and we couldn’t use a liability.”

Tommy is quiet for a moment, then scoffs: “So what? Am I the liability? Is that what you’re saying?”

He had a whole point with the story, about how he doesn’t know anyone anymore. That he knows they’ve all changed, but he doesn’t know how and he can’t risk it. But having Tommy think that… it’s the worst. Tommy has always been too good. Oliver must rectify it immediately.

“No!” the word comes out quick and harsh, followed by a waterfall of words that had been trapped inside him and now come rushing out: “It’s me. Can’t you see that? For five years, I had to mistrust everyone, try to find their masks, before it got me. Because that guy? He wasn’t a student on a field trip at all. He was one of them. When we got captured, he was there, manning their equipment. It was a trap. I made the right call by leaving someone to die, Tommy.”

His breathing is harsh now and Tommy has recoiled from him when he started talking, his voice getting louder and louder.

When he opens his mouth again, his voice is softer, almost a whisper and coated in shame: “I see that you’ve changed. I see it, Tommy, I do. But a part of my brain can’t help but wonder if it’s a mask, a ruse. When it’s gonna drop and how it’s going to screw me over. Mistrusting everyone comes so much easier to me now.”

He swallows and admits: “It’s not you, it’s everyone. I don’t trust my mom when she says that I’m home, that I’m safe and she loves me. Don’t trust Thea when she hugs me, afraid she’ll have a knife at my back. And that’s on me. Not them.”

He meets Tommy’s eyes, tears in his own, though he valiantly fights them down. He has turned off his emotions for years now, he can manage not crying, no matter how hard it is. Across from him, Tommy looks shocked and a little heartbroken. Oliver wishes he wasn’t used to getting that expression from people, confirming how fucked in the head he is.

“I am so sorry that I thought you dealt those drugs. I know you better than that- I should know you better than that. It’s not a mask with you, it couldn’t have been. Anyone who’d fly across the world to find me, wouldn’t be going behind my back,” Oliver says, needing Tommy to understand.

At first it looks like it’s going to work, like opening up is actually going to help. Which is great, because he’ll keep his friend, but horrible, because then he might have to do it more.

However, then Tommy frowns and suspicious he asks: “How did you know I’d flown across the world to try and find you?”

“Uhm, Laurel mentioned it,” Oliver says, kicking himself for bringing it up.

“No, she couldn’t have. No one knew, except my dad. I didn’t want to give anyone false hope,” Tommy shakes his head. “You couldn’t have known, unless- unless you were there.”

Oliver’s heart stops. He never should have let that slip, how could he have been so stupid. Now, he needs to do damage control as quickly as he can. Tommy can never – never – end up on Amanda’s radar.

“Tommy, look at me, look at me right now,” Oliver snaps, moving towards the other as fast as he can to grab his face to force him to meet his eyes, having to force himself to not care about how Tommy flinches back and struggles. “You cannot tell anyone, and I mean anyone, about Hong Kong.”

“So you were really there?” Tommy asks, his voice distorted by Oliver’s grip, which would have been funnier were it not for the betrayal that’s in there too.

“Promise me you won’t tell,” Oliver insists.

“Did you see me?” Tommy demands, not replying to Oliver.

Oliver lets go of his face to shake his shoulders, repeating: “Promise me you won’t tell.”

“Not until you tell me how you know,” Tommy says angrily.

After quickly running through all his options, Oliver admits: “I was the one that kidnapped you. Now promise me.”

“What the hell, man!”

“Promise me,” Oliver yells.

“You just said you kidnapped me! You were not on that island. Why the hell would you not come home? Why would you lie about that? Why would you hide that?”

“Just promise me you won’t tell, it’s important.”

“Why?”

“Because they might come for you,” Oliver explodes.

“Who?” Tommy explodes right back.

“The- the people that got me from the island,” Oliver says, quietly, looking around as if he expects Amanda to appear from the shadows.

“Oliver, tell me what happened,” Tommy asks. He isn’t angry anymore, but confused and obviously hurt, as well as concerned. He’s so Tommy. So like his mother. Oliver has never been good at saying no to Tommy, it’s how they got into so much trouble together.

He sighs, looks around, then drags Tommy down to the basement, making sure to close the door behind him and sweep the room.

“Uhm, you’re- you’re kind of scaring me, dude,” Tommy chuckles nervously.

“Good,” Oliver says, giving him a glare. Before taking a centering breath. He doesn’t want to be mad at Tommy. It’s not his fault.

“The wrong kind of people heard about what happened on the island. We stopped those mercs. Not because it was the right thing to do or some noble reason or whatever. They were a threat to me, so they had to go, and they had a possible way off the island, which was good. We took them down, because of selfish reasons,” Oliver says.

“We? Your friend, the spy dude?” Tommy asks.

“Yes,” Oliver says, seeing no reason in mentioning Shado… or Sara. “He- He didn’t make it. I did.” It still hurts to say that, no matter how many years have passed and how it ended between them. He still misses his friend, despite what he turned into.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“So, uhm, the wrong people heard? What does that mean?” Tommy says, an obvious prompt to get him to talk and get the uncomfortable silence to end. Oliver misses the time their silences were never uncomfortable.

“At first I actually thought they rescued me,” Oliver says bitterly. “But they just needed me to break in somewhere. As a dead man, no one would notice if I didn’t come back. And no one would suspect it was me. Perfect fall guy.”

“That’s seven kinds of fucked up.”

“Tell me about it,” Oliver grins, though it’s more a quirk of his lips these days. “I tried to escape, logged into my email, before I was recaptured.”

“It was really you,” Tommy breathes, still a little disbelieving.

“It was,” Oliver confirms. “A few days later, I find myself on a rooftop with a gun pointed at your head.”

“What?” Tommy chokes.

“They needed me inconspicuous. You can’t be that if there is someone going around town with your picture. They needed you off the board. I didn’t want to shoot you.”

“And you didn’t, because I would have known that.”

Oliver smiles at the reaction, a bit of his guilt alleviated by Tommy’s ability to make a joke about the whole situation. “No, I didn’t,” he agrees. “The kidnapping you was necessary to get you out, because if I didn’t take you off the board, someone else would have. And they wouldn’t have hesitated in pulling that trigger.”

Tommy pales and swallows heavily, retroactively scared for his life, which had been in danger without him even knowing. Oliver wishes he could take that fear, that Tommy would have never known that he had a gun pointed at him, that he tranquilized him and took him to a warehouse where he scared the shit out of him.

“So you saved my life?” Tommy squeaks after a second. And Oliver’s heart lets out a rush of warmth while breaking. Of course Tommy would see that as saving his life, not endangering it.

“I made sure you weren’t killed, sure,” Oliver agrees, because he doesn’t feel like flaying himself open more than he already has. This is why he doesn’t open up to anyone, it just invites questions and feelings.

“Did you do the break in for them?” Tommy asks.

Oliver nods tightly. “Not much else I could do,” he says, trying to forget seeing everyone here, being home, as well as the devastation in Hong Kong. Akio dying, General Shrieve tortured. Both by his hands.

“And what then, this was years ago. Did they keep you captive?” Tommy demands to know, which is valid, since he did say he was on the island for five years when he obviously wasn’t.

The more Tommy knows, the more danger he’s in, he doesn’t need to know about the Bratva and he probably wouldn’t believe the magic bit. Yeah, if he tells him about the magic bit, he’ll probably end up right next to the Count.

So he tells another half truth, pretending to be sincere, because that’s his entire life at this point. At least he doesn’t have to fake the bitterness when he says: “When it was done, they drugged me and dropped me right back on that god forsaken island. Covering up their tracks. I suppose I should be grateful they kept their end of the bargain and didn’t kill me.”

Tommy has wide disbelieving eyes and he staggers to the chair Felicity usually sits in as he processes everything Oliver just told him.

Oliver gives him a minute or so, before he softly says: “You’re free to walk away, Tommy. You’re free to hate me for lying to you about it, or suspecting you for the drugs. I’m fine with that. But, please, promise me you won’t tell anyone I was off that island.”

“You think they’re still watching you?” Tommy hisses, looking around now too, much like Oliver did earlier.

“I don’t think they have someone trailing me, but they likely will show up if rumors about this start going around,” Oliver says honestly. Amanda likes her status quo, she won’t let Oliver risk her operation.

“Fuck, man,” Tommy says, letting out a deep breath. He leans back in the chair and rubs his face, while Oliver studies him nervously.

Tommy hasn’t retracted his quitting, nor has he reacted beyond telling Oliver how fucked it all was, which is nice and strange. Oliver does know what happened to him was kind of fucked up, but fucked up has become his normal that he didn’t even realize until he saw Tommy react to what he told him.

“Are you still going to quit?” Oliver asks after a bit, unable to take the silence that is interspersed with mutterings of that’s so fucked up from his friend.

“I’m still a bit mad at you,” Tommy says and Oliver feels his gut churn, so much for opening up to people. “However,” Tommy goes on, “I would also be a suspicious fuck if that shit happened to me, so when I- when I process all… this, uhm, I’ll- I’ll get back to you.”

“…So I shouldn’t look for your replacement?” Oliver inquires shyly, unable to stop the bit of hope that creeps into his chest.

“Nah, man, this is our club, right?” Tommy smiles. “Just gimme a few days and we’ll be cool.”

“Thank you,” Oliver says and he has never meant two words more.

Tommy is still kind, not hardened by the world the way Oliver is. He still forgives easily, forgets just as quick. It will get him killed some day, but Oliver doesn’t want him to stop. Learning that the world is unforgiving is not fun and he doesn’t want Tommy to have to learn it, doesn’t want him to loose that innocence.

His darkness is forever a part of him, no matter how much he puts it into the Hood, it still haunts his every interaction. Today has shown him that much. However, not everyone is like him and that’s good. That’s the best actually. He hates who he is, he wouldn’t want anyone to be like him.

Oliver vows to keep an eye on Tommy, make sure he’s not being too kind to the world that will never be kind back and will never deserve that kindness. Because Oliver is being given that kindness now, and he cherishes it. He’ll preserve it in Tommy, keep the darkness as far away from him as possible.

At that point, Oliver couldn’t have known how hard that promise would be to keep. How Tommy would hurt due to the sins of his father, much like Oliver does. How Oliver would wish, he hadn’t tried to preserve that kindness, because it’s the lack of kindness that has helped him survive regardless and it’s the excess Tommy has of it, that gets him killed.

But that’s the future. Right now, he’s happy that his friend is still there with him, that he didn’t royally screw up everything he touches. That despite the darkness of the Hood, Oliver Queen still has enough humanity to have people like Tommy in his life.

A/N:

Do I think Oliver – especially season 1 Oliver – would ever open up like this? No. But I like him talking about Lian Yu, so he will here for my entertainment.

#rr writing #green arrow #arrow #cw arrow #arrowverse #arrowverse fanfiction #cw arrow fanfic #oliver queen #tommy merlyn #arrow 2012 #oliver queen talks about the five years he was gone #dc #dc comics #detective comics

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