#capitalism ruins art

[jessiarts]

I posted this in an art discord & they said it should be a post so others (both non-artists & artists) could see it too, so I'm pasting it here with a just few edits to add context:

Having feelings about capitalism and art.

Like, got an unexpected Redbubble sale today. Unexpected because I genuinely never expected to see another after I took some advice and did the whole "raise your margins to 50% in protest so people will use Redbubble less because 'prices are too high'" (For those unaware, Redbubble is introducing a tier structure for artist accounts, where Redbubble will now be taking up to 50% of an artist's monthly earnings as an "account fee" if they end up in the "Standard" tier. Artists are upset about this and are finding various ways to protest the change.)

And it got me thinking about margins, and what it takes to run the company, and how much CEO's take home and just-

Ok so say base price for a product is $10. If your margin is 20% it sells for $12 and you take home $2. Redbubble takes 80%, and uses that to buy materials/print/pay workers. Ok, no argument. I want workers to be fairly compensated.

But you look it up, and the highest paid Redbubble executive makes $950,000 a year. Average executive salary is around $235,000 a year. You can't really find the info for the positions of workers (meaning those who labor to print the products) only that "the lowest compensated makes $34,000" -aka roughly $16 an hour at 40hrs a week. And good on them for paying the workers a decent wage if this info is correct. Hope they keep it up. Or pay them more even.

But then I keep coming back to the fact that the company needs the artists' work to even exist. So why, if the CEO is making nearly a million dollars a year and the company obviously isn't hurting for any money to compensate it's workers or run itself, why does everyone make artists feel greedy just for asking to not have our cut eaten into with added fees? Why are we made to feel bad if we express any disappointment that a CEO makes so much money off the designs of so many artists in comparison to the artists' cut?

Idk how to say it right. It's like we're just expected to collectively fork over our work, let someone else get obscenely rich off it while we make barely anything from it (or in the case of many social media platforms, make literally nothing from it), then then smile about it. Anything else is seen as artists being entitled or 'lazy' or idk what else.

Or we're told to "just raise your margins" like competitive pricing isn't a thing that exists. Not to mention that fact that whenever prices do go up, especially with art, those same people complain that the prices went up and look for something cheaper.

I always see people saying that artists are just jealous that they don't make more sales, or saying "well maybe you'd make more if your art was better" but they're completely missing the whole point that is: Maybe if a company literally depends on the creative 'content' of individuals to exist/profit, maybe don't treat them all as disposable?

#art #artists #redbubble #capitalism #fuck capitalism #capitalism ruins everything #capitalism ruins art #print on demand #social media #artists on tumblr #redbubbleartist

[wack-ashimself]

So watching 'Rebel Moon. Part 1' cuz I GENUINELY do not think netflix will be dumb enough to make the sequel..

and I am thinking to myself 'dear god, is there a lot of useless slow mo.' Like the movie is like 1/20 slow mo. And never at points where you can see the action better, more, 'LOOK AT HOW COOL LOOKING THE MOVIE IS.'

Then I looked into the director, laughed, and went 'how the fuck does he keep getting projects? He's as basic as Michael Bay.'

I looked into his movies. He did, at best, 3-5 good movies. The rest were less flavorful than watered down milk. 'He's profitable.' HE MAKES BORING ASS SHIT LOOK SEMI COOL; CONTRIBUTES NOTHING.

I looked into this movie. Was it original? NOPE. Synder basically admitted he wanted to his own star wars (but took ideas from other people too). Just send another tesla rocket up to explode; it'll look cooler and be a whole lot more original.

I honestly want to see them team up: synder and bay. Could you imagine how fucking incredibly dumb AND bad that movie would be? It would be 'the room' but for action movies. They'd try SO hard and fall SO much harder. Like I WANT this to happen. The stories of their egos clashing on set alone could be made into a documentary. haha. fucking douches...

Just....think of it this way. They are both spending millions of dollars to make movies NO ONE will remember in 30-40 years, to make more fake money for studios to make more profitable crap, and BECAUSE it is profitable, they think they have talent. Wall street brokers can make money; doesn't mean they have talent. Means they will do whatever and say whatever, LIKE A CLOWN, to make money.

Dance my circus monkeys. Blow some more shit up. That will fill the void in your hearts. Casablanca this is NOT.

<OMG. Could you imagine asking them their favorite movie they watched? Then asking their favorite movie they made? And then watching the joy fade out of their eyes because they know they will NEVER get as close to the quality of their favorite movie....>

#netflix #rebel moon #zack syder #michael bay #capitalism ruins art

[gwaindrifter]

Honestly, the biggest source of writer's block I have is this pervasive need to be marketable. To be a consumer good. Because to have a career as a writer, a storyteller, you have to present something that a soulless business type thinks will turn them the most profit. You can't just tell a story, you have to be a product. With the need to be profitable to survive, you have to fit yourself into a publisher's neat little box. You can't get weird. Not too weird at least. Not dump your work on a website for free as you finish it, in a serialized manner; not if you want to keep food on the table. Can't take a random break in the middle of it; not if you want to pay your bills. Can't meander to focus on a random character or detail for any amount of time; you need to kill those darlings. Can't change mediums no matter how well it suits that chapter. No, no; you mustn't experiment. It doesn't sell, and that's all that matters. I'd love to be able to just tell stories, weird stories, without all this expectation of needing to make money. I don't want to have to make money, I just want to be able to write. To be the person at the fire keeping the tribe entertained with my tales and that just be my role, no need for a financial interaction. No need for some merchant middleman deciding whether or not my services are worthy of receiving goods.

#writing #musings #rant #capitalism ruins art

[garden-ofjoy]

I WANT TO READ ALL THE BOOKS, STUDY ALL THE LANGUAGES, ADMIRE ALL THE ART... BUT I AM JUST SO TIRED!!!

#capitalism has ruined me #why do i have to work 40 hours a week just to survive #surviving but not living #literature #art #dark academia #dark academia aesthetic #grunge academia #chaotic academic aesthetic #chaotic academia #punk academia #fall vibes

[beaft]

i wish AI art was more of a toy - something weird and silly to just play around with, as opposed to... what it's turned into. i remember the early days when people were just using it to generate horrifying-looking dogs, or laugh at what a computer thinks a flower looks like. the more advanced it becomes the less interesting i find it.

#the issue with AI art isn't that it exists #the issue is that it's being used to replace the work of actual human people #if it had stayed as a thing you could do for fun on the internet then that would have been fine #but no. #capitalism ruins everything as per #be shh now

[mrehkka]

Dib meets one of the tallest in person and uh... is actually rather awed. He kinda gets it now. Zim is like "see?! the tallest are great!"

The story that goes with this is that Dib becomes ill, but oddly, with a somewhat rare Irken disease (stemming from a long term complication from when Zim's PAK attached to him way back when, it messed with something internally in Dib's body). So Zim takes Dib along with him to meet Red, to get Dib some Irken medicine/cure. Red has a huge crush on Zim so he tends to give him whatever he asks for (or gives him SOMETHING anyway, if he can't give him what he wants), and Zim knows this, although maybe a little in denial about the actual crush part.

aka: the "Dib gets to visit Irk and experience a bunch of Irken Culture" fic :D

#invader zim #iz zim #iz dib #dib membrane #iz red #iz razr #not in this art but implied in the story #zadr #not in the art but again in the story itself #zadf #my art #disease probably isn't the right word #disorder? complication? #it screwed up an organ or dna string or allele or something along that vibe #and over time that microscopic Irken bit of dna is like umm? where's the rest of the Irken dna?? #so he needs an Irken immunosuppressant #he meets red and is like WOAH bc red's eye is almost the size of his head #red's head is like the size of Dib's entire torso #I JUST REALIZED I GET TO WRITE A COOL SCENE #where they visit the capital #and zim is like haha yeah they rebuilt it all finally #dib ? #zim I decimated it like 10 years ago #ooh or maybe they moved the capital and the original one is still ruins #and dib is like what happened?? #zim: me

[sciderman]

How do you feel about the increase in really weird NSFW ads on here (advertising panels that look like sexual encounters, and AI art apps that pride themselves on porn) but will take down NSFW posts from their users, even if it isn't technically sexual.

i hate all social media and it's consistent prioritising the advertisers over the users and the internet simply was a better place before capitalism sunk its hooks into it

#i could write essays about how capitalism ruined the internet. #i was actually talking to someone earlier today about how youtube was kind of effectively ruined by monetisation. #and they were raised in the soviet union and we had a bit of a talk about how art was better because it wasn't for profit. #the people who made art made it because they wanted to do it and because they loved it. #she said that communism was terrible for every aspect of life for her. people's lives under communism wasn't pretty. #but the art was better. and i feel like it's true for the internet – it was better when it was a free-for-all. #the companies didn't know how to exploit it yet and turn it into a neverending profit-driven hellscape. #people created content because they wanted to. because they wanted to make something silly to make people laugh. #not for profit. not for gain. not for numbers. not to further their career. #i miss the days of newgrounds and youtube before monetisation. #capitalism has soiled everything that's joyful and good in this world. #people should be able to share whatever they want. #people should be able to tell any story they want without the fear of being silenced by advertisers. #that's what made the internet so beautiful before. anyone could do anything and we all had equal footing. #but now we're victims of the algorithm. and it makes me sick. #i'm quitting my job in social media. i'm quitting it. it makes me too depressed. i have an existential crisis every freaking day. #every day i wake up and say "ah. this is the fucking hell we live in #i'm so sorry i feel so passionate about this. #social media is a black hole and it is actively destroying humanity. forget ai. social media is what's doing it. #i miss how beautiful the internet used to be. it should've been a tool for good. but it's corrupt and evil now. #sci speaks

[clementine-kesh]

the new defunctland video on the disney channel theme is incredible and everyone should go watch it but what really shocked me is the lengths disney goes to in order to erase the people behind their creative efforts so that they can present a homogenous front to their audience. like one of the disney actors says, when you create something for disney it belongs to disney. when you work for disney you are subsumed by it, there is no you in what you do. it’s such a soulless, corporate view of art, removing the humanity behind it and distilling it down to pure profitability. it’s no wonder disney is caught in a constant loop of reboots and remakes when that’s their entire creative approach

#this isn’t anything new or groundbreaking to say #but i am procrastinating writing this paper by getting mad about capitalism ruining art so i had to get it out

[hatchetfield-scarecrow]

HBOMax and Barnes and Noble are having a fight to see who can screw over creatives the most right now

#capitalism is ruining art #hbo max #barnes and noble #infinity train #literature #books #authors #ok ko

[storm-of-feathers]

you’re actually not required to be good at your hobbies. 

#the point of your hobbies is joy. you dont HAVE to be trying to constantly improve #1) youll improve naturally as you practice #2) the purpose is Joy not Consumption. stop letting capitalism ruin you. #from the drafts bc i keep thinkin ab this concept #i relistened to that one ginjaninja video where they talk ab it and like #im still thinking ab it just bc i can really relate to the way they talk about how doing art for a job sort of ruined their joy for it #its ANXIETY INDUCING to be constantly critical of your own work like whats the weakest element how do i improve #you dont. have to do that. #do art for fun. do life for fun.

[backpackingspace]

Okay but xie lian really do just being lying the whole series

#Tgcf #heaven official's blessing #Xie lian #When I first watched the series I was like wow! Himbo love that for him! #On rewatches it became more and more clear that he was just straight up lying! (And trying to have a soft meet cute) love that for him #Xie lian about anything ever: Oh! I just happened to be in the area I know nothing relevant ever #Cut to scenes where xie lian in fact did know everything relevant #I know he was actually scarp collecting/homeless/struggling but also #I fully believe he tripped his way into main character status everywhere he went #Every single town spent decades talking about that one guy who just showed up! Asked for scraps! Taught all the street kids martial arts #That lead directly to an uprising that he directly took part in and then how he picked the one moldy bun got sick and died forever #Like everyone that met him was just like ???? Yall will never believe this #His statue pops up in the capital and everyone who has ever met him ever just be like yah it makes more sense that he's a God #Jun wu frantically stopping all evidence that he has prayers and followers bc that RUINS his plans goddamn it xinela #Jun wu to Ling wen: Okay okay perfect everybody hates xie lian now with his distruction now tell him he has zero merits really rub it in #Ling wen: who has had to read sort and hide all the prayers he's been getting for 800 years .....yes sir

[thefirstknife]

While I 100% agree that if people aren't having fun they should take a step back/quit, I don't like the "if you're not having fun just go find another game" argument because it's so often used to shut down actual legitimate criticism from people who are otherwise enjoying the game but want genuine problems to be addressed. (I've seen it, for example, when people try to bring up bigotry in games and suggest maybe making some changes to remove it. I always get wary when I see people say it now.)

Oh yeah absolutely. There's real criticism that we have to be able to point out and discuss. A lot of the times people use this for any minor criticism someone has and I agree, that's often a way to shut down the conversation. Criticism in general is supposed to come from a place of love: you love something and you want to see it be better.

Unfortunately, in this case, when the community turns into ONLY negativity and criticism, it's kinda hard to believe they care about the game anymore. If people still had some positive stuff to engage with and were enjoying the game but had issues, then sure. But most of the negativity online right now is just purely rage bait. Bungie apparently has no redeeming qualities, and Destiny is dead. Misinformation is spreading about everything: all devs abandoned Destiny to work on Marathon (claim with no source that's accepted as fact and makes no sense: Destiny is the only game making them money, they can't abandon it before Marathon is out. Like, logically), monetisation is the worst in the industry (I genuinely don't believe that they play other games if they think that Destiny's monetisation is the worst in the industry), Bungie is maliciously banning people for fun (????) but also Bungie isn't banning people enough, Bungie is maliciously making server issues and didn't develop a "fix server" button in their office, game development is easy and Bungie is just lazy and the devs don't want to tell us anything because they're evil, Destiny is falling apart and nobody is playing anymore (just trust me bro), and most recent one which is possibly the most baffling of all - Bungie Foundation is a scam to write off taxes. Yes, that is currently discourse (which apparently gets recycled every year). Bungie Foundation, a charity organisation that's been going on for 13 years and is an independent registered organisation, is a scam. This is where we're at with the community mentality. And there's even more.

When we're at this point, it's truly something else. Like, if they believe conspiracy theories about Bungie and think Bungie is scamming them, maybe they just shouldn't play the game anymore. Why are they still here if they think this is all a scam? I would drop the game if I believed any of this so strongly.

Normal people having criticism and all is perfectly fine however! I did my fair share especially recently about the season pass pricing changes which I called a predatory practice and still believe it is. There's a lot more stuff to complain about while still enjoying the game and not basing your entire online existence and personality on hating Bungie. If they've got nothing else to do besides sitting on twitter shitting on Bungie, maybe it's time to move on.

I've also had my suspicions about the motives for hardcore Bungie hate after the incidents involving transphobic attacks on Bungie devs following the LF showcase, as well as all the crap about Nimbus and their VA. Given the recent developments about the general anti-LGBT+ mentality, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a contingent of people who are focusing on Bungie more than anyone else for how outspoken they are in their support for LGBT+ causes. Like, not to do some big reach or something but it's fairly curious that gamers online are adopting the anti-LGBT+ sentiments while Bungie is aggressively supportive. It just rubs me the wrong way that the one company that's committed to this and has been for years before most other companies jumped on the bandwagon is the one that they're choosing to paint as the worst villain. And the LGBT+ support isn't even all, as Bungie has other initiatives where they actively support women's right, reproductive rights, poc rights, disability rights and so on). I don't know, I've been a part of the gaming community for a long time and while there's been massive changes since the early days (and since gamergate days), the issues of bigotry in gaming remain. It feels particularly suspicious to, out of ALL companies, single out Bungie which invests in charities and progressive causes. Like, in the grand scheme of things, every corpo is robbing me blind, I know that, I have to give money to corpos to live on this Earth, so I at least want to give it to a corpo that considers me to be a human being and funds causes that promote my rights, instead of wanting me dead.

Ironically, all of this weird hate makes it harder to have actual normal criticism. It just gets drowned and lost in the sea of exaggerated bullshit and lies and conspiracies perpetuated by people who just don't seem to like the game anymore. At the end of the day, it's a video game. Whatever criticism we have, if it gets to the point where we just can't handle the state of the game, the best way to show it is to simply stop playing. A deluge of harassment on twitter will not bring about meaningful change nor will it adequately convey our criticism to anyone. If they truly want some changes, they would do this criticism in a way that matters, instead of creating a horde of angry gamers who will latch onto every lie and create a hate bandwagon.

#destiny 2 #bungie #long post #ask #i def agree with the premise of the ask btw. if that isn't clear #not all criticism is just meaningless rage #unfortunately it's harder than ever to parse through the bullshit to find it #and like. if this leads to less monetisation or something. sure. I'd like that too #but the methods being employed here are literally only hurting community managers devs and the community itself #the marketing board of execs at bungie who decided on monetisation aren't reading twitter comments #going at bungie won't solve the problems of capitalism #you gotta join a different cause to do that my working class siblings #check a discussion on the industry from thiccest_yosh on twitter (he's a bungie dev) #he specifically called out monetisation ruining art as well as misinformation and rage being spread by CCs #refreshing to see this being said directly and publicly by someone who works in the industry #and one more note on the bigotry stuff that made me bitter about aztecross and his stupid video the most #aztecross played supported and promoted hogshit legacy. this big 'anti-corpo warrior' #funding one of the biggest bigots in the world who actively works on trying to kill as many people as possible. totally fine i guess #'it's just a video game.' but with bungie it's life and death apparently #it makes me super bitter and suspicious. especially given how many CCs were in on misgendering characters #i dont trust any of these people. they're a business and when the business is bigotry they gladly participate

[super-crown-sitcom]

Today on Super Crown Sitcom…

We have two sisters going through it.. dang.. I wonder what happened..

I don’t know why I drew them in their tanooki and kitsune power up.. but I did. Can you blame me though it’s super cute!

#super crown sitcom #super crown #crowned art #mariette #mario #tanooki mario #luigette #luigi #kistune luigi #mario and luigi #nintendo #smash bros #fanart #my art #first post!! what fun! #this account was originally going to be a twitter account but… elon #sorta ruined it #capitalism at its worst #or well rich people at its worst

[naaneal-writing]

Nothing feeds me anymore . No book, no song, no art created feeds me anymore . And I am starving

#is capitalism ruining all art ever created #excerpt from a book i'll never write #spilled thoughts #spilled emotions #i am so tired #feed me

[winklebeebee-art]

I started a new sketchbook a few months ago, and I’ve been spending a lot of time in it recently. Like every time I go to a cafe to do work, I end up drawing in it, and I couldn’t figure out why I kept feeling like I needed to even though I have “actual” work I need to get done most days.

Then I had this really weird revelation that it was because I was just really enjoying the drawing process. It’s been so long since I’ve worked on anything that wasn’t a freelance thing or something made to be marketed and profited off of, that I legitimately forgot that I got into art because it makes me happy to do it sometimes.

So yeah. Capitalism is a soul-sucking nightmare and needs to be destroyed probably.

#capitalism ruins everything #md notebook #midori notebook #Arteza markers #marker illustration #sketchbook tour #sketchbook pages #my art #artists on tumblr #this is sort of sad

[hxmoerotic]

Damn y'all weren't lying. That bg3 ending did suck.

#something something capitalism ruins art #act 3 was just a mess in general :/ at some point finishing it became a chore #bg3 #fingers crossed larian revises act 3 like they did with dos2