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muddleofnervouswords · 9 months

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i can't do this anymore! i mean i can, and i will, obviously. but i can't fucking do this anymore!

#here we go again #chronic pain no chocolat

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Hello.

I've seen you posting detailed information about the WGA strike and wondered if you had any suggestions as to how those of us not directly involved can show our support for the Union?

Okay, bearing in mind that all this is entirely subjective at the moment (and so far lacking any more useful input from other sources): a few thoughts.

This will be my third WGA strike. (My first one was in 1988, just after I'd made my first live action sale—s1e6 of ST:TNG). And the thought keeps occurring to me at the moment that this time out, there's a potentially gamechanging player on the field that wasn't there before: truly pervasive social media.

(Adding a cut here, because this goes on a bit...)

In 2007, social media as we now understand it was still in its cradle. Now, though, those of us who're striking can make our voices much more widely heard. And so can those of us who're not, but just want to show solidarity. Last time, the AMPTP was able to do pretty much what it wanted without the public noticing or having even a medium-profile way to make their feelings known. But this time? Not so much.

So as an otherwise uninvolved person who wants to show solidarity, I'd start with something seemingly low-value. If I was on Twitter, I'd start routinely tweeting about the strike and my support for it—not obsessively, just persistently, a couple/few times a week—using the Twitter hashtags that are gaining ground even now, such as #DoTheWriteThing (and of course #WGAStrike). I would make sure I was following @WGAEast and @WGAWest, to keep an eye on what's going on.

Additionally: I would start politely, but repeatedly—again, maybe once or twice a week at least, and not stopping—tweeting the various major players in the AMPTP, especially the streamers: Amazon, Netflix, Hulu et al. I would start suggesting that their current attitude toward the WGA's contract negotiations is not only unrealistic but potentially (for the AMPTP) bad for business. (And self-destructive, too, as if this goes on much longer in this vein, they'll be seemingly eagerly casting themselves as The Baddies.) I would suggest that their bad behavior, if not amended by them coming to the table to bargain in good faith, might start affecting both my interest in their shows and my willingness to keep paying unreasonable people for access to them.

I should emphasize here that so far there've been no formal calls from anyone for boycotts or subscription cancellations. For the moment, this strikes me as wise. The point for WGA-friendly observers, right now, would be to keep what's happening to the writers visible: to keep bringing it up: to refuse to allow it to be swept under the rug. The "They only want two cents on the dollar!" angle seems potentially useful the more it's repeated. The point is to keep the repetition going: to make it plain, day after day, that the other side's being not just unreasonable, but greedy. Day after day, and week after week, and (if necessary: please Thoth may it not be...) month after month.

And tweeting is hardly all that can be done. Email is cheap and easy. But actual letters, written on actual paper and mailed, can still create a surprising amount of attention in a corporate office. (The saying in TV used to be that for every person who actually writes in about an issue, there are ten, or a hundred, who feel the same way but never got around to it.) Write letters to all the AMPTP members' CEOs, and make your feelings on the WGA's core demands politely plain. ...Especially when those CEOs collectively made almost three-quarters of a billion-with-a-B dollars in salaries last year, when many of the writers working on their shows can't afford rent.

After that: here's another thought, a little more physical. If by chance you're in an area where one or the other of the Guilds are picketing: turn out and support them! Honk when you pass: and if you're interested, show up and offer to walk the picket lines with them. These things get noticed. (In 2007 a bunch of us, both Guild members and non-, caused significant astonishment by turning out to picket AMPTP members' offices in Dublin.)

...Obviously not all that many people are going to be positioned, in terms of location or their own work and time commitments, to show up physically. But online? Find ways to keep this issue visible. The AMPTP wants this to go quiet, wants people to get bored with it, wants people to find reasons to blame the writers. They've tried spinning the story that way before. Don't let them pull that shit. Find ways to back those who're calling them on that, publicly. They do respond to this kind of thing (though they may strenuously deny it). If enough attention continues to be paid by the general public, they will blink—if sometimes excruciatingly slowly, as Disney began to blink over the dispute tagged #DisneyMustPay.

As viewers, and as viewers who pay for subscriptions to things, we far outnumber them. Help be a part of making the AMPTP understand that this quest for a truly fair deal is not going to go away. And the longer they try to act like the Guild's negotiation positions are beneath their notice, the more it's going to hurt them, and the stupider and greedier it's going to make them look.

...That's all I've got for the moment, as I need some lunch. :) ...But I hope this has helped. And thanks for your concern, and your desire to stand in solidarity with us! It's so welcome. :)

ETA: here's a link to the Guild's social media toolkit, for those who'd like to change PFPs or icons, etc., to show their support.

#Writers Guild strike #DoTheWriteThing #WGAStrong #the media we love and the actors whose work we enjoy are nothing without writers #all my love and support to the picket line #and if you say “but AI” I will block you

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Labour by Paris Paloma

‘It is strange to spend so much time with men and not be seen as a thing to be used.’ - Eadith 4.06

Eadith & Eardwulf | The Last Kingdom Season 4

@morosemagick @lauwrite1225 @solinarimoon @magravenwrites @93xdiagonxalley @trenko-heart @persephones-journey @anotherwinchesterfangirl @muddleofnervouswords @cibs @aelswiths @aethelreds

#the last kingdom #TLK edit #the last kingdom edit #eadith #eardwulf #tlk season 4 #em this is so good and painful

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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obviously erasure of gay relationships in history does and has existed but ngl it irritates me when people specifically latch onto the word "friend" as something you're somehow not allowed to call gay people & that by calling them "friends" you're somehow denying their gayness. because the fact of the matter is that a lot of gay people in history would and did call themselves friends & did not see that as excluding the possibility of romantic love or sex. like it's a perfectly fine word to use provided you're acknowledging the possibility of the full breadth of what that relationship could mean, and in fact a lot of times to assign other words to them is to make assumptions about how they viewed their relationship and potentially to impose concepts on them they wouldn't have seen themselves in

#I'm learning a bit of the Māori language and one thing I've learnt which is related to this is takatāpui #takatāpui was used historically for companions of the same sex #romantic sexual or platonic companionship #what defined it was that the two people were devoted to one another #and now takatāpui is used by Māori LGBTQIA+ people as an identifier #so words can change along with the world #but historical takatāpui do not need to be immediately equivocated to modern takatāpui #to focus on the exact detail and try to retrofit one onto the other is to miss the connecting thread #which is love and devotion #so. yeah.

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Uhtred, Finan, Sihtric & Osferth | The Last Kingdom

For @finanhasmyheart

@morosemagick @solinarimoon @lauwrite1225 @magravenwrites @93xdiagonxalley @trenko-heart @persephones-journey @anotherwinchesterfangirl @muddleofnervouswords @blah-blah-blah-bla

#this is lovely #tlk edit #the last kingdom #uhtred #finan #sihtric #osferth

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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#look how nice his quills are #aldhelm is absolutely a stationery guy #and it makes me love him more #the last kingdom #tlk spoilers #seven kings must die

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Uhtred & Aethelstan | Seven Kings Must Die (2023)

‘Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?’ - Doctor Who, Dark Water

@morosemagick @solinarimoon @lauwrite1225 @magravenwrites @93xdiagonxalley @trenko-heart @persephones-journey @anotherwinchesterfangirl @muddleofnervouswords @aelflaeds

#em these doctor who quotes are KILLING ME #seven kings must die #seven kings must die spoilers #the last kingdom #the last kingdom spoilers #uhtred #uhtred of bebbanburg #aethelstan tlk

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Seven Kings Must Die (2023)

‘We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one.’ - Doctor Who, The Big Bang

@morosemagick @lauwrite1225 @solinarimoon @magravenwrites @93xdiagonxalley @trenko-heart @medievalfangirl @persephones-journey @blah-blah-blah-bla @anotherwinchesterfangirl @muddleofnervouswords @aelflaeds

#the biggest oooooooooooooooooof #my heart #seven kings must die #seven kings must die spoilers #the last kingdom #the last kingdom spoilers

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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it's very sad that the movie made ingilmundr the sole reason for aethelstan's exploits and ambitions, as if christianity is not baked into the nationalist vision of the england his grandfather imagined and set out to create.

#this bit #King Stan wasn't a ruthless cunt because the was dickmatised #and it's cheap to suggest he was #seven kings must die spoilers #skmd spoilers

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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#seven kings must die spoilers #seven kings must die

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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I LOVE YOU BRIDA

-fin-

I'm late to it but I am finally watching Seven Kings Must Die and when I heard

"we go to the last kingdom"

to say I screamed would be an understatement

#the last kingdom #seven kings must die #tlk #seven kings must die live #seven kings must die spoilers

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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Given the intense homophobia of the meeting of his enemies it seems weird that Athelstan would interrogate Ingilmundr in front of so many people but this whole thing is high on action low on sense lbr

I'm late to it but I am finally watching Seven Kings Must Die and when I heard

"we go to the last kingdom"

to say I screamed would be an understatement

#the last kingdom #seven kings must die #tlk #seven kings must die live #seven kings must die spoilers

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muddleofnervouswords · 1 year

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I don't know if I can barrack against people from the Shetland and Orkney islands it just doesn't feel right

I'm late to it but I am finally watching Seven Kings Must Die and when I heard

"we go to the last kingdom"

to say I screamed would be an understatement

#the last kingdom #seven kings must die #tlk #seven kings must die live #seven kings must die spoilers