#corporate bullshit
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A taxonomy of corporate bullshit
Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.
There are six lies that corporations have told since time immemorial, and Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen's new book Corporate Bullsht: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America* provides an essential taxonomy of this dirty six:
https://thenewpress.com/books/corporate-bullsht
In his review for The American Prospect, David Dayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":
https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-10-27-lies-my-corporation-told-me-hanauer-walsh-cohen-review/
I. Pure denial
As far back as the slave trade, corporate apologists and mouthpieces have led by asserting that true things are false, and vice-versa. In 1837, John Calhoun asserted that "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." George Fitzhugh called enslaved Africans in America "the freest people in the world."
This tactic never went away. Children sent to work in factories are "perfectly happy." Polluted water is "purer than the water that came from the river before we used it." Poor families "don't really exist." Pesticides don't lead to "illness or death." Climate change is "beneficial." Lead "helps guard your health."
II. Markets can solve problems, governments can't
Alan Greenspan made a career out of blithely asserting that markets self-correct. It was only after the world economy imploded in 2008 that he admitted that his doctrine had a "flaw":
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/greenspan-admits-flaw-to-congress-predicts-more-economic-problems
No matter how serious a problem is, the market will fix it. In 1973, the US Chamber of Commerce railed against safety regulations, because "safety is good business," and could be left to the market. If unsafe products persist in the market, it's because consumers choose to trade safety off "for a lower price tag" (Chamber spox Laurence Kraus). Racism can't be corrected with anti-discrimination laws. It's only when "the market" realizes that racism is bad for business that it will finally be abolished.
III. Consumers and workers are to blame
In 1946, the National Coal Association blamed rampant deaths and maimings in the country's coal-mines on "carelessness on the part of men." In 2003, the National Restaurant Association sang the same tune, condemning nutritional labels because "there are not good or bad foods. There are good and bad diets." Reagan's interior secretary Donald Hodel counseled personal responsibility to address a thinning ozone layer: "people who don’t stand out in the sun—it doesn’t affect them."
IV. Government cures are always worse than the disease
Lee Iacocca called 1970's Clean Air Act "a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America." Every labor and consumer protection before and since has been damned as a plague on American jobs and prosperity. The incentive to work can't survive Social Security, welfare or unemployment insurance. Minimum wages kill jobs, etc etc.
V. Helping people only hurts them
Medicare will "destroy private initiative for our aged to protect themselves with insurance" (Republican Senator Milward Simpson, 1965). Covid relief is unfair to people that are currently in the workforce" (Republican Governor Brian Kemp, 2021). Welfare produces "learned helplessness."
VI. Everyone who disagrees with me is a socialist
Grover Cleveland's 2% on top incomes is "communistic warfare against rights of property" (NY Tribune, 1895). "Socialized medicine" will leave "our children and our children’s children [asking] what it once was like in America when men were free" (Reagan, 1961).
Everything is "socialism": anti-child labor laws, Social Security, minimum wages, family and medical leave. Even fascism is socialism! In 1938, the National Association of Manufacturers called labor rights "communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism."
As Dayen says, it's refreshing to see how the right hasn't had an original idea in 150 years, and simply relies on repeating the same nonsense with minor updates. Right wing ideological innovation consists of finding new ways to say, "actually, your boss is right."
The left's great curse is object permanence: the ability to remember things, like the fact that it used to be possible for a worker to support a family of five on a single income, or that the economy once experienced decades of growth with a 90%+ top rate of income tax (other things the left manages to remember: the "intelligence community" are sociopathic monsters, not Trump-slaying heroes).
When the business lobby rails against long-overdue antitrust action against Amazon and Google, object permanence puts it all in perspective. The talking points about this being job-destroying socialism are the same warmed-over nonsense used to defend rail-barons and Rockefeller. "If you don't like it, shop elsewhere," has been the corporate apologist's line since slavery times.
As Dayen says, Corporate Bullshit is a "reference book for conservative debating points, in an attempt to rob them of their rhetorical power." It will be out on Halloween:
https://bookshop.org/a/54985/9781620977514
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/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong
#pluralistic#corporate bullshit#lies#books#reviews#taxonomies#labor#denialism#consumerism#Nick Hanauer#Joan Walsh#Donald Cohen#history#object permanence#taking the right seriously
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So I'm seeing a bunch of posts around these days suspiciously trying to tie shows being cancelled to the recent rise in piracy due to the uptick in streaming costs.
So I thought I'd remind everyone if the time Olan Rogers was forced to pirate the third season of Final Space because Warner Brothers had cancelled and memory holed it as a tax write off. A show HE CREATED.
That was back in 2022, before the hikes, before the mass wave of streaming sub losses. Don't let people fool you, it's not piracy that's killing your favorite shows. It's corps doing the same bullshit they always do.
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#poll#corporate bullshit#ty dmitri for the poll#bc i still don't have them but i wanted in on the fun
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I was on reddit laughing about the Pokemon Go avatar update because boy oh boy people are rightfully pissed but they're being really funny about it. Then I went to youtube to see if anyone put out anything about the real reason for the changes cuz just skimming through reddit it seems like most people think is financially motivated but gosh-oh-my, most of the youtube vids are stuff like "NIANTIC GOES WOKE" "POKEMON GO WOKE DEI BULLSH*T" "POKEMON'S WAR ON WOMENS BODIES" and it's too early and I'm too tired.
I just wanted to know why this weird decision was actually made. My little guy looks like he gained several vertebrae and was stung in the face by a bunch of bees.
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Fucking Corporate Mind Games
I have to do a self assessment as part of my yearly review, and part one of that is rating how well I did on yearly goals, on a five-point scale going from 'needs serious improvement' to 'greatly exceeds expectations'.
So what that actually means is I need to play mind-reader.
First I need to figure out what my bosses think of my performance.
If I think they'd rate my performance highly, then I need to determine whether matching that will cause me to be penalized - because I'm perceived as female, and in corporate America, it's been proven that women tend to face backlash if they engage in the same kind of self-promotion men do.
If it's a bad rating, I need to decide if I should match that or not. Agreeing would show I'm aware of my weak areas, which could be good if the company's willing to invest in training, but could also be used as justification for a lower raise, layoff, or denied promotion. If I say I did better and argue that any poor performance was the result of external factors, that could either show poor self-management and compound a negative impression; or it might convince my manager I have a point and help me advance my career.
Hate. Burning Hate.
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I think we do need to talk about nonsense job titles as an anti-worker tactic. If a job title doesn't tell you anything about what a person actually does, it's less useful on a resume. If a job title doesn't tell you anything about what a person actually does (and you put the "all other tasks as assigned" disclaimer in the job description), you can give them all sorts of bullshit work that they never signed up for. If a job title doesn't tell you anything about what a person actually does, workers are forced to sift through heaps of garbage job offers they would never consider applying for otherwise.
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Please reblog even if you can't donate.
#climate and environmentalism#environmental activism#indigenous rights#indigenous#human rights#corporate bullshit#this is downright EVIL
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Maybe I’m showing my age here, but I remember when sales used to be ‘buy one get one free,’ not this ‘buy one get one half off’ or ‘buy two get a third free’ nonsense.
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ID: A tweet by Jonathan H. Gray is: "Thinking Too Much"@jongraywb.
“More and more you're going to see US media outlets paint the strikes as something absolutely horrible to everyone else. But what you have to remember is that outlets such as ABC are directly owned by Disney. They aren't reporting news. They're protecting their masters' interests.”
The original tweet is quoting a tweet by ABC7 Eyewitness, which says
“News - Strike by Hollywood actors, writers causing collateral damage to small businesses in SoCal”.
Jonathan H. Gray is: "Thinking Too Much">@jongraywb goes on
“This is the direct result of megacorps buying news outlets and providing you news with slants and bends that are 100% unreliable and based entirely on protecting billionaires and wealthy businessmen who's business it is to prey on the masses for exploitation. 1+1 equals 2. So next time you see the news paint any of the ongoing strikes as bad always ask "Who owns the stations/networks and who benefits?" Considering how many cookie jars Disney has their hands in (ABS, Fox) its a safe bet that you're gonna see this kind of "reporting" escalate wildly. He who controls the money and the power controls the narrative. Strike more, strike harder.”
Below are two vintage or vintage-style black on sepia cartoons, one showing Mickey Mouse picketing with a sign reading “Disney Unfair” and another showing Donald Duck striking pointing to the words “Do Not Patronise Disney Pictures”, with other writing too small to be legible beneath. Both characters look angry.
#strikes#labour rights#hollywood strike#writers and actors strike#corporate bullshit#corporate lies#corporate misinformation#disney
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Oh good, I’m getting laid off. Anyone want to pay for pictures of my cats?
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This is such bullshit. They’ve decided that there’s too much money going to causes that don’t align with corporate interests so they’re going to only give to things they agree with - including their own disaster relief.
Transcript of the email under the cut
[image transcript:
Dear customer,
In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. However, after almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.
We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.
To help charities that have been a part of the AmazonSmile program with this transition, we will be providing them with a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program, and they will also be able to accrue additional donations until the program officially closes in February. Once AmazonSmile closes, charities will still be able to seek support from Amazon customers by creating their own wish lists.
As a company, we will continue supporting a wide range of other programs that help thousands of charities and communities across the U.S. For instance:
Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%.
Amazon Future Engineer: We’ve funded computer science curriculum for more than 600,000 students across over 5,000 schools—all in underserved communities. We have plans to reach an additional 1 million students this year. We’ve also provided immediate assistance to 55,000 students in our hometown communities by giving them warm clothes for the winter, food, and school supplies.
Community Delivery Program: We’ve partnered with food banks in 35 U.S. cities to deliver more than 23 million meals, using our logistics infrastructure to help families in need access healthy food – and we plan to deliver 12 million more meals this year alone. In addition to our delivery services, we’ve also donated 30 million meals in communities across the country.
Amazon Disaster Relief: We’re using our logistics capabilities, inventory, and cloud technology to provide fast aid to communities affected by natural disasters. For example, we’ve created a Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta with more than 1 million relief items ready for deployment, our Disaster Relief team has responded to more than 95 natural disasters, and we’ve donated more than 20 million relief products to nonprofits assisting communities on the ground.
Community Giving: We support hundreds of local nonprofits doing meaningful work in cities where our employees and their families live. For example, each year we donate hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working to build stronger communities, from youth sport leagues, to local community colleges, to shelters for families experiencing homelessness.
We’ll continue working to make a difference in many ways, and our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same—we’re determined to do every day better for our customers, our employees, and the world at large.
End transcript]
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Ugh, WB are shameless cunts. They cancelled Our Flag Means Death and now are using it to promote their streaming service.
I mean, 100% it's an adorable clip. That little smize Blackbeard gives Stede makes you want to giggle.
But, Zaslav, you cancelled the show, fucker. Because "it didn't have the numbers." And now you're like "Hey, you know a show everyone loves? This one!"
#Finish Our Stories#Our Flag Means Death#Save OFMD#OFMD#corporate bullshit#If you haven't heard about the ACME vs COYOTE thing look it up#Because Zaslav clearly doesn't see his employees as people
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Warning about Lyft email!!!
If you have ever used Lyft or Uber in MN, you may have received an email like this:
Okay, so...what's the ordinance?
WHAT'S THE ORDINANCE, LYFT???
Contacting Lyft for any issue not related to a specific ride is extremely difficult (probably on purpose), so I've put in a 1-star review on the App Store telling them to pay their workers minimum wage. Anyone else have suggestions? Any emails from Uber?
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I love clicking Accept All Cookies on my work laptop. I love filling my work laptop with cookies and tracking information. I love feeding corporations junk data from other corporations. I love making this multi-thousand pound piece of electronic equipment shittier out of spite.
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Full disclosure, this is a long one. It's also a vent post. I'm mainly writing this out to help get the thoughts and feelings regarding this kind of organized and out of my head, makes dealing with them just a little easier. Maybe it'll help you put to words your own thoughts & feelings on this kinda shit, too, and if it does, I'm glad my screaming into the void at least helped out someone other than myself! After all, if anything I say, write, or do ends up helping at least one other person, then maybe I'm doing something right :]
Sometimes having long-time special interests in an ongoing franchise FUCKING SUCKS. Perfect example - I am both a big Halo nerd, and really enjoy the overaching lore of Bungie's connected worlds (with how Marathon, Pathways into Darkness, Myth, Destiny, and even the ways Halo originally connected before it had to become its own thing thanks to Microsoft). Here are the ways that currently sucks:
The state of Halo Infinite, the most recent Halo game, both currently and at launch. At launch, you had a buggy mess, with multiplayer that barely functioned, lacking feature parity (even just on the multiplayer side of things, not counting the campaign) with Halo Reach, a game from 2010. Currently, 343i has admittedly fixed a lot of the launch issues - there's more customization than the game has ever had before (still not as good as Reach's customization imo, but at this point I've given up hope on any multiplayer AAA game having that level of customization for free ever again), the desync issues (in my experience) are no longer happening, and it has the most powerful Forge mode in any Halo game to date. The flip side of that, though? Egregiously horrendous monetization, an armor core and coating system that both hurt the customization more than help, and a drip-feed of content with little to no communication from 343 on anything past the most recent update. Not to mention the issues that come from a focus on "Live Service" bullshit.
The issues at 343 Industries itself, which come part and parcel with the massive issues related to Microsoft as a company. Massive megacorporation, horrible management, staff getting screwed over, crunch culture, and more - it just goes on and on.
Halo 5, despite its generally negative reception, is horrendously inaccessible to those of us that want to experience it as a piece of history and/or try out the multiplayer. A perfect example of how little companies care about game preservation, despite the decent track record 343i has had in that respect thanks to the Master Chief Collection, its PC release and addition of Halo Reach, and the efforts to find, occasionally recreate from almost nothing, and implement lost & cut content in the MCC titles.
Being a fan of Bungie's overarching stuff... really bad when you are at PEAK investment into their stuff, namely my Destiny 2 hyperfixation, and they not only announce that their new Marathon game is going to be a fucking EXTRACTION SHOOTER, and thus unlikely to have one of the most interesting things about Marathon in it (that being its lore) while also being very hard to get into thanks to people treating that kind of game as a massive sweat-fest, but also suddenly lay off a bunch of employees (when previously they had a good track record of treating employees decently...) due to Square Enix levels of profit overestimations of Lightfall, the BEST SELLING DESTINY EXPANSION EVER only getting 45% of the expected sales. Because why be realistic, right? Just fuck over employees, that certainly won't hurt us in the end!
The fact that, despite ALL OF THIS and my moral convictions against the shitty nature of this stuff, my dumbass brain still wants me to just spend spend spend on it anyway because of how much of a special interest Halo & the Bungie lore are to me - it almost hurts. I generally prefer fantasy stuff, but I can't stop myself from loving the lore and stories associated with this stuff. I have to fight myself every goddamn time I have money to not fall into the traps. It's easier with Destiny - I uninstalled it, replaced my PvE needs with Warframe and Risk of Rain 2, replaced my PvP needs with Halo Infinite, and just keep up with the story from a distance. But now that Halo Infinite is back in my life? I love the gameplay, hell I'd go as far as to say it has some of the strongest gameplay in the series (though some modes could use a bit more work, for example the Infection mode just isn't as fun as the Infection from Halo Reach), but the monetization just... AAAARGH it hurts me that I want to spend on it, both for customization and to have little goals to work towards in the (thankfully well-implemented due to them being available eternally) battle passes.
I just want to be able to love something that's been so central to me for so long - I played a cracked version of the CE PC demo for countless hours growing up, to the point that to this day I know the mission Silent Cartographer back to front from memory & could do it in my sleep, and associate Blood Gulch with countless memories of Halo's multiplayer from how often I'd play it with my sister, and to add onto all of that Halo Reach is one of my favorite games ever made, period - without caveats and moral hangups. I just want to love something without justifying it every time I think of it, both to myself and others.
I know this is a massively first-world issue, having the luxury to whine about my Favorite Things going through years and years of getting fucked by their own successes driving them into corporatism, but it still sucks. Obviously not as much as other issues both myself and others deal with, and DEFINITELY not as much as the horrible shit people are enduring in several parts of the world, but just enough for me to want/need to vent about how much corporations like to shit on the little rays of sunshine that we use to feel better about life.
#vent post#halo#halo infinite#marathon#pathways into darkness#myth the fallen lords#destiny 2#corporate bullshit#fuck corpos#just let me have nice things in peace goddammit#why does everything have to be fucked with SO MUCH over time#I just want comfort games I don't have to think about the real-world bullshit of too much#but unfortunately my brain landed on options that#while not the WORST by any stretch of the imagination#I mean just LOOK at the state of CoD Battlefield and just...#EVERYTHING that was touched by the Shitty Wizard Franchise#which I only mention due to how many people I've known who had to find a completely new comfort media after JKR proved herself to be a TERF#it still sucks that it's nearly impossible to find something that isn't either problematic or actively getting enshittified#at least in my favorite genres#namely FPS games (both modern and retro) and Metroidvanias#and while the latter isn't too bad#the former just gets infested with so much assholery and corpo fuckery that#you either have to play an indie game made by one person who could turn out shit at any time and that is so niche there's no multiplayer#or just deal with the shittiness involved with getting too attached to a franchise owned and produced by a megacorporation#and unfortunately I got attached to one of the latter from a young age so#at least I can feel a little better now that I've kinda gotten the bulk of my thoughts about it off of my chest#which I honestly REALLY needed to do#so that's good at least
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