In the scenario of Bruce arriving after some years, could you expand more about the good and bad scenario? Also, in the bad scenario what would Tim and Jason do. Would they pick a side?
I've linked the post to this ask for anyone new to it! For those who don't want to click on it, the concept is what would happen if, because Tim never found the portrait or something, Bruce safely spent a bit more time away in the timestream?
Regardless, I'd be happy to expand on it a bit more! There's a multitude of ways that Bruce could react to all of this, and it really depends on how someone hcs Bruce (canon has various versions of him). Feel free to choose whatever route you think is best.
So, when Bruce comes back after a few years, the family would have learned how to operate without him. He's simply not needed. He's wanted, he's loved, but he's used to being the center of the family. He's used to being the patriarch and deciding factor. He's used to calling the final shots.
When he comes back, Tim and Damian don't need him. By that point, Tim would be a legal adult almost in his twenties. Damian is used to deferring to Dick and Alfred for parenting and rules. Tim and Bruce would get into many arguments if Bruce tried to parent and restrict Tim. It would be similar to the 17 year-old Dick and Bruce, but Bruce hasn't been there the past few years (intentionally or not).
Damian and Bruce wouldn't know how to interact. Regardless of how close they were before Bruce "died," Damian has changed a lot. He's grown to accept that he doesn't need to prove himself, he doesn't need to uphold legacies, his place in the family is permanent (not based on good behavior, work, or blood), and he's loved. Despite that, Bruce coming back might dreg up those insecurities (especially depending on how Bruce treats the adoption).
In a good light, Bruce works with everyone. He spends time relearning his children, finding where they might have new boundaries, having many discussions on his role in their life, and assisting them with what they need. He doesn't enforce his expectations on them and maybe even seeks out family counseling. He would understand that time changes things and that the relationships the others have built were to support each other. As long as no unhealthy or negative relationships had developed (like codependency), then he should respect these changes and work with them to accommodate his sudden reappearance in their life. A good situation would be Bruce's appearance shaking the boat but overall making the family stronger with his connection to it.
Now... a bad scenario depends on a lot of factors and is, in my opinion, a more likely outcome. With this, we're gonna be using the more abusive comics!Bruce version.
Bruce, in this turn of events, would try to separate and damage the bond between Damian and Dick. He could do that in a multitude of ways, including emotional manipulation, emotional abuse, legal actions (anulling the adoption, restraining orders, etc.), physically separating their living situations, and assigning Dick long and distant missions. If Bruce was feeling particularly vindictive, he could punish Dick in various ways. There's subtle alienation, physical retaliation, grueling work loads, verbal abuse, etc.
This would probably be Bruce's main focus. He would also probably have issues with how the other Bats are running Gotham and how they now don't rely on him.
The way the rest of the bad scenario pans out depends on how Tim and Jason interacted up until Bruce arrived. In the other post, I mentioned that the two would either ignore/avoid each other or become close/teammates.
If they ignored each other, it would be easier for Bruce to exert control over them both. They are more independent, less supported, and less likely to reach out for help. He would have an easier time manipulating them while they are in Gotham. They would fight back, obviously, but they wouldn't have someone helping them. This could either be their downfall as they get sucked into a cycle of abuse with Bruce, or this could push them to rely on their siblings/the other Bats.
If Jason and Tim were closer or even became a team together, Bruce would be hard pressed to get them to fold. It's extremely dreadful and tiresome fighting against verbal/emotional abuse. You start to doubt yourself, your feelings, the events that occurred, your recollection, and whether you were justified. By the two of them working together, they can combat this approach by Bruce. Tim could collect evidence for whatever occurred and keep records. Jason could ensure that they met their emotional needs and enforced their boundaries. Manipulating someone alone, especially the two of them who are on the outskirts, would be easier than a team who supports each other.
Anyways, whether Tim and Jason take Bruce's side of Dick's really depends on their relationship with each other. They would support Dick, no matter their current grievances towards the man, if Tim and Jason were a vigilante team and like brothers to each other.
Also, an important note about the bad scenario is that it wouldn't play out immediately. There would be this relief and happiness that Bruce is home as he slowly tests out the boundaries until he manipulates the situation to his benefit.
Now, we could get into the other Bats too. Alfred might be on Team Bruce regardless. That would suck but it does fall in line with some of his bystander and enabler ways. Bruce has no control over Barbara, and they both know it. I like to imagine she would protect Steph and Cass to the best of her ability. She would give aid to the batboys, but she wouldn't be able to protect them as much. Cass is a toss-up on whether she would be able to protect herself against emotional manipulation by Bruce.
I'm hoping Duke is happy with his parents if this is the bad scenario. If he isn't, there could be tension because Duke didn't become a vigilante under Bruce's approval. Therefore, there would be a meta vigilante in Gotham that Bruce didn't approve of.
If this is the good scenario, dealer's choice on whether Duke's parents are fine while Duke becomes Signal prior to Bruce's return. He could be an independent vigilante the Bats provide support for without sucking him into the family.
Let me know if you want any more info, want more explanation, or you think it could go a different way!
Here's the text that can appear in pop-ups when a sim watches the weather channel:
— Summer: —————————————————————
• When it's a really hot Summer day, sometimes I think about cold things, and my mind tricks my body into thinking it's cooler than it really is. Except one time I thought about too much ice cream and it made my stomach hurt.
• Sorry, but I can't help you today. I'm out at the pool.
• Why do they call us Meteorologists? I have never predicted a meteor in my whole life! They're scary. If you see one, let me know and I'll tell people. I'm on TV, you know.
• I'm having a bad day. Just go outside if you want to know about the weather. Stop bothering me.
• I've wanted to be a weather man my entire life. Sure other kids thought I was weird playing with my barometer during recess but I knew I was meant to affect people's lives.
• Weather prediction is a serious science. I have a college degree in it. At least I think it was a college. It was all done on the Internet, but I got a shiny certificate in the mail!
— Fall: —————————————————————
• My advice for today? If it rains, wear a jacket.
• I used to like playing in leaf piles. But not as much anymore. They're itchy.
• You know when people say things like "It's raining cats and dogs out there!" Well, that doesn't happen. Trust me. I've checked.
• Oh, what's the big deal? It's hot, it's cold, it's raining, it's snowing. Who cares? It still doesn't change the fact that my job is basically to look out the window. You know how depressing that is?
• I was struck by lightning once. It didn't feel so good. I put a lightning rod on my roof after that and it hasn't happened since.
• I just love playing in a great big pile of leafs. Burning them is fun too. Except when you accidentally set someone on fire. Poor grandma. Her eyebrows never grew back.
— Winter: —————————————————————
• It's Winter. Wear a sweater. Does that help?
• Sorry. Couldn't make it into work today. It's too cold out there!
• When I was a kid, I made up my own superhero. I was "The Boy Weather - Master of the Forecasters!" My mom made me a cape and a mask, and I ran around my house shouting things like "Chance of Showers: 50 percent!". I fought off evil tornadoes and powerful hurricanes with my powers of prediction. I didn't have many friends.
• I had the worst Nightmare last night. I dreamed I was being chased by a penguin and he wanted to hit me with a fish.
• Did you know Penguins can't fly? They also have a natural resistance to polar bear attacks.
• I always wanted a pet penguin but my mother said that I was too young. I asked her again yesterday, but she said that I should let it slide.
— Spring: —————————————————————
• Can you help me out with something I've always wondered about? If you're in the pool, and it starts raining, do you get more wet?
• It's allergy season out there. The pollen count is off the charts! I'm sneezing just thinking about it!
• I have the greatest job in the world. I can be completely wrong nearly all the time and never get fired. When I make a mistake, I can just shake my head and say, "What are ya gonna do? It's the weather!" How sweet is that?
• Don't look to me for all the answers! The knowledge you seek is just a small step out your front door.
• We've been hearing reports of lightning striking tall trees in the neighborhood, so be careful out there!
• Hello. You have reached the Weather Station. We're not in right now, but if you leave a message after the beep…
Hii, i hope your having a good day! I just wanted to ask if you could do the reverse death thing again but for Tyler instead? If not it’s totally fine, thank you very much!!
Sorry I was busy at my exam's i couldn't answer all your requests but here we are!
Warning's: character death angst to fluff
✨as always i don't know much English so if something is wrong correct me✨
Ashlyn ask if everyone was ready you all agreed and the seating arrangement was you were in between Taylor and tyler and beside Taylor was Ben and Logan was at the back
"alright you know what to do right? Close the gate after we're out then run to-" Aiden cut was Ashlyn was gonna say saying
"to the other door. Wait for you to honk and then bolt for the jeep...I got it don't worry"
you were holding Tyler's hand and feeling him squeeze you're hand you look at him with a smile and tyler return the same thing when he was about to say something Ashlyn already started to drive making you both jolt backwards
While driving Ashlyn honk and you saw aiden get in the jeep
"are they following??"
"y-yeah but they aren't keeping up" Logan was holding a sniper in the back of the jeep
And they continue to talk about going to the next town (to lazy to add the text)
Ben and tyler were holding a flash light while Aiden was bugging Ashlyn to play music
"you good tyler wanna switch place?" You asked he think for a minute before nodding and you both switch
"thanks (name) my arms were kinda sore too" he said while rubbing his arm
"after all your training in baseball you still have a sore arm I'm not surprise"
"hey I'm still stronger" you two continue to giggled making Taylor butt in and kept chatting not so loud though
Once Ashlyn took a turn not so long she turn right (or was it left?)the jeep making you fall to Tyler
"what was that for?!" Ashlyn just looked at hi. The answerd
"there was a big tree root in the road"
"that's strange?, this road is usually well-maintained" then Ashlyn ran over something making Logan yelp
When Ashlyn came passing in the gas station she bolted the jeep making it speed
"hey! What's with the sudden speed?!"
Then another root was past making the jeep bump again
"hey Ashlyn you good" you said looking at her
"Ashlyn?.. what's up" Aiden said you two saw the terrified look in Ashlyn's face
"what happened to the road" Taylor said looking terrified aswell
Tyler asked Ashlyn to go back because this is seriously not ok
"we cant... Because it's right behind us" when she said that you can now heard the tud's of someone running but bigger
You all look back then shock what's right behind you
A giant phantom looking like a centipede but bigger
While we all are panicking you couldn't help but notice Ashlyn was more stressed because she was the driver
"screw it!" She then turn the jeep right and the big pillar's hand claw whatever was in your door making you yelp in fear holding tyler
Ashlyn then question if you all are alright
"the door is banged up pretty bad, but none of are hurt" tyelr said sounding more terrified
Now you were holding tyler who was holding ben and Taylor you were also worried about Logan in the back
We kept getting bump by roots the jeep was making to much shaking making you bump the door you heard a click then suddenly.....
You heard Tyler scream while reaching out for you
"(name)!!" Tyler was holding a hand for you yet he didn't grab you
"go back Ashlyn!! Go back" tyler said while Ben was holding him down "I can't!"
Now you were on the ground you tried to grip on the floor yet you fell in the cliff
You wished it was already time out you wish you woke up already then you bump into a tree then you were suddenly impaled by a tree
"Ashlyn please go back (name)! Theyre still there Ashlyn!" Tyler said causing a tantrum Ben and Taylor were now holding him Taylor started to tear aswell she's worried about you too
Since you came with them everything change with tyler you were her friend and she even called you her sister-in-law
"(name)!!" The parents heard tyler screaming in the bus you were shaking violently your pupils were widen Taylor and tyler holds you
"help please !!"
You're parents check you out "(name) sweetie wake up! What happened?!" Then Ashlyn's dad scoop you "hey where are you taking my child?!" Your mom holds Ashlyn's dad
"were taking them to the hospital!"
You were now at the hospital the parents and your friends are waiting in the waiting room (duh)
Your parents couldn't sit still your father calmed your mother down while she's in a brief of anger and depression
You suddenly woke up seeing a nurse the nurse turn around to you and saw you looking like a crazy person you aske her what's going on
Youre heart rate was starting to increase
You sat down holding your stomach feeling the sore the monitor kept beeping
You shouted trying to escape the nurse you were struggling due to the pain but you flash back to Tyler
He looked at me while i fell in the jeep
I wanna go to him i need him and my friends are they ok did they survive?!
You can hear Taylor's screams you then got out of the nurses grip and ran you held your stomach and rip the wire that was attached to your arm
You tried not to pass out but you felt dizzy pushing everything then there you are... You saw them mostly
Him
Tyler stop then ran and wrap you in his arms
"are yo-you, you're here, your okay" tyler didn't stop himself for tearing up
Your mom suddenly jump to you too "your alright darling" tyler loose the hug to you and your mother didn't stop kissing your face and hugging you thigthly
Then suddenly two nurse came and aske mom and dad if they were my legal parents
Tyler kept whispering how he was worried while Taylor tried to calm him ,ben text if your ok and, logan cried on how he was worried about you, and Aiden uh? His an asshole but his words were in a worried tone aswell
"wait where's Ashlyn"
"she grab things with her dad.... I'm just glad your alright" Taylor said smiling at you
While they took you back at your room tyler said
"I'm glad you're alright please dont leave me... I love you to much" you he peck you're cheeks you giggled at him and hold him thigth "i love you too to much Tyler" you smiled at him then carry on the room
Daym never thought Tyler's more longer making story than Aiden btw Aiden's part is on my masterlist goodbye!
Hey. Idk if this is me growing up or just being disillusioned with inter celebs etc. Im a 23 yr old trans man so I grew up and was inspired by chella on the YouTube community. But now I just…don’t like chella man anymore. I feel like…he became an industry plant? Over the pandemic asking fans for money to send to him directly to help others and not showing where the money was going exactly incident as well as just becoming older I noticed he seemed to almost want to become the next Keith haring or basquiat? He almost…now seems very fake? He takes deals with brands to be representation but doesn’t do much to call out certain brands for their faults etc.
Idk anymore
I give Chella credit in that he was one of the few transmen that I looked up while I was young, especially with him being BIPOC. Showing him to my family helped them understand me. But that's where the inspiration kinda stops, because it was painful to be surrounded by years-in-transition trans men online when I was absolutely nowhere I wanted to be. That was a me problem tho. But I also didn't know much about his whole donation incident.
Ig heres what I have to say. It's not great to view other people as your justification of your morals. We don't know how people have had to live or how they live now, we don't know what decisions they have to make, and we dont know what kind of fears or goals they have. Chella is allowed to do whatever he wants with his art or his modelling career, just like how I genuinely believe anyone else in the world is capable of making the right decisions for themselves (even if we dont like those decisions!). Im not really concerned with figuring out if hes an industry plant or a "class traitor" (lol) or even if he's "fake". To be honest, I'm all for BIPOC folks getting their $. Does that mean I enjoy seeing wealthy BIPOC folk perpetuate classism and racism? No. Just cuz someone is succeeding for themselves doesn't mean people cant critique them. I guess what Im saying is I see waaay too many people online take the things they enjoy and the people they follow as projections of their morals: "no! stop [Insert celebrity name] you're being problematic and its makes us fans look bad!" Like....Okay lmfao. People are grown adults and are going to make decisions for themselves. Just because you might enjoy a celebrity does not mean your morals are based on how good of a person they are.
and youre allowed to not like the same things anymore just like how people are allowed to change, for better or for worse. I think within online communities there is way too much pressure on "looking" like a good person versus actually being one...because sometimes BEING a good person makes you look absolutely vile in terms of online spaces/communities love of isolating, removing, and deleting "problematic" (and vulnerable) people from their spaces with no trial, discussion, or attempt at conflict mediation. Yea yea I do think people have every right to be criticized just as they have every right to make whatever decision they want, but what Im trying to get at is to really stop viewing anyone with a platform as someone you can other once they dont meet your standards. This is not the same as denouncing or critiquing someone for really egregious behavior (white supremacy, harrassment, bullying, interpersonal violence). Once you kinda start living by your own morals without needing other people's actions/behaviors to justify/define them, you learn to focus on building connections rather than destroying them.
again, this is a much nuanced topic and you prolly werent expecting me to go into this. but ive grown over the years and have engaged in some nasty and vile mob mentality behavior that i just dont vibe with anymore. im not really the kind of person now to speculate online or publicly what other people are doing or should be doing or whether theyre problematic or not. I don't really care about Chella man or most celebrities rn. People r just gonna be people, and I will always have empathy for those of marginalized identities. Free will, autonomy, and self determination goes both ways, but so does accountability, transformative justice, and reconciliation.
I do love the netflix avatar in my own way because it provides me with enrichment in the same way brain puzzles do for chimps. Like something is WRONG here and it's your very special job to figure out why! And then you will get juice reward!!
I think the reason I'm enjoying writing core4 so much is it's just, a bunch of only-child children with non-traditional family dynamics who are so sibling coded/we're roommates and have been for the past 63,136 years. DELIGHTFUL to me. They're all so goddamn stupid. I have decided Kon says traumatic things about Cadmus and Cassie/Tim/Bart turn to each other and play rock-paper-scissors for who gets to be angry about it this time.
i really try to understand why my fellow progressives are so avoidant of actually introspecting on why they think its still cool to bully. im sorry but thats just an inherently conservative thing to want to do.
[Note, 9 October 2023: Google disputes the veracity of this claim, but has declined to provide the exhibits and testimony to support its claims. Read more about this here.]
When I think about how the old, good internet turned into the enshitternet, I imagine a series of small compromises, each seemingly reasonable at the time, each contributing to a cultural norm of making good things worse, and worse, and worse.
Think about Unity President Marc Whitten's nonpology for his company's disastrous rug-pull, in which they declared that everyone who had paid good money to use their tool to make a game would have to keep paying, every time someone downloaded that game:
The most fundamental thing that we’re trying to do is we’re building a sustainable business for Unity. And for us, that means that we do need to have a model that includes some sort of balancing change, including shared success.
"Shared success" is code for, "If you use our tool to make money, we should make money too." This is bullshit. It's like saying, "We just want to find a way to share the success of the painters who use our brushes, so every time you sell a painting, we want to tax that sale." Or "Every time you sell a house, the company that made the hammer gets to wet its beak."
And note that they're not talking about shared risk here – no one at Unity is saying, "If you try to make a game with our tools and you lose a million bucks, we're on the hook for ten percent of your losses." This isn't partnership, it's extortion.
How did a company like Unity – which became a market leader by making a tool that understood the needs of game developers and filled them – turn into a protection racket? One bad decision at a time. One rationalization and then another. Slowly, and then all at once.
When I think about this enshittification curve, I often think of Google, a company that had its users' backs for years, which created a genuinely innovative search engine that worked so well it seemed like *magic, a company whose employees often had their pick of jobs, but chose the "don't be evil" gig because that mattered to them.
People make fun of that "don't be evil" motto, but if your key employees took the gig because they didn't want to be evil, and then you ask them to be evil, they might just quit. Hell, they might make a stink on the way out the door, too:
Google is a company whose founders started out by publishing a scientific paper describing their search methodology, in which they said, "Oh, and by the way, ads will inevitably turn your search engine into a pile of shit, so we're gonna stay the fuck away from them":
http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf
Those same founders retained a controlling interest in the company after it went IPO, explaining to investors that they were going to run the business without having their elbows jostled by shortsighted Wall Street assholes, so they could keep it from turning into a pile of shit:
And yet, it's turned into a pile of shit. Google search is so bad you might as well ask Jeeves. The company's big plan to fix it? Replace links to webpages with florid paragraphs of chatbot nonsense filled with a supremely confident lies:
How did the company get this bad? In part, this is the "curse of bigness." The company can't grow by attracting new users. When you have 90%+ of the market, there are no new customers to sign up. Hypothetically, they could grow by going into new lines of business, but Google is incapable of making a successful product in-house and also kills most of the products it buys from other, more innovative companies:
https://killedbygoogle.com/
Theoretically, the company could pursue new lines of business in-house, and indeed, the current leaders of companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are all execs who figured out how to get the whole company to do something new, and were elevated to the CEO's office, making each one a billionaire and sealing their place in history.
It is for this very reason that any exec at a large firm who tries to make a business-wide improvement gets immediately and repeatedly knifed by all their colleagues, who correctly reason that if someone else becomes CEO, then they won't become CEO. Machiavelli was an optimist:
With no growth from new customers, and no growth from new businesses, "growth" has to come from squeezing workers (say, laying off 12,000 engineers after a stock buyback that would have paid their salaries for the next 27 years), or business customers (say, by colluding with Facebook to rig the ad market with the Jedi Blue conspiracy), or end-users.
Now, in theory, we might never know exactly what led to the enshittification of Google. In theory, all of compromises, debates and plots could be lost to history. But tech is not an oral culture, it's a written one, and techies write everything down and nothing is ever truly deleted.
Time and again, Big Tech tells on itself. Think of FTX's main conspirators all hanging out in a group chat called "Wirefraud." Amazon naming its program targeting weak, small publishers the "Gazelle Project" ("approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”). Amazon documenting the fact that users were unknowingly signing up for Prime and getting pissed; then figuring out how to reduce accidental signups, then deciding not to do it because it liked the money too much. Think of Zuck emailing his CFO in the middle of the night to defend his outsized offer to buy Instagram on the basis that users like Insta better and Facebook couldn't compete with them on quality.
It's like every Big Tech schemer has a folder on their desktop called "Mens Rea" filled with files like "Copy_of_Premeditated_Murder.docx":
Right now, Google's on trial for its sins against antitrust law. It's a hard case to make. To secure a win, the prosecutors at the DoJ Antitrust Division are going to have to prove what was going on in Google execs' minds when the took the actions that led to the company's dominance. They're going to have to show that the company deliberately undertook to harm its users and customers.
Of course, it helps that Google put it all in writing.
Last week, there was a huge kerfuffile over the DoJ's practice of posting its exhibits from the trial to a website each night. This is a totally normal thing to do – a practice that dates back to the Microsoft antitrust trial. But Google pitched a tantrum over this and said that the docs the DoJ were posting would be turned into "clickbait." Which is another way of saying, "the public would find these documents very interesting, and they would be damning to us and our case":
After initially deferring to Google, Judge Amit Mehta finally gave the Justice Department the greenlight to post the document. It's up. It's wild:
https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-09/416692.pdf
The document is described as "notes for a course on communication" that Google VP for Finance Michael Roszak prepared. Roszak says he can't remember whether he ever gave the presentation, but insists that the remit for the course required him to tell students "things I didn't believe," and that's why the document is "full of hyperbole and exaggeration."
OK.
But here's what the document says: "search advertising is one of the world's greatest business models ever created…illicit businesses (cigarettes or drugs) could rival these economics…[W]e can mostly ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers, ad formats and sales."
It goes on to say that this might be changing, and proposes a way to balance the interests of the search and ads teams, which are at odds, with search worrying that ads are pushing them to produce "unnatural search experiences to chase revenue."
"Unnatural search experiences to chase revenue" is a thinly veiled euphemism for the prophetic warnings in that 1998 Pagerank paper: "The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users." Or, more plainly, "ads will turn our search engine into a pile of shit."
And, as Roszak writes, Google is "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand." That is, the company has become so dominant and cemented its position so thoroughly as the default search engine across every platforms and system that even if it makes its search terrible to goose revenues, users won't leave. As Lily Tomlin put it on SNL: "We don't have to care, we're the phone company."
In the enshittification cycle, companies first lure in users with surpluses – like providing the best search results rather than the most profitable ones – with an eye to locking them in. In Google's case, that lock-in has multiple facets, but the big one is spending billions of dollars – enough to buy a whole Twitter, every single year – to be the default search everywhere.
Google doesn't buy its way to dominance because it has the very best search results and it wants to shield you from inferior competitors. The economically rational case for buying default position is that preventing competition is more profitable than succeeding by outperforming competitors. The best reason to buy the default everywhere is that it lets you lower quality without losing business. You can "ignore the demand side, and only focus on advertisers."
For a lot of people, the analysis stops here. "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Google locks in users and sells them to advertisers, who are their co-conspirators in a scheme to screw the rest of us.
But that's not right. For one thing, paying for a product doesn't mean you won't be the product. Apple charges a thousand bucks for an iPhone and then nonconsensually spies on every iOS user in order to target ads to them (and lies about it):
John Deere charges six figures for its tractors, then runs a grift that blocks farmers from fixing their own machines, and then uses their control over repair to silence farmers who complain about it:
Fair treatment from a corporation isn't a loyalty program that you earn by through sufficient spending. Companies that can sell you out, will sell you out, and then cry victim, insisting that they were only doing their fiduciary duty for their sacred shareholders. Companies are disciplined by fear of competition, regulation or – in the case of tech platforms – customers seizing the means of computation and installing ad-blockers, alternative clients, multiprotocol readers, etc:
Which is where the next stage of enshittification comes in: when the platform withdraws the surplus it had allocated to lure in – and then lock in – business customers (like advertisers) and reallocate it to the platform's shareholders.
For Google, there are several rackets that let it screw over advertisers as well as searchers (the advertisers are paying for the product, and they're also the product). Some of those rackets are well-known, like Jedi Blue, the market-rigging conspiracy that Google and Facebook colluded on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue
But thanks to the antitrust trial, we're learning about more of these. Megan Gray – ex-FTC, ex-DuckDuckGo – was in the courtroom last week when evidence was presented on Google execs' panic over a decline in "ad generating searches" and the sleazy gimmick they came up with to address it: manipulating the "semantic matching" on user queries:
When you send a query to Google, it expands that query with terms that are similar – for example, if you search on "Weds" it might also search for "Wednesday." In the slides shown in the Google trial, we learned about another kind of semantic matching that Google performed, this one intended to turn your search results into "a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape."
Here's how that worked: when you ran a query like "children's clothing," Google secretly appended the brand name of a kids' clothing manufacturer to the query. This, in turn, triggered a ton of ads – because rival brands will have bought ads against their competitors' name (like Pepsi buying ads that are shown over queries for Coke).
Here we see surpluses being taken away from both end-users and business customers – that is, searchers and advertisers. For searchers, it doesn't matter how much you refine your query, you're still going to get crummy search results because there's an unkillable, hidden search term stuck to your query, like a piece of shit that Google keeps sticking to the sole of your shoe.
But for advertisers, this is also a scam. They're paying to be matched to users who search on a brand name, and you didn't search on that brand name. It's especially bad for the company whose name has been appended to your search, because Google has a protection racket where the company that matches your search has to pay extra in order to show up overtop of rivals who are worse matches. Both the matching company and those rivals have given Google a credit-card that Google gets to bill every time a user searches on the company's name, and Google is just running fraudulent charges through those cards.
And, of course, Google put this in writing. I mean, of course they did. As we learned from the documentary The Incredibles, supervillains can't stop themselves from monologuing, and in big, sprawling monopolists, these monologues have to transmitted electronically – and often indelibly – to far-flung co-cabalists.
As Gray points out, this is an incredibly blunt enshittification technique: "it hadn’t even occurred to me that Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better." We don't know how long Google did this for or how frequently this bait-and-switch was deployed.
But if this is a blunt way of Google smashing its fist down on the scales that balance search quality against ad revenues, there's plenty of subtler ways the company could sneak a thumb on there. A Google exec at the trial rhapsodized about his company's "contract with the user" to deliver an "honest results policy," but given how bad Google search is these days, we're left to either believe he's lying or that Google sucks at search.
The paper trail offers a tantalizing look at how a company went from doing something that was so good it felt like a magic trick to being "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand," able to "ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers."
What's more, this is a system where everyone loses (except for Google): this isn't a grift run by Google and advertisers on users – it's a grift Google runs on everyone.
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:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!
Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on trying to keep our sinking ship afloat for as long as possible. This means desperately trying to copy every new fly-by-night social media app that some multi-billionaire sh*t out during their daily Peloton routine. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. If you find the things we say here worrisome, please understand that is our exact intention. You've outgrown our target demographic. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
The Diagnosis
It's lookin' pretty bad y'all!
After somehow losing hundreds of thousands of users during the great pr0n purge of 2018, we started to wonder if anything could be done to get back to where we were. We even brought in a management consultant who charged us a ridiculous amount of money. It would make you sick if you knew how much, but we got a few nice meals out of it at least. Anyhow, we handed this guy the app, and HE HAD NO IDEA HOW TO USE IT! It was f*cking hilarious! But suddenly it all clicked -- our users are a bunch of stupid idiots who can't even do basic arithmetic. I mean, they spend all day looking at their phones, so what do you expect?
Tumblr’s best feature is its unique content and vibrant communities. But who cares, right? We're just as happy getting traffic from people sh*t-posting memes, vague-booking, giving out-of-context hot takes to news events, and spewing whatever random thought is in their head at the moment. Plus that stuff doesn't p*ss off Apple.
To keep this thing going we need new people. And by "people" we mean teenagers, like we used to have back in the good ol' days. Unfortunately we're all in our 40s now, so we have no idea what they want. But teenagers are so cool! Imagine if they talked to us like we're one of them? We're getting hard just thinking about it.
Our Guidng Principls
To make Tumblr cool again, we must address these huge glaring issues.
People can look at a blog without logging in. How is that fair to all the poor schlubs who had to fill out forms to get an account? Also we haven't figured out a way to force ads onto the personalized pages yet. But we swear that's not the main reason.
People can see content they are looking for or linked to. People can keep up with blogs they follow. But the problem with this is, people don't know what they want. We know what they want! We're smart. We wrote this damn site, remember?
Promote posts that incite pointless conversations. Posts that are guaranteed to bait every troll into responding. Isn't that why all your Magat relatives love Facebook so much? We can do that!
P*ss off your content creators in every way possible (see #2).
Create algorithms that throw an unending barrage of irrelevant content in your face. Have you seen Instagram lately? We could do that so easy!!!
The app is slow. The website is slow. Obviously this is because of GIFs. Facebook and Instagram don't allow them, so why should we?
Conclusion
Our mission changes on a day-to-day basis. Right now we're super jealous of all the attention that new Threads thing is getting. We're still not sure what it is, but we're gonna download it after work.
I really like your stories, and I had an idea. I wanted to ask you if you could write a story where for some reason some of the Spiderman, like Gwen, Hobie, Miles, Peter P. With Mayday, Pavitr, Y/n and Miguel must take a car and Y/n has to sit on top of Miguel because there is no space left, Hobie is driving and he takes a lot of potholes, so Y/n bounces a lot on Miguel and he gets hard, so you know.. it's kind of difficult for them. If you know what I mean.
If it's not a problem thank you in advance 💞 anyway don't worry 🕷️🕸️
bumpy ride — miguel o’hara ( nsfw ). longer name. stuck on miguel’s lap in a car.
“a car?” miguel asks, staring at hobie who's leaning against an old fashioned plymouth barracuda. “mhm,” hobie hums, raising his brows with a smirk. “why can't we just...you know...web sling to the evil guy?” peter asks, watching as miles walks up to hobie and the car clearly already fine with the idea. hobie pats miles shoulder, pleased. “come on...we're tryna be subtle.”
“and you think...” gwen gazes around at everyone. “...like, seven spider-people driving in a car is subtle?”
“eight.” hobie gestures to mayday who's hanging upside down in the baby strap attached to peter. miguel sighs. “we don't have time for this. just get in the car.” he begrudgingly walks towards it, making hobie's smirk widen. “where did you even find it?” you ask, beginning to step closer as well. “he probably stole it." whispered pavitr, as he walks beside you. you hold back an amused smile at this.
“nah, i di'n't steal it, mate.” hobie says, eyeing you both as everyone began to find seats. “i've always been a good cit'izen.” he watches as pavitr slips into the back, scoffing. you raise your brows at hobie, you seeming to be the last one to get in. “and you're definitely not someone who changes their personality 24/7. just for the fun of it.”
hobie shakes his head, that bloody side smile still present. “oh, i luv stayin' consistent, babe.”
liar.
when you opened the car door, looking in for room you realise that all the seats are full, gwen in the passenger seat (miguel having claimed that he really didn't want to see hobie drive up close), while everyone else almost squished in the back. your gaze fell on the closest person to you. miguel. he closes his eyes for a moment seeming to think, before he reaches for your wrist, pulling you down to sit. straight on his lap.
your breath hitches at the fast movement, your body tensing. then his breath is by your ear. “relax...what do you think i was gonna do?...break your arm?” you manage a scoff, shifting slightly so that you could a find a comfortable sitting on his thighs. “no...i thought you were reaching to shut the door in my face.”
“maybe i should have.” miguel mutters just as hobie drives off. throughout the ride your friends talk about a mixture of a plan to defeat this anomaly and how terrible hobie's driving is. and it...was pretty bad. he seemed to like the feel of the excelerator a little too much, as the car drove through radom small potholes. your hand had been gripping the back of a seat, while you occasionally bounced and were forced to shift on miguel.
miguel's grip had slowly moved to your waist, his claws digging in a fraction when you would move right along him. now at first you couldn't really feel miguel's growing bulge, one that made him slightly bare his teeth in a silent snarl. “are you trying to break my hips?” you whisper in question to him, leaning back slightly against his chest to reach his ear. he stiffened, you practically against him entirely. and god was your moving making his chest rise and fall a little quicker.
you had to stop moving so much, or... “i will if you keep moving like that...it's annoying.” he says, trying to seem unbothered. “i can't help that hobie drives like this.” you hiss quietly back. “and you know what's annoying? taking off my suit to see your claw marks.”
you shouldn't have said that, because the visual of you taking off your spider suit and the thought of you being marked by his claws made miguel's hard on grow. now he was annoyed, and turned on. extremely. he purposefully tightened his grip around your waist, now wanting to leave marks as he subtly kept your back to his chest, mouth moving to your ear. then you feel it, and your eyes grow wide in realisation.
thank god your friends were too busy talking (arguing) over something rather loudly, because miguel's hands began to very slowly move your hips along him. butterflies swarm your stomach as you hear a quiet groan in your ear, clearly only meant for you. “miguel — ” you whisper in shock and question.
“shh.” miguel whispered in your ear, your cheeks now feeling flushed. his breathing was harsh, as pleasure shot through him, feeling you rub against him, his hands still slightly moving your hips. “just a little relief...” he almost muttered to himself, but his mouth was still by your ear. “what are you...” you drift off, gulping down your own arousal at the situation, because the small back and forth rubbing of your pussy against him is beginning to make you wet.
“mm...eso es...” miguel quietly mutters, wishing he could move your hips harder against him, but knowing that that'll catch the attention of your friends. you tried to hold back a small groan of your one. “shh, you gotta stay quiet for me”
“w-we shouldn't...” you choke out in a whisper. but miguel's grip hasn't let up, his mouth slightly opening in a silent pant by your neck. “i didn't think you'd feel this good, cariño...carajo.”
“so...good.” he mutters, most of his words sounding as though he's speaking to himself. “i — i can move to someone else's lap...” you suggest, trying to keep your voice normal. miguel shakes his head, his lips brushing your neck. “no...y/n...you're staying right here.” and now you're sure your waist is tainted with miguel's claw marks.