It's like saying "We'll solve speeding problems by only allowing speedometer displays that only go up to 75 mph.
I also really like the "solutions" to other problems presented by this utopian proposal...
Problem: "People who make more money will leave." Solution: "We'll make it worldwide!"
Problem: "People will just charge more for goods and services" Solution: "We'll control all the prices!"
Problem: "People won't be as productive without the incentive of attaining wealth." Solution: "We'll make them."
Note that every "solution" to the objections raised requires that greater and greater power be given to...government? All the members of which organization will be content to settle for the same "adequate" wage received by people who have NO power?? RLY? This altruistic behavior is not intuitive, based on, oh...every bit of human history ever. Sorry.
Maybe we could look into giving everyone a unicorn that shits money instead.
How about we NOT create any more students/citizens who have seen their "leaders" fall for the Labeling Fallacy: if things have the same designation, they are the same. Simple.
Rules is rules. Guns are guns. Sexual assault is sexual assault.
But a 19-year-old who has a 17 yo girlfriend with pissed-off parents is NOT the same as someone who sexually abuses a three-year-old. A pop tart in the shape of a gun, or a picture of a parent in the Armed forces with a government-issued gun, or a gun charm on a charm bracelet are NOT guns (and all are cases where a "Zero tolerance policy" was interpreted as requiring suspensions). And stupid rules are NOT what creates law-abiding citizens...good rules do.
These policies are to relieve teachers and administrators from having to exercise judgement, because judgement exercised may go wrong, and result in legal liability(read: excessively huge monetary settlements with greedy parents represented by greedy tort lawyers). Thus, the national epidemic bedeviling grade schools of students playing 'doctor' behind the bushes is dealt with by a Zero Tolerance policy for TOUCHING.
Because we wouldn't want to pretend any of the specialists in pedagogy we employ in our schools can tell the difference between a hug or a pat on the back and a finger up the bung. Clearly they can't and have to be saved, along with the state education budget, from having to make such judgements.
ZT policies should be ended because they are based on faulty logic and suspect motivations, and teach DISRESPECT for rules and laws. Which, given the constant drumbeat of rebel-worship from Hollywood and the media, is entirely unnecessary.
"Amid the seemingly endless debates today about the future of reading, there remains one salient, yet often overlooked fact: Reading isn’t only a matter of our brains; it’s something that we do with our bodies."
Apparently, the rhetorical tactic of just stating things as true and moving on (as opposed to actually, you know, demonstrating through experiment or proving through logical argumentation) works as well in digital media as on paper, parchment or papyrus-which is to say: not at all.
As does simple refutation: "No, it isn't, Mr. Piper."
How about a citation for the original comment he's replying to, which I quote from memory "Most business executives are Republicans because this fits the neat straw man narrative I've created wherein all the conservatives are crooked panderers-to-lobbyists and the liberals are all noble, principle-driven public servants" or something like that?
Here's a clue: If, when you say something without hard fact behind it, you get the feeling "See? It all fits together!", then your "logic" has as much value as that of Moon Hoaxers, Bilderberger Conspiracy Theorists and Mayan Calendar Catastrophists, all of whom elevate speculation to fact if it "all fits together".
Thus it is with your "feeling" (not "fact") that all the corporate bad guys are Republicans. Facing the fact that the truth is otherwise would cause shakiness in your whole easy explanation of how things work, therefore it MUST be true, right?
IF you do a little research and find the facts are clearly otherwise (most people with power, the people who RUN THIS COUNTRY, are actually "liberal"), an easy out is the explanation that this disturbing unanimity is not from self-serving self-interest, but because they are smart people whose opinions naturally align with yours, you being right and all.
I point this out not to defend the Republicans, who are useless and repulsive, but to hopefully help someone escape the poisonous delusion that one political side or the other is "good" because they pander in a particular way.
This is insightful and perfectly true. But ultimately, it merely rearranges the relative importance of inputs into the whole "success" aspect of art (as opposed to the "making art" part).
If instead of say, musical groups becoming successful by making good music AND being really good-looking or dressing up like a pirate/robot/mage/ninja/superhero version of the Village People, they instead gain success through the quality of their music AND being "...able to replace the PR intermediaries with their own form of engagement with fans", I don't see anything unethical, unfair or tragic about it.
The artists whose music is less accessible (already called "niche" artists) or who are "demoralized" at the prospect of engaging with fans or promoting themselves were NOT being made into stars by the existing mechanism of promotion. So appealing on their behalf is like trying to slide billions in subsidies to Archer Daniels Midland by trotting out hard-working American Gothic family farm operators.
And for any promotion expenditure the labels ever did for non-mainstream, new or niche musicians, they spent ten thousand times as much trying to get top stars' sales from x to x*2. Which at least is defensible, business-wise (the "lesser known" artists' sales being .001x or sth).
People will find ways, ways that don't involve some giant corporation that runs everything from production to distribution to bookkeeping. If there are introverted artists who can't be arsed to be concerned if anybody is, you know, liking what they do, they're already starving in garrets or the modern equivalent thereof.
Well, anonymous, your best action towards achieving perfect online anonymity is "don't go online". Alternatively, you might take a minute to consider the difference between "privacy" and "anonymity".
Okay, you say "what is being premised" and then proceed to march on as if it is proven.
It MAY BE that the list is skewed by bias, or it may reflect a real-world circumstance, the origins of which we could examine for exclusivity or the operation of an "ole boys club".
But you don't address the truth value of anything, instead you put a politically correct shibboleth like "if achievement does not reflect demographics then bias, because white males derpdedurr" ahead of any examination of evidence. "Reality must match theory, and if it doesn't then reality MUST match theory, dammit!!"
Prove your case or don't but snarking around about how there must be some(unstated)thing wrong if reality doesn't sync up with your first principles isn't argument. You can't prove something's wrong by stamping your feet and insisting it's wrong.
I could also make the observation that the only time anyone is ever oncerned about this kind of demographic maldistribution is when it involves "white males", but that always leads to a rant..
Man, I always get a little spooked when government agencies send out spokesbots with a message like "Black is white, until the legislation deeming it so is repealed or revised. We will not be responding to questions at this time.".
They always do it with a straight face.
ref: Harry Reid justifying public employee payoffs via unneeded postal service offices because "Old people need junk mail to feel connected to society."
or:
"We need to be able to determine citizens' location, 24/7, or we will be unable to protect them from crime." ~DEA, FBI, etc.
or (as noted above):
"It would be a violation of citizens' privacy for us to tell them if we were spying on them. We will not be responding to questions at this time." ~NSA
And if by "niche" musicians, you mean those who, while enjoying eating, having instruments to play and a place to live and therefore being all for "gettin' paid", still choose to make the music they love and are driven to make despite indications that there are not millions to had in the endeavor...then yeah, the followers of this kind of "niche artist" are very prone to making sure they are supported financially when that is economically feasible. (note: submit this for a Dirtie in the "Longest Sentence" category. What? No, man, they're like the Oscars...they really don't? Shit.)
And surely it's better, for musicians at least, to have among their committed fans some poor people; than to have a record label armed with attack lawyers making sure no one heard them who could not buy a $15.00 CD.
Most "niche" musicians seem to get this, at least a little. It's a conflict for some. As Gillian Welch sings in the bittersweet "Everything is Free": We're gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay. Though she points out in the song that she doesn't HAVE to make the music that gets pirated, the chorus is a concession that, in fact, she does. And that's what makes it worth paying for.
If we had a million "niches" and no multi-million-selling, industry-created, entertainment-media-promoted pop supertars...I could live with that.
At least, if you want ideas to be useful. Then you have to differentiate between "bad" and "good" ideas.
Most people find that the "good" (useful) ideas are the TRUE ones. If you don't believe there are actually bad ideas, please be the first to drive over that bridge built of balsa wood and wishful thinking.
The "I'm a simple-minded dumb girl and even I understand..." troll is one thing, but nobody's going to believe you're unaware that there is actual piracy going on off the coast of Somalia.
On the post: How To Solve The Piracy Problem: Give Everyone A Basic Income For Doing Nothing
Re: Re: Re:
All of them.
Hey! He just volunteered!
On the post: How To Solve The Piracy Problem: Give Everyone A Basic Income For Doing Nothing
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I also really like the "solutions" to other problems presented by this utopian proposal...
Problem: "People who make more money will leave."
Solution: "We'll make it worldwide!"
Problem: "People will just charge more for goods and services"
Solution: "We'll control all the prices!"
Problem: "People won't be as productive without the incentive of attaining wealth."
Solution: "We'll make them."
Note that every "solution" to the objections raised requires that greater and greater power be given to...government? All the members of which organization will be content to settle for the same "adequate" wage received by people who have NO power?? RLY? This altruistic behavior is not intuitive, based on, oh...every bit of human history ever. Sorry.
Maybe we could look into giving everyone a unicorn that shits money instead.
On the post: More Schools Reconsidering Zero Tolerance Policies And On-Campus Law Enforcement
Rules is rules. Guns are guns. Sexual assault is sexual assault.
But a 19-year-old who has a 17 yo girlfriend with pissed-off parents is NOT the same as someone who sexually abuses a three-year-old. A pop tart in the shape of a gun, or a picture of a parent in the Armed forces with a government-issued gun, or a gun charm on a charm bracelet are NOT guns (and all are cases where a "Zero tolerance policy" was interpreted as requiring suspensions). And stupid rules are NOT what creates law-abiding citizens...good rules do.
These policies are to relieve teachers and administrators from having to exercise judgement, because judgement exercised may go wrong, and result in legal liability(read: excessively huge monetary settlements with greedy parents represented by greedy tort lawyers). Thus, the national epidemic bedeviling grade schools of students playing 'doctor' behind the bushes is dealt with by a Zero Tolerance policy for TOUCHING.
Because we wouldn't want to pretend any of the specialists in pedagogy we employ in our schools can tell the difference between a hug or a pat on the back and a finger up the bung. Clearly they can't and have to be saved, along with the state education budget, from having to make such judgements.
ZT policies should be ended because they are based on faulty logic and suspect motivations, and teach DISRESPECT for rules and laws. Which, given the constant drumbeat of rebel-worship from Hollywood and the media, is entirely unnecessary.
On the post: United Airlines Kicks Travel Writer Off Of Plane For Photographing His Seat
Re: Re: 1st Rule of Flying
On the post: Prenda Law Issues Subpoena For IP Addresses Of Every Visitor To Critic Blogs For The Past Two Years
Re:
Pudenda Sleazebag Attorney 1: "Nice little internet you've got 'ere mate. be a shame if somefin' 'APPENED to it."
(knocks pen holder off desk)
Goon 1: (cracks knuckles
Pudenda Sleazebag Attorney 2: Or, like, if it was to catch on fire...
(flick lighter ominously)
um so weider....
On the post: Prenda Law Issues Subpoena For IP Addresses Of Every Visitor To Critic Blogs For The Past Two Years
Re: Re: Re: Aliens
On the post: Author Andrew Piper: Turning Pages Is Important, Therefore Reading Ebooks Isn't Reading
Apparently, the rhetorical tactic of just stating things as true and moving on (as opposed to actually, you know, demonstrating through experiment or proving through logical argumentation) works as well in digital media as on paper, parchment or papyrus-which is to say: not at all.
As does simple refutation: "No, it isn't, Mr. Piper."
On the post: Draconian Downloading Law In Japan Goes Into Effect... Music Sales Drop
Re: Re: Re:
Here's a clue: If, when you say something without hard fact behind it, you get the feeling "See? It all fits together!", then your "logic" has as much value as that of Moon Hoaxers, Bilderberger Conspiracy Theorists and Mayan Calendar Catastrophists, all of whom elevate speculation to fact if it "all fits together".
Thus it is with your "feeling" (not "fact") that all the corporate bad guys are Republicans. Facing the fact that the truth is otherwise would cause shakiness in your whole easy explanation of how things work, therefore it MUST be true, right?
IF you do a little research and find the facts are clearly otherwise (most people with power, the people who RUN THIS COUNTRY, are actually "liberal"), an easy out is the explanation that this disturbing unanimity is not from self-serving self-interest, but because they are smart people whose opinions naturally align with yours, you being right and all.
I point this out not to defend the Republicans, who are useless and repulsive, but to hopefully help someone escape the poisonous delusion that one political side or the other is "good" because they pander in a particular way.
On the post: If You Behave Like Your Own Fans Despise You, They Probably Will
Re: Disintermediating the connections
If instead of say, musical groups becoming successful by making good music AND being really good-looking or dressing up like a pirate/robot/mage/ninja/superhero version of the Village People, they instead gain success through the quality of their music AND being "...able to replace the PR intermediaries with their own form of engagement with fans", I don't see anything unethical, unfair or tragic about it.
The artists whose music is less accessible (already called "niche" artists) or who are "demoralized" at the prospect of engaging with fans or promoting themselves were NOT being made into stars by the existing mechanism of promotion. So appealing on their behalf is like trying to slide billions in subsidies to Archer Daniels Midland by trotting out hard-working American Gothic family farm operators.
And for any promotion expenditure the labels ever did for non-mainstream, new or niche musicians, they spent ten thousand times as much trying to get top stars' sales from x to x*2. Which at least is defensible, business-wise (the "lesser known" artists' sales being .001x or sth).
People will find ways, ways that don't involve some giant corporation that runs everything from production to distribution to bookkeeping. If there are introverted artists who can't be arsed to be concerned if anybody is, you know, liking what they do, they're already starving in garrets or the modern equivalent thereof.
On the post: Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom
Re:
On the post: Bias In Tech & Media: Lists That Perpetuate The Stereotypes
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
It MAY BE that the list is skewed by bias, or it may reflect a real-world circumstance, the origins of which we could examine for exclusivity or the operation of an "ole boys club".
But you don't address the truth value of anything, instead you put a politically correct shibboleth like "if achievement does not reflect demographics then bias, because white males derpdedurr" ahead of any examination of evidence. "Reality must match theory, and if it doesn't then reality MUST match theory, dammit!!"
Prove your case or don't but snarking around about how there must be some(unstated)thing wrong if reality doesn't sync up with your first principles isn't argument. You can't prove something's wrong by stamping your feet and insisting it's wrong.
I could also make the observation that the only time anyone is ever oncerned about this kind of demographic maldistribution is when it involves "white males", but that always leads to a rant..
On the post: Bias In Tech & Media: Lists That Perpetuate The Stereotypes
Re: Re: Re:
The way you become "not biased" is BY NOT BEING BIASED, not by carefully balancing biases.
On the post: FBI & DEA Warn That IPv6 May Be Too Damn Anonymous
Re:
They always do it with a straight face.
ref: Harry Reid justifying public employee payoffs via unneeded postal service offices because "Old people need junk mail to feel connected to society."
or:
"We need to be able to determine citizens' location, 24/7, or we will be unable to protect them from crime." ~DEA, FBI, etc.
or (as noted above):
"It would be a violation of citizens' privacy for us to tell them if we were spying on them. We will not be responding to questions at this time." ~NSA
Totally straight-faced. Totally creepy.
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: Lowery is a liar
And surely it's better, for musicians at least, to have among their committed fans some poor people; than to have a record label armed with attack lawyers making sure no one heard them who could not buy a $15.00 CD.
Most "niche" musicians seem to get this, at least a little. It's a conflict for some. As Gillian Welch sings in the bittersweet "Everything is Free": We're gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay. Though she points out in the song that she doesn't HAVE to make the music that gets pirated, the chorus is a concession that, in fact, she does. And that's what makes it worth paying for.
If we had a million "niches" and no multi-million-selling, industry-created, entertainment-media-promoted pop supertars...I could live with that.
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: Re: Techdirt vs Thetrichordist
At least, if you want ideas to be useful. Then you have to differentiate between "bad" and "good" ideas.
Most people find that the "good" (useful) ideas are the TRUE ones. If you don't believe there are actually bad ideas, please be the first to drive over that bridge built of balsa wood and wishful thinking.
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: boys will be boys
The "I'm a simple-minded dumb girl and even I understand..." troll is one thing, but nobody's going to believe you're unaware that there is actual piracy going on off the coast of Somalia.
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: boys will be boys
ZING! See? Two can play this little insult game!
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: boys will be boys
You're like the Rowan Atkinson character telling himself "I'm weeening! I'm weeening!!"
Well, enjoy the endorphins, weeener.
On the post: David Lowery Wants A Pony
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: boys will be boys
Also, did I hear a piano in there? Totally not cool. Didn't you know that when artists make music, it's TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY ORIGINAL?
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