People literally calling the Public Domain a graveyard have no clue what they're talking about. Without the Public Domain, most of your beloved childhood Disney movies literally would not have been made, because they are literally based on stories that were in the Public Domain.

Please unlearn capitalistic propaganda before you go saying things like "the public domain is the graveyard of ideas". Literally the only people that benefits are giant corporations like Disney who don't want you using the Public Domain like they have been this whole damn time.

office mug

Imagine what neoliberal propaganda articles look like in various evil empires.

"Women in Sauron's army. How female orcs have helped create a more inclusive global conquest." - The Mordor Examiner

"How the death star program is revitalizing the galactic economy." - The Coruscant Times

"Despite progressive cries to "Free Arrakis" situation with House Harkonnen more complicated then most people think." - The Corrino Fund

"How the anti imperial rabbit hole can easily lead to people to pro choas views." - Ultramar Today

"we are running out of stories, but we don't know how to give them up. we're all going to die screaming that we're not really dying, and that we're not really screaming."

Laundry stripping may be popular in certain circles, but it's important to understand the science behind the deep-cleaning practice before you decide to give it a try. Ultimately, stripping some fabrics (like silk and wool) can actually do more damage than good—and utilizing this method too frequently can prematurely age your garments. […] [Cleancult CEO Ryan] Lupberger advises against the practice altogether, especially if you were considering Borax. "It's one of the products people often use to strip laundry, but is also an irritant. It can lead to skin irritation or a rash and respiratory side effects," he says, noting that there are concerns for exposure to humans, as well as pets. […] The shock of laundry stripping is the water—the process results in a dark, seemingly disgusting pool of filth. In reality, this discoloration is largely caused by hot water leeching the dye in your clothes, causing them to run. Stripping can, however, help remove dirt, lingering body oils, detergent residue, and hard water minerals; together these soils do contribute in part to that brown-gray water, says Lupberger. According to Tide scientist Jennifer Ahoni, "Our research and laundry expertise suggests that there are more effective methods to remove build-up on fabrics." Per Tide's findings, continues Ahoni, the stripping process can actually cause issues with many textiles. "The mechanism by which washing soda precipitates out water hardness can actually form new soap scum residues on fabrics," she says. "Additionally, we have learned that low wash pH is an effective method for soap scum removal, and washing soda raises wash pH—which is the opposite direction." Not to mention the fact that washing soda can also deactivate some detergent components, preventing your wash from getting extra clean in the first place.

I continued to be extremely pet peeved by the “stealing from blood banks is worse than attacking victims” vampire funny post

Fellas, is it more ethical to attack a passerby with razor blades for their sandwich, or steal off a food bank.

The most absurd propaganda shit I see is when some magazine or newspaper runs an article of money management advice from someone who's wealthy.

The ultra rich, especially those born into excess wealth always seem to be the people with the worst money management skills out there.

I want grocery shopping tips to save from a single parent with many dependents and yet don't qualify for stamps, let them tell me their tips for stretching the buck, not some mf who's never actually had to work and worry trying to tell those they exploit to just cut out all luxuries, and somehow being more miserable will magically save enough to buy a house

notre dame burning was so beautiful I wish we could have been normal about it (enjoy it) instead of embarrasingly stupid (in uproar to waste milions in various currencies and susceptible to state propaganda)

Telling Stories to better the World

*looks on the calender* You know what time it is? Yeah, it is time for the alpaca to rave on about the power of stories once again. Because I kinda feel that we cannot talk about that enough.

Say it loud and say it clear: Stories have power over us.

The baddies kinda understand that. Which is why they use stories as propaganda tools. I mean, there is a reason why the US Military funds the Marvel movies and stuff like Top Gun. Because it is propaganda that exists to serve their goal.

And humans also have always kinda understood it. Because guess what: Fairytales existed as teaching tools. Be it to teach kids to not run into the forest at night... Or do a Beauty and the Beast and exist to teach young girls that: "Hey, your political husband might be abusive, but you can try and tame him, girl!"

A lot of oral stories have once existed for such reasons. To both teach people about the world and reaffirm a society's values. And this is still true to this day.

I have been harping on anarchist ideas vs capitalist ideas for the last few days and the entire story thing plays into this a lot.

And yeah, I gotta crap on the MCU here once more, because it kinda is the most influencial offender here. Because those people know the power of stories. Which is why in most of the MCU movies the bad guys wanna change the system - while the good guys heroically defend the status quo without ever questioning whether or not the bad guys might actually have a point in some cases. (Worst offender is obviously Falcon and the Winter Soldier.)

Given that mass media right now very much is held obviously by the capitalist class, for the most part media only rarely gets to sneak in messages that are too anti-capitalist. (Which is also, why modern Cyberpunk, especially western Cyberpunk, does not have a ton of bite going on.) And in many cases it has to be sneaky and rely on the lack of media literacy in the folks financing the movies. Like the Matrix, for example. But in that case they obviously run the risk of the viewer also not quite getting that message, if they are not primed for it.

But we do need those stories.

We need stories in which people rebel against a system and win. In which those rebels are allowed to be heroic, instead of the narrative going: "Well, sure, their goal was admirable, but we just cannot condone violence!"

We also need stories in which people live in a less hierarchical society. In which people are aiding one another. In which it is not rugged individuals saving the world, but close-knit friend groups and communities working together.

And we need stories, in which climate change is stopped in time. In which people live actually on renewables and micro grids. In which people then also live without capitalism. Because we need to learn to view that world as possible,

So, if you are a creator... You know what to do!

How the fuck can you consider yourself leftist if your belief is that a leftist society is the ideal but that you believe that for practicality we need to only fight for an implement centrist policies due to "practicality". Like, you do realize that "communism works on paper but it's not possible in practice" is a standard conservative talking point meant to dissmiss leftism?

This appeal to practicality, calling leftist advocates naive, and telling them to change the system from within, used to be the realm of boomer conservatives who used to be leftists, now it's the line of millennial conservatives who used to be leftists and they don't even have the politeness to call themselves conservatives. It's gotten past the point where that's even only being used agaisnt the really radical stuff, you now have people who don't want any advocacy for trans people because they see it as bad optics.

I don't remember who said it, but I once heard someone quote something to the tune of "the only way we've ever gotten any progress to happen in any span of time, is by demanding everything right now."

Man... Cold War era US Propaganda was so well done that it is still fucking with us.

forgive me for leftist-posting abt the gay movie, but the dead poets society is soooo leftist-adjacent in my mind. "mona wtf does that mean" im not entirely sure! something about rebelling against a school with such strict rules and reliance on tradition just to read poetry in the woods seems very.. path to leftism to me. i feel like i can explain better with the original dead poets so ill do that.

warning: this isnt even speculation at this point, its me making shit up about the og poets for the sake of projection + i think it would be interesting + og poets being taught ww2 propaganda is smthn im always thinking abt. if u dont agree, thats more than fine, u have literally no obligation to esp considering this barely makes sense. also this isnt meant to be informative at all so if i get shit wrong then lmk, im neither a historian nor an expert in leftism.

to specify off the bat, ive always hced keating as an avid and involved leftist, although probably not publicly. is there any merit to this? absolutely not, it's entirely just me projecting, so take this with a heaping spoonful of salt.

so, around the time the original dead poets society was formed, we were in the sorta beginning of WW2 (if we assume the dps was founded in 1941, definitely couldve been later. u should read @pencileraser1's post about keating.), and if ur familiar with US history, propaganda surrounding the war was RAMPANT, most commonly in the form of "we want u to join the military!!!!1!!!!" ive mentioned this in a previous post from however long ago that pro-military propaganda was so rampant that they often taught it in schools, no doubt especially so in private schools. now this could ultimately mean nothing in relation to the og poets, they so easily could have eaten it up and thought nothing of it, they did essentially just do homework in the woods. but in my joe biden's america ass brain thats not how it goes, just cuz. to me its sort of a pipeline of start to rebel by forming the dps > slowly realise after talking that the things theyre teaching u in terms of "rahhhh military!!!" is kinda fucked up > growing distrust of us military in general > something something US wasting money on weapons and war and shit > something something anti capitalism.

is this a stretch? absolutely, but it makes sense to me so thats what matters. also the leftist-ness?? exists on different spectrums in my mind, ranging from being against US military propaganda being taught in class to straight-up socialism (keating socialist...) so definitely dont take this as the dps being some sort of mini socialist party, in my mind its just a group of boys who happen to agree abt some aspects of society (hah). i also dont think this translated to any permanent ideals for a majority of the og boys, especially since anti-capitalism didn't exactly mix well with the cold war, the red scare, and all variants of etc after WW2 ended. except for keating, keating stays a socialist, CPUSA and eventual SDS keating (if he chose to stay in the US) are real to me.

now, would this translate to the reprisal of the dead poets (the movie ones)? i doooont think so? originally i was gonna say this only applies in my mind when the US is at war, but the US is kinda always at war, sooooooo. lets just say it applies when the US being at war is sort of a main concern to the general population (ex both world wars, vietnam, war on terror if welton was still around, etc). as to why this sorta hc only applies concerning militarism? i have absolutely no idea, probably something to do with my views on the military sorta long term leading me to my political opinions. but also! the effects that the red scare and mccarthyism definitely were still prevalent in 1959 despite soooooorta dying down around 1957. no doubt the US population's fear of anti-capitalism = ur a russian spy was still there. was that sorta thing taught in schools at that point? not sure, this is also a fictional school so it doesn't really matter and im going on a tangent. i suppose if the dps reprise continued for more than ~3 months then they could've gone down a similar path under the right circumstances? but i doubt it. although leftist neil is quite special to me. neil for SAG! neil for unionisation!

i like applying this logic to other periods, like the 60s for example (i knowwww keating was gone by then, lets just pretend, make it an au i guess) i can definitely see the poets (or some at least) delving into the hippie movement on the down-low, although its easy to call into question whether hippies were an actual group of activists or just a sort of cultural movement. again - i dont know much about the history of hippies so i dont have much to add, lets go with a general "anti vietnam war" ideology to keep things simple. sorta similar to the og poets in terms of war bad > socialism pipelines, and the SDS was formed roughly around this time? peak was in 1968-69, but thats kinda all i got. if anyone enjoys this idea and knows a lot abt that point in leftist history then definitely feel free to add anything on if u want.

in conclusion: mona hates war and the military and projects it onto the poets because they wanted to and also they had a conversation with tristan about propaganda in relation to dps. this is a bunch of random sorta points just strewn together so my apologies for how messy this is.

bonus: FANTASTIC point by @lookingglasswolf

guys people are supposed to help each other. we form communities for a reason. someone wanting to give you help is rarely pity.

Disney did not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars bribing politicians for years to keep the Public Domain locked up like a vault so that random ass people who don't know how the public domain works could start claiming that using Mickey Mouse now that he's public domain benefits Disney. You people have literally no idea what you're talking about.

if you think people using public domain Mickey Mouse is helping Disney, then you better go tell Disney that so the billionaire execs can take back all the money they've spent on bribes to the literal fucking government over decades to keep him out of it for as long as possible.

"Disney's finally given up Mickey Mouse's copy-rights"

No! Disney didn't "give up" or "let go" of shit! Bog Iger had no say in Mickey Mouse becoming Public Domain! Disney did not gracefully surrender Mickey Mouse to us.

These billionaire fuckers had no choice in the matter. Stop giving Disney credit for literally not having a choice in the matter.