mariyadelano

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

Btw this is often hard for me to explain to Westerns - I’m politically on the left, but I never call myself a communist or a socialist and I do not align with people who espouse those views.

It’s very hard to talk to people who quote Lenin and admire communist regimes without having lived there or having had their families killed by them for not falling in line.

Capitalism does, unfortunately, have a lot of good to it.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

Like I resonate with arguments about consumerist waste, of course I do. We don’t need to buy new phones every year or get cheap clothes that fall apart after 2-3 months, or waste our money on software subscriptions for every single thing.

BUT. I’ve seen the other side. When I was little my hometown still hadn’t really Westernized. I remember the day our first ever supermarket opened.

And a life without ANY consumerism is a miserable one.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

Not having any choices in what to buy or own takes so much pleasure out of life.

I remember when we first moved to the Philippines, walking around giant supermarkets and toy stores and book stores and clothing stores with my jaw on the floor.

The colors, the possibilities, the methods for self-expression. I felt so free for the first time.

Maybe that’s why I love marketing - I remember how cool I thought ads were.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

If I were to force a label on myself, I’d say I am left-leaning and support highly regulated capitalism.

I’m against shareholder capitalism and pursuit of short-term quarterly profits, or the concept of stock buybacks.

I’m against corporations dismantling unions and worker rights, or exploiting foreign resources, or greedy cost cutting in product quality.

But I am pro private business and entrepreneurship. I’m pro long-term sustainable growth and economic prosperity.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

I’m not an economist so I’m sure I am getting things wrong.

But my fundamental principle in politics and my life philosophy is the pursuit of long-term freedom and happiness for the largest number of people possible.

Some people need to be restrained because their greed and selfishness means their happiness costs too many others their freedom.

Corporations destroying the planet means short-term profit but long-term destroying freedom for us all.

Etc.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

I’m so curious what y’all on Mastodon will think about my thoughts here - I know that “capitalism” is kind of a dirty word for many of us here.

And I don’t disagree with most political views I see in the Fediverse - I agree a lot more often than not!

But I wanted to add a bit of complexity that I notice is hard for a lot of people from better off countries to grasp.

#history #Ukraine

mariyadelano OP , 1 month ago

@gardenvarietylinguist yep, and I guess for me the “regulated” part is a catch all term that includes the sense that certain industries should be so regulated they are no longer really private.

I think more aspects of our societies need to be viewed as public good and taken out of the profit motive, for sure

mariyadelano , 4 months ago

@maegul @workreform I've been writing about exactly this for a while but it's such a complex web of internet history, individual psychology, marketing concepts, and business models that it's been taking me months to figure out a cohesive argument.

Basically there's kind of a grift. But not in the way most think.

The creator economy led to a lot of people starting "businesses" without knowing a single thing about business. They just know audience and content. It doesn't work.

mariyadelano , 4 months ago

@maegul @workreform these online platforms have made it extremely easy to accidentally attract a large enough following that it can get monetized. But when you remove that much friction - you get people with large audiences who have no idea what to do with them. They don't actually understand why their following is valuable and so they cannot control the value.

And a lot of them don't want to learn the difficult business aspects of their own work... so they keep outsourcing it to algorithms

mariyadelano , 4 months ago

@maegul @workreform but because they don't actually understand what the algorithms or their brand deals represent or what any of those other brands are truly paying for.... creators are trapped.

Often they are trapped in the confines of a single platform which they happen to understand to some degree and where they do have an audience. So they stay trapped within that one platform, that one ecosystem, and that one algorithm.

They can't replicate their success cause they don't really get it.

mariyadelano , 4 months ago

@maegul @workreform I've been referring to this as "the single platform creator trap" - a creator who is trapped by their own belief that they can't control the value they bring, is stuck within one third-party online platform, and who doesn't fundamentally know how to recreate their success or take it elsewhere.

Creators who can make multiple platforms work always always always have way more control.

It's a self-imposed alienation from owning the means of production in Marxist terms.