Why Black March Is a Really Fucking Bad Idea

thatdapperfuck:

iambickilometer:

magpieandwhale:

puelhathnofury:

postcardsfromspace:

To the people proposing this:

You dumb bastards. You know who this’ll hurt? Not big media. Not on any significant scale.

No, the people this will really fuck over are the EXACT same people SOPA and PIPA would fuck: Creative professionals; small publishers; independent businesses.

If you want to do something that makes a statement, consider shifting your money not only away from corporate media but to independent media. Buy comics published by someone other than DC and Marvel. Buy books from small and independent presses. Support independent production companies who fight to stay independent and fan-focused. Better yet, buy things directly from creators and artisans. Support independent retailers. Don’t just blanket punish media producers and distributors—refocus those resources into supporting the ones who espouse and depend on free exchange of information and ideas.

Because those are the people preserving intellectual freedom.

Those are the people creating work of substance.

And those are the people struggling to make a living, because they aren’t bankrolled by the doucheweasels lobbying for SOPA and PIPA.

So, yeah, boycott whomever you please. But for fuck’s sake, also think.

Word to all of this. We know what corporations are bankrolling SOPA and PIPA; boycott them specifically, and help build sustainable alternatives to corporate media.

Maybe someone can start a list of independent retailers and companies and creators worth checking out, so people know where to start looking.

The instinct is good, but guys. Think about who takes the hit.

ah yes, good, i wasn’t thinking

but now that i am, some suggestions: buy digital tracks from your favourite small-time bands’ websites. go to local shows! read at libraries. buy used media — most local record and book stores will carry them. rent movies!

or share what you’ve already got! borrow books and cds and movies from your friends, have swaps, or just party it up and all consume the same media. listen to albums with your friends! consider waiting on new releases and picking them up cheap later. 

consider getting emotionally involved in more small-time media, checking out indie (actually independent, as opposed to indie genre) films and music, local writers and performers, webcomics, hobbyist internet writers, the like. encourage your creatively-inclined friends to share their work. share yours, if you’ve got it. 

or revisit media you already own! it’s a mark of quality if you’re inclined to watch, read, or listen to something multiple times. There’s nothing wrong with not consuming something new.

I also figured this might be a bad idea because I feel like the people who’d be pretty badly effected too are people who have purchased the media to sell. Whether people working at cinemas, or small stores selling things. At that point big cooperate media has gotten their monies worth  out of their goods. Sure if they don’t sell they cant make more to sell for more money ect……. but then the people who bought those goods with the intent to sell are also effected. Even if it’s a big business if it’s effected badly the lower employees are also effected. You can’t just expect to only hurt one portion of the economy. It’s going to have a sort of trickle down effect.

all of this is completely acceptable

boycott the supporters of sopa in favour of independant developers authors etc etc etc.

(Source: postcardsfromspace)

sarahfu:

I think it is a little horrifying to see how persistently obtuse the government (and the corporations that do, to a degree, pull the strings) is being with this whole censorship disaster on top of the economic crisis. 

Have they never heard of the word Revolution and seen what has consistently brought that about throughout history? 

The thing about the 1% is that they are outnumbered and they should know it. If the people cannot get what they need through peace and diplomacy there will come a time when it is simply taken through sheer numbers as it has been in the past.

engineeringlesbian:

I am seeing a lot of people going “but I can’t give up insert-name-of-media-drug-here for an ENTIRE MONTH!!” and so on.

I want to make this short so.

Really? Really?? People’s inability to be patient for A SINGLE MONTH is a little staggering. The movies are not going to disappear, neither are the video games or TV series. This is for a greater cause, you can sacrifice a little of yourself to do something IMPORTANT for once. You have what, 80 years to live? 

You can give up a month of being a media-slave for the better of the rest of your life, and the rest of the world.

Come on people.

PERSPECTIVE AND PRIORITIES ARE A THING. 

EDIT: Also, even if it might hurt the artists and the actors and the people we love it’s a necessary sacrifice, and I can assure you that one month of not shoveling your money in their hands isn’t going to throw them into bankruptcy. 

If it has a consequence and an effect that’s fantastic, because we’re being proactive and DOING SOMETHING about this issue. 

not to mention i guarantee you guys must have a stash of old stuff you’ve yet to watch. get through that shit.

(Source: homewreckingwhore)