something about how censorship and capitalism are so closely intertwined. that the slow push of right-wing conservative ideals are closely mirrored by corporate rebranding. how fast fashion restyles “femininity” into ever-more-modest aesthetics. how sydney sweeney can say my jeans are blue in a re-formatting of an advertisement that originally featured a child; but meanwhile corporations are halting DEI initiatives in their tracks.
but okay. i can’t say fuck in my instagram poetry, that’s fine. it always bothers me when a content creator changes their closed captions to a different word – HOH/deaf communities aren’t composed of infants, and can read a swear word without fainting. but you have to censor if you don’t want to get shadowbanned.
can’t make a video about a person who is being violent, abusive. but the president of the united states can literally say whatever he wants, forever. you can’t even really say that you think the president is a pedophile – pedophile is a word that the AI will flag.
marx wrote about how capitalism alienates us from ourselves and from others. social media continues to enhance that alienation, and now there is another layer happening – one where The Corporation gets to decide how we talk/think/interact. (don’t even fucking get me started on how tumblr loves to see trans people as a threat.)
books are getting published that include the “word” unalive. this gives you a strange disassociation for a moment; feeling like 1984 exists in the real life. is this for maximum profit? but also – who could possibly be seeking out a book where violence takes place but is also the type of person who does not want to name the violence? is that even a significant portion of society – someone who wants to read the hunger games but, like, without all the child killing and anti-capitalist critique. or maybe, who knows. that fucking post about how disco elysium should be about a witch.
you watch as the late night show gets cancelled because god forbid anyone critique The Corporation. in the past year, you’ve watched media slowly back down from “making a stand” into bland everybody-wins gruel. you’ve watched plenty of corporations switch from saying (in rainbow font) “we’ll always protect our FAMILY” to saying, “we value differences, but you’re not a right fit for our team”. in job interviews, HR is forced to talk around their policy, not wanting to specifically say identity. it’s eerie.
one of the first rules of resisting fascism is “do not obey in advance.”
and what is the next step anyway? will ticketmaster stop selling tickets for concerts that use swear words? will mastercard no longer cover art sales for any form of nudity, regardless of the context? god forbid there be violence in your violent video games. god forbid a person interacts with anything, ever, that might make them uncomfortable in any small way.
it reminds me of how the rest of life has also become less colorful (literally). how you need to keep your car pristine and undamaged with no bumper stickers, what if you resell it. how you’ll never afford a house, so your apartment is a palatable resell-value grey. how you don’t even own the tv you enjoy.
it’s just – it’s not enough that capitalism controls what i eat and where i go and what i do. these days, the terrible white & bloated body of capitalism is shoving his hands down my throat and holding my tongue. i need to be a brand, somehow. i, as a person existing on this site, need to reflect the brand ideals of this site.
they need to make a buck off of me, somehow.