This is uncomfortably dark, at a time when unrelenting misery is a way of life
Go read The Grapes of Wrath and The Concrete Jungle. Get back to me on today’s unrelenting misery.
One kind of misery does not negate the existence of other kinds of misery. The pain of living through the Great Depression is different from the pain of seeing reality eroded away into propaganda for the highest bidders, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be fighting to end misery.
Reality has always been propaganda designed to serve the highest bidders. It’s just more obvious now because they’re changing the propaganda more often.
Well I can do all things through Christ, so why don’t you jot that down too
There are more human slaves alive on Earth today than at any previous point in history.
I doubt it. The Roman Empire alone at its height had a population of 50-90 million with roughly a quarter of that enslaved.
Even with extremely inclusive definitions of slavery (which are also not included in the classical count) the modern estimates of the total number of slaves is like 40-50 million. It’s too many, obviously, but classical period Europe, Africa, and Asia alone would crush those numbers, and the 'New World" didn’t appear out of nowhere when Columbus stumbled into it.
Just read the plot of grapes of wrath, uhhh, you do understand that the story is about late stage capitalism right? And the person you were responding to is saying how we live in similar times right?
Its like someone saying poison can kill you and you respond with: see this story about how bad lots of poison is… yeah… that’s the point.
I’m pretty sure this is art because I’m having a strong emotional reaction.
Whitewashing old photos with AI. Thanks. I’ll just add this to the heap of things to worry about as I get older.
How is it whitewashing when the woman was white to begin with?
EDIT: Misunderstood the term, though it was being used in a new context. I’m leaving my idiot comment for all to see.
Apt metaphor of our times.
Greenwashing, social media highlight reels, worship of the affluent, grind culture, etc.
Putting a fake, stepford face to obfuscate the horrors we refuse to address, using unethical(theft) technology being shoved down our throats for profit no less.
I was just reminded of this starting up the Tomb Raider I-III trilogy.
Just like Looney Tunes, they added a disclaimer; paraphrased “This rerelease depicts certain cultures in a light we do not agree with - we’ve preserved the work to avoid pretending this never happened”
On a more minor note, I’m very sick of the TikTok trend of censoring words like “kill” into “unalive”. It has even made it hard for victims to talk about brutal subjects. It’ll happen to you, you just aren’t allowed to talk about it because that might upset people.
I don’t know whether to feel angry or sad looking at this but it definitely makes me feel uncomfortable and gross that’s for sure. It’s like someone making you your favorite dish for dinner and then just covering it in jello.