I think they mean that back then, elaborate marketing campaigns (yes, for money) were a bit more commonplace, while today, the fun veneer over the greed has worn thin and most companies scrape by with the widest but shallowest marketing strategies that are even more transparent in their greed. We all know companies want our money, so any time we forget that momentarily is kind of like suspension of disbelief when watching a movie. The bar for the suspension of disbelief in corporate greed is simply getting lower. They realized they don’t need to try that hard to still make money hand over fist. Doing this again would be pretty expensive. You know what’s cheaper? Slapping some canned images and animations over existing logos and stuff.

It seems stupid to be annoyed by the fact that the ever-hungry jaws of capitalism “aren’t as fun as they used to be” but i think it’s getting upset over the fact that companies think they don’t even need to disguise their avarice to get away with it. And to a growing extent, they’re right. The showmanship being romanticized was meant to dazzle and distract the masses from the uglier parts of business, but now we just accept them instead. There is no shame in greed, no reason to hide malice when it’s an accepted tool of your trade.

I guess a better analogy would be a guy with his beaten and bloody wife who is pleading for help from the officer, who just shrugs and says “Sorry, ma’am” before leaving. But the general idea remains the same.

That’s my reading as well. I have no idea what is actually in Article IX but it sounds like UAE snuck in “except us” when it came to defining the ICJ’s jurisdiction. It’s giving SovCit vibes, only instead of a sovereign citizen unbeholden to their government and declaring their house a nation state, it’s a country unbeholden to the world and declaring themselves outside of its purview. And the ICJ is just shrugging their shoulders saying the same thing.

Imagine someone shooting up heroin while driving, getting pulled over on a highway on-ramp, then telling the cop who is looking at the needle in their arm that technically this is a highway, so highway patrol are the only ones who could pull them over. In what world does the cop shrug and say “Aw shucks, you’re right” before getting back in their squad car and driving off? Because it seems like the international equivalent of that just happened but with genocide instead of addiction.

Nothing in particular, just Disney being Disney. Had the subscription for family, was finally able to cut the cord recently

Don’t worry, I assume nothing. Call me naive, but I’d rather be likely shouting into the void than staying quiet and possibly missing an opportunity to be heard

I know it’s unlikely to have done anything much, but if no one speaks they definitely won’t be heard. At least there’s a small chance for someone to understand the company is shitty. A small grain of doubt can grow into dissent with time. Worth the gamble of a little time to me

Because I need to at least try to tell them their shitty practices are hitting them in the only place that matters to them: their wallet. I don’t think my little survey will do much in the grand scheme of things, but many small thing make big thing so I do what I can. I made it very clear they’re pushing people back to the high seas