I need everyone to know that I will not be watching The Rings of Power
1. I don’t support Amazon for obvious reasons
But even if I wanted to pirate it, I won’t because:
2. The hell is up with the elves? Since when is Elrond an 80s pop singer looking, “politically ambitious” person???
3. Where is the long hair for all the elves??
4. The fashion could’ve been of so much better quality
5. DWARF WOMEN BUT NO BEARDS???
6. They condensed events that happen over centuries into a few years…. No fuck that, the time span was the exact point, the humans dying as elves live on is. The. Point.
7. I hate that they’re so inconsistent when it comes to casting elves: they’re supposed to look eternally young. But then most of the male elves look in their 50s???
Important note: I do not want ANY racists coming on this post talking about how casting poc was a mistake. Fuck that, Middle Earth is hella diverse no matter what the movie trilogy showed you (PJ should’ve known better).
not to start discourse but I really hope you guys are not *paying* for Amazon’s Wheel of Time tv show…
seriously, will people please stop buying shit they don’t need from Amazon?
I understand buying necessities from Amazon if you’re poor and you live in a rural area where you do not get mail deliveries often…
but the rest of you have no real excuse, especially paying Amazon for a TV show which is something you DON’T EVEN NEED
There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. Don’t feel bad about enjoying things in life.
And the discourse begins. Hello. I never said people couldn’t enjoy things. I said don’t give Amazon your money. You also don’t understand what “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” means. It’s not just an excuse to do whatever you want. Generally speaking, it means that capitalism, as a whole, perpetuates a system where people have few truly ethical options, and we should take blame off of poor people, who are just trying to survive, and place the blame on corporations. It does NOT mean you should just indulge in anything you feel like without thinking about the consequence at all.
“No ethical consumption under capitalism” applies to a situation where, for example, a poor person NEEDS clothes, but the only clothes they can afford come from a large clothing company that exploits laborers in other countries and destroys the environment. Is this the poor person’s fault? No. They do not have the financial resources to buy more expensive clothing from ethical sources. “No ethical consumption under capitalism” refers to people being put in an impossible situation. You can’t just go without clothes or food or necessities. But here’s the thing… you don’t need Amazon’s Wheel of Time. You just don’t. You don’t need it.
If you want to watch Wheel of Time, at least pirate it. And before someone get on my case for taking money away from the artists and actors who worked on the show or whatever, that’s not how this works. The actors, set designers, stunt people, etc. are paid for the job they do. They are not getting extra money because you have an Amazon prime subscription. That money is going straight to Amazon, the company. Not its workers.
Which is more important: your desire to be “entertained”, or human rights?
Also, as I have explained elsewhere, Amazon’s new TV shows—including Wheel of Time and the LOTR TV show set to come out in 2022—are designed to give Amazon good press and make us all forget what a disgustingly evil corporation Amazon is. I wish people wouldn’t fall for it.
Don’t give Amazon your money.
I want to emphasize again what OP said about how this applies to the LOTR show.
I also think it’s important to acknowledge that even if you pirate these shows and don’t directly give Amazon your money, you can stillbe benefiting them and their greedy, financially swollen but morally bankrupt pockets. Talking about the show, giving it hype, growing the fandom and increasing the general awareness that it exists are all forms of you giving free PR and advertising to Amazon. You may not funding it, but by increasing its reach your widening the circle of people who will pay for it and/or buy merch.
I’m not saying that you’re a bad person for pirating the show, although I firmly intend to pretend that it doesn’t exist. But be aware of how you interact with it and how you talk about it. Think about it. Reflect on yourself. And never forget what it is and what it represents.
“There is no ethical consumption under late stage capitalism” is a criticism of capitalism, not an invitation to do whatever you want and then justify it to yourself by saying, “nothing’s perfect so we might as well do what we want and give up on morals entirely”. A collection of bad choices doesn’t mean that some of those choices aren’t definitively worse than others.
I’m not going to have posts about the show on my dash once it starts airing. I’m not going to criticize it for its portrayal of Tolkien’s world or bad takes or weird plot points. None of these matter in comparison to the scale of the evil behind it.
Also? If any of you defend this show or people giving Amazon money, you are legally not allowed to ever pretend again that you care about PoC or racism in the fandom.
What it comes down to is this: real people matter more than fictional characters. The real people being hurt by Amazon are more important than your desire to consume entertainment.
Holy fuck Amazon is being complete bullshit as usual and not caring about it’s workers at all. That is a fucking tornado, seriously???? Fucking disgusting
There were only 66 years between the first ever powered flight and the moon landing. The Wright Brothers successfully flew a plane for the first time in 1903; in 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.
PSA! You’re not “screwing over the man” by shitting on independent authors. You’re just taking their livelihood. And we’re not talking about KU books.
[Image ID: A screenshot of a tweet by username @KBrombergDriven. The text reads:
“½ Every time you return an ebook at Amazon, the author is charged back more than what they were paid for the sale. Yes, that means we could owe Amazon at the end of the month. Since TikToks went viral saying ‘it’s okay to return ebooks’
2/2 most authors returns have skyrocketed. Reading and returning a book is stealing. If you want free books, try the library app, Libby (among others) #AmazonisNotALibrary”
/.End ID]
Unfriendly reminder to never, under any circumstances possible, buy anything from Mr. Glanshead’s website
