Fighting Crapitalism

Has anyone else noticed that people’s understanding of words has shifted lately? Allow me to give you some examples:

“NO” has come to mean “If I keep asking in different ways, maybe I’ll convince you.”

“Optional” or “voluntary” now seems to mean “I don’t want to claim this as income, so I will gladly collect a tip or a donation to feature your book. But if you don’t make that donation, then I cannot feature your book.” (AKA mandatory.)

“Crowdfunding” now means one of two things:

1. Donations from people to toxic people because viewers like watching trainwrecks, or

2. Super-investors dangle a carrot in front of you, testing to see how much you will “invest in yourself” (also known as hiring their friends to help you, without donating a cent) before pulling funds.

“I loved your book, and I want to see it reach a wider audience” now also means a few different things:

1. I’ve read an AI description of your book, and I think it’s awesome, so I am going to offer you a “professional” service, using AI, to create a {banner, video, ad campaign, etc.} that does not reflect the reality of the book or that is worse than all the ones I already have.

2. I really loved your book, so I want to feature you in my book club for a fee. But I don’t love it enough to write a review or recommend it unless you pay me for it.

3. I’m going to create material for this book that you didn’t ask for, but I expect you to pay for it even if you didn’t ask and don’t like it.

This shift in understanding all comes down to one thing:

Late-Stage Capitalism: A System Intended to Harm Independent Thinking and Creativity

No, I’m not an economist. I wish I had taken an economics course at some point in my life. What I am is a dreamer who is tired of seeing workers of all types struggle as the money flows in a direction that lands directly in the pockets of the wealthy.

That’s what’s happening. For you see, we’ve been trained by big media conglomerates to pay for the right to provide them free content and sold our lives to their greed. We are ruled by algorithms, numbers, and constant competition. We’ve grown up believing that there isn’t enough pie to go around, so we all struggle to get our piece.

Now, with more tech companies turning to AI, it’s even harder. It doesn’t matter how talented an independent artist/author/musican might be; if platforms like Amazon, YouTube, Instagram, etc. cannot make money off of your work, your work remains unseen.

It’s time to change the system.

How do we do that? By not paying into it. By building collaborative teams where we support one another. By not paying for mediocre work. By sharing and promoting one another without expectations of being paid for it. By actually buying from creators themselves, or requesting books at the library, or simply sharing something you love.

It starts by believing that the power of community and collaboration is stronger than the power of capitalist greed. If you want to join the revolution, become a member of rebelliouscreativity.com.