rubbing my hands together delightedly as there is FINALLY a conversation starting in art spaces about artists making their entire incomes via outsourcing cheap labor for mass produced sweatshop merch. Perish ye petit bourgeois

is it like. not possible to get some of this shit done domestically? not talking abt the stickers you mentioned in your tags, i saw someone mention... charms? in a post? like dangle charms? youre telling me those are all sweat shop labor and theres no alternate? or is it that the alternates arent "afforable" or smth for "small businesses"?

im going to admit im not educated on this. its a failing i wasnt and i wanna fix that now for obvs reasons. is it like, most of the shit you find on etsy? shacker charms and and dangle charms and all that related stuff? how far does it go? are there alternates that are ethical that people are just choosing not to use for some reason? i dont even like. know how to look up this information for myself ill be honest, idek what to type into a search bar to try and get relevant info.

I’m not a Total Expert, but I’ve looked into making merch before and generally there’s no ethical options for things like plushies, enamel pins, or acrylic charms / stands / etc. If you try to find where to get these things made - including searching specifically for transparent and ethical business practices - you can’t get ANYTHING that isn’t incredibly sketchy if you even squint a little. the manufacturers all export to Indonesia and China (this isn’t xenophobia rooted, this is abt globally unequal labor costs), and generally you’ll be getting a charm or pin for $3 or less in a batch order that you can then sell for $15-30. if you look at the process to make these things - like making custom metal dies for every enamel pin - the cost is NOT that marginal. the trade off is then not adequately paying labor. the reason why you can’t find producers in the USA is because regardless of how much work we have to do on our labor laws, there is just no way for a USA manufacturer to legally get away with the by-commission manufacturing of plushies, pins, charms, etc at the scale, customization, and low cost that artists are currently getting them at in countries with weaker labor protections. additionally, working with things like enamel is very hazardous and I would not imagine the safety protocols are adequate for those. I would really like to see that change - something like acrylic charms feels very doable to do more ethically at a higher price point, but we then have to be ok with paying more for that product. and we have to accept that things like plushies are going to need to be fully handmade and a lot more expensive.

this is also on top of the environmental cost of freighting a bunch of merch orders overseas and manufacturing largely plastic based goods for things like fandoms that will probably end up in landfills eventually (not always! I know lots of folks treasure goods from artists, but realistically, the bulk of it is not going to be a prized heirloom).

there’s nothing PERFECT, but things like t-shirts and paper goods can be printed locally, by small businesses, and there can be an effort made to get non-hanes base shirts that are more responsibly produced. the western world in general has to get more comfortable with less little treats, less products on demand to our exact specifications, less profiting off of outsourced labor. because others suffer for our convenience and pleasure.

Unless it's maybe something like a two piece pillow, ALL plush is handmade plush.

What we label "handmade plush" is just plush that wasn't sewn by the anonymous hands of overseas laborors, and I really think we should switch our language to something like "locally sewn" because calling my plush handmade creates a false dichotomy and dehumanizes folks who work their asses off doing what I do x100.

If anything those guys are the ones deserving of the title of plush artists, I only dabble in the stuff by comparison. Frankly I think us plush hobbyists should really humble ourselves when talking about the factory workers in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh etc.. most of us wouldn't last a goddamn month working their gigs. Most people can't fathom their walmart teddy was handmade because of the intense skill level and admittedly their employer's access to more specialized machinery than a household singer or brother machine. Workers who have honed and mastered their skills always make their craft appear easy to outsiders and we take perfect for granted, it's not until our eye lands on a flaw that we usually begin to process the sweat and complexity put into a piece.

Yeah. And the further thing is to understand that this ALSO furthers domestic political interests, and ideological ones.

Like, in the specific US context, allowing for and then encouraging off-shoring was something Republicans did in-part to undermine US Unions(the samething happened in Britain, which is why the North of England and Wales have had the employment crises they've had since the 80s). At the same time it shifted the US(and British) economy from stable, well-paying, well-regulated, safer, retirement-providing jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, and construction into service and gig work, which was less stable, less rewarding, more punishing, more exploitive, and didn't provide a retirement. Ideologically, encouraging this shift overseas SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE those countries enforced abusive labor practices plays into their desires for Empire(to have their society exploit and oppress others), and their belief in racial hierarchy(because these countries are non-white).

These exploitive industries not only undercut the prices of goods provided by organized labor in the ~developed world~, but also keep their workers(and those countries) poor and unhealthy, further Imperial citizens' conception of those places as poor, dangerous, and unhealthy, and literally force the people of those places into an exploitative relationship with the (majority white)people of the ~developed world~/imperial core(the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and Sigapore).

21,000 labourers confirmed dead. Over 100,000 missing or unaccounted for/trafficked in building this thing.

tags by @/queen-mabs-revenge

I 100% agree with the criticism that the central problem with "AI"/LLM evangelism is that people pushing it fundamentally do not value labour, but I often see it phrased with a caveat that they don't value labour except for writing code, and... like, no, they don't value the labour that goes into writing code, either. Tech grifter CEOs have been trying to get rid of programmers within their organisations for years – long before LLMs were a thing – whether it's through algorithmic approaches, "zero coding" development platforms, or just outsourcing it all to overseas sweatshops. The only reason they haven't succeeded thus far is because every time they try, all of their toys break. They pretend to value programming as labour because it's the one area where they can't feasibly ignore the fact that the outcomes of their "disruption" are uniformly shit, but they'd drop the pretence in a heartbeat if they could.

Yeah.

For those who didn't watch it happen: in the 90s, Programming went from being a high-end middle-class job that every adult(and ~Respectable Periodical~) told kids would "let you punch your own ticket" to being a job-class rife with underpayment and extreme abuse(coders sleeping under their desks rather than going home was a common/horrifying joke of the late 90s/early-to-mid 00s) in less than 10 years. Capital's refrain of "Learn to Code" isn't about respecting coders; it's about creating such a massive over-supply that they can treat coders however viciously they like.

Management's your enemy and Unions your only Friend.

the art industry is very much a profitable one, and independent artists are very profitable, but being an independent artist is very rarely profitable. the money is in exploitation at scale

HR rule

Remember kids, ALWAYS eat their pizza then form a union anyway on a company paid full stomach!

kill the rhetoric that americans are so lazy that they won't take farm jobs. americans take labor intensive jobs all the time. the reason no americans will take farm jobs is because agricultural work is exempt from the vast majority of labor laws and labor protections, including the use of child labor. so only immigrants - people who have little to no protection from the law or other options for work - take most of these jobs. we have created a permanent underclass of labor and then say that americans are just lazy for not volunteering to be part of the underclass.

there are actually good discussions to be had about how alienated many americans are from food production (hi hello that's what my only popular post is about), but the real solution to this problem is to protect agricultural workers, citizens or not. ban child labor in its entirety. punish corporations and farm owners that abuse and poison their workers. reform the immigration process so that these people aren't barred from legal protection and recourse.

agricultural workers have been exploited since the dawn of civilization, but the US in specific has been doing this since slavery, and it evolved in the 30s when FDR's labor laws excluded them specifically because most agricultural workers at the time were black. now it's mostly latino immigrants.

food doesn't fucking pick or slaughter itself. but citizens aren't going to take these jobs when the entire industry is rife with abuse - both legal and illegal - and horrific wages and working conditions.

[“As computer programs determine how many patients can be profitably squeezed into a day, doctors become tools. Then the actual machines march triumphantly into the wards.

Nurses are now separated from patients by computers on wheels that roll everywhere with them: their bossy robot taskmasters. When you first see a nurse, she or he will likely have eyes on the screen rather than on you. This has dreadful consequences for your treatment, since you become a checklist rather than a person. If you are having a problem unrelated to what is on the screen, some nurses will have a hard time gathering themselves and paying attention. For example, after my first liver procedure my liver drain was improperly attached. This was a serious problem that was easily reparable. Yet although I tried for four days to draw attention to it, I could not get through. It was not on the lists. And so I had a second liver procedure.

When I read my own medical record, I was struck by how often doctors wrote what was convenient rather than what was true. It’s hard to blame them: they are locked in a terrible record-keeping system that sucks away their time and our money. When doctors enter their records, their hands are guided by the possible entries in the digital system, which are arranged to maximize revenue. The electronic medical record offers none of the research benefits that we might expect from its name; it is electronic in the same sense that a credit card reader or an ATM is electronic. It is of little help in assembling data that might be useful for doctors and patients.

During the coronavirus pandemic, doctors could not use it to communicate about symptoms and treatments. As one doctor explained, “Notes are used to bill, determine level of service, and document it rather than their intended purpose, which was to convey our observations, assessment, and plan. Our important work has been co-opted by billing.” Doctors hate all of this.

Doctors of an older generation say that things were better in their time—and, what is more worthy of note, younger doctors agree with them. Doctors feel crushed by their many masters and miss the authority that they used to enjoy, or that they anticipated that they would enjoy when they decided to go to medical school. Young people go to medical school for good reasons, then find their sense of mission exploited by their bosses. Pressured to see as many patients as possible, they come to feel like cogs in a machine. Hassled constantly by companies that seek to pry open every aspect of medical practice for profit, they find it hard to remember the nobility of their calling. Tormented by electronic records that take as much time as patient care, and tortured by mandatory cell phones that draw them away from thinking, they lose their ability to concentrate and communicate. When doctors are disempowered, we do not learn what we need to be healthy and free.”]

timothy snyder, from our malady: lessons in liberty from a hospital diary, 2020

I love spotify wrapped! But keep this in mind too and get involved in making sure artists still get paid !

I honestly do not think “AI will never be as good as human creativity” is a good argument at this point. Like yes, it is true right now, but they’re just going to keep trying to prove it wrong. To me the line is, “Modern AI is built off of PLAGIARISM, UNPAID and UNDERPAID labor.” AI is a labor rights issue, not just for the people who’s labor it would replace, but for the people whose labor was STOLEN for the AI to “create” anything.

All of this. Plus, they aren't TRYING to be as good as human creativity. They're trying to be FASTER than human creativity. One of the tech bros working on AI came right out and said that AIs will never write better than people. What it CAN do is write FASTER. And eventually, real writers will get drowned in the flood and be almost impossible to find. THAT is their goal. Not to replace us, but simply to ERRADICATE us. And they're using our own stolen words to do it. They are trying to kill the very CONCEPT of creativity.

Artificial intelligence doesn't exist. The software they are calling "generative AI" as a marketing strategy will never be creative at all. For it to work it requires vast amounts of content made by humans, which companies take without permission or compensation.

It's important to be clear that this is not a case of a few bad apples or that regulations can make "AI" work. The algorithms are not intelligent and incapable of functioning without access to a large pool of data created by people. In theory you could use old public domain works, but then you couldn't use it to replace writers and artists doing modern work.

Generative "AI" is a scam, the same as NFTs, the same as the Metaverse, the same as Web 3.0, the same as blockchain, etc etc. Techbros are lying to make their software look more impressive in the hopes people don't realize the criminal actions required to create it.

I'm up to the "I dunno maybe children working 13 hour shifts is bad, guys" part of Capital and it feels important to inform people that haven't read it yet that capitalists in the 19th century were not by any means wringing their hands and twirling their mustaches about employing children to squeeze out profits, they were hiring "experts" to write newspaper articles for them, explaining how "well, the socialists have these big demands about an 8-hour work day, and taking Saturdays off, but it's actually just so complicated, it's too complicated for most people to understand, we just NEED to hire children for night shifts because the stamina of their strong, youthful bodies is the only way we can survive as a business! It's science, you see. Economics doesn't work like that, just ask our economics professors at Oxford. You CAN'T turn a profit only working people 8 hours! Trust the experts, they know. It's just so complicated..."

That exact infuriating cadence that you read in New York Times articles, in the Atlantic Monthly, in the WaPo and all the other bourgeois rags where "everything is so complicated, and it's actually a lot more complicated than you think.." that has been around since the beginning. It is nothing new. So the next time you see some op-ed from Matt Yglesias or any of those other guys huffing their own farts about how "complicated" everything is, and how "unrealistic" a 30-hour work week is, remember that Marx was dealing with that exact class of "intellectuals" "explaining" how working 13 hours at age 10 was "vital" to the "moral fibre" of those poor kids.

kill the rhetoric that americans are so lazy that they won't take farm jobs. americans take labor intensive jobs all the time. the reason no americans will take farm jobs is because agricultural work is exempt from the vast majority of labor laws and labor protections, including the use of child labor. so only immigrants - people who have little to no protection from the law or other options for work - take most of these jobs. we have created a permanent underclass of labor and then say that americans are just lazy for not volunteering to be part of the underclass.

there are actually good discussions to be had about how alienated many americans are from food production (hi hello that's what my only popular post is about), but the real solution to this problem is to protect agricultural workers, citizens or not. ban child labor in its entirety. punish corporations and farm owners that abuse and poison their workers. reform the immigration process so that these people aren't barred from legal protection and recourse.

agricultural workers have been exploited since the dawn of civilization, but the US in specific has been doing this since slavery, and it evolved in the 30s when FDR's labor laws excluded them specifically because most agricultural workers at the time were black. now it's mostly latino immigrants.

food doesn't fucking pick or slaughter itself. but citizens aren't going to take these jobs when the entire industry is rife with abuse - both legal and illegal - and horrific wages and working conditions.

its so mortifying and frustrating that the crew of spiderverse were so overworked. by people who didnt understand the sheer work and effort that goes into all parts of the pipeline. but a new generation of artists are seeing the concept art, and going, “i want to do this too!” getting to see the release of so much behind the scenes work makes me want to do things like this. i aspire to this. but i dont want to have to deal with the death of creativity in the form of constant reworking. i couldn’t watch coworkers leave because of how stressful it becomes.

i hope the crew knows just how many artists walked into that theater, and then walked out going, “i want to make art as thoughtful as this. i want to make art as genuine as this. i want to make art with this much love in it. i want to do this too.”

hey as an entertainment industry burnout i am compelled to tell you this line of thinking is so dangerous. artists who have been destroyed by the work practices of the studios who employ them are not comforted by the fact that the product of their workplace abuse is inspiring younger less experienced artists to fall into the same trap. you know what passion gets you, as a professional artist? taken advantage of. imagine this: you’ve gotten your dream job. everyone you work with is so fantastically talented and inspiring. everyone is working together to make the best story they can. you pour your blood sweat and tears into your work. you would do anything to meet your deadlines. to do a good job. but there isn’t enough time. the budget is too small to maximize future profits so the crew is understaffed. you’re doing the work of two or maybe three artists. the studios demand rewrites. the writers (who weren’t allotted enough time to polish the story before the artists went into production) are making changes in an effort to make the story better. you start to lose steam. you feel like you’re not keeping up as well as everyone else. so maybe you stay a little late to meet a deadline. maybe you start working weekends. maybe you start working every weekend.

but it’s okay, because you love what you do. it’s your dream job. you love that you are part of something that changes lives. that makes art that will long outlast you. a job that surprises and delights people when you tell them what you do. You will do anything to keep doing the thing you love. you worked so hard to get there, and you will not fail yourself. OP, you already have this mindset. Look at what you said. “i couldn’t watch coworkers leave because of how stressful it becomes.” Catastrophic burnout is not something that happens to other people. It happens to everyone. It will happen to you. the entire system is set up against you, and you know it’s unfair, but you don’t know just how deep it goes, how insidious it really is. Not just from the system created by people without a creative bone in their body with more money than brains. But from the passion and energy surrounding you as you work with other artists. From the entire structure of society, where when you have a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. When the career that you would and did do anything for is the career that takes everything from you. Be careful. Be really fucking careful.

Guest Column: If Writers Lose the Standoff With Studios, It Hurts All Filmmakers

If the phrase “vocational awe” isn’t part of your lexicon yet, stop scrolling and read Fobazi Ettarh:

—Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves

I see it in every field I’ve ever worked in: publishing, open source software development, higher education. It describes pretty much every industry that relies on creativity, altruism, or both.

Hot take ig but kids in high school shouldn't have to work either. They should be spending their evenings doing homework and extra-curriculars and fucking around.

There definitely shouldn't be entire industries reliant on their low-wage labor. Why are that many kids being scheduled for a 6 hour shift after a 7 hour school day when they've got learning and their future and their childhood to worry about?

Any industry built on poverty wage child labor should perish, and that's most fast food and grocery and retail so I guess the economy's tanked 🤷. Should've thought about that before deciding to make the essential work into jobs for children and the underclass.