SAG-AFTRA(actors) Strike

[Senkaku]

''All writing this days feels like mass-extruded corporate slop forced down from upon high. That's why I'm siding with the giant corporations who control the media landscape with an iron grip against these stupid writers, who must be the actual source of how mediocre everything is"

Who said I'm siding with anyone? I want both the souless corporations and the writers who sold their souls writing corporate slop to suffer.

Well, you’re 1 for 2 so far and likely to stay that way, because corporations can’t experience suffering, and even if they could, all the big networks and studios were slashing spending and looking at layoffs anyways since the streaming wars have gotten pretty ugly, so this is fine.

The writers were completely onboard when the corporations destroyed the soul of writing to produce mass produced corporate approved slop. Maybe they should striked then in order to keep fiction from simply becoming mass produced corporate approved narratives and stock topics designed simply to maximize consumption. Maybe they should have fought against the corporate push of the worst elements of human greed and human stupidity like a good thing.

They literally had a strike in ‘07 and ‘08; did you think the soul of writing was intact then and there was no mass produced corporate slop? Has that been an exclusively 2009-2023 development?

So the longer this strike goes on the more the corpos might actually be forced to suffer the consequences of their actions.

They’re going to hire scabs to work in mini-rooms, push newly reduced spending on TikTok/other platforms’ shorts, invest in some AI startups, and let the writers twist in the wind. But hey, you wanted the writers to suffer, so at least you’re getting some of what you want.

[Ameriganastan]

Are they done whining yet?

[Senkaku]

Are they done whining yet?

Are you?

[Katganistan]

Boggles the mind that anyone could actually have a problem with workers striking to prevent losing their jobs to a computer.

Yeah, I am with the writers on this one, for sure.

[Katganistan]

Yeah who needs people to do anything. Just have AI replace most jobs and we can get Detroit: Become Human as our future or I Robot. AI should never be a replacement for script writing.

Whether you like it or not the billionaires are absolutely going to try and replace pretty much everything with AI. It's way cheaper long term than relying on human labor.

Except for when the AI robots kill themselves.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07 ... ntain.html

Or collapse from overwork.

https://news.yahoo.com/robot-takes-tumb ... 16468.html

[TheKeyToJoy]

Whether you like it or not the billionaires are absolutely going to try and replace pretty much everything with AI. It's way cheaper long term than relying on human labor.

Except for when the AI robots kill themselves.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07 ... ntain.html

Or collapse from overwork.

https://news.yahoo.com/robot-takes-tumb ... 16468.html

Poor bobots .

[Katganistan]

Not even. I asked it to write a 30 minute script for Donald Trump visiting M*A*S*H*.

It wasn't good.

Not surprising given the chosen subject matter. Come on, give it a fighting chance : )

Ok, how about....

Title: "Poodle Pandemonium"

[INT. WARNER BROS. WATER TOWER - DAY]

YAKKO, WAKKO, and DOT, the zany Warner siblings, are gathered in their water tower headquarters.

YAKKO
(looking at a newspaper)
Hey, Wakko! Did you know it's National Poodle Day?

WAKKO
(excitedly)
National Poodle Day? I love poodles! They're all poofy and fancy!

DOT
(sarcastically)
Oh, please! Poodles are just fluffy show-offs with their fancy hairstyles.

Suddenly, the Warner siblings are transported into a colorful world full of poodles. Everything around them is poodle-themed.

[INT. POODLE-LAND - DAY]

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot find themselves surrounded by an army of glamorous poodles, led by QUEEN POODLEIA.

QUEEN POODLEIA
(royally)
Welcome to Poodle-Land, dear Warner siblings. We've brought you here to settle a dispute.

YAKKO
(confused)
A dispute? What seems to be the problem?

QUEEN POODLEIA
(points to Yakko)
The Poodle Show Committee can't agree on who should host this year's Poodle Show. Some say it should be a poodle, while others argue it should be someone different.

WAKKO
(excitedly)
Ooh! Ooh! We could be the hosts! We're the Warner brothers and the Warner sister!

DOT
(raising an eyebrow)
And we're experts at causing pandemonium!

QUEEN POODLEIA
(hesitant)
Well, I suppose you could try. But remember, this is a prestigious event. We expect nothing but elegance and poise.

The Warner siblings nod enthusiastically, ready for their new role as hosts.

[INT. POODLE SHOW AUDITORIUM - NIGHT]

The grand Poodle Show is about to begin. The Warner siblings stand on stage, looking dapper in poodle-inspired outfits.

YAKKO
(whispering to the audience)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Poodle Show, where elegance meets mayhem!

WAKKO
(smirking)
That's right! Get ready for a show like you've never seen before!

DOT
(grinning mischievously)
And remember, folks, we don't just break the fourth wall; we demolish it!

The audience bursts into laughter and applause.

Throughout the show, the Warner siblings introduce various poodle-themed acts. There's a synchronized swimming routine with poodles wearing goggles and snorkels, a poodle beauty pageant with hilariously unique contestants, and a poodle talent show featuring extraordinary tricks and performances.

However, as the show progresses, the Warner siblings can't resist adding their trademark chaos. They playfully mess with the poodles' hairdos, turn a serious poodle grooming session into a water fight, and spontaneously burst into song and dance numbers.

QUEEN POODLEIA
(laughing)
You Warner siblings certainly know how to keep an audience entertained!

YAKKO
(grinning)
Well, Queen Poodleia, elegance and poise are overrated. Laughter and fun are what bring us all together!

The show reaches its grand finale, a spectacular fireworks display, lighting up the sky with colorful poodle-shaped explosions.

[INT. WARNER BROS. WATER TOWER - NIGHT]

The Warner siblings find themselves back in their water tower, as if nothing had happened.

WAKKO
(sighing)
That was fun, but I'll miss those poofy poodles.

DOT
(smiling)
Indeed. Poodles might be fancy, but they sure know how to have a good time.

YAKKO
(nudging them)
Well, let's get back to causing pandemonium right here in our own world!

The Warner siblings share a mischievous laugh as they prepare for their next wild adventure.

FADE OUT.

[END]

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Yeah, I am with the writers on this one, for sure.

That is the one area where I'm very much against the workers in this strike. Jobs that can be automated should be. In fact, we should very much encourage this automation by clamping down on the supply of labour to drive its cost up.

[Katganistan]

Yeah, I am with the writers on this one, for sure.

That is the one area where I'm very much against the workers in this strike. Jobs that can be automated should be. In fact, we should very much encourage this automation by clamping down on the supply of labour to drive its cost up.

You're entitled to your opinion no matter how ridiculous it is.

[Ameriganastan]

Are they done whining yet?

Are you?

I will be when they get back to work.

[Uiiop]

Are you?

I will be when they get back to work.

Why would one admit to whining about the lack of TV shows and movies that you admit you don't even like?

[Nilokeras]

Yeah, I am with the writers on this one, for sure.

That is the one area where I'm very much against the workers in this strike. Jobs that can be automated should be. In fact, we should very much encourage this automation by clamping down on the supply of labour to drive its cost up.

What could automation on the terms of capital possibly get workers?

[Nilokeras]

I will be when they get back to work.

Why would one admit to whining about the lack of TV shows and movies that you admit you don't even like?

it's a harsh attention economy out there if you can't be performatively abrasive on the internet about whatever new Star Wars property is coming out that quarter

[San Lumen]

Are they done whining yet?

Your continued lack of compassion for people getting fair pay and not getting replaced by AI is duly noted. I want Colbert back but i want his writers payed what they are worth.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

What could automation on the terms of capital possibly get workers?

Before we can squabble about who's going to get the wealth, the wealth must first exist.

[Nilokeras]

What could automation on the terms of capital possibly get workers?

Before we can squabble about who's going to get the wealth, the wealth must first exist.

The wealth already exists. It is the labour of the writing staff. Automation is a quite literal transformation of that labour - in the form of the collective writings of said writers - into a form that capital can control via tools like ChatGPT that are trained on that pool of writing.

Again, what does labour gain by allowing capital to enclose not just its products, but destroy the ability of said labour to even perform their work? How does surrendering their bargaining position as producers help them?

[Fractalnavel]

[...] Automation is a quite literal transformation of that labour - in the form of the collective writings of said writers - into a form that capital can control via tools like ChatGPT that are trained on that pool of writing. [...]

Have we covered whether that is a legal use of the writers' work? That doesn't seem like a given.

[Nilokeras]

[...] Automation is a quite literal transformation of that labour - in the form of the collective writings of said writers - into a form that capital can control via tools like ChatGPT that are trained on that pool of writing. [...]

Have we covered whether that is a legal use of the writers' work? That doesn't seem like a given.

OpenAI, as the forerunner of the development of ChatGPT and its various imitators, argues that it's fair use to use content scraped from the internet to train its models. And there's almost certainly copyrighted materials in that training dataset - one of the corpuses used to develop ChatGPT-3, iirc, was just a list sites contained within highly upvoted Reddit posts. Which absolutely has things like movie scripts, news articles, books, journal articles and the like in it. There's various lawsuits in the works to test that assertion of course, notably in the case of GitHub, where a group of coders are suing GitHub and its owner Microsoft for using copyrighted or otherwise attribution-limited code to train 'coding helper' large language models.

The problem with this of course is that capital has latched onto this technology, and they have infinite lawyer money and the power to obfuscate things like exactly what training datasets are used in the development of these products. What does legality matter if Microsoft decides it would save more money charging ahead and settling the occasional lawsuit by someone who cobbles together enough lawyer money to go against the beast of Redmond than to try and modify its large language models to not violate copyright? Compare the experience of a company like that with the average small time YouTuber who uses a song under fair use rules in a video but it gets taken down by automated DMCA algorithms, with no way to appeal the decision because YouTube's content moderation system is barely functional and you'll see the inherent imbalance at work here.

[Cannot think of a name]

Are they done whining yet?

No, the AMPTP has not stopped whining.

[TheKeyToJoy]

Are they done whining yet?

No, the AMPTP has not stopped whining.

This whole thread has stopped so let’s turn the gears back on.

[Kermit T Frog]

....

[Cannot think of a name]

No, the AMPTP has not stopped whining.

This whole thread has stopped so let’s turn the gears back on.

Well, the AMPTP hasn't come back to the table and the DGA are now fully in their negotiations, so it's more or less idle time. The WGA isn't gonna just go, "Oh never mind...", so it's all waiting for the AMPTP to figure out their next move. They are almost certainly banking on the DGA to be more amicable to the studios, but talking to the DGA folks who've joined the picket lines, they're saying that leadership has been preparing them for the possibility that this one will be a fight. I mean, just joining the WGA at all on the picket line is a massive difference from 2007. The DGA's only strike could be timed with a stopwatch. Outside of IATSE they have one of the broadest abilities to bring everything to a halt, so if they strike as well, or it becomes apparent they will, it'll be a different ballgame.

But until then, it's each day same as the last. They're doing theme pickets and I'm increasingly slow on figuring them out (I had seen 'Jersey day' and for some dumb reason figured that was a New Jersey thing instead of the easier and less complicated answer of wearing a team's jersey. I spent half the day wondering what two women's adult recreational basketball teams were doing on the picket line before I finally put two and two together. (in my defense, I didn't show up thinking it was Jersey Day, I had seen that was a thing days earlier...but still.)

Wound up in a Taylor Swift one. Got second hand Superhero Day when Thursday was Superhero day for the first shift at WB and some of them came over to Disney where I was at still in their regalia. Some horses joined. Horses are clearly alien creatures sent here to destroy us but they're playing a long game where they get people to ride them, so I made sure to pledge my fealty to our soon to be alien horse monster overlords. Got adopted again by a career writer, but can't remember what it was he did.

There wasn't a picket today, the WGA instead threw a rally/party somethingorother. I'm not WGA so I have to turn my writing in...you can tell by me posting...so I don't know what that's really about, I assume I'll find out on Tuesday.

Oh, my bad...it was more open invite than I let myself believe. (there still is the matter of the deadline, though...)

Thousands gathered for a massive rally in downtown Los Angeles on Friday to support the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

More than a dozen unions joined the writers in solidarity including the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the Service Employees International Union, Sag-Aftra and more. California Congressman Adam Schiff also made an appearance.

Attendees can be seen marching on streets while holding signs saying, “Unions Strike Back,” the theme of Friday’s gathering.

“This is the first time that we’re all together and that’s what we really needed,” said Kristen Thomas, who has been picketing with WGA for the last four weeks. “We needed to have support. We needed to know other people wanted to help out and stay connected. ‘United not divided’ as we say.”

Gotta say, the WGA is writing a preeeetty big check here. The idea is that the guilds and unions are going to push back on the erosion of wages, job security, working conditions, etc...but the real time for that collective solidarity was the rail strike where they were talking about their literal safety. Which did happen. But the WGA is getting so much support from other unions that they're really gonna have to show up when it's the other union's turn to step in the ring. It's cool to see the unions coming together, getting us ever so closer to that general strike some people fantasize about. The party was strategic:

The Friday rally’s location near South Figueroa and West 12th Streets was chosen to coincide with an annual California Democratic Convention meeting across the street, organizers said.

“This is a real labor movement going on right now,” said Trip Hope with UTLA. “We want everybody who is working hard to make a decent living.”

We'll see I guess. It'd be weird if a tv and film writers strike tipped a mass labor movement. Though probably could argue that it was the rail workers strike, because that had a lot of support as well with other unions supporting it.

[Des-Bal]

''All writing this days feels like mass-extruded corporate slop forced down from upon high. That's why I'm siding with the giant corporations who control the media landscape with an iron grip against these stupid writers, who must be the actual source of how mediocre everything is"

I mean yeah? Regardless of the cause the strike doesn't improve it and some of the demands, like adding superfluous writers, would stand to add to the homogeneity rather than fix it. The fact they suck isn't mitigated by the fact it's someone else's fault they suck.

[Ethel mermania]

''All writing this days feels like mass-extruded corporate slop forced down from upon high. That's why I'm siding with the giant corporations who control the media landscape with an iron grip against these stupid writers, who must be the actual source of how mediocre everything is"

I mean yeah? Regardless of the cause the strike doesn't improve it and some of the demands, like adding superfluous writers, would stand to add to the homogeneity rather than fix it. The fact they suck isn't mitigated by the fact it's someone else's fault they suck.

Why movies suck is more about the economics of the business than the quality of writing. Its easier to get viewers for guardians of the galaxy XVI than a new movie about relationships. What is interesting is how over the past 20 years TV has become the medium of good original drama.

Any way unions are legal and the writers have every right to strike. How revenue is generated has changed, both in primary and secondary markets, writers ARE entitled to get paid for their work, and are entitled to negotiate their pay and working conditions

[Des-Bal]

Why movies suck is more about the economics of the business than the quality of writing. Its easier to get viewers for guardians of the galaxy XVI than a new movie about relationships. What is interesting is how over the past 20 years TV has become the medium of good original drama.

Any way unions are legal and the writers have every right to strike. How revenue is generated has changed, both in primary and secondary markets, writers ARE entitled to get paid for their work, and are entitled to negotiate their pay and working conditions

I disagree, reboots reimaginings and sequels aside it's not just a lack of originality there's just a lot of really bad writing.

So is saying the N word. Much like saying the N word striking is not an inherent moral good and I am not innately supportive of anyone doing it. They aren't asking for hard hats before they descend into the plot mines they're asking for no-work gigs and for the industry to swear off of emerging technology.