Just to amplify the last entry: We started paying for pay-TV services so that we would not have to watch commercials, and could watch the original uncensored versions of movies.
Amazon and many other pay TV services now force you to watch commercials unless you pay even higher monthly fees, and now we're back to watching the same censored versions of movies we used to see on TBS.
Vandals: Amazon Prime cuts the key scenes in It's a Wonderful Life of George Bailey contemplating suicideThe whole plot of the movie concerns an angel's intervention, showing George what everyone's life would be like without him in it. If you cut the scenes of him thinking about exiting his life, then what is even the point of the movie?
Remember when we naively thought that Bezos and Amazon were generally on the right side of things? How absurd we were.
I re-watched
The Name of the Rose this past year on Amazon and noticed that the semi-important scene of Christian Slater's character losing his virginity to a peasant girl were cut out. My thought was that Amazon must be using a cut of the movie shown on TV or something. I don't know if Amazon is aware it is running censored content, or if they're demanding these cuts, or seeking out versions of the film that remove politically-sensitive material. Whatever the reason, they should be ashamed and run the actual movies again. What is the point of any communications platform that engages in censorship?
Via Black Orchid, Nichole Shanahan's thoughts on the tech/H-1B debateIt is nice that we are actually permitted to debate actual policy questions again. You know, like the right guaranteed to Americans in the Constitution as our inalienable birthright, which we had until the past ten years of authoritarian tyranny by the Deep State and intelligence services.
Podcast: Merry Christmas! CBD and J.J. Sefton Chat about the budget mess, Israel's new resolve, Foggy Bottom being unfixable, and more!