HonoredMule

I haven't really analyzed it in depth, but here's my take based on some content creators talking shop and my own observation of trends:

It seems like a pretty competitive space. It basically covers all non-traditional media, where costs are exorbitant for extremely limited and demographically narrow reach. For the sponsored side, it's pretty much the engine behind YouTuber being a real career these days - the sort of thing children now aspire to be. YouTube's own revenue sharing may keep bread on the table - it's still competitive enough to shut out competing platforms without seriously deep pockets. But sponsorships are the vehicle for economic mobility.

The brokering aspect basically means if you want exposure, you've got to aggressively outbid the market average. When you achieve top offer you get swarmed, blow your budget in short order, and then close the offer giving someone else a turn at bat. I don't know how well that plays out long-term, but it has some nice properties in terms of free market competition.

For example, if you have a smaller marketing budget but are an ethical company making a good product, you'll still draw business from a minority of influencers too scrupulous to shill for Better Help or Masterworks. And because such people's endorsements carry more weight with an audience whose trust they've earned, those sponsorships are more impactful per dollar spent.

Meanwhile, the less scrupulous influencers are easy to identify because they're still shilling for Better Help, or making outrageous claims about what a vitamin-laced drink mix can do. Those blitz campaigns also draw a lot of scrutiny, so questionable businesses or products and especially outright scams get found out fairly quickly (like happened with Established Titles). That gives consumers some protection as well, so long as they're willing to wait for some trustworthy investigative reporting to come out - usually from some channel with relevant expertise or equipment who can get a lot of views for their trouble.

One downside is that middle men position themselves like agents for the talent when all they're really doing is repackaging open offers and skimming profits. A lot of people just getting started trying to make a career in content creation get scammed. Those scammers will also pressure people into using unethical tactics that the sponsor doesn't require and may not even condone.

This is a good candidate to cross-post to c/newbrunswick. Sure that community is practically dead, but I'd love to see this change.

The Finland quadrant sounds more like where we started than where we're headed. We've just been relatively sheltered from the degree of political coercion being regularly exerted. That's why current events represent - in the long term - opportunity in similar proportion to threat.

That's one mighty thin defense. It almost says the quiet parts out loud.

I would not include "a pause in officer exchanges" among the helpful means to push back. If we start disentangling ourselves culturally, it'll be the death knell of any civilian resistance to outright war.

Ditto on both points. I'm genuinely struggling with the prospect of having to shorten my beard if I joined the reserves. I've been working for years to train/develop it into a distinctive style and I'm not even there yet.

The conditions (captured media, broken education, economic slavery) explain widespread ignorance about how leopards are going to eat their faces, but not the apathy when it actually happens. And hopelessness only suppresses resistance until you run out of things to lose.

It's not like there aren't plenty of MAGA faithful currently Finding Out, either (and by that I specifically mean coming to realize either who the true oppressors are or what substantially worse looks like).

Whether I understand it or not, however, I must remember that no group of humans is fundamentally different from another. Whatever makes them different in aggregate form does come down to conditioning - possibly over generations, but conditioning nevertheless. That knowledge is all that keeps me from permanently succumbing to empathy fatigue.

If we keep China out, fine. There are certainly reasons enough. But that had better come with a real push for domestic EV manufacturing. ICE vehicle's days are numbered outside pleasure/luxury use-cases, and it's ridiculous to be importing the majority of such massive, heavy, and complex devices on which a majority of Canadians rely to at least some degree.

If things are going to be expensive either way, let me pay to support high-end Canadian jobs rather than cover shipping costs.

Ok this Wilkinson dude has my respect.

I'm pretty heartened overall as I take a closer look across our nation and actually find politicians doing earnest good work, standing up to private interests, and collaboratively defending our nation. Names I'd never heard six months ago I count among heroes today. And the fact that they're even in a position to do anything at all is because a sufficient share of Canadians are voting for them - it does our nation a credit we can't afford to take for granted these days.

I've never been prouder to be Canadian. 🍁

Training is what we need to promote - and broader training than just weapons usage and safety.

I don’t have a firm enough position on gun control to want it costing us money right now, but that mainly opens me up to accepting whatever position is most politically expedient. I'll take bad gun control laws over a PP government every time, and I think you might have a sheltered view on what position is most popular.

The training is what we need to promote, for sure.

I don't have a firm enough position on gun control to want it costing us money right now.

I'm not saying there won't be financial consequences, but they are well within their right to refuse. I would.