Best Of

If they say anything for power, they will do anything to obtain and maintain their control.

In the early running for the 2026 site slogan

Honestly? I think you are lying about every investment.

It's the things you don't wonder about that make you retarded

We had folks right here ready to call in their neighbors

To fight fascism

The Throbber lost trust when centerfolds went from paper to digital.

Story tim with Creepy.

One of my kids took a philosophy class years ago and sucked me in by asking me to edit her papers (two of my three used my services and one wouldn't let me near her work). This course was fucking fascinating.

Someone more well read than I might know who this is but I recall the general line of reasoning. Not too long before the turn of the 20th century when the moving image was created, this guy came out with a critique of it. He noted that because the images were moving the viewer had no ability to really comprehend or "think" about what he was seeing. So before we had real experience with this medium this guy could see the coming issues with its use in the wrong hands. Long before someone thought to splice in a frame with a picture of a hot dog and popcorn to make you hungry, this guy knew that film would be able to be used to shape points of view subconsciously. He knew it would be a huge propaganda tool. He contrasted what happens when you look at a poster or a painting, where your brain has time to think about what you're looking at and to be critical of it and walk away with your own thoughts. The first time this guy saw a motion picture he knew that we were kinda fucked in that regard.

In that same course she then studied how the Soviets got real skilled at using film with juxtaposition of images that seemingly had nothing to do with one another but by exposing you to them in a particular order would put you in an intended frame of mind about some topic. Like an image of poor people miserably trudging through a snowy landscape and then immediately cutting to an image of country leadership that the film makers opposed. That sort of thing.

Anyway, imagine what this guy would say about AI. Hell, I realized the bullshit was coming when digital photography came about and people immediately started editing the image to not only distort but full on revise the reality of what happened when the picture was taken. I hate that. I really, really hate that.

Plato is rolling in his grave.

Creep.