Last I checked on terminally online communists discourse, since I logged off months ago, the general consensus was that we should support our artist comrades and fight against techbro douchery BUT that we don't have much material power to stop AI art from being developed. I check again today and now everyone is talking about PMC and how artists are technically petty-bourgeoisie and acting like there's some sort of opportunity cost we're failing by expressing sympathy to artists? What the hell happened here? I thought I was up to date on the conensus for this but now I'm worried I missed something and I'm committing some sort of... communist sin by being worried for my artist friends.

I mean I checked and a well-upvoted comment on this site from a post I came across mentioned how we shouldn't show concern about AI art because it "only supports petty-bourgeoisie patreon furry artists" which is maybe the most incomprehensible sentence I've ever heard. Obviously I'll grant that patreon artists shouldn't be the focus of a worker's movement but COME ON who reframed a discussion about ALL artists into just patreon artists???

Not to mention that most artists are definitely proles? Like... do people not know how shitty anime artist working conditions are? They do NOT own the means of production except maybe their art software and not only is that rare (most art software is like 10 gajillion dollars and probably licensed by the studio), but saying that's enough to qualify is just silly. Do I own the means of production now because I own the phone that I get texts from my boss on?

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The only positions I’ve seen that are widely accepted

      I've seen fairly wide acceptance (upvoted to 20-30 upbears or more on this tiny little niche site, for what that's worth) for the reductionist take that human art endeavors (or human writing, or communication for that matter) have no intrinsic value whatsoever outside what the market is willing to pay for it, and those same people often extend that reductionism to human thought and consciousness for that matter being no more complex than chatbots, which is a crude way of hyping new technology while denigrating people at the same time.

      I'm not even talking about "souls" or the like, which I don't believe in anyway. I'm talking about the pop-nihilistic takes that have subtext and implication that the machines (owned and commanded by the ruling class) replacing human labor isn't just inevitable (as in, don't even try to fight for workers getting paid for their currently-stolen work and don't even try to regulate or restrict how the technology is used, because technology is good in all its forms no matter how it's used or who owns it, you Luddite) but that those replaced laborers should rejoice or at least just accept that they're just obsolete meat puppets/meat computers/stochastic parrots/whatever and that those machines that :porky-happy: own deserve at least as much care and consideration as they do and that those precariously positioned workers' suffering isn't worth being concerned with because they're obsolete now, just like horse buggies and typewriters.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0myoaT9tBk0

      I'm not exaggerating the takes, only summarizing them, minus the "I have broken you" :shapiro-gavel: anime villain speeches and other techbroesque cringe that came with them.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I do sincerely hope you're right. I really do.

          Maybe the 20-30 upbears I've seen (on this niche site where rarely anything is upbeared that high except dank leftist memes) for some particularly bad takes didn't mean anything on their own.

          I won't name particular users (they'll likely show up on their own sooner or later and give me more anime villain speeches anyway) but the response seemed mixed at best. One of the most :expert-shapiro: of them keeps coming back, even with attempts to bait me about how I was destroyed/broken/whatever by their Materialist(tm) facts and reason. Even my post about it may seem, itself, like bait, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

          but I just can’t believe any large number of people here are so blind that they could be thoroughly exposed to Marxist and Anarchist ideology and still hold such knee-jerk reactionary positions.

          Some self-described leftists really do just want legalized drugs, free college, and cheap treats, with no solidarity with obsolete/"aristocratic"/not-enough-hard-hat-purity workers intended or even desired, instead cherry-picking whatever old texts fit what they want in a "fuck you, got mine" way. Hopefully only a (very) loud minority.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Time will tell. Maybe it really is just a few exceptionally arrogant, obnoxious computer touchers wearing the leftist label and chanting "Materialism(tm)" to justify their craving for cheap unfettered treats, the workers be damned.

              Looking back (it's hard to go back more than a few days on this site because of how it's structured), I believe there's about 3-4 exceptionally loud "fuck you got mine" voices that keep returning and collecting curiously high amounts of upbears for their anti-labor wrecker takes and :shapiro-gavel: antics.

          • jkfjfhkdfgdfb [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            every post like this is ASKING for that kind of poster to come around, you know