The main difference I notice is that the music was actually pretty damn good. Now it barely qualifies as music.
We went from Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton and James Brown and Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder to ... at best, some pop singer with a decent voice and a lot of autotune, but mostly garbage rap with repetitive "sprinkler" beats that isn't even interesting rhythmically.
Hell, even early hip hop wasn't completely terrible.
Note: modern mainstream white musicians aren't much better.
Is any music produced today, or any building built today, or book written, something that will still be loved in 200 years, like Mozart's 40th Symphony, St. Paul's or Ivanhoe?
It seems that modernity is incapable of producing anything good. And obviously, I know that only the good stuff from 200 years ago survived, but somehow, I don't see the Sydney Opera House being loved 200 years from now, or anything really.
It’s imperfect, certainly, but I can assure you, going to a concert in there, listening to the organ and choir in the big cavernous space, and then, at interval, walking up to view the most iconic view in the entire city..? Yeah, it’s not bad.
Should it have been built? Probably not. Is it a bit dated inside? Arguably. But it’s probably one of the best things this country has produced since the 60s, tbh…
Better than the fucking Melbourne Recital Centre and the Adelaide Festival Hall, anyway, lol… Those, certainly, won’t be remembered…
The Sydney Opera House will have rotted away in less than 100 due to it being built with modern cement and rebar. It will basically have to be rebuilt several times over just to exist.
I think some jazz is going to be loved for a long time, mostly from around 1955-1965, give or take a few years. Some interesting stuff came out of that time and there is a lot of classical and baroque influence on it. A few Disney themes were turned in to jazz standards around then, too. "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Alice in Wonderland" for example. I think those movies will be loved and remembered and possibly carry the music with them.
Hell, even early hip hop wasn't completely terrible.
I recently discovered electro hip-hop (i.e., the original hip hop) from the 80s and was amazed at the fact that virtually none of the lyrics were about being a G, dry-byes, having lots of money and bitches, or the rest of the degenerate shit that came in in the early 90s. The last 3 songs from this genre I listened to, the lyrics' themes were about: 1. appreciating the fact that you're alive 2. the malign influence of TV 3. anhedonia after loss of love.
The main difference I notice is that the music was actually pretty damn good.
No, the stuff that people remember is pretty good. Several decades of filtering out the wheat from the chaff had resulted in a 'survival of the fittest'. There's plenty of good music and complaining that there isn't just exposes yourself as a lazy, sloven fuck that refuses to actually go looking for it.
A restaurant I go to regularly plays repeats of top-40 countdowns from the '80s.
It is pretty much universally good stuff.
Top-40 countdowns from today are exactly what I described. Boring, overproduced autotune garbage and shitty rap and hip hop.
But go on, throw some more personal insults like a 5 year old because someone didn't feel it was necessary to say "but there's good stuff out there if you dig for it" because everybody fucking knows that.
Yeah, the stuff that is remembered is good. But if you think everything from the decade was worth listening to, I suggest checking out the vinyl section from your nearest Goodwill.
Top-40 countdowns from today are exactly what I described. Boring, overproduced autotune garbage and shitty rap and hip hop.
And several decades from now, people are going to filter out all the crap just like they filtered out Barbra Streisand and "We Are The World" from the collective consious of the 1980's.
But go on, throw some more personal insults like a 5 year old because someone didn't feel it was necessary to say "but there's good stuff out there if you dig for it" because everybody fucking knows that.
You can't really dismiss the importance of either race or culture. They're both hugely important and to turn a blind eye to one or the other is to be a fool. A good culture can enhance strengths and mitigate shortcomings, while a bad culture will poison everything. Race largely determines your baseline settings though, which is pretty important too.
A less verbose summary being: You value virtue over aptitude.
While I can respect that position, I retain my suspicions that there is a minimum requisite aptitude required in order for virtue to manifest. To be blunt there's a lot of people who are so stupid that they lack the capability to discern right from wrong.
Discerning right from wrong is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition to act rightly.
A lot of people know what's right, and simply don't care, or don't bother.
On the other hand, if you have a decent social culture, people don't need to know what's right - they can just do what humans - and baboons and wolves for that matter - are programmed to do, conform, and act correctly.
If your society has too many stupid people you won't have a decent social culture. The memes have to come from somewhere. Collective tradition can make up for lack of individual foresight, but only to a point. Also unlike wolves and baboons we have largely moved beyond darwinism. The lack of survival of the fittest allows cultural deadweight to thrive.
Discerning right from wrong is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition to act rightly.
This is the dumbest shit I've heard today.
Sure you can bumble your way into doing the right thing while being absolutely brain dead, but that doesn't mean I'm going to trust you to do so because you're fucking brain dead.
Both things are true. The immigrants are self-selecting, and they are relatively untainted by the consequences of feminism. Therefore, the family is stronger.
I suspect the politicians are trying their best to water down this effect by throwing open the doors to any/all immigration instead of using a merit-based immigration system. Which is the WORST of both worlds. The only way those shithole nations will ever improve is if their entire political system is burned down and every single person serving any role in government is killed. That was our mistake in Iraq. The 'old guard' must DIE so that the seeds of some kind of democracy at least has a chance to take root. Even then it will take at least a generation of careful stewardship for these nations to learn how to distrust all politicians all the time, and to make use of democratic principles to constrain the new evil people that will seek political power in their nation.
What’s astounding is how many white middle class kids and adults love rap music. And I really have no idea why.
It’s garbage. I had the pleasure of listening to lil Wayne “sing” the other day (I’ve never listened to him before) and was baffled how he is a multi platinum selling artist who has sold more records than Elvis.
He sucks. Rap sucks. The artists can’t sing. The lyrics are atrocious. The tonal quality of the music is on par with cavemen beating rocks together. The topics are typically vulgar and self serving. It’s awful overall.
I don’t like country music either but at least most of them can carry a tune or write decent Melodies or actually rhyme their words. I don’t like death metal but at least I can respect the talent behind the way they shred their guitars. Rap has no redeeming qualities.
The "best" rap is simply talking fast with a backbeat and it's downhill from there.
I think it makes sense in the context of teenagers hanging out, fucking around and experimenting with self-expression The real question I have is how it came to be considered music and took over the airwaves.
Really depends on your definition of rap, but I think you've never heard good rap. Here is some stuff I love: https://youtu.be/XoBzp0CvJ50https://youtu.be/Ir8xLSoz8VI
The first song is literally about hip hop culture. This absolutely works without any electronics. If anything, that makes it better
in the 1950s black America was beginning to enter into the middle class and be barely behind white families in terms of income ... in the 1950s the income differences between white and black families was becoming statistically insignificant
Census agrees, whites earned 2x more in 1950s -- hardly statistically insignificant.
This is the wishful thinking that liberals prey upon, the desire to believe there's some reason other than the innate. It's the government's fault! It's welfare! Crack cocaine!
First source shows the same ~2x disparity throughout until data ends in 1993.
So none of the government programs or equal opportunity has really changed that 2x dynamic.
I haven't researched this at all, but it seems like a plausible explanation for ghettoization is blacks not earning enough to keep up with inflation.
Inflation is like a treadmill that pushes everyone backward into poverty, the speed is 'set' so that the average person can't get ahead, so if a group is 'walking' too slow they're going to get thrown off the back.
Inflation or not, the welfare program really screw the blacks over. Having $11k (in 1993) is better and more productive than relying on food stamps and crack money.
Sure, like it could be the case that non-discrimination in hiring helped out blacks a lot and it was exactly countered by welfare holding them back.
The data would show a lot more upper class blacks since 1950s and also a lot more poor welfare blacks in relation to whites, and fewer in the middle, but I haven't looked that up.
It's just suspicious that the gap stays the same throughout all these big changes. It sounds like the gender gap in tech, where countries like Sweden tried everything they could to 'fix' the ratio but it turns out you can't make a horse drink.
My hypothesis is much in line with yours. I am drawing on personal experience, so make of that what you will.
My family two generations ago was solidly middle class, but alcoholism and family tragedy broke that. I am one of the millions of boys who never had a father and who grew up in a bad neighborhood - but I made it out. Sure, I am smart, but I don't think that is the whole story.
When my mom failed (which was a lot), my grandparents picked up the slack. By the time I had made it through high school (a presitigous all boys school where I didn't fit in but it served me well) my grandparents had sold one of their inner city properties and dipped into their retirement. If I was a girl and made the same mistakes my mom did, I would not be able to give my child the life I had.
For American blacks, this is the predominant reality. They were making gains up until the 60s, and then the welfare state happened. As single motherhood rose among blacks, there were no middle class grandparents to lean on. Those kids slipped through the cracks and became fucked up adults.
The 90s music you mention didn't change culture, it was just the first time the consequences of those broken homes made it mainstream as those kids became adults.
Give it 20-30 years and another generation of broken families. Black or white, it is a race to the bottom.
While I agree with you, I want you to think about record company executives, and what they made popular for a certain specific group to shape their culture for decades.
And then who those record company execs are, and what tactics they employ to keep their artists in line, one way or another.
How many times did an artist speak their mind once, and only once. And then all of a sudden we don't hear from them for months or even years. And when we do see them again, they're completely out of their gourd on drugs, and the people in their inner circle around them let it happen, every single time.
If you step out of line, they'll do whatever they need to do to shut you up. Even tank your career and ostracize you. They know for every artist out there, even one making them tons of money, there's 50 more waiting to take that person's place who will do and say whatever it takes to be as famous as the last person.
They shaped not only culture, but what is and is not heard on the radio, and played on MTV back when that was a thing in the 80s and 90s.
Their culture is different because they are different, and it always will be, but the gap in the difference is filled by jews. They wedge and expand it until both sides are pushed to opposite extremes and into total sin.
Like I said, in the 1950s the income differences between white and black families was becoming statistically insignificant....then the government steps in and does what the government does best....cause utter catastrophe.
There is a great mini-documentary about this called Good Intentions.
Genes have an influence, but they did not prevent blacks from having more intact families than whites in the past, or from having a higher labor participation rate in the aftermath of World War II.
It's ironic that just as tough on crime policies saved the lives of thousands of blacks, black culture turned against the police.
Culture is absolutely at the root of it all. To see the reality of that, note that every garbage liberal ideology is led and marketed and carried by white liberals, against their OWN "racial" interest. It has always been culture, though the moment "islam" became a "race" it was full blown war on the english language.
I firmly believe that COINTELPRO wasn't limited to select groups, but was also utilised against entire demographics for the purpose of destabilisation leading to secure voting blocks.
ESR[1] made the point that lower-IQ societies can function so long as technological progression is slow and steady. Since NPCs imitate instead of thinking critically, they can't adapt quickly enough in the ever-changing environment of advanced civilization. Part of the reason positive rights are evil since they drag down ethical, intelligent individuals (of any skin color) to the superstitions of mode-averaged/lowest-common-denominator (not even the mean/median honest folk) of an extended population, and the ritualism of self-centered douchebags (much of the managerial class found in most HR, Finance, Sales&Marketing departments).
I think he made this point in an earlier blogpost, but I'm not spending 10 hours wrestling with search engines.
It's just taking much longer than I thought it would, but things appear to be accelerating, which is why my 5-year-plan includes a rural base with as much self-sufficiency as I can muster, short of being an all-out "prepper,"
The American cultural engine appears to work like this:
Small pocket of creativity explodes and gains grassroots, word-of-mouth popularity.
Media notices, transmits description of good thing to mass audience which extends popularity to millions.
Corporate investors arrive and either steal or buy the rights to the new great thing.
New owners run the good thing into the ground by saturating the market with it and their agents/affiliates attempt to mimic the original with consistently bad results.
One of the interesting things about capitalism is that, while both theory and practice bear out the fact that competition spurs innovation, the dream of large companies and corporations is to find that one magic thing that lets them rake in profits without ever having to innovate again.
You see it in movies: "Wow we made a ton of money with that superhero movie let's just clone it over and over and we'll be rich forever!". And you see it in all the other things that are trying to move to a subscription model.
If I had to pick one of the worst things about modern society (other than the politics of the left) it would probably be this slavish devotion to rent-seeking that modern companies all seem to have ascribed to.
Yeah. It seems the days of "building a better mouse trap" are long gone, except maybe in the tech sector, but their innovations have dubious benefits and are outpacing our ability to make good use of them.
Sorry, didn't know that commenting on your cringefest of a comment makes me a Redditor.
And yeah, obviously. Nigeria was smelting iron before Christ. Ethiopia and Nubia were way beyond the discovery of fire without any contact with "the white man's magic".
Comment Approved: I doubt this is disinformation. To be clear, most human encampments had fire before Christ. Iron was actually very capable of being smelted even during the bronze age, but the material for the metal, methods of accessing the metal, refining the metal, and knowledge of the metal was so rare that it simply wasn't used. We do have accounts of European civilizations smelting some iron in the Bronze age, so it's not totally impossible that some African civilizations managed to interact with the metal, even if it wasn't used for architecture or weapons.
Comment Removed: Rule 16 - Identity attacks. And yeah, controlled fire might be older than most currently existing civilizations. Not sure you understand how old controlled fire actually is as an invention. We're talking about something significantly older than culture itself, which is 40,000 years old.
The main difference I notice is that the music was actually pretty damn good. Now it barely qualifies as music.
We went from Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton and James Brown and Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder to ... at best, some pop singer with a decent voice and a lot of autotune, but mostly garbage rap with repetitive "sprinkler" beats that isn't even interesting rhythmically.
Hell, even early hip hop wasn't completely terrible.
Note: modern mainstream white musicians aren't much better.
Is any music produced today, or any building built today, or book written, something that will still be loved in 200 years, like Mozart's 40th Symphony, St. Paul's or Ivanhoe?
It seems that modernity is incapable of producing anything good. And obviously, I know that only the good stuff from 200 years ago survived, but somehow, I don't see the Sydney Opera House being loved 200 years from now, or anything really.
Disagree about the Opera House…
It’s imperfect, certainly, but I can assure you, going to a concert in there, listening to the organ and choir in the big cavernous space, and then, at interval, walking up to view the most iconic view in the entire city..? Yeah, it’s not bad.
Should it have been built? Probably not. Is it a bit dated inside? Arguably. But it’s probably one of the best things this country has produced since the 60s, tbh…
Better than the fucking Melbourne Recital Centre and the Adelaide Festival Hall, anyway, lol… Those, certainly, won’t be remembered…
The Sydney Opera House will have rotted away in less than 100 due to it being built with modern cement and rebar. It will basically have to be rebuilt several times over just to exist.
Today today, or in modern times?
I think some jazz is going to be loved for a long time, mostly from around 1955-1965, give or take a few years. Some interesting stuff came out of that time and there is a lot of classical and baroque influence on it. A few Disney themes were turned in to jazz standards around then, too. "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Alice in Wonderland" for example. I think those movies will be loved and remembered and possibly carry the music with them.
As far as architecture, fuck no.
The Fat Boys will never die!
I recently discovered electro hip-hop (i.e., the original hip hop) from the 80s and was amazed at the fact that virtually none of the lyrics were about being a G, dry-byes, having lots of money and bitches, or the rest of the degenerate shit that came in in the early 90s. The last 3 songs from this genre I listened to, the lyrics' themes were about: 1. appreciating the fact that you're alive 2. the malign influence of TV 3. anhedonia after loss of love.
If anyone is curious, the songs are:
No, the stuff that people remember is pretty good. Several decades of filtering out the wheat from the chaff had resulted in a 'survival of the fittest'. There's plenty of good music and complaining that there isn't just exposes yourself as a lazy, sloven fuck that refuses to actually go looking for it.
Actually, no.
A restaurant I go to regularly plays repeats of top-40 countdowns from the '80s.
It is pretty much universally good stuff.
Top-40 countdowns from today are exactly what I described. Boring, overproduced autotune garbage and shitty rap and hip hop.
But go on, throw some more personal insults like a 5 year old because someone didn't feel it was necessary to say "but there's good stuff out there if you dig for it" because everybody fucking knows that.
Yeah, the stuff that is remembered is good. But if you think everything from the decade was worth listening to, I suggest checking out the vinyl section from your nearest Goodwill.
And several decades from now, people are going to filter out all the crap just like they filtered out Barbra Streisand and "We Are The World" from the collective consious of the 1980's.
"Baawwwww! Someone called me names on the internet! That means they're a child!" Fuck off and accept that you're old.
You can't really dismiss the importance of either race or culture. They're both hugely important and to turn a blind eye to one or the other is to be a fool. A good culture can enhance strengths and mitigate shortcomings, while a bad culture will poison everything. Race largely determines your baseline settings though, which is pretty important too.
A less verbose summary being: You value virtue over aptitude.
While I can respect that position, I retain my suspicions that there is a minimum requisite aptitude required in order for virtue to manifest. To be blunt there's a lot of people who are so stupid that they lack the capability to discern right from wrong.
Insert 4chanprisonIQgreentext.jpg
But I had breakfast!
I'm not familiar with that one.
Here you go
Damn. That's pretty spot on.
Jesus Christ. It’s an NPC test.
Discerning right from wrong is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition to act rightly.
A lot of people know what's right, and simply don't care, or don't bother.
On the other hand, if you have a decent social culture, people don't need to know what's right - they can just do what humans - and baboons and wolves for that matter - are programmed to do, conform, and act correctly.
If your society has too many stupid people you won't have a decent social culture. The memes have to come from somewhere. Collective tradition can make up for lack of individual foresight, but only to a point. Also unlike wolves and baboons we have largely moved beyond darwinism. The lack of survival of the fittest allows cultural deadweight to thrive.
This is the dumbest shit I've heard today.
Sure you can bumble your way into doing the right thing while being absolutely brain dead, but that doesn't mean I'm going to trust you to do so because you're fucking brain dead.
Could you define what is a decent social culture?
Does it have slavery, human sacrifice?
Because the Aztecs and Ancient Africans considered that decent.
Might I introduce you to Cippola's 5 Laws of Human Stupidity?
Thanks, I hate it.
Given that Africans got a lower IQ, there is a lesser chance they would pilpul God words to justify "do whatever you feel is right in your own eyes".
True.
Both things are true. The immigrants are self-selecting, and they are relatively untainted by the consequences of feminism. Therefore, the family is stronger.
I suspect the politicians are trying their best to water down this effect by throwing open the doors to any/all immigration instead of using a merit-based immigration system. Which is the WORST of both worlds. The only way those shithole nations will ever improve is if their entire political system is burned down and every single person serving any role in government is killed. That was our mistake in Iraq. The 'old guard' must DIE so that the seeds of some kind of democracy at least has a chance to take root. Even then it will take at least a generation of careful stewardship for these nations to learn how to distrust all politicians all the time, and to make use of democratic principles to constrain the new evil people that will seek political power in their nation.
What’s astounding is how many white middle class kids and adults love rap music. And I really have no idea why.
It’s garbage. I had the pleasure of listening to lil Wayne “sing” the other day (I’ve never listened to him before) and was baffled how he is a multi platinum selling artist who has sold more records than Elvis.
He sucks. Rap sucks. The artists can’t sing. The lyrics are atrocious. The tonal quality of the music is on par with cavemen beating rocks together. The topics are typically vulgar and self serving. It’s awful overall.
I don’t like country music either but at least most of them can carry a tune or write decent Melodies or actually rhyme their words. I don’t like death metal but at least I can respect the talent behind the way they shred their guitars. Rap has no redeeming qualities.
The "best" rap is simply talking fast with a backbeat and it's downhill from there.
I think it makes sense in the context of teenagers hanging out, fucking around and experimenting with self-expression The real question I have is how it came to be considered music and took over the airwaves.
Rap is popular because the left has cemented the idea of the cool magic negroid into western thought.
Really depends on your definition of rap, but I think you've never heard good rap. Here is some stuff I love: https://youtu.be/XoBzp0CvJ50 https://youtu.be/Ir8xLSoz8VI The first song is literally about hip hop culture. This absolutely works without any electronics. If anything, that makes it better
Median income $20k white, $11k black, 1950 (in 1993 dollars).
Census agrees, whites earned 2x more in 1950s -- hardly statistically insignificant.
This is the wishful thinking that liberals prey upon, the desire to believe there's some reason other than the innate. It's the government's fault! It's welfare! Crack cocaine!
Anything besides the harsh reality.
Damn, I've heard that rumor before. That's a spanking for that rumor.
First source shows the same ~2x disparity throughout until data ends in 1993.
So none of the government programs or equal opportunity has really changed that 2x dynamic.
I haven't researched this at all, but it seems like a plausible explanation for ghettoization is blacks not earning enough to keep up with inflation.
Inflation is like a treadmill that pushes everyone backward into poverty, the speed is 'set' so that the average person can't get ahead, so if a group is 'walking' too slow they're going to get thrown off the back.
Inflation or not, the welfare program really screw the blacks over. Having $11k (in 1993) is better and more productive than relying on food stamps and crack money.
Sure, like it could be the case that non-discrimination in hiring helped out blacks a lot and it was exactly countered by welfare holding them back.
The data would show a lot more upper class blacks since 1950s and also a lot more poor welfare blacks in relation to whites, and fewer in the middle, but I haven't looked that up.
It's just suspicious that the gap stays the same throughout all these big changes. It sounds like the gender gap in tech, where countries like Sweden tried everything they could to 'fix' the ratio but it turns out you can't make a horse drink.
My hypothesis is much in line with yours. I am drawing on personal experience, so make of that what you will.
My family two generations ago was solidly middle class, but alcoholism and family tragedy broke that. I am one of the millions of boys who never had a father and who grew up in a bad neighborhood - but I made it out. Sure, I am smart, but I don't think that is the whole story.
When my mom failed (which was a lot), my grandparents picked up the slack. By the time I had made it through high school (a presitigous all boys school where I didn't fit in but it served me well) my grandparents had sold one of their inner city properties and dipped into their retirement. If I was a girl and made the same mistakes my mom did, I would not be able to give my child the life I had.
For American blacks, this is the predominant reality. They were making gains up until the 60s, and then the welfare state happened. As single motherhood rose among blacks, there were no middle class grandparents to lean on. Those kids slipped through the cracks and became fucked up adults.
The 90s music you mention didn't change culture, it was just the first time the consequences of those broken homes made it mainstream as those kids became adults.
Give it 20-30 years and another generation of broken families. Black or white, it is a race to the bottom.
While I agree with you, I want you to think about record company executives, and what they made popular for a certain specific group to shape their culture for decades.
And then who those record company execs are, and what tactics they employ to keep their artists in line, one way or another.
How many times did an artist speak their mind once, and only once. And then all of a sudden we don't hear from them for months or even years. And when we do see them again, they're completely out of their gourd on drugs, and the people in their inner circle around them let it happen, every single time.
If you step out of line, they'll do whatever they need to do to shut you up. Even tank your career and ostracize you. They know for every artist out there, even one making them tons of money, there's 50 more waiting to take that person's place who will do and say whatever it takes to be as famous as the last person.
They shaped not only culture, but what is and is not heard on the radio, and played on MTV back when that was a thing in the 80s and 90s.
Can't have the little people realize who rules over them, gotta foment degeneracy to keep the plebs distracted.
Their culture is different because they are different, and it always will be, but the gap in the difference is filled by jews. They wedge and expand it until both sides are pushed to opposite extremes and into total sin.
There is a great mini-documentary about this called Good Intentions.
Genes have an influence, but they did not prevent blacks from having more intact families than whites in the past, or from having a higher labor participation rate in the aftermath of World War II.
It's ironic that just as tough on crime policies saved the lives of thousands of blacks, black culture turned against the police.
Culture is absolutely at the root of it all. To see the reality of that, note that every garbage liberal ideology is led and marketed and carried by white liberals, against their OWN "racial" interest. It has always been culture, though the moment "islam" became a "race" it was full blown war on the english language.
I firmly believe that COINTELPRO wasn't limited to select groups, but was also utilised against entire demographics for the purpose of destabilisation leading to secure voting blocks.
basically this
ESR[1] made the point that lower-IQ societies can function so long as technological progression is slow and steady. Since NPCs imitate instead of thinking critically, they can't adapt quickly enough in the ever-changing environment of advanced civilization. Part of the reason positive rights are evil since they drag down ethical, intelligent individuals (of any skin color) to the superstitions of mode-averaged/lowest-common-denominator (not even the mean/median honest folk) of an extended population, and the ritualism of self-centered douchebags (much of the managerial class found in most HR, Finance, Sales&Marketing departments).
Basically the same thing happened to white families and black families, only it happened to white families to a lesser degree.
Just another feature of a dying culture.
It's just taking much longer than I thought it would, but things appear to be accelerating, which is why my 5-year-plan includes a rural base with as much self-sufficiency as I can muster, short of being an all-out "prepper,"
The American cultural engine appears to work like this:
Small pocket of creativity explodes and gains grassroots, word-of-mouth popularity.
Media notices, transmits description of good thing to mass audience which extends popularity to millions.
Corporate investors arrive and either steal or buy the rights to the new great thing.
New owners run the good thing into the ground by saturating the market with it and their agents/affiliates attempt to mimic the original with consistently bad results.
Repeat ad infinitum.
One of the interesting things about capitalism is that, while both theory and practice bear out the fact that competition spurs innovation, the dream of large companies and corporations is to find that one magic thing that lets them rake in profits without ever having to innovate again.
You see it in movies: "Wow we made a ton of money with that superhero movie let's just clone it over and over and we'll be rich forever!". And you see it in all the other things that are trying to move to a subscription model.
If I had to pick one of the worst things about modern society (other than the politics of the left) it would probably be this slavish devotion to rent-seeking that modern companies all seem to have ascribed to.
Yeah. It seems the days of "building a better mouse trap" are long gone, except maybe in the tech sector, but their innovations have dubious benefits and are outpacing our ability to make good use of them.
Damn, never knew I could encounter something more cringe than "BlackGirlMagic".
Sorry, didn't know that commenting on your cringefest of a comment makes me a Redditor.
And yeah, obviously. Nigeria was smelting iron before Christ. Ethiopia and Nubia were way beyond the discovery of fire without any contact with "the white man's magic".
Comment Reported for: Rule 12 - Falsehoods
Comment Approved: I doubt this is disinformation. To be clear, most human encampments had fire before Christ. Iron was actually very capable of being smelted even during the bronze age, but the material for the metal, methods of accessing the metal, refining the metal, and knowledge of the metal was so rare that it simply wasn't used. We do have accounts of European civilizations smelting some iron in the Bronze age, so it's not totally impossible that some African civilizations managed to interact with the metal, even if it wasn't used for architecture or weapons.
Comment Reported for: Rule 16 - Identity attacks
Comment Removed: Rule 16 - Identity attacks. And yeah, controlled fire might be older than most currently existing civilizations. Not sure you understand how old controlled fire actually is as an invention. We're talking about something significantly older than culture itself, which is 40,000 years old.