I’ll say this about the dropout x rookie crossover:
TL;DR dropout is trying to grow its audience, even if that’s at the expense of its base, which is both cowardly and cynical.
Hollywood under capitalist structures is a game of legitimacy. The only surprising thing about this circumstance is that dropout erroneously thought that they needed the legitimacy of older institutions like ABC to grow.
People are being very principled about this, for which I’m glad, I think this is a bit of a fuck up for dropout. It’s not a fuck up that will be remembered, I think. It’s clear what @samreich and the rest of the executives at dropout are doing. It’s advertising. They’re trying to appeal to normies, they’re trying to grow the platform.
It’s pretty consistent with their outward facing goals. @samreich himself, as well as many cast members, have lauded the platform as a means by which to enrich themselves and expand their horizons. Especially in the last season of game changer we’ve seen this ideological position multiple times, none greater than the episode “who wants to be Jacob Wysocki.” Now, this ain’t on Jacob, he’s proven himself to be a principled punk activist in his own right, but the point stands. The entire premise of that episode was “we’re gonna get an advertising deal to give our friend a bunch of money.” It’s a sweet and entertaining episode, but it reveals the modus operandi of the company writ large. Parenthetically, the really fucked up thing about that episode is that if @samreich really wanted to give Jacob a bunch of money, he could’ve just shut up and did it, but instead he needed to make content about it.
To the purpose, the expansion and enrichment of the platform itself is the goal. Though that’s obvious, I’d say it’s been obfuscated often by a patina of left wing messaging. Brennan is anti capitalist, game changer episode where the goal is to unionize, @samreich is the heel and acts like bourgeois scum as a bit, etc, etc. Capitalism is excellent at subsuming any criticism lobbed its way, that’s the reason theory won’t get you half as far as action.
So why work with the rookie of all things? The answer doesn’t need to be complicated: it was an opportunity to grow. Dropout has been making big moves recently, from 24/7 streams (a really interesting idea), to acquiring DHMIS (potentially monopolistic in scope), to now breaking into the mainstream via a large and well known property held in high regard by people with a (very generously speaking) 5th grade reading level.
The sad thing is that I think, from a business perspective, it’s probably the safe move. People who are engrossed in politics, especially left wing politics, often don’t realize that the majority of the people around them don’t have the same priorities or goals as they themselves do. This is the main take away:
Your normie friends don’t fucking care about this, they think it’s a fun, harmless crossover.
Now, it might be your job to help them figure out why it’s fucked up, but it sure as shit was never dropouts. I feel it’s important to remind people of something here: MEDIA CONSUMPTION IS NOT ACTIVISM. Activism is activism. Organizing and helping out in your own community is the means by which change is made, and things like Dropout are not and have never been proper organs of resistance. If you want shit to get better, help other people out.
Now, to wrap a bow on the dropout conversation, what does all this mean for dropout? In short, I reckon we have a solid couple years of content left. I don’t think it has much more longevity past 2030, liberally speaking. Let me tell you why I think that:
The ironic fact of capitalism, the reason it will always fail, is that the rate of profit will always and inevitably decline. There will be a point at which Dropout fails to make more money one year as it did the year previous, and at a certain point that will be unacceptable. Barring outside circumstances like economic collapse or nuclear war, dropout should continue in the way it has been until this decline in profit. Once the rate of profit declines we’ll probably see a marked decline in quality, manic decision making by executives, and a rise in subscription prices, perhaps with various tiers.
Now @samreich is more economically and politically savvy than your regular west coast tech CEO, that’s demonstrable in the moves he’s made over the last seven years or so. I don’t think that makes him savvy enough to withstand the psychotic/predictable/deserved collapse of empire we’re undergoing presently. We’ll see, I suppose, when game changer becomes repeat episodes of cards against humanity mixed with chutes and ladders, and every make some noise prompt is a reference to an SNL bit from a three decades ago.
@samreich Prove me wrong, please. Also, make your company worker owned, it’ll last longer.
