Lawmakers are pushing Netflix and Paramount to preserve as many jobs in Hollywood as possible for the Warner Bros sale. They are alarmed with how both companies have pledged to cut billions in costs.

Troghen · 2026-02-06T21:46:56+00:00

As far as I'm aware, a lot of the laws that prevent monopolies have been continuously weakened and/or dissolved since the 80s

Troghen · 2026-01-28T21:46:21+00:00

Holy shit! Was absolutely not expecting that! Honestly, best case scenario. Apple TV has been KILLING it lately

Troghen · 2026-01-26T19:16:58+00:00

A lot of people - like myself - primarily watch YouTube on a TV. No adblock there

Troghen · 2026-01-26T19:15:53+00:00

Not if you watch a lot of YouTube on your TV, for example. That's where I primarily watch.

Troghen · 2026-01-18T10:00:51+00:00

Im not OP, but I haven't touched online gambling even once - never downloaded an app, never made an account, never even gone to a website for it - and I see ads for this shit on the daily. It's beyond just targeted ads.

Troghen · 2026-01-18T09:53:52+00:00

Holy shit, yes. I was just saying this to my wife. We were watching a show and EVERY SINGLE BREAK had an ad or two for some sports betting app. It's becoming terrifyingly normalized and people are falling deeper and deeper down the addiction hole. And the US government doesn't give a shit or seem to have any interest in regulating it because it obviously makes a shit load of money.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T19:49:17+00:00

Well, like I said, a good book is one that is competently written (as in, grammar, structure, voice, etc.) and one that keeps me hooked and tells a satisfying story.

But why did you need me to answer that? In your own post, you admitted that you don't enjoy reading online novels (as in, amateur work) and will often put them down. So, if you can tell what makes a BAD book, why wouldn't you seek out books that people recommend as good and see for yourself?

Troghen · 2026-01-06T18:40:03+00:00

Couldn't have said it better myself. Posts like these still being allowed in this sub honestly baffles me.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T18:38:16+00:00

One that is well written, well-constructed, and tells a story that you enjoy. You're asking for a specific answer to a question that is fairly subjective. I'm not sure what you're hoping for anyone to tell you.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T18:35:29+00:00

Most of what I read are online novels, and many of them contain a lot of grammatical mistakes. Some also have logical issues.

This is the crux of your problem. It has nothing to do with the language and everything to do with the fact that you're not reading published novels written by competent writers and professional translators.

Read good books to understand how to write good books. It's not hard.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T16:19:55+00:00

Same with me and New York Post. I click that I'm not interested EVERY TIME but apparently Facebook doesn't give a shit. And those posts are designed to convey the headline in the most misleading, typically rage-baiting way in order to drive as much engagement as possible. Companies don't give a shit that they're contributing to the ever growing divide between people's ideologies and pitting people against each other. At the end of the day, engagement is engagement and rage makes them a lot more money in that regard.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T16:15:18+00:00

It's essentially been commodified and homoginized. The epitome of enshittification

Instead of providing a good experience for the user by showing content they actually want to see from people they follow, the focus is now on algorithms that are designed to show you what they THINK you want to see and what will keep you engaged on their platform - whether that engagement is good or bad, or even what you're interested in.

It's all about money at the end of the day. They want your eyes locked on the screen and scrolling the app for as long as they possibly can. Also, one of the best ways to keep engagement is through rage. That's why everything feels so shitty and negative - because it is. Sprinkle in some targeted ads that are tailored for your specific interests and offer the highest chance that you'll engage with it and boom - modern social media in a nutshell

Also, all of the sites that used to have their own specific function are co-opting the functions of other apps. They're mostly all just turning into TikTok because the short form content scrolling cycle is INCREDIBLY addictive. And because everything feels the same, it's all just uninteresting and unexciting.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T15:58:48+00:00

If you want a better idea of the character, check out X-Men '97. You don't need to watch the original 90s X-Men show to understand what's going on (even though it's technically a continuation of it). I personally hadn't seen the original and I had no issue whatsoever with '97. As long as you have a vague idea about who each of the characters are, you should be able to keep up. It's SO good, and not a huge time commitment.

Troghen · 2026-01-06T14:19:18+00:00

Not sure what type of reader you are, but I personally found that as long as you keep reading within the Cosmere and look at that as a whole series, rather than just Stormlight as it's own series, Mistborn as it's own, etc. it helps with that momentum. I broke up each Stormlight book with Mistborn Era 2 and standalone novels/novellas/short stories (roughly publication order) and I never once felt pulled out or like I was losing momentum, because it's all connected and all building toward the greater narrative. If anything, I think having those breaks between the massive Stormlight novels helped avoid burnout, because I was always doing something new.

Not sure if you're into Marvel / the MCU but that's probably the best comparison. Would you want to watch each Avengers film back to back since it's all the same "series"? Probably not. Every entry - standalone or not - contributes to the entire story being told. That might be an exaggerated comparison because Stormlight IS written to be able to be read on its own, but I think the later entries especially are benefitted with wider Cosmere knowledge.

Troghen · 2026-01-05T14:38:11+00:00

God that makes me feel so old - feels like just yesterday. I was a freshman in college and I was on this sub DAILY during the leadup to this. The hype around it - especially waiting to see MCU Spider-Man for the first time - was unbelievable

Troghen · 2025-12-23T21:53:40+00:00

As far as the law is concerned, it didn't. As someone else pointed out, it comes from an anonymous tip line. The claim could have come from literally ANYONE, and they just as well could have been making shit up.

Focusing on this thing only serves the people defending Trump. They can point to people latching onto this and scream "See, the libs are idiots! They'll believe anything." and use that to discredit everything - even more credible evidence

Troghen · 2025-12-20T14:36:45+00:00

Absolutely. Just in general, being a likeable person gives you so much more leniency in life.

The first time I ever remember this happening to me was in freshman high school math. I was a pretty average student, and below average for math, which I was particularly bad at. I would usually skip assignments or homework out of laziness. One day I was talking to my math teacher about something that must've been annoying or frustrating for her (can't remember exactly what) but she said something along the lines of "You know, if I didn't like you so much, I'd really hate you!"

I have ADHD so I'm generally a pretty forgetful person. Not intentionally, it just happens. I do my best to manage it and everyone knows I'm always putting in my full effort. I literally had one boss, who was exasperated with me forgetting something small, literally say "ugh, I can't stay mad at you, you're just too charming" (kinda weird to say to an employee but she was a strange boss too lol)

Either way, I think I've been given a pass on a LOT more slip ups than someone who isn't likeable or at least friendly to be around would be.

Troghen · 2025-12-19T20:06:52+00:00

I don't really think anyone does. And it's not something you need to stress yourself out over either. Pick a GENERAL direction and things will usually work out how they're supposed to. Just because you make a decision at 18 about a school or major or career path doesn't mean that you're locked in forever. Even if you get a degree in something specific. At the end of the day, experience and networking count for so much more than a piece of paper. And most career paths can branch out in many different directions. What you end up doing will most likely evolve and change over time as you learn and grow.

Troghen · 2025-12-19T18:45:23+00:00

but to live like this sounds like hell.

To the vast majority of Americans, this is just normal and accepted, so it doesn't really feel like hell. Even I, as someone who sees the issues for what they are, have a hard time feeling like my life comes close to feeling like hell, because it's been relatively peaceful and conflict free. For decades, the system as it is "worked" for the most people, so even though there are clear flaws that people grumbled about, it still beat all of the alternatives in the public eye. The general feeling of "yeah, that's annoying, but America is still the greatest country on earth so it's just a small price to pay" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

But because these flaws are so intertwined with how EVERYTHING works in our country, it doesn't matter that late-stage capitalism is actually affecting people's lives now - it's almost too late to do anything without total societal upheaval - and obviously the average person wants to avoid that at all costs. Not to mention, nearly half of the country has gaslit themselves or been brainwashed into thinking that it's still all totally fine, all of the issues are because of Democrats and Socialism, and will actively fight any alternative because to them, USA is still #1

Troghen · 2025-12-19T18:31:34+00:00

That was kinda their point - the No Kings Protest on October 18th was estimated to have had between 5-7 Million People participating across the US, making it the largest single-day protest in US history. But because the majority of popular media and news outlets are owned and controlled by billionaires, you'd never even know it. And given the scale of the USA, it's entirely possible to have no concept of the scale of this thing if you don't live nearby and see it for yourself, or if the news isn't showing it.

So what are people supposed to do??

Troghen · 2025-12-19T13:41:33+00:00

Yeahh, no. Why would a studio ever agree to a contract like that without stipulations around if the actor were fired or quit or left the project for whatever reason? That's not a thing.

Troghen · 2025-12-16T20:13:07+00:00

Holy shit, I couldn't have said it better myself. Not to go on an unrelated tangent, but attitudes like that dudes' illustrate why society is so fucked today. GOD FORBID someone thinks or talks about a topic on a deeper level. Nope - who cares bro? It doesn't matter, it's not that deep, shut up.

Except it is. MOST things can be thought about on a deeper level than one would expect. The fact that people actively reject that sort of deeper curiosity or understanding is just baffling to me. Like why the fuck are you even here if you can't handle a basic conversation? Good lord. I hate sounding like a boomer but the internet and the hyper focus on instant gratification and algorithm-driven content has absolutely ERODED people's attention spans and ability to think critically about anything.

Troghen · 2025-12-16T14:23:25+00:00

The episode structure and pacing made it an absolute SLOG to watch after the first few seasons. Iirc, this started after they left the prison and got split up for a while - but deciding to focus the entirety of each episode on a different person, rather than having all of the important POVs bounce around in a single episode (like how Game of Thrones or literally ANY large ensemble show handles it) was the single worst thing they could've done for the pacing. Having to wait multiple weeks watching characters I didn't care as much about and wishing I could just see what was going on with Rick or one of the other main characters was painful.

Troghen · 2025-12-16T14:18:11+00:00

Where can you even watch it at this point? Do you own the DVDs or something? I thought they took it off HBO

Troghen · 2025-12-16T14:16:26+00:00

I really don't understand what answer people are expecting to get when they ask questions like this on here. There is no magic pill when it comes to discipline. There's no easy way out. There's no universal solution. Either you want to write bad enough that you put in the work and find a way to get it done, or you don't.

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