Some thoughts on Win Butler’s cancellation I posted on r/antiwoke, would appreciate this community’s perspectives as well.

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[–]alladd 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

it's truly disgusting how click-based ad revenue streams have literally debased all press to the level of muckrackers. pride, prestige, quality - all irrelevant because you get paid the same per click no matter what the content is.

[–]Datachost 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Pitchfork have some issues beyond that for me, though they are symptomatic of the same problems. In days gone by they filled a niche, it felt like they often reviewed musicians others hadn't yet heard of, or that they could often be a platform to help artists breakthrough from being well known in their local scene into the mainstream(ish). But then they realised reviewing the latest Beyonce album got them more clicks. They started to go downhill pretty quickly after the Conde Nast move.

But yeah, publications like them are often too happy to just throw out whatever shit based on rumours, then hide behind "We were just going off whatever information we had at the time" when it turns out to be bullshit. I still don't know why Conor Oberst especially didn't go after some of the publications that attacked him. Because that was a particularly ridiculous case, it wasn't only that he hadn't done anything, he hadn't ever been in the same room as this woman and she turned out to have some pretty bad mental issues. That's the kind of shit they should have been able to find out with even the slightest investigation

[–]alladd 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

investigation eats away at their bottom line. conde nast helped feed that mentality - everything comes down to getting the most clicks with the least effort. but really it's been going on for a while now; all these indie publications that could thrive in the earlier years of the internet have succumbed to the pressure to stay afloat and publishing and that means no more obscure coverage, no more in-depth writing, no more thinking.

[–]RuinedSpiral[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There is a lot to be said here about how this all relates to woke capitalism and the commercial takeover of the internet that I don’t think I could properly articulate with writing a long, long essay.

[–]RuinedSpiral[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Pitchfork has sucked for a long time. The move from catering to more underground tastes to this more poptimist thing is probably the most clear shift demonstrating this. Honestly, I had forgotten about the Condé Nast thing but that probably had a lot to do with it. Even before that though, they had an annoying habit of embracing softer, kind of twee leaning indie pop bands (like the Arcade Fire, ironically enough) while dismissing harder and heavier more underground bands, which always kind of bothered me but one could say that’s a matter of personal taste more than anything. All of this being said though, I didn’t think they’d devolve to the point where they’re relying on cancel culture hit pieces for clicks.