jthrash 2024-07-02 13:46:55

Basically venting. Fellow left-wing Californian progressives and I have been having a normal one since last Thursday, convinced that CNN and Zaslav are not satisfied destroying Looney Tunes, the DCEU, Scooby-Doo, Rocksteady Games, etc., now they want to destroy Western liberal democracy as we know it because something-something "tax cuts." Nothing too hysterical...

The actual forum thread was about the Department of Justice under the Biden Administration finally suing Adobe for their scummy Creative Cloud subscription practices. They probably thought the choice words I had for Adobe were more relevant and useful to the discussion than the choice words I had about the so-called "liberal" media being against everything I stand for all of a sudden.

jthrash 2024-07-02 22:00:09

Like I said, the US DOJ (Department of Justice) is suing Adobe because they think Adobe is sneaking in all these hidden fees when people download Photoshop, After Effects, Animate (formerly Flash), etc., especially when they try to cancel their subscriptions because they don't need the likes of Photoshop anymore. That's what the thread is about.

It has also resulted in some amusing comments from others saying they want to kiss the current President, Joe Biden, in the mouth for taking on the evil Adobe. Plus fears that just because of a lousy debate last Thursday, he might not win re-election this November and Donald Trump will undo things he did like challenge Adobe for their scummy business practices, among far worse things like letting Putin take over Ukraine and Eastern Europe, or deliberately polluting the Earth like a Captain Planet villain. So yeah, very political for an Art Forum topic, but I guess I went too far in one of my comments.

Might as well link to the actual thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1535706/1

jthrash 2024-07-02 23:02:37

I understand. I'm kind of already taking a bit of a break anyway since I'm not super productive with my art in the summer--would rather spend my free time outside, ideally swimming, or casually sketching in my sketchbook which doesn't make my room hotter like my computer does when it's rendering 3D animations. I just wish my family and friends irl would be a bit more sympathetic to how their constant cable news watching and discussing affects me--just because it is somehow relaxing to others doesn't mean it's relaxing to me.

Taking a break from the forums might be a good idea, too, since like way too much of the Internet, it tends to skew negative even when people aren't talking about real-world issues, and they tend to get me weirdly worked up about, say, Velma, a Max show that is supposedly terrible but I have no means of watching anyway since I'm too cheap to subscribe to yet another streaming service, so it's none of my business either way.

jthrash 2024-07-03 08:41:36

Thank you. If it makes you feel any better, in one of my first jobs working at a secondhand store, I always found it amusing that the book shelves were always crowded with outdated "end times" books no one wants, such as "Why Saddam Hussein Will Cause Armageddon in 1994" or people that were somehow smart enough to publish a book, but not smart enough to recognize the "Terminator" movies are works of fiction, not fact. "End times" people are just attention-seekers trying to sell stuff. I recognize that things can get harder and easier over time (usually harder with some "easier" mixed in), but it's never quite the the end of the world--life, uhh, finds a way.

I do need to remind myself not to get caught up in the 24-hour news cycle drama from time to time, though, and especially remember all the times I worried about something that ultimately was greatly exaggerated at best--for example, if you believe the news during the rain California was getting last winter, you would assume I would have drowned to death in a flood by now or something based on the unlucky(ish) Malibu condo owners the news did focus on. But no, we just got some much-needed rain to naturally water the trees and refill our water supplies in a notoriously-dry area. There's a reason news anchors (and lawyers) are called "ambulance-chasers." I need to remind myself that, unfortunately, the news that restores my faith in humanity and is arguably more relevant to my life does not make the big bucks for CNN, and I should just ignore their carefully-manufactured hysteria. It's like the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf...over and over and over again.

jthrash 2024-07-03 21:23:59

I know @miamidesantos has those. I learned working in mental healthcare as of late to validate such people's feelings as real, but otherwise not let them occupy my own mind afterwards.

But no, after the COVID lockdowns I'm pretty convinced we're like cockroaches, we could survive anything (though it would be nice if we whined less about the cards we're dealt, similar to cockroaches). If there was any time for the world to end, it would have been in 2020, yet here we are. Or the Cuban Missile crisis back in the 1960s. Or the Bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages. I have also read the Bible enough times to know that we supposedly cannot predict the end times, and it's narcissistic and futile to even claim we can predict the "end times" when we can't even predict our own deaths.

But anyway, I am not super comfortable where this conversation is going anymore, and this post will be replaced with a fun little traditional sketch I did for Fourth of July/American Independence day tomorrow anyway. Rest assured I am getting help for when simply doing slow, deep breaths and convincing myself my worries are overblown aren't helping, and I'll have plenty of time to just be in the present with my friends and family over the long holiday weekend.