Streaming Services

Disney Plus has all the media talking talking about streaming and the market regarding it. Stories about Netflix and other services cracking down on password sharing and the shuffle of content are rampant. So I might as well write one too.

Netflix is now in a first mover disadvantage position. When Netflix started, password sharing was allowed because it created subscribers. It's how I came to the service. When Netflix was the biggest and best player on the block it could get most streaming rights and now the other content creators are cutting out the Netflix middleman. Netflix can see that Disney+ and other producer controlled streaming services mean that the content owners are no longer going to license to them. To their credit, they've been working on this issue for 3-5 years now, trying to transition to a content creation platform. But the problem is they can't sustain growth that way. The content churn and loss of fan favorites that aren't driving new subscriptions is turning off the existing subscribers.

In my humble opinion, Hulu is not going to be here long. It was a beautiful experiment that will be the first casualty of Disney+. Disney is now the sole owner. What content is not Disney distributed is going to be returning to the producers streaming sites and Disney-controlled content will migrate to Disney+. Netflix is at the middle of the end. They have the brand and subscription base to putter along for a while, but their original content isn't enough to draw new subs and longer term subscribers are going to start leaving it for other pastures.

Amazon Prime is setting itself up as the next Hulu and partnering with nearly every content producer except Disney. You can add HBO and Starz and others onto Prime, pay and watch in one place. As you can also buy* media there that is accessible even after most streaming rights move, it's my new choice for best streaming site. It's too bad the player is not great. It's improved recently though.

YouTube needs to get people subscribing to be profitable. However it's been free so long that that might kill it, especially with the new Terms of Conditions rolling out that presages a content purge.  The December 10th changes look to remove popular but advertiser unfriendly content. It could also lead to ad-blocking users being banned. Together these could likely lead to a steep drop in user base. Without the free ad-viewing and if people don't subscribe, Google/Alphabet could close it or triple-down on corporate advertising accounts.

Specialist content like anime and web-humor (like Dropout/CollegeHumor) will probably keep going, but suffer from the coming YouTube changes. This is just speculation, but if YouTube goes hard on "no longer commercially viable," against sites getting revenue for advertiser unfriendly videos through Patreon or some other paid platform, these sites will lose their best advertising. I think their best move is shared platforms like Amazon Prime and VRV. Corporate sponsorship like Sony buying Funimation might help some of the largest ones.

 *A 3 letter shorthand for "license non-exclusive streaming rights that can be taken away at any time"

Non-forceful solutions

People say "Firearms safety" and training. Aside from SECURING YOUR FIREARMS that is not the issue. Safety training prevents accidents, not murder. Accidents are at a very low level. Training to know how to use a gun would logically increase the amount of death, as more shootings would be competent shootings, resulting in less wounds and more fatalities.

The problems are crime (robbery assault et al), murder and suicide. In reverse order:

Suicide, non-forceful solutions;

 1. Reduce "Shit Life Syndrome" by increasing social supports for families and individuals. That mean s food security, housing security, availability of healthcare, dental et al that can be accessed without a burden to the person. I think that UBI and government programs can do this faster in our existing framework then community based solutions but that's method, not solution.
 2. Beyond securing the base of Mazlow's Pyramid, rebuilding community is key. That means creating a culture of inclusiveness, and non-hierarchal mentors and other supportive people. It means mental health services to increase coping skills and emotional healthcare. While these people are not mentally ill in a DSM-V way, the tools to help people before they choose to kill themselves by killing others are in the realm of mental health.

Murder, non-forceful solutions;

3. While the above will reduce both individual suicide and mass murder as suicide, there is an additional factor, Revenge. American society is built on the concept of retribution. Our system is built of using naked force to exact vengeance for wrongs. While the catharsis of seeing Rambo or The Punisher or even the courts harm people who've wronged them is great, it's creates a culture of violence as the solution. Combine that with individualist philosophy and a feeling of being ignored or unheard (see community above). This isn't turnkey, changing this means changing our minds first, our words and art, our laws and disagreeing with those that support revenge as justice.

Crime, non-forceful solutions;

4. The remaining motivation for using force, specifically firearms, to harm someone is generally financial gain. Robbery et al. I believe that ensuring that people's needs are taken care of will help with a lot of this. There is also greed. People who want more and would rather use force to take it, the work to earn it. This again becomes a social solution of de-empathizing conspicuous consumption, praising the inexpensive and functional, promoting people making their own art and aesthetic improvements.

Nothing is going to eliminate all crime, murder, suicide. But these changes will go a long way to reducing those root causes.

Even Evil Lives Have Value

No human is worthless. Life have value and universal support must be universal. Even to the worst mass murderers etc.  
This doesn't conflict with my belief that people harmful to others and society may need to have violence, even lethal violence inflicted upon them. It's like medicine or toxin/antitoxin. Cutting out septic body parts may be necessary to save the person and other organs. But the ethical doctor planning surgery will try to limit the amount excised and attempt to heal the injured parts before resorting to removing them.


Or to be explicit: We (as society) may have to kill a Nazi etc. That is a tragedy we may have to act upon to help save society. To protect people doing no harm. BUT even the worst Nazi is a human, with human rights. They are not expendable, they are not worthless. If the person can be saved and the memetic infection flushed (or made non-virulent) that is always a better course.  


We cannot successfully advocate for the abolishment of prisons (replaced by humane secure hospice facilities keeping people who hurt others safe and separated from society) AND say things like "Throw RKelly under the jail."

Either the torture and inhumane conditions of jail are a just punishment, or they are not. Nobody wants to be seen advocating for the rights of assholes, but if we want a world without the horror of prisons, we need to accept the cost that the truly bad and harmful people will be housed humanely and treated medically at society's expense.

This is partly why I want to secure humane housing, utilities, healthcare and food support for ALL people, regardless of means, criminal history or other circumstance. Otherwise there will always be the "Why are my taxes supporting $person when $person2 is more deserving?" My argument is: Our societal cost should support us all.

When I talk about Universal rights to housing, healthcare etc. I include our political enemies. I include those who wish harm and even have done harm if we've managed to stop them without killing them. We may need to restrict some freedoms to quarantine their harm from others (like humane prisons / rehab facilities) but we don't get to categorize them as less then human. We don't have the right to torture them or starve them or enslave them. Human rights apply to all humans. 
 Without this, we risk the bigoted traps of the past.