Come, I will conceal nothing from you. If I was a scriptwriter – which is a highly technical specialty that I have neither mastered, nor am even checked out on – I would not have been sanguine about the studios’ most likely attitude towards using AI, either. There’s a suggestion that this dispute has been at least partially addressed, independently of the actors’ strike, which is likewise over things that I actually have some sympathy for.
I can also understand the attitude of a pox on all of their houses, sure. Still: I did grow up in a blue-collar union household. That’s the sort of thing that can grow deep roots in a fellow.
I have never had a job where union membership was an issue. This is a good thing, I do not think it would have ended well for either of us given the political proclivities of unions.
Eh.
I grew up in a self-employed blue collar household, in a state where unions had tried to forment a bloody communist revolution—that took two rounds of martial law to put down*, and a friend’s father was crippled in an “industrial accident” for supporting Right to Work legislation.
Deep roots? Check.
I get that unions and strikes can be a necessary evil, but they remain necessarily evil.
*The tallest mountain in the country was named after President McKinley for a frelling reason. Even if the unionized schools refuse to teach it.
All valid concerns. I should note that given their primary exposure to “capitalism” is the Studio System, it’s no wonder Hollywood rabble don’t think the marketplace can be free. They just need to get out of the hellscape and live a real life, for their own souls if nothing else. But that’s a different discussion.
I wonder if I will ever notice that there was a writer’s strike. Seems like there are still shows on. The more enterprising writers were probably picketing during the day and writing at night, all the while thinking about the other writers honoring the strike and saying “suckers”, with a cynical chuckle.