This is exactly what I thought of. After The Prestige and Soma, the wonder and awe of teleporters were forever lost to me and replaced by a Lovecraftian, world of Cthulhu-esque cosmic horror type dread. Let’s have some technological advances for bending time and space a la A Wrinkle In Time or Dune. Manipulate stuff that’s not my body.
I learned about this at university. Wasn’t sure I’d find mention of it online but it’s out there. One of the many examples of corporations extra psychotic behavior in the Global South. IIRC they were keen on getting mothers feeding their babies formula particularly so their breast milk dried up and then they would have no alternative, becoming dependent and stuck in a financial bind.
And the baby formula scandal. https://www.businessinsider.com/nestles-infant-formula-scandal-2012-6?op=1
I was not allowed to go on the next class trip because I talked when I wasn’t supposed to on the bus ride home during the last trip.
My report cards were always excellent academics but needs improvement or unsatisfactory on behavior because I was talkative. They wanted little meek drone robot children to feel superior over in their miserable jobs and lives. I imagine the feeling of power over a captive youth who have no choice over interacting with them therefore they can do almost anything they like was the only thrill most of these teachers received in life. Even as a kid, I never granted respect to anyone, classmate or adult without them earning it.
The next class trip was to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. I remember seeing commercials and wanting to see the animal tricks. I had to stay at school alone that day and I never did get to go to that Circus.
I hated disgusting school lunches so my parents made mine. I had a teacher dictate how I was eat my lunch which I brought from home and when I refused to eat in any other order but the way I wanted to, told me to sit on my hands. That got handled by my parents and I was never told a damn thing about my lunch again.
Another teacher lectured me about learning to live in the world with other people when I complained that the classmate behind me was repeatedly kicking my chair and jolting me during class.
Looking back, these situations were always a conflict of wills where students weren’t supposed to have any and just mindlessly follow or allow themselves to be picked on by others.
Suffice it to say, the majority of my teachers were scum and my favorites were few and far between. This is why people homeschool. Poor teachers, propaganda and brainwashing as education, and crap school lunches.
The error message “this account cannot be used in this location,” finally hit my account after I’ve been subscribed to Netflix for over 10 years. I’ve cancelled permanently and will be emailing their privacy dept for immediate account deletion as I will never subscribe to them again. I don’t need 10 months. I’ve described some of my experience in another recent comment on an older Netflix crackdown in Australia post. My account was North American however.
Netflix was the only streaming service I kept up consistently month to month. I did fall into the same trap you did after allegedly “cord cutting” several years ago. Too many “Gos” and “Nows” and a “Sling.” Stupidity really. I realized my mistake and corrected it then, only subscribing to streaming services when there was a season I wanted to binge and then cancel after a month.
But Netflix was flexible in that I could travel and use it unlike a Hulu or HBO Now etc. It was annoying when movies and series disappeared but there was always something else to watch.
Now I’m done. Companies like Netflix and Reddit (and other social media sites), and even Playstation with their insane Playstation Plus hike, count on and thrive off of the addict mentalities of their customers. Just like McDonald’s and credit card companies. Recognizing that allows people to stop feeding these greedy corporations if they have the willpower to do so (some people would rather be addicts and serve as money cows).
Any program I haven’t finished watching on Netflix, I have the means to do so without subscription and once that’s done, I won’t know or be aware of what programming they have because I’m not a subscriber any longer.
Netflix is heading for a death spiral if they aren’t already there. Their revenues are dropping. It’s just a matter of watching the fall until they hit 0% and then negative. They are intent on this change regardless of if it will destroy the very thing they’re trying to maximize. Money. They really have the wrong of it by increasing subscription price and taking away the features that made them attractive as a service to begin with. They’ve waved subscription numbers around for the ignorant as a smokescreen while they continue to lose money and the subscribers who were paying $16 - $20 versus markets where they sell Netflix subscriptions for as low as $10 or lower.
Netflix decided they didn’t care about subscriber preferences and would rather push what they want the subscriber to watch instead. Perhaps it was the moment they removed the star rating system and replaced it with thumbs up and down. The double thumbs up addition made the removal of the star rating system look utterly ridiculous. When “More Like This” recommends the same shows/movies no matter what you just watched, it becomes obvious Netflix just wants to funnel subscribers to raise viewership in certain categories or for certain programs. They don’t care what subscribers want and this is just one example of that.
Bills/expenses are important in the following order:
Saving money is more important than moving out unless employment prospects are nil back home or it’s psychologically taxing to be around family. That saved money, whether using retirement options via employers who may match your contribution or through your own individual bank or brokerage, provides freedom to move out with more choices, or travel, or quit a sucky job, or deal with an emergency etc.