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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35347 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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I suspect adding a token x character/story line is almost always a profitable decision because most people that don't like it won't stop watching because of it, but the people that do like it might actually watch it when they otherwise wouldn't have.

More often I see it work out the other way; people who would've watched it end up skipping out (usually fans of whatever established franchise is being mutilated), and the "new fans" never appear, the agitators for change were never going to watch your show in the first place. Mostly those people only care about taking things away from their enemies, white men.

One possibility is that the best hires care a lot about progressive ideals. Even if the ideology causes the product quality to take a hit, it's still a better product than you would get hiring someone else.

This, again, doesn't seem to track. I'm reminded of the Witcher controversy -- the actor committed to the source material who actually brought in the eyeballs, and the production staff obsessed with ideology who tried to kneecap him and the show at every single turn and ultimately ended up putting people off it.

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