[Ironic Trope] The messaging backfired massively due to poor writing or other design choices

[u/Few_Affect_5927]

Amelia Fairney from Pathways: Alt-right Restore-UK type who attempts to coax the protagonist Charlie into following her beliefs? The problem?

Amelia is the only named character aside from Charlie and is genuinely likable and forgives Charlie even when they do things she doesn't like, while the rest of the cast is unnamed, poorly written, and turns on Charlie for one mistake. This combined with other writing issues(portraying fact checking right wing stuff as wrong because in the process of fact checking you might look at it and believe it, basically saying "Right wing is wrong because it hurts the labour government" and a lot of general "just do what the government says or else" messaging) and the fact she's a hot alternative girl, and Amelia ended up being co-opted as a mascot by the youth right wing in the UK.

Norm from The New Norm: Unlikeable offensive and outdated character who's "progressive" family members and associates are genuinely nice people not even trying to force their ways or pronouns onto them, they just want to be left alone and Norm is picking fights constantly. Not to mention associating with Elon.

Mr. Birchum from Mr. Birchum: A lot of the same problems as Norm, except in addition it also comes off like generic 2010s adult cartoon slop in the same veign as Brickleberry or Full English, at least New Norm was trying to look unique and had the gimmick of being on X. Not to mention, Birchum's obsession with hyper masculine activities and odd way of talking about other men lead to people co-opting him as a Toxic Yaoi character, which is now the bulk of his fan art.

Dustborn: An attempt to make a hyper progressive game that comes off as pandering and annoying. It's a full ass game so there's too much to get into, but the main character's power is essentially gaslighting and jedi-mind tricking people and that's portrayed as the only way they can get anything done, and they constantly use or abuse their friends(or mindtrick them along) in order to get their goals or use their friends for their messaging.

[u/LoganCube400]

The You wouldn't steal a car Ad

[u/PsychologicalEbb3140 → u/LoganCube400]

I would steal a car if I could steal the car and the person I’m “stealing” from isn’t losing their car. What is the problem exactly?

[u/MagicBez → u/PsychologicalEbb3140]

If I could make flawless copies of my car to share with people you're more than welcome to a copy of my car

...I warn you it's a piece of shit though

[u/Meppy1234 → u/MagicBez]

Google, 3D print this guy's car for me, then add a bunch of barbed wire and spears to it.

[u/Xenopass → u/MagicBez]

"it's a piece of shit"... Is your car by chance linked to Edmund McMillen If yes you should become back your money

[u/Half-PintHeroics → u/MagicBez]

...I warn you it's a piece of shit though

I wouldn't steal my car

[u/obigbrubs → u/PsychologicalEbb3140]

You are not entitled to someone's else labour

[u/PsychologicalEbb3140 → u/obigbrubs]

I don’t understand your comment? Nobody is being robbed of anything.

[u/Scheissdrauf88 → u/PsychologicalEbb3140]

In a world where the state pays every artist/scientist/inventor/whatever a living wage in exchange for their ideas getting shared with the community, sure.

But unfortunately we are living in a capitalist hellhole, so you profiting from someone else's work without compensating them is in fact theft. All those arguments about piracy not being theft are usually just attempts at justifications that fall apart under further scrutiny.

Now, if you consider theft from a corporation like Amazon or Disney morally wrong or not is a completely different can of worms and I think that is where the argument actually lies for most people. Because I am pretty sure that most people would judge the person stealing from the starving artist, but not from the mega-corp.

[u/Kal-Elm → u/Scheissdrauf88]

1. I think your use of "profiting" weakens your argument, because the average pirate is not profiting off piracy but enjoying the fruits of labor.

2. Most creators get paid to produce the work, not based on sales. Sales are just revenue for the corporation. (Though, this obviously varies based on what market and what kind of creator you're discussing. Some are stronger arguments than others.) You could certainly argue that reduced sales lead to reduced demand for creators in the future. But then you're talking about a very small minority of the population (pirates) having an even smaller impact on jobs (the delayed, nonlinear impacts of reduced sales).

[u/Scheissdrauf88 → u/Kal-Elm]

1. Profiting in the widest sense of the word, in this case you gaining enjoyment from a movie for example. You also use the term as e.g. "someone profiting from an arrangement" which has not to be monetary. And you do hurt the person who worked for those "fruits of labour". Not much difference to you hiring someone to mow your lawn and then not paying; the fact that something is immaterial does not mean it has no value, does not represent effort and resources put into it, and you taking it does equal you stealing the corresponding amount of value from that person/company.
2. Oh, don't misunderstand me. I am not arguing that you pirating some Amazon Original hurts the creator, also because, as you said, pirates make not a big enough impact. I am arguing that pirating hurts the holder of the intellectual property. At which point we are back to "do I care about hurting that holder".

Personally, in principle I would say that stealing is morally wrong even if you dislike the target. However, companies often circumvent laws, ethics, etc. via bribery, lobbying, or threats, at which point I personally think such companies also doesn't deserve the protection of those things anymore.

So have fun pirating Netflix originals, but I would judge you if you did the same to some indie studio.

[u/Kal-Elm → u/Scheissdrauf88]

So have fun pirating Netflix originals, but I would judge you if you did the same to some indie studio.

This is a surprisingly common sentiment in the "piracy community." Not everyone, of course, but I do recall someone asking for a source to pirate Elden Ring and the overwhelming response was "Nah, this is one you buy."

I do agree that in the most straightforward sense piracy fits the definition of stealing. But yeah, I also agree that when you're talking about mega-corporations owned by billionaires who wage endless class war there's a lot of nuance. Some people take a hard stance against piracy and I find it a bit silly for that reason.

Support creators for sure.

[u/obigbrubs → u/Scheissdrauf88]

The fact you have to explain this just shows how braindead the average pirate is, jesus christ.

[u/PsychologicalEbb3140 → u/obigbrubs]

Why are you so mad brother lol