Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Stay Classy, Marjorie David

Per The Daily Beast:
Marjorie David, the vice president of the WGA West, said streamers like Amazon are treating writers like gig workers, which is a “terrible thing to do.” “The streamers don’t care about anything, they think we’re Uber drivers: ‘Come in, do your job, go home, that’s great. You’re free,’” David said. “Not good. We don’t want to be free from health and pension. We don’t want to be free from paying our rent. We don’t want to be free from buying a house or sending our kids to school or anything like that. I don’t like seeing the younger members of the guild -- who are really wonderful and talented -- getting pushed into the corner where they can’t see themselves as professional writers.”
Well, aren't we special! We're really wonderful and talented, unlike those filthy serfs who merely get you where you need to go or bring you the food you need to eat. We spent years learning how to plagiarize Shakespeare, update his lines to the latest slang, add Current Thing humor or angst, and cram it all into 41 minutes!

I love writers -- hell, I am a writer -- and have no problem with writers getting together in a union and driving a hard bargain for their services. But getting on a high horse about how much more special and important you are than regular workers just trying to make it in the world is not a good look.

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