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podcast friday
Apr. 28th, 2023 04:20 pmIcon very much related.
Well. I saw the title and knew that this was the episode that I would highlight this week. It's today's It Could Happen Here episode, entitled "Wizards Of the Coast Deploys the Pinkertons."
This is the story of one Dan Cannon, a Magic the Gathering YouTuber who was sold the wrong Magic cards and, when he revealed them on YouTube, was rewarded by a visit from actual Pinkerton agents who threatened him with a $200,000 fine and 10 years in jail and intimidated his wife. In the Year of Our Lord 2023.
We can hope that this threat will shortly be moving in the opposite direction, as all of this is questionably legal on the part of WotC/Hasbro/the Pinkertons, but in the meantime, Mia Wong is here with a deep dive into the history of the Pinkertons and the tension between violence enacted directly by corporations, dating back to the East India Trading Company, and violence enacted by the state on behalf of corporations. It's a thought-provoking analysis, punctuated by Mia's trademark dry humour—let's be real, while horrifying, this particular story is pretty funny—that has a lot of bleak implications. As she puts it, "our silly little hobbies are suddenly the frontlines of class struggle."
There are layers to this story. On the one hand, it's hilarious, because Hasbro has made blunder after blunder despite acquiring what might be the two easiest to manage IPs in the history of ever. People love D&D and Magic, and will pour hours into creating content and advertising for free. All they need to do is sit back and watch the money roll in, but for some reason they insist on exercising dictatorial control, tarnishing these brands and showing their entire asses. On the other hand, there is little funny about an organization like the Pinkertons, which continues to break strikes and enact violence on behalf of soul-sucking corporations. It's the intersection of a lot of my interests and Mia does an amazing job drawing connections between colonial violence and the colonization of our imaginations.
This is a good one, friends! Give it a listen.
Well. I saw the title and knew that this was the episode that I would highlight this week. It's today's It Could Happen Here episode, entitled "Wizards Of the Coast Deploys the Pinkertons."
This is the story of one Dan Cannon, a Magic the Gathering YouTuber who was sold the wrong Magic cards and, when he revealed them on YouTube, was rewarded by a visit from actual Pinkerton agents who threatened him with a $200,000 fine and 10 years in jail and intimidated his wife. In the Year of Our Lord 2023.
We can hope that this threat will shortly be moving in the opposite direction, as all of this is questionably legal on the part of WotC/Hasbro/the Pinkertons, but in the meantime, Mia Wong is here with a deep dive into the history of the Pinkertons and the tension between violence enacted directly by corporations, dating back to the East India Trading Company, and violence enacted by the state on behalf of corporations. It's a thought-provoking analysis, punctuated by Mia's trademark dry humour—let's be real, while horrifying, this particular story is pretty funny—that has a lot of bleak implications. As she puts it, "our silly little hobbies are suddenly the frontlines of class struggle."
There are layers to this story. On the one hand, it's hilarious, because Hasbro has made blunder after blunder despite acquiring what might be the two easiest to manage IPs in the history of ever. People love D&D and Magic, and will pour hours into creating content and advertising for free. All they need to do is sit back and watch the money roll in, but for some reason they insist on exercising dictatorial control, tarnishing these brands and showing their entire asses. On the other hand, there is little funny about an organization like the Pinkertons, which continues to break strikes and enact violence on behalf of soul-sucking corporations. It's the intersection of a lot of my interests and Mia does an amazing job drawing connections between colonial violence and the colonization of our imaginations.
This is a good one, friends! Give it a listen.
