I Don't Think The "pay Artists Website Is Upset About Having To Pay Artists" Argument For Watcher Is

it simply must be stated that trans men who present femininely on purpose have such a vibe about them

maybe it’s the confidence that requires, especially since I’ve seen a lot of men talking about how it still gives them dysphoria, but they just radiate this undefined swagger. Like.. rock on dude, I am in awe of your strength and dedication to your choice.

And like, them apologizing doesn't change the stuff about Steven belonging to a homophobic church and using Watcher to promote it, and it doesn't change the employees and spouses going on Personal Attacks towarda upset fans on other platforms, it doesn't change the comments of "We love when people tell us we got them through hard times " in the same video as making it so people going through hard times jo longer have access to them as a respite. Removing the paywall doesn't change them, subconsciously or consciously, thinking of poor fans as Worthless and Lesser, and unless they actively work at dismantling these notions in their minds They'll Do It Again. They showed, very clearly, that Fans Are Numbers And Not People to them. That Fans are this abstract concept of Praise and Adoration and Money that exist just to serve their endeavors. That's not something you can change your mentality around in 3 days- that's something that needs Active And Purposeful Dismantling Within The Deeper Psyche. And to be quite frank I don't believe they'll be willing to do such work, because it's not Profitable to remember that Your Audience Is Real People, Not Numbers.

"It's hurting trans eggs when you say something against fujoshis!!!1!1!!1!11! 😭😭😭"

As if Fujoshis weren't transphobic towards trans people (especially trans men, who they claim get hurt if you say something against rotten girls.) Like... Stop pretending your brain dead ass could accept a guy who is pre T.

We don't need the fetishization of mlm people to figure out who we are. 💀 There's a difference between simply liking mlm mangas, and thinking it's sinful when two men make out and having to make it your entire personality!

-sincerely, a trans guy.

I feel like people forget most trans guys still had to grow up as girls.

We were still forced to be mature early

We were still told to not to take up space

We were still subject to female beauty standards

Our bodies were still treated as inappropriate

We were still pitted against each other

We were still excluded from “male” activities

We were still treated as lesser the boys

Those things don’t evaporate once we transition they’re fucking internalized. I constantly have to remind myself I’m allowed to exist. We don’t stop dealing with misogyny.

That’s chill

just in case the wrong type of person (those who will absolutely use this as an excuse to physically harm, harass, or do unmentionable inappropriate activities to unwilling parties) sees this:

Your intent and diagnosis is an explanation but when someone does actually say “hey don’t do that” / “that makes me uncomfortable” / “please stop” YOU STOP. When people are SAYING and actually communicating with you to STOP that’s not something that’s vague or misunderstandable.

of course this doesn’t apply to the implications of people being uncomfortable, because that can absolutely be missed by anyone neurotypical, let alone anyone autistic. But I’m sick of seeing people use this as a scapegoat for straight up assault or harassing people. If people say stop and you don’t? You’re not just an asshole, you’re a freak who’s about to have no friends.

this post cannot apply when people tell you how to change.

I think some of you forgot that autistic people sometimes act strange and say things that are poorly worded and speak with incorrect tone and misunderstand or miss social cues because they are autistic

I am ashamed of my darkest kin. I have to keep it a secret. Nobody would ever understand such a twisted kintype

I’m so so sorry

Still Holding On, Thanks to You 💔🍉

Each day we wake up, not knowing what will come next. 25 family members lost, our home destroyed, our future uncertain.

But today, I remind myself—we’re still here. And thanks to the generosity of kind people, we’ve raised $1,580 so far.

It’s not enough to rebuild, but it’s a reminder that people still care. And that means everything.

💙 Please, if you can, help us take the next step. Even a share means the world to us.

Chuffed

Donate to Help Mosab saving who's left of his family

My name is Mosab Elderawi, and I am a survivor of the war in Gaza. Life as I knew it has been completely destroyed. I have lost my home, my

🙏 If my tag disturbed you, I’m truly sorry . Please ignore this post if it’s not for you.

✅️ Vetted by ✅️

@gazavetters

@bilal-salah0

Your kindness is a light in this darkness. Thank you. ❤️

Watcher's Expenses

I didn't major in accounting: I took three classes and it grinded my brain to a fine powder. However, after graduating with a business admin degree, being a former eager fan of their videos, and from a cursory glance over their socials, there's a lot to consider in their spending behavior that really could start racking up costs. Some of these things we've already noticed, but there are other things I'd like to highlight, and I'll try to break it down into the different categories of accounting expenses (if I get something wrong, let me know. I was more concentrated in marketing 🤷‍♀️). I'm not going to hypothesize numbers either, as that would take out more time than I'm willing to afford-- you can assume how much everything costs. Anyways, here's my attempt at being a layman forensic accountant:

Note: All of this is assuming they're operating above board and not engaging in any illegal practices such as money laundering, tax evasion, not paying rent, etc.

Operating Expenses

Payroll: 25+ staff salaries and insurance

Overhead Expenses

CEO/founder salaries

Office space leasing or rent (In L.A, one of the most expensive cities in the US)

Utilities (water, electricity, heating, sanitation, etc.)

Insurance

Advertising Costs

Telephone & Internet service

Cloud Storage or mainframe

Office equipment (furniture, computers, printers, etc.)

Office supplies (paper, pens, printer ink, etc.)

Marketing costs (Social media marketing on Instagram, Youtube, SEO for search engines, Twitter, etc. Designing merchandise and posters, art, etc. )

Human Resources (not sure how equipped they are)

Accounting fees

Property taxes

Legal fees

Licensing fees

Website maintenance (For Watchertv.com, Watcherstuff.com, & Watcherentertainment.com)

Expenses regarding merchandising (whoever they contract or outsource for that)

Inventory costs

Potentially maintenance of company vehicles

Subsequent gas mileage for road trips

Depreciation (pertains to tangible assets like buildings and equipment)

Amortization (intangible assets such as patents and trademarks)

Overhead Travel and Entertainment Costs (I think one of the biggest culprits, evident in their videos and posts)

The travel expenses (flights, train trips, rental cars, etc. For main team and scouts)

Hotel expenses for 7-8 people at least, or potentially more

Breakfasts, lunches and dinners with the crew (whether that's fully on their dime or not, I don't know; Ryan stated they like to cover that for the most part)

Recreational activities (vacation destinations, amusement parks, sporting activities etc.)

The location fees

Extraneous Overhead costs (not sure exactly where these fall under, but another culprit, evident in videos and posts)

Paying for guest appearances

Expensive filming & recording equipment (Cameras, sound equipment, editing software subscriptions, etc.)

The overelaborate sets for Ghost files, Mystery Files, Puppet History, Podcasts etc. (Set dressing: Vintage memorabilia, antiquated tech, vintage furniture, props, etc.)

Kitchen & Cooking supplies/equipment

Office food supply; expensive food and drink purchases for videos

Novelty items or miscellaneous purchases (ex. Ghost hunting equipment, outfits, toys, etc.)

Non-Operating Expenses

These are those expenses that cannot be linked back to operating revenue. One of the most common examples of non-operating expenses is interest expense. This is because while interest is the cost of borrowing money from a creditor or a bank, they are not generating any operating income. This makes interest payments a part of non-operating expenses.

Financial Expenses

Potential loan payments, borrowing from creditors or lenders, bank loans, etc.

Variable Expenses

Hiring a large amount of freelancers, overtime expenditure, commissions, etc.

PR consultations (Not sure if they had this before the scandal)

Extraordinary Expenses

Expenses incurred outside your company’s regular business activities and during a large one-time event or transactions. For example, selling land, disposal of a significant asset, laying off of your employees, unexpected machine repairing or replacement, etc.

Accrued Expenses

When your business has incurred an expense but not yet paid for it.

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(If there's anything else I'm missing, please feel free to add or correct things)

To a novice or a young entrepreneur, this can be very intimidating if you don't have the education or the support to manage it properly. I know it intimidates the hell out of me and I'm still having to fill in the gaps (again, if I've mislabeled or gotten anything wrong here, please let me know). For the artistic or creative entrepreneur, it can be even harder to reconcile the extent of your creative passions with your ability to operate and scale your business at a sustainable rate. That can lead to irresponsible, selfish, and impulsive decisions that could irreparably harm your brand, which is a whole other beast of its own.

My guess at this point is that their overhead and operation expenses are woefully mismanaged; they've made way too many extraneous purchases, and that they had too much confidence in their audience of formerly 2.93 million to make up for the expenses they failed to cover.

It almost seems as if their internal logic was, "If we make more money, we can keep living the expensive lifestyle that we want and make whatever we want without anyone telling us we can't, and we want to do it NOW, sooner rather than later because we don't want wait and compromise our vision." But as you can see, the reality of fulfilling those ambitions is already compromised by the responsibility of running a business.

And I wrote this in another post here, but I'll state it again: Running a business means you need to be educated on how a business can successfully and efficiently operate. Accounting, marketing, social media marketing, public relations, production, etc; these resources and internet of things is available and at your disposal. If they had invested more time in educating themselves on those aspects and not made this decision based on artistic passion (and/or greed), they would have not gotten the response they got.

Being a graphic designer, I know the creative/passionate side of things but I also got a degree/got educated in business because I wanted to understand how to start a company and run it successfully. If they’re having trouble handling the responsibility of doing that, managing production costs, managing overhead expenses, and especially with compensating their 25+ employees, then they should hire professionals that are sympathetic to their creative interests, but have the education and experience to reign in bad decisions like these.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. What a shitshow this has been.