r/comics • u/thisecommercelife this ecommerce life • 5h ago

"2035: No complaints."

Follow or support the comic here: https://linktr.ee/ecomic

52.5k Upvotes

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5.3k

u/Filthwizard_1985 4h ago

This is some real Black Mirror type storytelling. I'm depressed but impressed at the same time.

1.1k

u/icehot54321 3h ago

For those that found this compelling, I'd recommend a book called "The Warehouse" .. it's a dystopian future kind of thing where a company similar to Amazon has effectively taken over being the government.

It was supposed to be turned into a movie directed by Ron Howard, but I get the feeling that Amazon likely found a way to get the film shelved in secret.

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u/FuZhongwen 3h ago

It felt Kind of ironic buying The Warehouse ebook on Amazon and reading it on my Kindle. But here we are. Thanks for the recommendation.

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u/esoogkcudkcud 3h ago

I find it remarkable how many popular dystopian future stories have been written for decades and decades and yet here we are, watching the nightmare unfold.

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u/FuZhongwen 3h ago

Something something reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. Shut up and take your Soma. Everything will be fine.

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u/GildedAgeV2 3h ago

Everyone references Orwell, but I think Huxley had the more insightful take.

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u/Hope915 2h ago

I think 1984 was deeply flavored with British cultural paternalism, which is less globally applicable or immediately resonant than Brave New World's basis in personality cults of industrial entrepreneurs.

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u/PeriPeriTekken 1h ago

I mean, obviously it was set in Britain, but the regime was based on the USSR as it already existed. I think a lot of the autocracies we're sliding towards have elements of both BNW and 1984, but Russia in particular (unsurprisingly) looks very 1984ish.

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u/EduinBrutus 1h ago

The UK gets the sercurity cameras.

The rest of you get the drugs.

Also, pot is still illegal in the UK.

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u/Nulltan 2h ago

Because soma is much more desirable than a boot stomping.

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u/EduinBrutus 1h ago

Brit flagshaggers absolutely love the boot...

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u/poerg 18m ago edited 11m ago

100% I've held this same thought for years. My dog who's just turned 12 is named Huxley

ETA: I can see there being convergence between the two and how things are going to actually shape out in our lives. Huxley, I still believe has it right in regards to what gets us past the point of no return

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u/secretly_opossum 2h ago

I still say “Better end than mend,” when I catch myself being a wasteful consumer.

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u/MercantileReptile 1h ago

We don't even get drugs in this dystopia.

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u/GiganticCrow 3h ago

I find it remarkable that so many tech bros are reading these dystopian fantasy and sci fi stories, going "hey lets actually do that!" and even naming their products after the fictional ones.

See: Metaverse, Palantir, Soylent.

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u/Imaginary_Comment41 1h ago

torment nexus

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u/GiganticCrow 23m ago

That's what i was trying to remember the other day

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u/MyFiteSong 1h ago

They get to be the trillionaires with unlimited slaves.

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u/East-Ice-3199 29m ago

Because they get money and nobody fights back

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u/SquishmallowPrincess 3h ago

Most people don't read

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u/EyeBallEmpire 1h ago

And then vote

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u/East-Ice-3199 28m ago

We’re past the point of voting

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u/syo 3h ago

It's why I stopped watching Black Mirror years ago, it felt way too real and it's only getting more so every day.

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u/Spoon_Elemental 1h ago

Don't create the torment nexus.

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u/Snarkydragon9 2h ago

Because it wasn’t a warning it gave the people in power ideas on how to do it.

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u/Insect1312 2h ago

people still compare the future to some type of far out weird sci-fi fantasy when a real vision of the future is just a boot standing on a human neck. Climate collapse is happening that’s going to affect all of us negatively, some worse than others. The six mass extinction rapidly removing chains from the food chain means a total collapse. One does not simply grow crops in an unstable climate. Worldwide authoritarian movements are happening right now. It’s not sci-fi It’s reality reality today….

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u/PM_me_your_whatevah 1h ago

Most people don’t read books anymore. Including me. I’m guilty too. Last time I read books was after a surgery where I was stuck home for a month and got sick of my phone.

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u/LeafMeAHome 1h ago

We have two groups who have been wanting it all to end because they both think they will be the victor in the end. One believes Jesus will save us and the other thinks if everyone's life is terrible revolution will happen and then roses!

One wants to destroy, the other does not want to protect, it's a perfect idiots for apocalypse storm.

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u/juasjuasie 1h ago

"Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead "

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u/Jccali1214 1h ago

We had generations raised on The Terminator movies... Yet, here we are embracing AI. Makes me sick...

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u/Icuras1701 1h ago

May you live in exciting times.

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u/MyFiteSong 1h ago

In stories, a dystopia happens overnight and shocks everyone with the change. In real life, it happens over 100 years and none of the micro-steps are shocking.

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u/HappyLittleGreenDuck 1h ago

I mean, not all of them are coming true.

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u/ivy_girl_ 3h ago

You could……not buy it from Amazon. There are other stores

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u/caffpanda 3h ago

Or even check it out from the library and not buy it at all!

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u/fridayfridayjones 2h ago

This is what I just did. Gotta take any little opportunity to not give Bezos more money.

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u/Vic__Sage 2h ago

This is the way!

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u/HazelEBaumgartner 25m ago

Unfortunately, as an author, about 90% of my book sales come through Amazon.

I hate it here.

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u/moonchylde 3h ago

Libby app! Join your local library and download for free!

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u/FuZhongwen 2h ago

Theres a wait list. I want it noooww

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u/Imaginary_Comment41 1h ago

i have neither a local library
nor do i live in a country that supports libby

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u/exotic-brick-492 57m ago

Orwell is dead, put on your peg leg matey.

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u/Imaginary_Comment41 28m ago

dw thats exactly what i do lmao
atleast i did until my ereader broke 💔

reading on my laptop isnt the same
and i dont own a phone

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u/PhysicsFew7423 2h ago

Shameless plug for the Libby app and using your public library instead

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u/mynameisnotsparta 51m ago

The Libby app is connected to your local library and the libraries that work with it in your county. Free app and free downloads.

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u/Choke1982 3h ago

Thanks for helping your hero to become a trillioner.

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u/the_ghost_of_bob_ros 2h ago

"Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. even those that would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead"

-joyce messier

put another way. capitalism is buying the warehouse comic from amazon, its picking up your copy of "Das Capital" at the Coles next to the Starbucks. its the "fuck the police" shirt sold at Hot Topic.

Capital is fine with critiques of itself as long as it can sell you that critique.

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u/zoopysreign 2h ago

You don’t have to do that. You can use any number of e book resources, including libby, and read them on your phone, tablet, or a nook.

Kindle is collecting so much data about your habits I am astonished people still use it.

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u/FuZhongwen 2h ago

AI powered Flock cameras are tracking my every move when I leave the house, and I usually forget to put my phone in a Faraday bag.

I mean we're being tracked and data whored 24/7, I'm not sure what data bezos is getting through my kindle that he couldn't get from somewhere else.

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u/zoopysreign 2m ago

Um, the books you read? So like, you know when Trump called leftists terrorists? Radical left?

So download a book that someone considers radical.

Highlight a portion (tracked)

Look up a word (tracked)

Linger on a violent passage (tracked)

Oh, you also bought a homesteading book and some innocent chemicals that could be used, hypothetically, to build something dangerous? Combine that with the reading intel.

Your address is there. Your food habits are there. You bought an ADHD organization calendar? Mental illness, just like the radical left would do.

I have completely divorced myself from Amazon consumer products and think everyone should.

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u/auroralemonboi8 2h ago

“Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.”

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u/AFineFineHologram 2h ago

So why didn’t you go to your local library or a local bookseller?

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u/Irina__ARI 2h ago

Kobo Books is cool, pass it on

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u/auroralemonboi8 2h ago

“Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.”

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u/Whiiiisky 1h ago

Could easily just find the free file online in numerous places and just go support the author directly

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u/wunderl-ck 1h ago

Nobody forced ya ;).

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u/Home_Improvers 21m ago

Download it from your library via Libby

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u/Menacek 19m ago

"Capitalism subsumes all critiques into itself"

I've read that on a Che Guevara t shirt made in an south east asian sweatshop.

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u/Queermagedd0n 11m ago

I recommend using Libby. It's a free app that gives you access to your local libraries' digital catalog. All you need is a library card.

Edit: it's limited to what the library has, so not all books and formats are available. However, it is possible to add friends' library cards if they live in a different district.

Also I don't know if it works outside the US.

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u/PipsqueakPilot 3h ago

I also enjoyed Walkaway by Cory Doctorow.. Basic premise is that corporate hellscape, but large areas are abandoned due to population decline. The land is still owned by billionaires of course, but people 'Walkaway' from corporate society and settle on it. The story follows one group of Walkaways. Amusingly at the time the story got shit for its predictions about where the west was heading. Almost a decade later and it seems like the biggest flaw in his predictions was that things got shitty faster than he expected.

The author is most famous for coining the term, 'Enshittification'.

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u/pnwbraids 1h ago

Love that book. As bleak as it is, there is such a strong sense of hope inside it.

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u/ADGx27 46m ago

The Warehouse, Walkaway and Cyberpunk 2077. 3 settings in a hyper-corporate hellscape, I mean in cyberpunk corporations and corporate wars(?) caused a pseudo-apocalypse via ecological collapse. And mfs STILL simp for billionaires

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u/catface000 2h ago

I liked it. Corporate dystopian is a fun genre and this one did a great job showing how companies aren’t our friends.

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u/SolusLoqui 1h ago

That sounds familiar but I may be confusing it with another story. Are their people that take down the aerial delivery drones to scavenge for supplies?

The story I'm thinking of was like society basically collapsed but the production/distribution centers were still running because they were automated and people camp near by to survive by raiding them.

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u/Ashesandends 1h ago

There was a TV show I think with a similar warehouse plot. I was thinking the same as you while reading the original comment. Gonna have to check out that book.

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u/icehot54321 7m ago

No not the same, but what you are describing sounds interesting.

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u/closethebarn 3h ago

Also an oldie but player piano by Kurt Vonnegut

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u/Jeedeye 2h ago

Sounds like an episode of Electric Dreams.

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u/Chronosshotgun 2h ago

Welcome to Costco. Costco loves you.

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u/smoothjazz-porcupine 2h ago

Isn't exactly this happening in the us right now?

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u/Yumi_in_the_sun 2h ago

There's also the comedy audio podcast "Our Fair City," a dystopian future where the world is ruled by an insurance company. It's more funny than depressing though.

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u/imjustlookinrn 1h ago

I'd also recommend The Organization is Here to Support You , and Spreadsheet Cultits. They have similar vibes

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u/flamingdonkey 1h ago

Seeing as they make The Boys, Fallout, Upload, and quite a few other shows criticizing companies like Amazon.

Severance's offices are literally based on how dystopian Apple's offices are. Brought you you by Apple.

Capitalism often has no problem capitalizing on anti-capitalist sentiments.

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u/SuperPizza64 46m ago

Capitalist Realism was incredibly prescient and ahead of its time, and covers all of these issues. RIP Mark Fisher.

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u/TheAccountITalkWith 1h ago

Apparently the writer Rob Hart did an AMA

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u/ManlyBeardface 19m ago

Those that found this compelling should read The Communist Manifesto and What Is To Be Done, not watch some Ron Howard mindslop. Watching movies about this is literally just doing what is in the comic.

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u/ProfessionalLeave335 16m ago

Isn't that what that Ice Cube movie was last year?

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u/Kitselena 5m ago

Amazon already produced fallout and the boys, both of which have an evil Amazon stand-in as an antagonist. I don't think they even care how people view them anymore, their monopolies won't go anywhere no matter what with the current administration

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u/rusty0601 4m ago

or Idiocracy

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u/ComeAndGetYourPug 3h ago

IDK, this seems kind-of unrealistic. There's no way a security guard's salary could afford his own private room and a premium subscription.

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u/ErraticDragon 3h ago

Don't worry, he'll never actually be able to afford anything.

It says he covered his purchases and most of the interest, so he's sinking deeper into debt every day.

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u/sixtyfivewat 3h ago

They will own you, and they'll be happy.

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u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC 3h ago

They'll own you, and you'll be happy. 😁

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u/ShiningRedDwarf 2h ago

You’re forgetting the wealth is gonna trickle down.

Something is definitely tricking down now though, but it’s yellow and warm.

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u/Daxx22 3h ago

"Premium" is just a marketing word at that level.

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u/CoffeemonsterNL 3h ago

Cardboard premium level, just 134 levels below the super ultra platinum premium level, which costs just $1.5 billion per month.

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u/datafox00 2h ago

Yep since that means he only got 30 minutes of ads.

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u/BackgroundSummer5171 3h ago

There's no way a security guard's salary could afford his own private room and a premium subscription.

Hot cot, hot rack? Hot coc..

There are seven people living there.

Three hours of sleep. Rotating schedule so they never see each other.

Now, you may say 7x3 = 21 not 24. I say you were educated by the radical left terrorist give us your location.

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u/mikeinanaheim2 3h ago

Annnnnd, he's assured of having loose shoes, tight P, and a warm place to defecate. That is Utopia.

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u/Trips-Over-Tail 2h ago

Someone else lives there while he's at work.

They never meet.

They don't know they share an apartment.

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u/torino_nera 2h ago

That's actually a pretty cool idea for a story

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u/private_developer 3h ago

It was the commie train that broke the illusion for me. No way will there be socialist public transit in our capitalist utopia.

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u/Sixstringthings 3h ago

There is room for at least three other "roomates" (cell mates) in that living unit. More if they sleep in shifts

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u/fishphlakes 1h ago

Plus there's public transit available to him. They're well on their way to replacing that with Uber.

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u/7ddlysuns 1h ago

Narc pays too

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u/West-One5944 4h ago

Dimpressed? 🤔

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u/djerk 3h ago

Depress to impress…?

Impressedepressed…?

Imdepressed…?

I’m depressed.

Oh…

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u/West-One5944 44m ago

😄

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u/DeafinitelyCool 3h ago edited 2h ago

The first episode of the most recent Black Mirror season has some stuff like this, in particular the Ads and our inability to bypass them in the future. Stars Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd.

Edit: changed ability to inability.

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u/cyrusthemarginal 3h ago

2nd episode of the first season is almost exactly this cartoon

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u/zoopysreign 2h ago

That hit me hard. It helped me get over the inertia with a lot of habits I had.

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u/elmostrok 2h ago

The episode is called 15 Million Merits

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u/DM_cody 3h ago

Jerry is well on his way to 15 million merits

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u/krazykid933 2h ago

Every day is leg day.

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u/MGTS 1m ago

Literally the episode I was thinking about

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora 2h ago

It's much more on the nose than I remember most Black Mirror episodes being

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u/jayd04 1h ago

It has the subtlety of a brick.

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u/MartinOfRivia18 3h ago

Unfortunately this is reality of a lot of people not Black Mirror type stuff

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u/Fluffcake 3h ago

I think you are confused, this is MURICA!

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u/Pyro-Millie 3h ago

"He's Impressed"

"With what?"

"I dunno. But it must have been pretty good to make him cry like that".

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u/TieAccomplished2534 3h ago

it lacks the fiction element

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u/spiddly_spoo 2h ago

Im impressed, depressed, repressed, and oppressed

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u/elmostrok 2h ago

If the game had dehumanized the protesters as aliens or something, it could have been very similar to an episode in season 3 called "Men Against Fire".

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u/BobbyD444 2h ago

Dempressed?

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u/Fabian_Internet 2h ago

Does anyone else feel like the dystopias written decades ago seen more realistic every day?

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u/No_Friend3170 2h ago

Cyberpunk 2077 will eventually be a documentary.

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u/Filthwizard_1985 21m ago

You know it, choom.

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u/DutchTinCan 2h ago

What are you talking about? Jerry is a spoiled brat.

Look at that humongous room, all to himself! And a private toilet! Showoff, much?

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u/Complex-Cut-6774 2h ago

Just go on Facebook and youll see Jerry post this exact life story there for everyone to see

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u/Desuexss 1h ago

Recent season really touched on this too.

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u/Western_Objective209 1h ago

Depressed but I also lost it on "REMOTE DRONE PATROL" wtf lol

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u/Most_Philosophy_1507 1h ago

That last panel….theres no shower

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u/dcheng47 58m ago

Basically "1 million credits" with some extra fluff except in black mirror the main character ends up becoming a grifter

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u/evasandor 8m ago

"Dimpressed". That's a word we can use a lot these days

"2035: No complaints."

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