In the age of dishonest reviews, piracy is the consumer's last weapon
The critics who were supposed to help us filter out the noise have become an integral part of the noise itself.
Just like everyone can now make and publish a book, an album, a movie, a videogame, so can anyone become an influential figure capable of swaying consumer sentiments.
Just when we needed them the most, critics became as diluted and appeasing as the art itself.
I will not live to 1000 years. I cannot waste my life curating a feed of influencers and constantly monitoring which new ones pop out, and which ones sell off, and which ones simply become insane and worthless to listen to.
No, I will skip the middle man and see the world for myself. But the world must meet me half way. A radically consumeristic landscape needs a radical anti-consumeristic approach.
If your book, movie, song, videogame, whatever, catches my interest, I will pirate it. If it's not garbage like most of the stuff being made, if it doesn't waste my time, if it respects me as a person, I will gladly enjoy every bit of it and give you money.
The market and the culture are not the same as 100 years ago, and yet we are expected to act just like consumers did at the time. We are expected to buy everything even if the quantity of stuff is overwhelming and the average quality ever decreasing.
Does the creator lose money? That's debatable. In the past, a critic buying a $5 movie ticket and writing a negative review could convince thousands of people to avoid your film. What if today a thousand people just watched the movie for free and then a bunch of them who liked it gave you those $5? The end result is the same, but at least now those spectators actually have formed a real opinion of your work, instead of parroting something someone else has said.