Part 1 of 3 http://videosift.com/video/Louis-CK-on-Consumers-and-Capitalism
Part 3 of 3 http://videosift.com/video/Louis-CK-on-Consumers-and-Capitalism-part-3-3

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Listening to this live blew my fucking mind...

As much as I'm loving this rant, Louis is making some inconsistent arguments, especially regarding Apple. He starts by presenting Apple and Microsoft as the 'Tesla and Edison' of our age and saying how lucky we are to have escaped the clutches of Bill's inferior technology and his evil empire, then he goes on to rant about the state of online consumerism today and how we've abandoned certain ideals for the sake of comfort.

Honestly it just feels like ignorance on the subject on his part. In this argument he's making, if anything, the 'Microsoft' era would be the equivalent of the 'local businesses' and Apple would be the Starbucks. Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft is a small business, but from a consumer point of view - the rise of Apple is an exact example of the process he's describing, he even admits it by ranting about iTunes, how we all 'share' our likes, god-forbid we 'exist on the fringes'. Apple IS a big 'fuck you' to anything independent, it's the personification of the 'evil corporate empire' he's talking about. But they make a PC that looks nicer and an OS that works smoother, so fuck all that idealistic shit, let's just buy their products and welcome our new overlords in all things technology-related.

I honestly do not understand how Apple have generated this public image of excellence for themselves, a future in which these types of business practices are common-practice in silicon valley is a scary one...

>> ^NinjaInHeat:

As much as I'm loving this rant, Louis is making some inconsistent arguments, especially regarding Apple. He starts by presenting Apple and Microsoft as the 'Tesla and Edison' of our age and saying how lucky we are to have escaped the clutches of Bill's inferior technology and his evil empire, then he goes on to rant about the state of online consumerism today and how we've abandoned certain ideals for the sake of comfort.
Honestly it just feels like ignorance on the subject on his part. In this argument he's making, if anything, the 'Microsoft' era would be the equivalent of the 'local businesses' and Apple would be the Starbucks. Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft is a small business, but from a consumer point of view - the rise of Apple is an exact example of the process he's describing, he even admits it by ranting about iTunes, how we all 'share' our likes, god-forbid we 'exist on the fringes'. Apple IS a big 'fuck you' to anything independent, it's the personification of the 'evil corporate empire' he's talking about. But they make a PC that looks nicer and an OS that works smoother, so fuck all that idealistic shit, let's just buy their products and welcome our new overlords in all things technology-related.
I honestly do not understand how Apple have generated this public image of excellence for themselves, a future in which these types of business practices are common-practice in silicon valley is a scary one...


To me it's not ignorance because he's obviously knowledgeable about the subject matter. The problem is this is a radio show and he's supposed to be off the cuff this isn't a prepared rant or anything like that it's stuff that's in his head rattling around and some of it may be a bit more polished than other parts.

If he say ordered his thoughts into a paper say or a talk and presented a case then it would be much more coherent. We can't expect everyone to be coherent especially when they're going off the trial from accepted dogma. If you tune into a political program and someone says "Iran is evil cause they are doing.." whatever, it's taken as read. Iran is evil, they're being accused of evil things blah blah blah don't need any more information it's accepted, mainstream thought. If however someone comes on and says something like Chomsky's quote "education is a system of imposed ignorance" that's a seriously against the grain statement...it seems to make no sense. You'd need a LOT of examples and well ordered explaination to break down the already ingrained beliefs.

So Louis CK maybe a bit all over the place...that's cause he's not giving a talk or presenting a paper. He's speaking off the cuff on a radio program and I think we can give him a pass because he's doing his job, being entertaining. He's not a professor he's a comedian.