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[-] Infynis@midwest.social 181 points 2 years ago

I think the implication of the last panel is supposed to be that the apple seller can't stop everyone, but if this was really an accurate satire, he'd chop down every tree, sue everyone that picked the apples, and then go back to selling his giant flavorless GMO apples for $5 a piece

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 85 points 2 years ago

The hell of it is, some people would still be happy to buy his apples. Look, I ain't got time or health insurance to be fucking around climbing an apple tree, here's some cash, apples pls. But that's not good enough for the investors, who want guaranteed 5% growth every quarter, so now we've got to pour kerosene on the extra apples and force people to go hungry.

[-] qyron@sopuli.xyz 17 points 2 years ago

You've read The Vines of Wrath.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 years ago

It's The Grapes of Being A Bit Miffed actually

[-] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 10 points 2 years ago

Much better than the sequel, The Apricots of Annoyance.

The porn Adaptation, Plums of Pleasure, is a banger though, pun intended.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago

He would fence off the trees, and lobby his local government to require permits for picking apples, permits that have an issuing limit that somehow coincides with the number of apple stands he has. Picking apples without a permit would result in a fine of $10,000, or a year in jail.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

the apple seller can’t stop everyone

I bet the Once-ler wouldn't have that attitude.

[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago

MFer needs a super-axe-hacker. Then he could whack down four apple trees in one smacker.

[-] Cicraft@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

If you haven't done so already I'd recommend listening to the scrapped movie song "biggering" which was cancelled because it scared illumination

[-] lud@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago

Why does it matter if an apple is modified or not?

Modifying plants for better yields, less water usage, higher resistance to pests, better taste, and so on. Seems like a great idea in my mind.

Either way this comic is bad. It's stupidly easy to just plant an apple tree in your back/front yard, if you have one. Apples aren't that picky about where they want to be planted.

They should have gone for a better analogy if they are trying to say something.

[-] Infynis@midwest.social 12 points 2 years ago

Why does it matter if an apple is modified or not?

In general, I am not opposed to GMOs. All those benefits would be great. But in practice, companies aren't modifying the product to be better for the consumer, they're modifying it to sell better, and cost less to produce. That basically means bigger, and less diverse, which actually ends up making them less resistant to pests and disease

[-] porcariasagrada@slrpnk.net 24 points 2 years ago

the problem isn't gmo. the problem is the profit motivation that will invite disaster.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 2 points 2 years ago

And staying "fresh" longer etc.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Originally I thought the joke was that after chopping down the one tree, eventually he had a shitload of trees grow (from the fallen apples), but guess not.

[-] modifier@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

but if this was really an accurate satire, he'd chop down every tree, sue everyone that picked the apples, and then go back to selling his giant flavorless GMO apples for $5 a piece

Only if he couldn't figure out a way to rent apples to customers.

[-] Bipta@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah, I see this comic and find myself wishing we lived in such a world.

[-] 100_percent_a_bot@lemmy.world 44 points 2 years ago

I'm not 14 years old enough to get this

[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 years ago

Me neither. Though I think it’s “something, something, something, capitalism sucks.”

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 32 points 2 years ago

Selling digital goods in a nutshell, when things are infinitely reproducible, you'll never run out of trees.

[-] Vincent@feddit.nl 30 points 2 years ago

I feel like this is a metaphor, I'm just not sure for what yet.

[-] UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

The apples represent feet pics. It's a tough market so the businessman only wants his feet pics to be sold in a sea of feet pics on the internet.

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[-] rivvvver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 years ago
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[-] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 years ago

Hell yeah, this is the free gifts of nature in a nutshell.

[...] the “free gift of Nature to capital.” Capitalist exploitation and accumulation, as Marx explains, ultimately depend on capital’s usurping of nature’s gifts for itself, thereby monopolizing the means of production and wealth in its entirety

Probably better sources, but this is the first best one I found.

[-] Lev_Astov@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

So... farming is a free gift from nature?

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

No, natural capital is - soil particularly.

[-] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

This person is correct. Land and the natural process of nature are free gifts.

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[-] ZOSTED@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

Close. Farming is labour, which is what gives economic value to the free gifts. The capitalists skim excess value from this process in the form of wage theft and other fuckery.

I'm simplifying, but yeah.

[-] Katana314@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

The main question around this comic that makes it hard for me to derive a message is, who planted/cared for/owns the apple trees?

I’m reminded of a speech from Gus in Better Call Saul, where technically a tree from his homeland was wild, but he was the one that made the effort to water and care for it before a critter started stealing from it.

[-] Zehzin@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I wouldn't follow ethics in business advice from a meth dealer explaining why he killed a wild animal.

[-] charonn0@startrek.website 7 points 2 years ago

Right? It's obviously an orchard, not a forest, and obviously the apples are one of the popular commercial cultivars rather than some wild natural variant.

[-] Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

This comic makes so little sense it's underflowed back to funny for me.

[-] MadBob@feddit.nl 7 points 2 years ago

I suppose he was already grumpy because he was the only one who'd forgot about Dress Like Homer Simpson Or Peter Griffin Day at the orchard.

[-] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

My experience is that apple trees aren't that thick.

[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 years ago

Your apple mom is though, heyoo

[-] snugglebutt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

She sells sea shells down by the sea shore

[-] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

But the value of these shells will fall

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this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
690 points (96.4% liked)

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