#creative industry

Case in point: when a company tries to “level the playing field” by offering opportunities to working-class people—but fails to grasp that travel costs money. Most working-class creatives don’t live in London. Most couldn’t afford to. And even if they could, these organisations rarely understand that most people in the UK don’t have savings.

More than one in four adults have less than £100 in savings, and the number of people living paycheck to paycheck is rising. But sure—I’ll just pull hundreds of quid out of my arse to access an “opportunity” designed for working-class people... What?!

They assume there’s a financial cushion—that people can just absorb the extra costs—because middle-class access to opportunity isn’t shaped by whether or not they can spare a train fare.

One unplanned emergency—your car breaking down, a wisdom tooth flaring up, your dog eating a goddamn snail—can derail your life for months. You push back bills. Rack up late fees. If you’re really on the edge, it’s the payday loan or nothing.

Meanwhile, society tells you it’s your fault—that you just aren’t trying hard enough—while the government upholds policies that literally manufacture poverty. And in a country that dismisses every study on how traumatising poverty is, you’re left feeling like you’re screaming into a void while social mobility collapses around you.

Right now in Japan, there is a debate happening between writers and illustrators.

What’s going on is that a well-known novel marketplace recently introduced a new rule related to AI. The rule bans the use of AI-generated illustrations for novel covers.

In response, many illustrators are strongly protesting, saying things like: “AI is unacceptable! Writers should commission illustrators instead of using AI for their covers!”

On the other hand, Writers argue: “Covers are just extra for the novels, so paying illustrators for covers feels like a waste of money.”

Also don’t get me started on the controversy I heard of tadc fans being mad that the official VAs aren’t in fan projects like why do we have to hear the same voices over and over again??? are we allergic to supporting voice actors??? Getting into the creative industry is already hard enough also which other fandom has official VAs taking part in fan made stuff

There’s a consistent trend I keep seeing: people are terrified of being replaced. Not by other humans, not by shifting markets, but by AI. And every time I see someone panic about it, I can’t help thinking — hun, the only people who want to replace humans are the ultra‑wealthy. The 1% who benefit from cutting labor costs, speeding up production, and squeezing profit out of every possible corner.

Everyone else — the 99% — will consume both AI‑generated content and human‑made content without a second thought. People already do this with everything else: ebooks and print books, digital art and traditional art, indie films and blockbuster movies, fanfiction and published novels. Most consumers don’t care about the purity of the medium. They care about whether the story resonates, whether the art moves them, or if the content fits their mood.

So why do people keep blaming AI?

Because blaming AI is easier than blaming capitalism.

If someone says “AI is replacing us,” they get sympathy and a clear villain. If they say “capitalism is replacing us,” they have to confront the fact that the same system they rely on to make money is the one harming them. That’s uncomfortable. It forces people to acknowledge that the creative economy was already brutal long before AI showed up.

And here’s the part nobody wants to admit: A lot of creators aren’t just afraid of losing the act of creating. They’re afraid of losing the chance at upward class mobility.

People want the fruit, the prestige, the best‑selling novel, the movie adaptation, the award, the recognition, the financial stability that comes from being one of the “chosen” few. They want to climb the ladder. And they want to be part of the creative elite. That's a mouthful to spew out. But tell me if this is not true. Let's be honest about this.

AI threatens the pathway to all that I mentioned — not the ability to create.

That’s why the fear feels so intense. It’s not just about art. It’s about class.

The truth is that the creative industry has always been shaped by capitalism. Most actors aren’t wealthy. Most musicians aren’t wealthy. And definitely most writers aren’t wealthy. Success has always been inconsistent, unpredictable, and tied to systems that reward profit over passion. AI didn’t create that reality — it just exposed it.

Meanwhile, the 99% will continue consuming whatever they enjoy, whether it’s human‑made or AI‑generated. They’re not trying to replace anyone. They’re just living their lives.

The replacement pressure comes from the top, not the bottom.

So when people say they’re afraid of AI, what they’re really afraid of is losing their shot at climbing the class ladder through creativity. They’re afraid of losing the dream of being chosen. And they’re definitely afraid of losing the illusion of a fair path upward.

But blaming AI won’t fix the system. Blaming won’t change the economics of art. And it won’t make the creative industry any less brutal.

If anything, it distracts from the real issue: We live in a system where creators have always had to fight for space, recognition, and the means to survival.

And that’s why I keep writing. Not because I expect prestige or to bear fruit. But because the act of creating is the part I can control, and the part that still matters, no matter how the world changes.

Before I deleted my twitter account, one of my mutuals was a professional animator who has worked on dozens of shows for Disney and Warner Bros, and they're struggling to make ends meet. They're more talented than I could ever dream of becoming, and they have to couch surf in order to not become homeless. A ton of Emmy and Oscar award winners, the best of the best of the best, live in squalor and can't even afford insurance. They're all living the dream, they're undeniably successful by every other metric, but financially they're in the hole.

What chance do I have? If they couldn't make it work, how could I?

A youtuber I've followed for years just posted a video saying they have to give up animating for the foreseeable future because their art has done irreparable damage to both their wrists; they have chronic pain, and even after six months of physical therapy they simply can't work anymore. They're famous, they have millions of subscribers and thousands of monthly patrons, and their livelihood just went up in smoke.

Again, what chance do I have?

If I put in the effort to get good at something, even half as good as any of these creatives, even 1% as good, I'll be in the same miserable, penniless boat as they are. It feels like fighting against entropy, a ton of hard work to try and stave off the inevitable. If you let up for even a second, you lose so much progress that it doesn't seem worth it to keep trying. I will never be as famous or as talented as my favorite artists because I don't have the temperament to keep going against the odds. I'm weaker than they are. They have every right to be proud of their work for its own sake, but they still have to eat. You can feel good about making something, but if it doesn't pay the bills it's hard to stay motivated.

The dream of making it big and never having to work again is just that, a dream. It's like winning the lottery; yeah, sure, "somebody has to win," but that doesn't mean you will, and there's no correlation between input and output; the odds are so long that spending ten or a hundred or a thousand times more money doesn't significantly increase your chances of winning. A million times zero is still zero. In the case of art, hard work does not guarantee success. It's all random! A handful of people make it big by chance and the rest of us look to them as inspirations, but even if you do EXACTLY what they did you're not gonna wind up like them.