#blind consumerism

[lisablack000]

No spend activities

Breaking the cycle of always buying things, being in malls and having to spend money to be happy is one of the best things we can do to set ourselves free from the blind consumerism that society is drowning in.

[scolek]

rmemeber seeing something. like, you know those little blind bag toys that are tiny little branded items? one time i saw. someone say. yeah lesbians love these.

and i was suddenly struck with how insular a lot of communities are. that yo ucould say that confidently.

[clueless1995]

need new music new perfume new books to read new clothes to wear need to reinvent myself!!! good thing i literally have a life changing surgery this week

[selfconsciousfangirl]

I hate having adhd and getting dates wrong bc I have no sense of time. I missed on a pen shop meeting, which means I lost on buying ink at a discount and now I have to pay full price bc I can’t say no to shiny inks

[an-absolute-trainwreck]

I really like brave new world, but not in a “society will fall apart without the nuclear family structure and because of promiscuous people” more in a “consumerism, eugenics, and the devaluation of the arts in exchange for an exclusively physical-based society where dissent and diverse thinking are strictly prohibited will destroy us” sort of way

[sammansonn]

tik tok shop is ruining the shred of enjoyment I get from that app

[1introvertedsage]

'Our culture has bred consumers and addicts. We eat too much, buy too much, and want too much. We set ourselves on the fruitless mission of filling the gaping hole within us with material things. Blindly, we consume more and more, believing we are hungry for more food, status or money, yet really we are hungry for connection.'

[everythinkaloud]

In this world, most people only care about accessorising their avatar!

[ladychlo]

I can't boycott this, I can't stop watching that, I can't stop drinking this shit I can't stop eating that shit etc etc. Evaluate yourself because it is extremely sad how unable you are to be human, how taken you are by the consumerism culture that you can willingly be blind to genocide happening because you can't give up an illusion of a comfort fed to you by consumerism.

Yes you will survive if you bought a used phone and used laptops and whatever the fuck, because a child in congo is not surviving a genocide and an abuse and capitalism exploitation of their land and their existence

And no drinking a double shit expresso will not make you dispossessed of your land and your family being murdered by airstrikes and no I'm pretty sure not eating a double cheese processed meat will not deprive you from water and food and continuously bomb the life out of you ...

Get yourself a consciousness that is not stained by fascism and capitalism and imperialism, get yourself out of the hole of individualism and stand with what make you a human for fuck sake

[decolonize-the-left]

Genocides are happening

And what did you do?

What will you tell your kids?

I talk about whiteness a lot on page, anyone who's been following me for awhile has seen my posts about it.

If you're one of them you've seen the vulnerable way white people have come forward about being assimilated in exchange for safety and privilege. About feeling empty.

How white people carry a dead weight in their stomachs about not fitting in anywhere, how they feel like they don't even fit in with other white people because there is No white culture, the only thing even close to it is White Supremacy. They have no shared values or customs. That white people try their best but its never enough because all whiteness teaches anybody at all is that they're never good enough.

It's all consumerism and individualism marked and made even more pointed by a total lack of community.

So the dead weight doubles as a pit of loneliness. And it's about being white. Something so core to your being you can't ignore it.

Have you seen those posts? Because I never forget them.

And now, given the context, do you think white people will ever find a way to belong in a diverse world by looking away when their armies commit genocide?

Do you really think you can build community by standing by and doing nothing when your neighbors scream for help?

A community is who claims you.

So if you want to start being claimed by someone other than white supremacists, I suggest you start acting like it.

Nobody on earth is buying the bullshit that the most protected and privileged citizens on earth are powerless to a handful of politicians.

How many Americans are there?

And you mean to tell me that we aren't getting anything accomplished? That even with the activists and organizers and journalists who eat/sleep/breathe Palestine and Sudan and Congo...we just aren't trying hard enough?

Cuz I think there just aren't enough people participating anymore.

I think the lot of people walking around saying they support human rights only support human rights in theory.

Not in practice.

So I need y'all to be very honest with yourselves right now.

Do you actually want to be liberated? Do you actually care about other people.

Cuz it's easy to say you do. People say things they don't mean all the time, but putting those words into action is how we know if you told the truth.

So if you don't want to be a white supremacist, if you're sick of the USA's emptiness, if you're an ally to indigenous people globally, if you consider yourself to be a "good" person on the right side of history: help us. Prove it. Show me.

Because 3 weeks ago I couldn't stop seeing posts about Palestine. Now I have to look for them.

And this is not the status quo. Dont let genocide become our collective status quo just because the racist and privileged among us are too "tired" to keep caring after 30 days.

If you want to join the global community instead of constantly feeling like an unwelcome outsider then ACT LIKE IT

I can't stress it enough.

You don't build community or "grow" or unlearn racism by turning a blind eye to genocide.

[cilil]

Alright hear me out for a second -

"It's ok to enjoy and find meaning in flawed media because art is subjective and human creation is never perfect" and "We need to arm ourselves with media literacy, criticize media and not fall prey to blind consumerism that big companies want to lure us into" are statements that can and should co-exist.

[aemiron-main]

also it is funny to me when people take s3 at face value/the whole “see?? st is just pro American, pro capitalist propaganda because of the whole secret russian base/anti russian stuff in s3/all of the consumerism and capitalism stuff” rhetoric as if that isn’t exactly what s3 is making fun of/critiquing when you actually think about it beyond the very very very surface (and even then 99% of the time this is just people. wildly misunderstanding the very very very surface stuff but anyway) like theyre not hiding this. they literally put an american flag blindfold over el’s eyes after having her experience stereotypical “american”/consumerism-centered stuff (like starcourt) for the first time. S3 is constantly making the point that people are blinded by patriotism/consumerism/capitalism/america-first sentiment

like please… the point of s3 isnt “yeah the americans were right in the cold war fuck those commies consumerism is awesome the american government has never done ANYTHING wrong hell yeah capitalism mccarthyism ROCKS (FREE BIRD RIFF PLAYS WHILE EAGLE SCREAMS)”

[redconsumerism]

TO CONSUME IS (not) TO LOVE

cannibalism in romance novels

Cannibalism is like a parallax. For once it exists as a ‘philia’, characterized by the desire of eating another. And we find that it exists in the opposite spectrum, in the form of a ‘phobia’, which speaks of the fear of being eaten or partaking unknowingly or forcefully in the act of eating another. To vore is adjacent to love in most cases, both feared and desired. Because to love someone is (apparently) to want to consume them. 

Though cannibalism might seem like a barbaric and horrific concept, it is said to be one of the most intense demostrations of love that exist in both classic and contemporary literature. The gruesome gesture reminds the lecturer of the intensity of love and its lunacy. As Mercedes Abad stated in spanish newsletter ‘el tiempo’ on May 21st, 1995 ‘There is no doubt that love and sex are feasts where, to a greater or lesser extent, we all become anthropophagi who would surely find it quite difficult to answer the question of whether there is greater pleasure in phagocytosing the other or in being phagocytosed.’ Because Cannibalism as a metaphor for love in romance novels, as it is in our day to day, is more about the blind consumerism of it rather than the pureness of it. One example of blind consumerism of love would be in Salvador Dali's Autobiography, where it is mentioned how Gala cooked their pet rabbit because of how much they loved it, in front of the woman’s refusal to the idea of leaving the rabbit with the maids.

To love is to consume, but to consume is to devour and transform in reusable energy. Like a vampire would when consuming someone’s blood, so they can continue living at the other’s cause. You live off the love you take, but if you devour that love, the other cannot live. The truth is cannibalism has a double connotation, and consuming the other’s otherness is three dimensional. Which means it isn’t always about love, or the lack thereof, but more so about the act of possessing. Cannibalism isn’t only one of the greatest manifestations of tenderness (for many), but also the irrevocably selfishness of an individual blinded by desire - in front of the morbid contemplation of the lover giving themselves so the other can survive -. The amorous-sexual instincts that resurface from a deep sense of infatuation together with those of hunger - a basic instinct - that create an irrational longing, unite in cannibalism as an analogy for that which we wish to become one with. It leaves you to question if the love narrated is but an act of survival for starved people.

‘Love is only a prologue to two cannibals struggling to take a bite of each other.’ - La Oscuridad, Ignacio Ferrando Perez (2014.) Cannibalism is, then, the imposture of love, and the obscure craving of something bigger than yourself without any understanding of it. 

[maryrouille]

It's Amy Winehouse, but with female rage. About Back to Black (dir. Sam Taylor-Johnson) 2024

Recently, a film telling the life story of the British singer Amy Winehouse was released. I came here to talk a little about the aesthetics of this film, which, by the way, cannot be accused of poor music (Marisa Abela sings Amy's songs in her own voice and she does it brilliantly!) or ugly shots.

In the film we see the transformation from a rebellious teenager with a guitar into an emotionally and behaviorally unstable woman (without a guitar). Of course, this turn of events could have been reflected in Amy's real life, but one gets the impression that the film is set in a different time. It feels like the 2000s have been filtered, sugar-coated, and embedded somewhere in the 2024 aesthetic of angry girlbloggers on Tumblr.

Romanticizing drinking alcohol and mental instability

You probably know the tendencies related to #just girly things and the explanation of all depressive states and tantrums by just being a girl. It is a kind of expression of the life and consciousness of today's young girls living in the rather unoptimistic times of social media and consumerism. But is this aesthetic good for Amy's story? It seems to me that romanticizing alcohol, drugs and blind love leading to complete self-loss and ultimately death is a poor approach.

And while watching the film you definitely feel that something is wrong, but at the same time you fall into this beautified world. Amy's life was darker and more brutal, and her problems were not only limited to matters of the heart, glass and flashbulbs of cameras. Unfortunately, living with addictions is dirty and disgusting. And you can't put a bow on it. But it seems to be a sign of our times.

You Know I'm No Good (song)

Adding the ending to this song title: but I'm not going to rehab. And here we should ask the question about the level of public awareness in 2008 (the year when Amy received five Grammy Awards) and today. In 2024, acceptance and knowledge about all behavioral therapies, addiction treatment and toxic relationships is much greater. And Back to Black, under the guise of nice outfits, make-up and a few minor falls, gives the impression of being up-to-date.

Will someone watch this movie and say they want to live like Amy (just like it was with Coppola's Priscilla)? This is quite possible, because in the end we get the image of a slightly rebellious femme fatale and a slightly weak girl who is harmed by others. And many of us would fit this description.

Live fast, die young, be wild and have fun (song)

Finally, I have to quote Lana del Rey, because today's girl blogging draws from her in handfuls. Is joining the 27 Club really that romantic? The departure of such young people from the world is primarily a tragedy, which later becomes a beautiful myth. That's why it's worth mentioning Lana's example here. She uses aesthetics very well and, above all, separates moving around motifs and drawing visual inspiration from them from real life.

To sum up, movie Back to Black is really worth seeing. However, it is also worth being aware that this is a colorful fiction for 2024 built around the true story of Amy Winehouse.

Edit 24/04/24: I have to mention the update here. I just came across an article from British Vogue that confirms my thesis about drawing inspiration from image of Amy (also Kate Moss, so heroin chic is back in fashion?) Quoting a fragment of the article:

The legacy of Winehouse also lives on in Back to Black, due for release on 12 April. (...) While we’re in no way condoning or glorifying the hobbies of Winehouse and her erstwhile friend Doherty, there was a scene during that time and a smudgy, smeary aesthetic that somehow worked.

[hollowboobtheory]

okay as a person who was raised on new wave but has gotten into goth recently. how the ever loving fuck did tiktokers think rock lobster was goth. how??? they out there listening to love shack and own private idaho and somehow thinking that was goth???😧

couple factors

tiktok kids do not seek out context generally. this is how we got any/all pronouns cartman. they engage with south park based only on the sound clips that become memes on tiktok. similarly, i think they just heard the song and accepted it at face value and didn't look into who the b-52d are or notice that these are the same people who made love shack.

goth is a very broad (group of) genre(s). rock lobster admittedly sounds like it could have been made by the cramps.

goth dad (@awfullysinister) has admitted to playing it at the clubs he djs for years

there are a lot of bands whose goth status is contested like strawberry switchblade and even the fucking cure.

in my opinion rock lobster on its own is goth purely because a lot of goths like it. same with strawberry switchblade even tho stylistically they're more like an early ancestor to vaporwave.

goth classification in general is quite complex tbh there's a lot of nuance. imo its more of a vibe check. and rock lobster passed the goth vibe check to those kids.

the blind leading the blind is kinda the guiding principle of tiktok and none of those kids talk to people older than them.

now now it turned into drama. hot takes coming.

i think a lot of them have tricked themselves into thinking that gothery is objective and easily quantifiable and not largely vibes-based.

they've tricked themselves into thinking that "music based subculture" means the music itself IS the subculture nothing else that grew out of the goth scene is important (they do this while stanning elvira and collecting bones and ofc wearing tradgoth apparel but ignore that doublethink is at play here)

i'm blaming the influencers with amazon affiliate links here. they're seeing girlies posting their looks plus a shopping list for how to replicate their life exactly plus affiliate links (or worse, tiktok shop links ew) and it doesn't pass the sniff check for them, but because they don't talk to people older than them and because the version of goth that's presented in mainstream media is stripped of its anticonsumerist ideals, they only way they can think to counter it is to parrot "goth is a music-based subculture" back and forth forever

not thinking about how the fashion being antique and vintage and reused and diy and gloomy and spooky are extensions of the ideals put forth in the music, as applied to a more everyday form of self expression.

they get that goth isn't something that you can buy but they don't know how to articulate that

um in case you haven't noticed, tiktok, a highly trend-based and consumerism driven platform, yanno with all its influencer shills and brand accounts and ads disguised as content and clones of each other and viral song of the week and they've recently baked shopping right into the app itself and every other video you see has that damn "eligible for commission" badge under it, where everybody is copying each other to sell shit or as an audition to sell shit, just might not quite line up with goth ideals.

which imo is more important than the music but obv the platform itself doesn't really lend itself to putting that into practice. again frankly tiktok as a platform is fundamentally incompatible with the goth subculture.

ok back to rock lobster bc the politics have been cut out all these kids have to back up their sense of gothenticity is music based subculture. meaning when they find out they've been dancing to a song that isn't even technically goth, that's really fucking embarrassing.

cue one zillion identical "um we can still listen to other genres and still be goth" tiktoks. which, like, true. still funny that you were preaching that shit while dancing to the boomer equivalent of like. idk old town road. what does the fox say. i don't fuckin know.

anyway now everybody's having a damn identity crisis calling each other posers and elitists and the influencers are laughing all the way to the bank. also setting their makeup haul videos to rob zombie who while liked by many goths is DEF not goth.

oh yeah and dollskill have been making the sponsored content rounds too. because this wasn't already enough of a shitshow

[everythinkaloud]

In this world, most people only care about accessorising their avatar!