Shoppers took to stores across the world on a Black Friday that appeared subdued compared with prior years, looking for discounted electronics, clothing and household goods in the kickoff to the holiday shopping season crucial to big retailers.
my partner habitually watches the us state media news… it’s gross but i can’t break a habit for someone else. i usually ignore it as much as possible, using headphones and avoiding looking at the tv, but every so often i catch myself watching because the tv is huge and my computer is at a 45 degree angle to it.
anyway, the past two days have been almost solely about how much money the little consumers are shelling out for crap they don’t need and can’t afford, and also the mandatory isn’treal 10 minutes of adulation and fixation.
It occurred to me that i can remember consumerism having always been the main focus of “the news” leading into Thanksgiving, and then intensely in the few days after, then it building up to a fever pitch just before christmas day. After that for a couple weeks the same old dribble about people spending beyond their means and having to worry about digging out of debt.
This time a question hit me unexpectedly, since i was watching but not really aware that i was, but also because it made me think about things i hadn’t really given much thought to before: why the fuck would any of us give a shit about how much money is being spent on junk? like why does grandma give a shit, why would i give a shit, or why would ANYONE but the bourgeois care to hear anything about it even once, much less every single day multiple times a day for weeks on end?
then i also realized that i recall way back when i was young that it sometimes felt like we were all being goaded into spending money we didn’t have to give gifts that weren’t needed, or even wanted sometimes, and then we were chastised for having gone beyond our means because we’re all just so irresponsible.
it’s so weird going from being someone who used to watch tv all the time without ever realizing what it is, to seeing it after decades of not watching it but then suddenly seeing it again with new eyes. it’s really fucked up, and it’s scary to think about how strongly i was programmed by it, and even what programming probably still exists unexamined within me to this day.
The reason why it’s relevant to the average person is because if too few people are buying too little junk, line will go down and they’ll get laid off for Christmas.
my partner habitually watches the us state media news… it’s gross but i can’t break a habit for someone else. i usually ignore it as much as possible, using headphones and avoiding looking at the tv, but every so often i catch myself watching because the tv is huge and my computer is at a 45 degree angle to it.
anyway, the past two days have been almost solely about how much money the little consumers are shelling out for crap they don’t need and can’t afford, and also the mandatory isn’treal 10 minutes of adulation and fixation.
It occurred to me that i can remember consumerism having always been the main focus of “the news” leading into Thanksgiving, and then intensely in the few days after, then it building up to a fever pitch just before christmas day. After that for a couple weeks the same old dribble about people spending beyond their means and having to worry about digging out of debt.
This time a question hit me unexpectedly, since i was watching but not really aware that i was, but also because it made me think about things i hadn’t really given much thought to before: why the fuck would any of us give a shit about how much money is being spent on junk? like why does grandma give a shit, why would i give a shit, or why would ANYONE but the bourgeois care to hear anything about it even once, much less every single day multiple times a day for weeks on end?
then i also realized that i recall way back when i was young that it sometimes felt like we were all being goaded into spending money we didn’t have to give gifts that weren’t needed, or even wanted sometimes, and then we were chastised for having gone beyond our means because we’re all just so irresponsible.
it’s so weird going from being someone who used to watch tv all the time without ever realizing what it is, to seeing it after decades of not watching it but then suddenly seeing it again with new eyes. it’s really fucked up, and it’s scary to think about how strongly i was programmed by it, and even what programming probably still exists unexamined within me to this day.
the whole thing is just so profoundly bizarre when you take a step back and think about it
The reason why it’s relevant to the average person is because if too few people are buying too little junk, line will go down and they’ll get laid off for Christmas.