Not to sound like some asshole elitist but the rampant materialism of niche subcultures is so weird. I have fallen victim to it before so I'm not perfect, but it urks me how monetized hobbies and general interests can be
I have a burner reddit account and recently stumbled upon cottagecore. It seemed nice at first and like it was a group of people wanting to slow down, focus on sustainable practices, and all that jazz. Instead I realized it's just a bunch of white middle class people larping as grandmas, baking bread for the aesthetic and ordering stuff off of Amazon and Shein to take selfies with. Legit every recent post is someone showing off some stupid shirt or knicknack they found at a store - no discussions on sustainability, gardening, etc. Any hobby subreddit is full of links of people trying to sell shit you dont need - I got into longboarding and the sub tried convincing me to buy $300 wheels. I can't post in the archery subreddit unless I have the latest Hoyt. Don't even get me started on the fitness groups.
This is not coherent at all. Again, I'm not perfect at all or immune to materialism. But for some reason it's just really grinding my gears this morning I figured a site full of communists would get it. End rant
That's because the point of reddit is to advertise this stuff, even if unintentionally. This is what they want. A site where users organically get each other to buy shit. It's much easier to buy upvotes than to pay for an advert campaign. Reddit's business model is bluring the line between selling agendas and organic, grassroots user curated content. You throw consumerist tendencies in there and this is what you have.
You're definitely right. The rampant advertising on Reddit and other sites feels even more insidious than out front advertising like what you hear on podcasts. A podcast has never made me inclined to buy something but I've made db purchases through the "organic" advertising of reddit and other forums, probably bc the format makes it seem like a nice fellow human making a suggestion and not a company blatantly trying to profit
Things gives you power to do things, marketing make it seem like more expensive things will substitute your skill at using the thing. people (should) buy expensive things when their skill outpaces the instrument or they start seeing limitations. As people see proficient skilled person - expensive stuff, they think they need expensive stuff.
Good point. I definitely spent more time researching the best hybrid bike to look for at my local shops than actually riding said bike. Turns out the price tag doesn't make using it easier or the will to actually use it stronger
That sub had a post just saying the user bought plastic resin toadstool ornaments at an import shop. I asked the audience if pre made plastic knickknacks were Cottagecore and… crickets. Not even downvoted.
one more reason why it's good that goblincore is a thing. more focus on found, thrifted or selfmade stuff, an aesthetic that embraces it when things are imperfect, damaged and used due to the focus on / acceptance of chaos and weirdness. it's a bit as if it's an attempt to reclaim cottagecore from commercialization and consumerism.
i mean, sure, you can commercialize goblincore as well. people already do that and it's just a matter of time until major fashion brands just switch color palettes to earthtones and slap a toadstool or a bunch of cute cartoon worms on everything to make goblincore mainstream, but you unfortunately have that with every subculture / aesthetic in capitalism. it's the constant cycle of recuperation and detournement that the situationists talked about.
I hear you. I switched to wet shaving with a double edged razor years ago because it's a better shave and you can save a lot of money...
Or rather you can if you don't listen to the people online who insist that you need a hundred and fifty dollar razor, a two hundred dollar badger-hair brush and an array of fancy soaps, aftershaves and paraphernalia.
I'm too lazy so I just run hair clippers over my face every other day and go for that stubble look.
Very good observation. In Dick Hebdige's 1979 book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, he says the following about subcultures (although he was primarily studying English punk rockers): "Subculture is concerned first and foremost with consumption. It operates exclusively through the leisure sphere" (94) "It communicates through commodities" "Each new subculture establishes new trends, generates new looks and sounds which feed back into the appropriate industries" (95). The idea being that it's all about an outward style which companies can capitalize on. This throws subcultural members into the push-and-pull of "selling out" or "remaining core," although the ones you identify don't seem to have a problem with the former
Reposting a similar rant I made in a thread a couple months ago:
I’m tired, generally, of being sold lifestyle or aesthetic stuff.
For instance, I’m into old hand tools. [edited out a few lines where I justify my interest]… Anyway, hand tools, I think they’re neat and I think it’s neat to build stuff with them.
Which brings me to Mortise & Tenon Magazine, a publication specifically about hand tools and hand-tool woodworking. I’ve got nothing against this magazine in particular, while I’m not yet a subscriber it seems like the team behind it is doing good work and trying to make a living while writing about an extremely niche hobby. But, when I was viewing their youtube content a few weeks ago, it became clear to me that the magazine isn’t like other woodworking magazines that I’ve encountered, M&T are clearly also selling an aesthetic and a lifestyle. That lifestyle being a conscious rejection of consumerist culture for something more ‘meaningful’. Not that a hobby centered around creative expression isn’t actually meaningful, but the notion of that being a selling point for an entire new way of life just irks me. Very few people are going to be able to make any sort of living doing some weird Thoreau shit.
I guess my point is I’m suspicious of people selling a Lifestyle in the same way I’m suspicious of the self-help section of a bookstore. It feels like an entire industry of people, some genuine and some quacks, have all managed to commodify something that was good or could have been good but now, through that commodification, is just one more way to chase an empty promise of fulfillment through consumption.
Oh thats another interesting layer. Kinda reminds me of eco friendly companies that convince people that buying up all their bamboo straws and bamboo towels and bars of soap and have it shipped across the world is better for the planet than just using what you already have on hand.
Yeah I wanted a nice fountain pen and the fountain pen subreddit was great for getting me one. But there are people in that sub who buy dozens of pens worth hundreds each. You can only write with one at a time folks. Why do you need 30 fountain pens?!
It's capitalist alienation by design. The atomization is intentional. This is what neoliberals always wanted: identities for sale.
The jackhole that claimed the end of the USSR was the end of history later said he was :surprised-pika: that people clung to identities outside of the global products they consumed.
Neoliberals didn't entirely win, but their vampirism has done a lot of damage.
In music and in many other things, "-core" as a suffix seems to mean "take one element of something and inflate its importance until it's kind of obnoxious outside of a niche group."
I think this also speaks to how the predominant way people under capitalism see themselves is as consumers.
So if you're interested in something the way you're going to engage with that thing is through consumption.
Adorno wrote about this in Culture Industry, one of his essays is all about how "free time" is subjected to commodification and all that shit, how "hobbies" are marketed as ways to get you to buy more shit and you should really just vibe and fart around and chill and stuff
It's been a while since I've even thought about it but I remember it being pretty relevant.
