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
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