This fits into a related theory I’ve been stewing on for a bit based on several factors:
- The argument here that Vance presents himself as hillbilly but grew up in an Ohio suburb
- The “small town” the “Try that in a small town” singer is from is the fourth largest city in Georgia
- The rise of “bougie redneck” culture
- I was watching a video on an urbanist channel talking about sone of the comments they got on another video criticizing those oversized pickup trucks. One of them was arguing that “public transit is fine for you city folk, but in the country where most Americans live we need trucks!” The channel host then pointed out that according to census data only ~30% of Americans live in rural areas.
- Modern country music bearing a much stronger resemblance to butt rock than traditional country music
“Country culture” is no longer being defined and presented by people who actually live in the country. People from suburbs/exurbs now define it and present themselves as “country folk” as a romanticized rugged individual escapism from the boring, cookie cutter, stroad hellscape that is their actual existence.
“Country culture” is no longer being defined and presented by people who actually live in the country. People from suburbs/exurbs now define it and present themselves as “country folk” as a romanticized rugged individual escapism from the boring, cookie cutter, stroad hellscape that is their actual existence.
Just the latest point of evidence that Baudrillard was a Cassandra level prophet of late capitalism.
Simulation and simulacra deals precisely with the symbolic degradation that's being described in OP's comment, where at first the symbol refers to reality, but with timeaand the processes of contemporary culture under late capitalism it becomes so self-referential it holds no communicative value whatsoever, referencing itself rather than reality.
It's also the only Baudrillard book I've read, but it's his best known one.
One of the best super common examples of this that basically everyone can see would be Star Wars. How initially the movie was just cool, then it became a cultural touchstone and liking the movie became cool, then it became over exposed and disliking people who like the movie became cool.
Each stage of that is another level of cultural abstraction. Reaching a point of no return where there's nothing real and you can't even see the real. You bootstrap it's existence from nothing.
That show, Duck Dynasty, felt like a step in that direction. I never watched the show, but iirc they were all wealthy from a family business and that picture leaked of them like a decade before the show where they look like they're out of a Banana Republic ad. The bead and camo thing is a branding exercise which is all that seems like now, a consumer identity.
Pertaining to your fourth point, there are a lot of guys driving around my area with a redneck affect in $100K+ gigantic pickup trucks that are pristine. I live in a urban area where you have to drive a good 30+ minutes to find something resembling a farm. Amusingly, I grew up in an actually rural, post-industrial Appalachian town on a small family farm so I have more bona fides than most of these people. I just became a leftist instead.
Duck Dynasty was one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time and single handedly saved Bass Pro Shop.
A fucking mid sportswear and boating store rebranded to become the Disney of retail. They even have the Pyramid resort that has become Disneyland for conservatives and Menanites.
Also Kid Rock, who started making country music and talking about the South despite being the son of car dealership owning boater kulaks from Detroit.
That's a terrible portmanteau. I agree very much agree the sentiment but that's just bad writing. Also, I didn't know about Z network until now. Seems pretty rad.
To add on to that can we please just stop comparing literally everything to pornography.
To add on to that can we please just stop comparing literally everything to pornography.
"NO!"
What should we call our subreddit about cool pictures? I know, ____Porn!- is "sex positive" in its own self-declared specific way that shares the goony pornbrained values of its favorite sex pests such as Louis CK and Justin Roiland.
For example, John Steinbeck had some contact with poor people as a reporter. But as he wrote about migrant camps for “The Grapes of Wrath,” he relied heavily on the notes of Sanora Babb – herself poor and formerly homeless – who traveled to migrant camps throughout California for the Farm Security Administration. Babb’s boss – a friend of Steinbeck’s – had secretly shown the author her notes, without her permission.
Babb would go on to also write a novel based on her experiences, which was bought by Random House. But the publishing house killed it after “Grapes of Wrath” came out, and it wasn’t published until 2004, when the author was 97 years old. That year, she told the Chicago Tribune – correctly, I might add – that Steinbeck’s work “isn’t as accurate as mine.”
Jesus Christ, that's scummy. The book in question is Whose Names Are Unknown
"Poornography"... like fuckin' imitation leather? Got to spring for "genuine" at least or it's not sexy
