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.
This fits into a related theory I’ve been stewing on for a bit based on several factors:
“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.
Is there a book of his you recommend starting with?
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.