This shows consumerism as its finest (or worst). Easy for me to say control your urges but it does help by not buying any crap that you might think you want and clutter up your place
You ever think about how we fully embraced the consumer lifestyle. Every minute of our life is now just an ad. From podcasts to Mr. Beast to sports. Its packaged as entertainment and fun but its all created to make us feel like we need to go buy something. Look at how enraged bud lite made people. That only happens to people whose identity gets twisted with products. People were legitimately hurt by a can of beer.
The 90s was this last ditch anti corporate anti consumerism lifestyle that I don't think we'll ever see again. Sub cultures need individuals to get popular and spread the message. But the only way to get popular today is to endorse and hawk merchandise because all our mediums of communication are owned by advertisers. The only purpose all the website, social media and others have is to act as hidden ads to get us to consume so how could anyone ever make headway who opposes that.
Hell majority of our censorship is due to ads. Companies want crisp clean PG spaces to put their products next too. They don't want to risk controversy so they indirectly force company's to remove anything that would create those risks.
I think we're fucked and its only going to get more pervasive.
Yeah the 90s with their last-ditch checks notes utter dominance of shopping malls.
It's fun to see Gen Xers be nostalgic for their subculture as if it were mainstream lol
It was pretty main stream. For decades before the 90s too. But the 90s was the last decade where it was popular.
Remember what fear grabbed the most attention. The most popular movie was usually some form of cultural warning about the spread of rampant consumerism.
The most popular horror movies at the time were zombie movies which are symbolically a warning about the rampant spread of a virus that turns everyone you know into a mindless consuming monster that hangs out at malls. Tons of music, art and content that pointed out how bad all this consuming is.
That doesn't exist today like it did then. People were born into this crazy 24/7 commercialization of every inch of space they lay their eyes on. Most don't even see that the majority of their free time is taken up by advertising and how it all erodes their ability to just enjoy something because anything you enjoy is an opportunity to capture your attention and your attention is an opportunity for someone to sell that space as a billboard.
It was much easier to see this stuff in the 90s because that was a transitional point between mass media into this social media doom scrolling attention capital we have today. Then a new generation took over who were born into this and don't know anything else but this.
Meanwhile Gen Z is full of literal socialists.
Anti-consumer sentiment didn't go away, it evolved.
Is it?
Literal socialists?
There's some but i don't think it's full. Look at who gets paid on social media and gets the most attention. It isn't the socialists. Its the prime, death water Hawking look at how rich I am while I sell you water in can at best buy that gen z but a lot of attention into. Follow the money. Gen Z is not full of socialists according to the content they consume
Yes, literal socialists and the "raise taxes on the rich wait no not me" people are both anti-consumer
