73
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
73 points (98.7% liked)
World News
2268 readers
175 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
It is truly astonishing to consider how anyone could believe that Russians would rise up over frivolous matters like this. Moreover, I'd argue that there is a certain degree of racism in these narratives that rely on the notion that Russians or Chinese cannot independently produce products comparable to Western standards on their own.
In fact, the whole portrayal of liberal democracy as the sole legitimate form of governance amounts to little more than contemporary marketing for colonialism. This concept functions as a pretext for invasions disguised as benevolent civilizing missions and is directly connected with the notion that Western goods are superior. It's part of an overarching narrative that portrays the West as bringing enlightenment to "uncivilized" societies.
Can you imagine the blood in the streets if americans couldn't get their chicken nuggets? No more coors light? I think it's an american-centric line of thought to believe that other countries would revolt over losing their little treats like the US would.
Ya know, I don't think this is that far off from the truth, though naturally there are degrees to product worship and dependency on it among USians. I do think it makes a kind of sense if you consider how many in the US (in varying degrees) are void of a sense of identity or social responsibility and drift in nihilism. I mean, people are to some extent encouraged to form their identity around what products they're into. And on a national level, what else have USians got? Jingoism? Pride for being a colonizer and imperialism in a barbaric legacy? Some people in the US do have religion, but with varying levels of taking it seriously.
I myself have had times where I get very into a product (such as a video game) and the surrounding "community" (though the word "community" in this kind of usage is sort of silly with how loosely affiliated and discordant it tends to be). I'm lacking sources on it right now that I can recall, but I feel like I read once that this was intentional in some way, the conjoining of "product" and "community."
But either way (intentional or no) you can observe it with ease online, where it's virtually inevitable to run into zealots for a given product who will defend it so viciously, you'd think it was their firstborn on trial.
If you find it, I'd appreciate a share. Any searches including the two words are poisoned by articles trying to tell you how to turn your brand into a community. Each search is just page after page of that shit.
I'll try to remember to if I can find it. Web searching has indeed become a pain. I tried to do some just now, but didn't have much luck. Through a link in one article, I came upon one source that is vaguely related to what we're talking about, but not really on the point of specifically combining product and community. It's also sort of a shallow summary and may be stuff you've already heard of: https://www.businessinsider.com/birth-of-consumer-culture-2013-2
These quotes from it specifically stand out to me:
But, this isn't really the specificity of intent I thought I had found something on before. Maybe I confused someone extrapolating intent from outcomes in the past, or it's just out there in the mass of the internet somewhere and is hard to find.