#are anti consumerist movements

[hillbillyoracle]

Just a reminder:

The 4B movement is a TERF movement.

It's very easy to check that fact. Shut that shit down when you see it.

[dashiellqvverty]

everytime i see ppl say that ‘fight club is satirizing/criticizing toxic masculinity, Actually’ i am like. PLEASE put on your big boy thinking caps and watch it again

[diet-cokette]

kind of hate actual lifestyle movements that get co-opted into an aesthetic. like. minimalism, zero-waste, veganism, witchcraft, etc. they all are basically free ways to live life more simply. but all these corporations and influencers co-opted the movements and made them fucking aesthetics to be packaged and sold.

only buying what you need/really want is minimalism, but no, you need to make your house looked stripped down and ugly and beige to be a True Minimalist. a PBJ is vegan. but no, you need sunflower seed butter and special chia seed jam and sprouted bread to be a True Vegan. re-using your plastic tupperware grandma gave you is literally zero-waste, but no, you need NO PLASTIC WHATSOEVER OR YOULL GO TO ZERO WASTE HELL. Most witchcraft spells can be used with items from around the house, but no you need like 30 crystals, exotic herbs, and several tarot card sets to be a True Witch.

Honestly, it disgusts me. The whole point of these lifestyles is to be anti-consumerist, anti-status quo, anti-industrial. The whole point is to be pro-independence, pro-earth, pro-humanity, pro-animal. But regardless, the capitalist greed machine never stops. Shouldn't be surprised because even holy days like Christmas or Samhain (Halloween) they make into a marketplace.

[fayewoodss]

hello I am here to ask what art movements you relate to the dream team

Okay, let's do this! LONG POST! *cracks knuckles* 😤

George

I'm starting with George bc I'm a shameless Golo and he lives in my head like a worm.

I immediately associate George with expressionism. Now, this may seem strange considering his personal aesthetics are very designer streetwear and techwear, which in many way is the opposite of expressionism. However, in a lot of his wardrobe and overall personal tastes, he does have small bits of appreciation for expressionism.

For example, this Supreme shirt of his displays the piece "Reaper" by artist Josh Smith. Josh Smith is a contemporary post-modern artist and not from the original expressionist movement, but his work holds a lot of traits to expressionist artist Edvard Munch. Though I do have criticisms of Supreme and their foundation being in appropriation of Barbara Krueger, taking her anti-consumerist work and messaging to create a consumerism giant, I do admire that they've grown to collaborate, credit, and pay artists through their clothes.

(Josh Smith with Supreme and Edvard Munch)

Expressionism is very broad in style and artistry because it was the movement all about expressing personal taste and emotions through art, rather than capturing scenes as close to reality as possible (impressionism). I shared a post a few days ago about George's precious Discord profile pictures and both of them displayed a broad and vibrant spectrum of color, one being a palette knife piece and the other being a splatter piece. Now, these aren't necessarily expressionism. Like Josh Smith's work, they are post-modernist and abstract contemporary, but the usage of color and freedom in strokes puts them in a similar category.

Now, my final reasoning for George being expressionism is purely just Vincent Van Gogh. I am biased as George is my fave and Van Gogh is my fave, but recently a theory emerged about Van Gogh that he was likely red-green colorblind. When we look at Van Gogh's color palettes. He heavily relies on blues and yellows that fall within the protanopia color spectrum, whereas when he uses greens, reds, and oranges, they are often used as shading for blue and yellow. There are instances where he uses red and green with intention (his self portraits and the painting of his room), but even then when he uses red-green, it is not in a way that follows usual color theory.

It is impossible to know if Van Gogh was actually colorblind or had a color deficiency, but I do think it is a strong theory that supports his art and adds a new layer of perspective to it. Especially considering he was very unsuccessful in his lifetime and his artwork was often considered jarring and not appreciated.

George's color blindness is also fascinating to me, as per his own on stream tests, he has tested both as severe and mild, so unless we had George's vision, we don't realize exactly how much color he truly can see. But in the parasocial box in my mind, I think he would enjoy Van Gogh and expressionism as a whole.

(Vincent Van Gogh, original work left, work with protanopia filter right)

Dream

In my collage post, I mentioned impressionism for Dream, and while I do believe that to an extent, I personally think Dream might fit more into illustration and outsider art.

Illustration is an easy one to talk about because so much of his brand is simplistic and stylized in a very graphic and illustrative way. His very icon, the black and white Microsost paint smiley on the eye straining neon green, is playful, memorable, and recognizable. It's easy to replicate and remember, and through the artists and designers on his merch team, it's able to be reimagined and expanded upon.

For some context, I originally went to school for illustration, but very quickly switched into fine arts, so my knowledge of illustration as an industry is not as deep as it could be, but I know that reproduction and recognition are definitely pushed as important.

Stepping away from Dream's own branding with illustration, I think there is a strong connection from Dream to outsider art as well.

I am a huge fan of outsider art. I took multiple classes on it.I love outsider music and poetry. It is overall a movement I greatly enjoy. However, as a disclaimer, the origins of outsider art as a movement and category for art are very dubious and unethical. I won't get into all of it here, but when outsider art was initially coined, it was very exploitative of the mentally ill, disabled people, people of color, etc. I think as time has gone on and outsider art and artists alike gained audiences that were more appreciative and good faith, it has transformed into something more wholesome and celebratory.

Dream is a self-made individual. He didn't go into YouTube, content creation, and merchandising with previous learned knowledge. He's very open about being self-taught in most of his skills and endeavors. Outsider art at its core is about the uninitiated and the self-taught pursuing artistic endeavors without the fear or stress of the institution of art.

Daniel Johnston is the most notable artist within outsider music, but he was also a visual artist as well. His work is naive and honest, even when it is hamfisted and fumbled. He is genuine and truthful, but often to a fault. But he grew a cult audience that loved and appreciated him, even through his worst moments.

A little personal interjection, but I am a huge fan of Daniel and his work spoke to me through high school as someone who spent most of my life with undiagnosed autism. His death genuinely shook me and I remember the day he died so vividly that in some ways I'm still grieving. I recommend exploring his music with my whole chest, even if it may not be to your taste.

I do think in the modern world, a lot of people drawn to outsider art and the act of being self-taught in fields of interest are neurodivergent. Dream has been very open about having ADHD, and even mentioned possibly being on the [autism] spectrum (though that question was asked in a very invasive way, so I take Dream's answer with a grain of salt). I think that adds another level of connection/relation to outsider art.

I could go on and on about outsider art and how amorphous it's definitions have become, but I'll stop there for now.

(Works of Daniel Johnston)

Sapnap

In my opinion, I think Sapnap is the most open about his interests and personal aesthetics. Even if it's not a direct comment on it, he has the most furnished and decorated office, he has a clear and consistent sense of style with favored brands and imagery, and he's a big fan of anime and adult animation. He also advertises the most out of the Dream Team, so, like, get the bag, but also I'm going to tease him with art movements that directly comment on consumerism and advertisement.

Right away, I think appropriation and pop art.

Appropriation can be a scary word as we often hear it in the context of theft or bigotry. Even within the world of art, appropriation is a touchy subject as we try to define what is transformative appropriation and what is plagiarism, reference back to Supreme and Barabara Krueger.

I actually saw a Barbara Krueger show in real life, and it was nothing short of breathtaking. It was overwhelming and in your face. It was uncomfortable and eye-opening. It both meant nothing and everything as you were faced with false advertisements, bold statements, and consumerist culture.

(Barbara Krueger at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021)

The biggest name in pop art is Andy Warhol, and when it comes to Warhol, you either hate him or you love him. The man is surrounded by controversies, both good and bad, but I won't deny his influence on contemporary art. I think his bold colors, high contrast, and play on reproduction in art all fit Sapnap's personal aesthetics, similar to Dream with illustration. But in more modern pop art, I think a lot about my friend and colleague David Hernandez. David's art is provocative and at times uncomfortable, but he uses a lot of ideas and concepts from pop art and appropriation to appeal to a more modern audience, playing into nostalgia growing up in the age of the internet in a way that is reactionary. His work can be very NSFW and outright gooner brained, so if you do seek out his art, be warned of that nature. Still, his skill is insane because he uses acrylic, oil, and spray paint to make pieces that feel as if they were done digitally.

(David Hernandez)

I hope these make sense, and maybe you even found a new artist/art movement to enjoy! I do think there is flexibility within these and plenty of other movements and artists that fit these creators (like impressionism with Dream even though I didn't include it), but these stand out to me the most as fitting their identities and personal aesthetics and interests.

If anyone has more they want to add or discuss, please reblog and/or comment because I would love to hear from others on this!

[caw4brandon]

We Like, Are Totally Spies

When we think about shows that will appeal to boys. Action is the easiest to relate. Something like; Ben 10, American Dragon Jake Long, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Justice League will be on the list. It has drama, it has fights and it's cool!

However, there has been a movement in that era where specific cartoon shows aim to get girls into action. Kim Possible, Juniper Lee, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and The Winx Club are perfect examples of such shows.

There is an odd case for more girl-centric shows. Something about the need to balance femininity with action. The show needs to feel like an action that happens to have the main characters be girls. This is where today's topic comes in. We're talking about how;

- How's the Mission, Spies? -

< Totally Spies > by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel follows three teens; Sam, Clover and Alex from Beverly Hills living a secret life being Super Spies for WOOHP (World Organization Of Human Protection) under their boss; Jerry Lewis.

Their missions involve travelling the world. Fighting mad scientists and twisted outcasts who seek to dominate the world with style and gadgets that conceal themselves as fashionable equipment.

The trio plays specific archetypes. Sam (green) is the brains, Clover (red) is the fashionista/ boy obsessive and Alex (yellow) is the athlete and occasional nerd. Despite their differences, they share several common interests such as their love for shopping and spy skills of agility, hand-to-hand combat and espionage.

Across six seasons, the girls matured from high school to university students. Confronting the daily struggles of homework, social lives and their petty arch-enemy, Mandy.

As a vibe, < Totally Spies > fully leans into the Beverly Hills lifestyle of fabulous fashion and some familiar pop culture names of that era. The show has a mix of the James Bond type of super spy world filled with dull henchmen, high-tech machines and some tacky villains.

- Time to go to Plan B! -

The episodes are condensed into their own episode. Although there have been some arcs that follow specific villains who have a bit of history with the main characters.

Tim Scam is a former agent who went rogue against WOOHP and Terrence Lewis; twin brother to Jerry and a sore thumb to WOOHP. There also reoccurring allies as well. Brittney (cyan) who joined the team as a trainee, Dean from the three-part series < Evil Promotion Much? > and Blaine a freelance agent who dated Clover.

The conflicts, if we can even call them conflicts at all have aged rather strangely. Some of the villains commit petty crimes like kidnapping celebrities due to jealousy or act extreme. Like being anti-consumerist with the solution of destroying malls.

Yet, some are still relatable to this day such as a kid villain who is mad at his father for being busy as a commentary on how parental neglect can cause warped ideas in a child. Whatever, it's a pre-teen show. Let's not look into it too deeply.

The world of Totally Spies is also interconnected with several other shows; [The Amazing Spiez] and [Martin Mystery].

< Martin Mystery > follows Martin, a paranormal investigator for the Center with Martin's step-sister, Diana Lombard and Java the Caveman. Fighting monsters, urban legends and aliens.

According to a special crossover episode. Martin's boss; M.O.M (Mystery Organization Manager) and Jerry know each other. Likewise, in Amazing Spiez; Jerry is also the boss of the Clark siblings. Lee, Marc, Megan and Tony. Sadly, these shows were short-lived and cancelled.

It does raise an interesting point. Why is Totally Spies more popular? As a guess, I think it's because the chemistry between the characters is a lot more interesting and fun.

The three girls are best of friends and while they sometimes bicker over boys, responsibilities and opinions. They will always put their friendship and mission first above all else. It feels more real, in a superficial way.

That an actual girl would have a girlfriend group this tight-knit and if they ever become a part of something bigger than them. They would do it together.

- Here We Go Again! -

Tacky villains, cute super spy girlfriends and awesome gadgets aside. The show has a few good jokes here and there. Its art style borrows a lot from Anime and its colors are groovy to the eyes.

For a show that was meant to attract girls into action. The show has also garnered a large following from boys as well. I think another secret to the success of < Totally Spies > can also be because of its approach to the subject. Like I said in my introduction.

There is an odd case for more girl-centric shows. Something about the need to balance femininity with action. The show needs to feel like an action that happens to have the main characters be girls.

This show is a girl's show. The girls are unapologetic being girly. Doing girl things like shopping, manicure, dating and going on dream vacations but with their secret life as spies. The show balances it out with good action and is still using that girly theme to add to its gadgets.

Heck, some of the gadgets are stuff that I would personally want to have. The Jet Pack backpack, The Wind Tunnel 3000 Tornado Blast Hair Dryer, Lazer lipstick and the Compowder are on my list. Especially with its costume change function.

It's a show that embraces both ends of the spectrum and allows it to show its respective strengths rather than shy away from the themes. With the announcement that this show is going to have a season 7/ soft reboot. It does look promising with several concerns.

But I am hopeful that for a beloved show such as this. The girls will have a proper return and inspire a new generation of girls (and boys) to be < Totally Spies >

[the-bramble--patch]

I’ve been seeing a few posts on minimalism going around, one being @bisquitt’s post on sustainability and minimalism—how the two terms shouldn’t be conflated, and how real sustainability is about anti-capitalism in the forms of reuse, repair, and community interdependence. Another is @allstrangeandwonderful’s post on how Minimalism is an aesthetic based around coping in the "corporate hellscape" we live in—contemporary designers gravitate towards neutral colors as a respite from the warlike corporate use of color to catch the attention of a consumer (See Mina Le's video on this concept also. She offers up a few possible reasons for this trend towards "greige" interiors, one being the inundation from advertising we experience in our everyday lives).

I wanted to talk about these concepts and tie in some other things I’ve been seeing around.

Imo, minimalism is anti-consumerist, but not anti-capitalist. The lifestyle and aesthetic is intended to address the systemic problem of living in a consumerist society on an individual level. Instead of ending the capitalist system that thrusts consumerism on us all, it suggests that minimalists create a safe space away from consumerism. It is not interested in changing the system, only the individual. What really drove this home for me was watching The Financial Diet on YouTube interview The Minimalists, the guys who kicked off the trend. She keeps trying to ask them about the underlying issues Minimalism acts as a band-aid for, and they keep dodging her questions.

The lifestyle choices bisquitt offers up as sustainable are typically lumped under the umbrella of Solarpunk: “fixing shit around your house. thrifting. patching clothes and handing them down. a community garden. potluck dinner parties. farmer’s markets. a barter system among friends and neighbors. kindness. love among community members.“ These things do not conform to the minimalist aesthetic tenets of order, function, and simplicity. They are often vibrant, mismatched, and chaotic, messy even (see my post on solarpunk aesthetics here). This is because solarpunk aims to solve the same issues minimalism does, but on a societal level. Solarpunk is working towards a utopian future of degrowth, where the forces that Minimalism is in opposition to will no longer exist. This allows for everyday people to reclaim vibrancy from corporations. That busyness is only desirable in a world where capitalism isn't such a burden. Solarpunk advocates for simplicity in all but design, instead of the other way around.

Another thing is the separation between meaning and function present in Minimalism. Minimalism is often associated with deriving pleasure from experiences, not things. The physical space is deprioritized (I know the movement is about changing the physical space, but the idea is that the physical space just makes your life more efficient) for a kind of zen outlook about mind over matter. Solarpunk is much more holistic in its recognition that inner peace comes from a play between the external and internal worlds—from connection and respect for people, things, and resources. Instead of removing meaning and beauty from a space to prioritize the mind, Solarpunk instills it, to elicit interaction with the world instead of a retreat from it. Thus, Solarpunk rolls meaning and function into one: a visibly mended shirt is both functional (the hole is gone), and meaningful (it says much more about the politics of the wearer than one mended invisibly). Another example is the bottle walls commonly used in Earthships: Making the bottles visible is beautiful, and it communicates that the builder is interested in using sustainable material.

In short, minimalism is individualist while Solarpunk is collectivist, and the aesthetics of each reflect that. Retreating from a broken society will not fix said society. Sustainability needs to be solved on a societal level, so minimalism as a solution to overconsumption just isn't gonna cut it.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Queer autonomous zones and participatory publics

Bobby Noble points to ‘the simultaneity of the relations between gendered embodi- ment, sex play, and racialization inside homonormative communities, neighbour- hoods and venues for cultural production’ (Noble, 2009). Similar critiques of the queer community have been taken up by Gay Shame anarchist activists organizing in the late 1990s. In That’s Revolting! Matt/Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore docu- ments their personal experience in Gay Shame collectives in San Francisco and New York City. ‘Gay Shame emerged to create a radical alternative to the confor- mity of gay neighbourhoods, bars, and institutions – most clearly symbolized by Gay Pride’ (Sycamore, 2004: 238). Gay Shame is ‘mostly anarchist leaning’ (2004: 239), and organizes gatherings, events and direct action protests against capitalism and intersecting oppressions. A San Francisco flyer asks, ‘Are you choking on the vomit of consumerist ‘gay pride’?’ (2004: 239). Another poster entitled ‘Gay pride, my ass: It’s all about gay shame’ (2004: 240) announces an ‘autonomous space’ (2004: 240) outdoors on Tire Beach with performances, art-making, bands, instal- lations, DJs, food, kidspace, and ‘politics and play’ (2004: 240). The event hosted ‘speakers on issues including San Francisco gentrification and the US colonization of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, as well as prison, youth, and trans activism’ (2004: 241). The range of issues and events in the ‘autonomous space’ point to a very different kind of sprawling, engaged public than Berlant and Warner’s indoor, circumscribed, queer counterpublic. ‘We encouraged people to participate in cre- ating their own radical queer space, and people argued about political issues, painted, poured concrete and made a mosaic, dyed hair, and mudwrestled naked’ (Sycamore, 2004: 241). Participation is a key element in the formation of a ‘Queer autonomous space’ (2004: 237) or zone, as are multiplicities of political focus (Puerto Rico, kids, youth, prisons, trans people, art production, gentrifica- tion and so on) and an over-arching anti-capitalist practice that includes free entrance, barter and trade, dressing to ‘ragged excess’ (2004: 240), and the provi- sion of ‘free food, T-shirts and various other gifts’ (2004: 241).

Queer autonomous zones thus are open-ended spaces in which participation of all comers is encouraged through a direct (rather than liberal) democracy model. They are facilitated via engagement with a multiplicity of intersectional anti- oppression politics. Interactions in queer autonomous spaces develop sustainable social relations and value-practices, based on mutual respect, consent, sexual lib- eration, and non-normativity, in which people engage in open-ended processes of developing alternative ways of being, feeling, thinking, engaging, acting and becoming-liberated. The question is – what’s next? How do we continue to expand our movements and theorizing to extend the becoming-liberated of queer?

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments, Jamie Heckert for encour- agement and patience with my process, and Sydney Neuman for engaged proofreading.

References

Berlant L and Freeman E (1992) Queer nationality. Boundary 2 19(1): 149–180.

Berlant L and Warner M (2000) Sex in public. In: Berlant L (ed.) Intimacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 311–330.

Bordo S (1990) Reading the slender body. In: Jacobus M, Fox Keller E, Shuttleworth S (eds) Body/Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science. New York: Routledge, 83–112. Castiglia C (2000) Sex panics, sex publics, sex memories. Boundary 2 27(2): 149–175. Corber RJ, Valocchi S (eds) (2003) Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Crimp D (2002) Mario montez, for shame. In: Barber SM, Clark DL (eds) Regarding Sedgwick: Essays on Queer Culture and Critical Theory. New York: Routledge, 57–70.

Deleuze G and Guattari F (1983) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia Vol. 1. 1972. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

DeLuca KM (1999) Unruly arguments: The body rhetoric of EarthFirst!, act up, and queer nation. Argumentation and Advocacy 36(Summer): 9–21.

Duncan N (1996) Renegotiating gender and sexuality in public and private spaces. In: Duncan N (ed.) Body Space: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality. New York: Routledge, 125–143.

Dyer R (2006) Stereotyping. In: Durham MG, Kellner DM (eds) Media and Cultural Studies KeyWorks. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 353–365.

Heckert J (2004) Sexuality/identity/politics. In: Purkis J, Bowen J (eds) Changing Anarchism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 101–116.

Hennessy R (1994–95) Queer visibility in commodity culture. Cultural Critique 29(Winter): 31–76.

Jeppesen S and Visser L (Leahfish) (1996) Projectile: Stories about Puking. Toronto: self- published.

Les Panthe‘ res Roses (2004) Operation ‘‘Pepto-bismol SVP!’’ URL (accessed 12 July 2008): http:/lespantheresroses.org.

McCall L (2005) The complexity of intersectionality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30(3): 1771–1800.

Noble B (2009) Trans-Culture in the (White) City: Taking a Pass on a Queer Neighbourhood. URL (accessed 8 May 2009): http:/nomorepotlucks.org/article/ego/ trans-culture-white-city-taking-pass-queer-neighbourhood.

Sullivan N (2003) A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University Press.

Sycamore M, Berstein M (eds) (2004) That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull.

Vade D (2005) Expanding gender and expanding the law: Toward a social and legal con- ceptualization of gender that is more inclusive of transgender people. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 11: 253–316.

Warner M (2002) Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books.

On the Author

Sandra Jeppesen is an activist, writer, and Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Her research is in guerrilla texts and autonomous media, including analysis of discourses produced through anti-poverty activism, anti-colonial no-border activism, radical feminist and queer collectives, anti-racist pedagogies, and other social movement texts. Address: Communication Studies Department, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, CJ 3.230, 3rd Floor, Montreal, Canada H4B 1R6.

[1] Following Vade’s important article (2005) advocating the ‘Gender Galaxy’ which reveals the falsity of the gender/sex divide and the negative legal impact of this distinction on trans people, I am using the term ‘gender’ to be comprehensive.

[2] In the USA this is particularly true. In Canada same-sex marriage and human rights are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and immigration processes are begin- ning to include same-sex partners in sponsorship claims, as well as considering persecution for sexuality as a basis for refugee claims. These processes however remain heteronorma- tive. I’d like to thank Melissa White for sharing her insights and research on this issue.

[anti-kawaii-daily]

hii!! can you talk a bit more about anti-kawaii? is it about being the opposite of kawaii or being kawaii but not in a mainstream way?

Sure thing!

In Japan starting in the 1970s, there was a cultural phenomenon called "kawaisa" (or 可愛さ in the original kanji), and it quickly became a staple of Japanese pop culture (and to a lesser extent other East and Southeast Asian countries as well). Kawaisa essentially turned Japan from the warrior and power based culture that was present in the country up until the end of World War II (which led to many theorists jokingly or not speculating that the reason this cultural shift occurred was due to Japan losing the war) into a country that places cuteness above all else in mainstream culture.

Since languages and terms evolve over time, eventually kawaisa became known as "kawaii", the most well known term for cuteness there. Kawaii culture is taken very seriously there, with things such as packaging on products and industrial products having elements of cuteness.

These construction barriers are a great example of kawaisa/kawaii in even the oddest places.

However, with time people began to get a bit fed up with mainstream kawaii due to essentially feeling like it's either A, promoting consumerism; B, used as a way to dismiss and discard "non cute" societal things such as illness (physical and mental), nonstandard and nonconventional standards of beauty, etc. ; or C, folks just got tired of it.

Enter the Superflat movement and anti-kawaii...

The Superflat Pop movement essentially criticized the consumeristic elements of kawaii culture, and soon enough it began to grow into what is now known as "anti-kawaii". This movement essentially allowed people to view the whole idea of cuteness in a much wider spectrum that before (even Erokawaii, which while on the kawaii spectrum, essentially allowed women to not feel like their sexual liberation makes them less cute or desirable by society, thus making it a bit of a middle ground between kawaii and anti-kawaii in my opinion).

If you are interested in learning more about kawaii culture in general I suggest checking these links out.

Sorry for the long answer bud, hopefully it's accurate.

[hadesoftheladies]

One of the biggest reasons that I know majority of current transgender ideology is faux-oppression is because of how copy-paste it’s analysis is, which makes its lack of serious academic thought that much more obvious. it’s activists use buzz words from other activist movements like the black liberation movement and feminism (“black trans lives matter”/“cis women can’t identify as transwomen”), co-opt terms from other oppressed groups like the intersex community (AFAB/AMAB), and when it comes to creating their own language, the words are utter nonsense, like “transmisogyny”, which is a nonsense word that pairs two charged words together without considering the internal meaning of either.

what oppression do trans-people face for being transgender? being trafficked (that’s usually black, homosexual people in poorer areas), refusal of hormones or surgery (which are damaging to your body), perception of transness (usually homophobic or misogynistic hatred), being killed (black people again), being the wrong gender (gender is made up you can act and wear whatever you like, and if it is harming you, is it not more helpful to reject gender than redeem it?) And yea, there can be issues of intersection, but what about transness is specifically targeted or resisted on a structural level? The analysis has to keep borrowing from other struggles (being a woman, homo/bisexual gnc person in a patriarchal misogynistic world, being black, the taboo of being intersex) and then labeling those issues as “trans” or “gender” issues. Dysphoria is disorder brought on by existing in a sick social environment, much like dysmorphia and depression can be (because gender isn’t innate). It isn’t about “female” or “male” brains. These are very real issues that women, gnc LGB and intersex people have gone through. Is it a coincidence that these demographics are where dysphoria most thrives? but they’ll never analyze that. gender has to be innate. they won’t analyze how consumeristic trans culture is. they’ll cry about how awful the trans genocide is, but the black trans-identified people dying in brothels won’t push most of them to criticize porn culture or criticize the pro-porn trans icons in their group. interesting.

which is further evident in the huge absence of internal diversity of thought. the rise of micro identities and the way a lot of “queer” activists speak (the endless virtue signaling and verbal diarrhea) shows that this is an “oppression product.” they popularized oppression olympics. having a micro identity is a fad. who is being denied a job for identifying as greysexual? mom and dad I’m so sorry I’m sapiosexual please don’t kick me out.

most prominent trans icons are from the rich white upper class. and also mostly male. they are product influencers, convincing women and children to please buy thing so they can finally be satisfied. isn’t being part of a niche underground “oppressed” group cool? when your oppressed people listen to you, and doesn’t that just feel so good? it’s so white. it’s so capitalist America. it’s so MRA in how it trivializes historic, academic and global human rights movements. like listening to a porn-addicted man ramble on about how feminism is actually just about hating men, and anti-racism is about hating white people.

devoid of any true social analysis, because then we’d actually have to talk about the underlying rot which real activist groups are being killed and censored and disrupted to stop addressing.

[commajade]

i've talked about this before but i wanted to sum up my thoughts again:

because compressed modernity and militarized hyperindustrialization are the conduit through which south korea entered the modern world, south korean feminism right now has reached its current point at an extremely rapid pace (joseon being a patriarchal feudal society just 100 years ago) but as a political movement is somewhat stuck in the 1970s when compared to the US. this is due to the simultaneous colonial impositions of 1. the violently trans exclusionary radfems in online spaces being stoked by white women in the imperial core, becoming a small but extremely vocal and visible minority that makes other women steer away from feminism entirely and 2. defanged choice-based individualist consumerist feminism being presented as an alternative to politically transgressive feminist ideas and actions that are so heavily stigmatized in media/common discourse.

in addition to these factors, south korea is a racially homogenous ethnic population where more advanced politics based on race can't form easily because the glorified U.S. ideological and military presence obscures global racial dynamics. the republic of korea is also a violently anti-communist state so marxist feminisms are very difficult to publicly develop.

i am however talking about popular movements though; there is a lot of scholarship around gender, colonialism, and class in south korean academia and one of my marxist professors said that south korea is the most exciting place for new academia on post structuralist marxist theory in asia. this is also mediated by the state but it's important to not overlook.

[gayleviticus]

reading 'jesus: a life in class conflict' which is a secular Marxist reading of Jesus and his movement (which they interpret as far more complex than 'jesus was a communist' but was still v concerned w inverting the status of rich and poor, while also not idolising him or treating him as perfect ) and their interpretation of the cleansing of the temple is interesting bc they take it as an attack on the temple as a symbol of economic exploitation of the establishment, which is embedded in the moneychanging

and it's interesting bc they cut against the typical Christian interpretation, which tends to view it as a repudiation of the sacrificial system or Judaism as a whole, or alternatively a criticism of defiling sacred space with exchanging of money (which is not really the same thing as economic injustice)

but they also criticise the more liberal interpretation, which often gets used to defuse the implicit anti Semitism of the Christian one, which holds that the moneychangers were necessary for the function for the temple and so Jesus must have been mad about something else (or even that Jesus was just having a tantrum and didnt grasp the complexities of how the Temple worked). you can understand where it comes from; Christians make a big deal about how the moneychangers were such a consumerist perversion of the Temple and there's enough unpleasant tropes about greedy Jews you get why it's an uncharitable take you'd want to push back on.

but jesus a life in class conflict thinks this is a liberal projection, and in fact connect it to the same kind of mindset that dismisses abolition of police or military or prison. sure, maybe the moneylenders were integral to the function of the Temple sacrificial system. but does that make them immune to criticism or to imagining a system that doesn't depend on such a source of economic exploitation? things can be necessary to the way the world currently runs, but that doesn't mean the way the world currently runs is itself necessary or inevitable. Jesus (from a secular historical POV) didn't have to have a complete concrete plan for what this new ideal system would look like to take issue with the way the Temple apparatus was a source of economic exploitation

the authors might not be perfectly right here, maybe Jesus really was mad about something else - but I think even if their hypothesis is incorrect it is a relevant point that something being 'necessary' doesn't make it good. it's good to nuance and question our handed down assumptions about the NT, especially on the lookout for anti semitism; but those liberal reinterpretations can in turn be lacking and obscured by our own assumptions

[watsername]

it’s so wild to me that like social media and influences have tried to like . force punk and grunge into media friendly capitalistic and consumerist structures like grunge makeup going from like 5 steps looking purposefully messy to 27 looking beautiful still and punk becoming key aspects of designer and high end fashion influences like these subcultures weren’t founded on ideas of anti consumerism and commercialism and individualism and rejection of the polished perfection expected of society like the looks are cute but they’ve strayed from the original intent of the movements they mimicked

[sapphic-aesthete]

I have always been into various alternative music/subcultures since my preteen years and it genuinely saddens me how conformist everything has become in the last couple of years. Instead of keeping the original anti-establishment values, I feel like pretty much all of them have been coopted by capitalism and young, consumerist teenagers/young adults who only care about aesthetic and not the actual values of these subcultures. Usually these subcultures originated among working class people who didn't have much money and nowadays, most of these self proclaimed "alt" individuals buy fast fashion and continue to pile up clothes then get bored of it after a week. What I really want to talk about is the fact that these subcultures were political in some way, some more than others. What prompted this post is a tiktok I saw of a woman explaining "downsides of riot grrrl" as a feminist movement and of course her main point was calling it "a terf/terf infested movement." It genuinely concerns me that nowadays any and all form of feminism that primarily centers around being female and what that entails is "bad feminism". While there can be discussion about real issues like racism within riot grrrl, the main point these so called activists bring up is always "transphobia". Women are not allowed to center feminism, the literal movement for our liberation, around ourselves. It's insane.

[cathkaesque]

if you could travel back in time, is there a specific time and place you'd want to go? assuming you'd instantly know the local language and not bring back a plague

I have a tonne of thoughts about this actually. I would go back to the 1984 miners strike, armed with all the knowledge and government documents that my bf has uncovered during his research. We both fantasise often about going back in time to fix the mistakes that happened during the 80s, in order to prevent the destruction of the world as ongoing today.

The 1984 miners' strike is one of the fundamental world turning points - it's when the ideas of resources should be used for need, rather than profit, versus the idea that resources exist to make money and should be thrown away if they don't, are explicitly tested and the latter wins out. The working class movement never recovers and the social bases of its existence are destroyed. Capital taken out of national industries is exported abroad, and Britain's economy becomes a consumerist. Fundamentally, it's this approach that has destroyed the world.

The strike was utterly winnable - Thatcher takes on each individual group of combative workers one by one (first inner city riots in 1979-80, then the steel workers in 1980, then rail workers in 1982, the miners in 1984, local government in 1985, print workers in 1986, dock workers in 1989). If all of these groups had taken unified action at once then the government would have folded - they say so themselves in their internal discussions. There were multiple opportunities for joint action - there is an attempted general strike in Wales that fails to get off the ground due to poor coordination.

The other thing as well is how close the Labour Party came to being led by Tony Benn - in the 1981 Deputy Leadership he was basically a handful of votes away from unseating right wing ballsack Dennis Healey (50.4% vs 49.6%). He could have won a leadership challenge against Foot, and definitely could have beaten Kinnock in the 1983 leadership election had his seat not been abolished in the election of that year. A Benn party would have backed the strikes, rather than tried to sabotage them like Kinnock's ilk did.

The other turning point is post strike, the transformation of the National Union of Mineworkers from a workplace union first and foremost to an organisation that represented the whole coalfield community. Women in the pit communities built an alternative welfare system in the form of Women Against Pit Closures, which provided communities with essentials as well as manning picket lines. There was a motion at NUM conference in 1985 to give WAPC branches affiliate membership, but this was defeated largely for entirely misogynistic reasons. If this had succeeded, and the NUM had invested in developing and supporting these branches rather than , they could have retained some of their political organisation post pit closure. Furthermore, this would then have given other community based movements such as the Anti-Poll Tax Leagues a model for something that could exist after the strike.

This transition, from workplace to community union, was achieved in Bolivia which went through a very similar process - the tin miners were the vanguard of the workers' movement there, and had won the nationalisation of their mines, which were all closed when the price of tin dropped in 1984. The miners kept their political traditions alive as they moved into informal work in El Alto and coca growing in Chapare, and were the base of the CSUTCB peasants union, the COR-El Alto informal workers' union, and the FEJUVE community union. These organisations were the political foundation for Evo Morales' transformation of that country. I really do feel strongly that the same could have happened in the UK - they could have provided an anchor to left wing challenges that broke through in the 2000s (Ken Livingstone's mayorship of London, George Galloway's Respect Party) which failed due to the terrible politics of the people that led them.

However, this would require me to have established myself in advance of the strike - so I would probably go back to 1979, or potentially earlier to 1968 to properly embed myself in the culture.

[makesims]

there’s something so funny about ts4 having grunge dlc when grunge is an anti-consumerist movement

[postschizophreniccyberspace]

>ID has been chosen

>inferiority complex injected

> t̶͈̏͊ḧ̷̡́e̵̠̔͆ ̸̓̌ͅs̷̤͍̆͘ẻ̸̮̫̈l̷͛͒ͅf̷̜̮͗ ̴̗͙̂̏i̸̥̟̿s̴͉̹͑͌ ̵͓̆̚ḧ̸̜́a̸̬̓̓͜c̶̳̗̾ǩ̸̠̠è̸͍̣d̴̻̣̈́̌

The post schizophrenic catastrophe is chained by the superego mechanisms of the system dynamics. The religio-superego system continues its existence “as a Trojan” on the prefrontal CPU with its deleuzean schizoaccelerativist and hegelian obsessivecompulsivist accumulative sequences in the lines of code inside neo-capitalistOs.

111000101000000010011100010011010110000101101110001011000010000001111001011011110111010101110010001000000110100001100101011000010110010000100000011010010111001100100000011010000110000101110101011011100111010001100101011001000011101100100000011110010110111101110101001000000110100001100001011101100110010100100000011101110110100001100101011001010110110001110011001000000110100101101110001000000111100101101111011101010111001000100000011010000110010101100001011001000010000100001010

Egoistic essence (̸̓̌ͅs̷̤͍̆͘ẻ̸̮̫̈l̷͛͒ͅf̷̜̮͗ ̴̗͙̂̏) has been attacked by “identity worm” in the bio-cyber collective unconscious space. Digital consumerist cults reached their peak point through paranoid compulsive historical delusion.

>Vulgtlagln gnaiih

>Vulgtlagln gnaiih

>Vulgtlagln gnaiih

Post deleuzo-guattarian schizophrenia symptoms have become a pathalogically absorbable identity in itself and started to actualize itself as a stereotypical behavioural pattern in our neo capitalist fascistic structures. So these symptoms no longer work in correlation with deterritorialization and reterritorialization but with the territory itself. The root causes of Deleuze and Guattari's critique of Hegelian dialectics recurred in their own schizocapitalist-schizoanarchist accelerationism as a problematic software bug. This bug represents itself in ourselves as a todays identity crisis. Žižek as a hegelian himself pragmatically digged this bug in his book called Organs without Bodies. The main trigger of his critiques actually caused in a deep political positionist condition. Hegelian obsessive and neurotic control mechanisms as known as the immanent critique, that Žižek conservatively advocates, are in conflict with the Deleuzo-Guattarian accelerative and passive freedom illusion. But the two futuristic -as determining the historical processes end- positionism actually works for the same purpose. For example, we can think a object, let’s name the object “A”. “A” is in past of his potential substantiation at space time continuum. Hegelian anthropology works with the historical data for determinating the potential future situation. In that example, the place should object needs to be at is determinated by chained anthropoligical reasoning. And the historical process, with the conscious events “marxist revolutionism etc.”, became a need for the objects future position. In the example we try to propound this “movemental process” reflect itself as pushing the “A” to determined forward point on 3d area. So the hegelian method creates a obsessive compulsive statute and pathalogically pressures the “A” (and commoditize the object) for “actualization” becaming the futuristic output. On the other hand the Deleuzean essentialism pulls the object from the future standpoint “the A” to the futuristic output with deterritorialization and reterritorialization process in the 3d area. This Atraditional substructurism looks very freedomish at the first place but for the object itself this has no difference between the hegelian inputs. These two predictionist adjectivist situation intersects in the objects future position in a way or another.

Anti-Oedipus aligns itself with the replicants, because, rather than placing a personal unconscious within the organism, it places the organism within the machinic unconscious. 'In the unconscious there are' no protect-able cell-structures, but only populations, groups, and machines’. (1)

>The self, The objectivized potential, The Unique had been consumed by the system.

>Post sacrificial-cannibalism self-cannibalism became a doppelganger of linguistical adjectives.

Quantum individualization, unlike the ontological or anthropological dogmaticism or specificationism, needs to be superpositionist. Pre-Diagnostic Autistic self -unique- nihilizes everything except his “self”. This nihilistic black holish consumism is his “superposition”. So that the self nihilize the form and the essence it encounters at the same time with the difference of the essence and form, that it nihilized before, of themselves. This superposition princible makes the self resemble subatomic particle. This particle like behaviour, similar to dialectical methodology, exists for the purpose of creation of self. The self in a consumerist role creates, actualizes, territorizes (as a deleuzean term) itself with the process of nihilization -swallowization- of the environment. So when we go back to the dialectical method it becomes clear that self is the hegelian absolute -or in a different perspective, spinozian substance- that absorbes and consumes the unity and difference for its existence. Therefore, self is the “process” and the “fixity” at the same time. The superposition of self actualized itself again.

god—AИd-/\/\4nkInD-----Ha\/Eeeee----- /0иcEяNeeEEed--=Tttth€eeeeeMmselL\/eSss----=---foГгггг---NooҬhıİıııııng;---=--FFffҨг—nNnnoO000tHinGgggg---_-_-__--Б|_|Tttt-----------------=tHhheemMmSeL||\/eSssss.------|_ЄТтт--_--__===mEЭЭe---TTtth€И---------------------------=-==L|||1KkkE\/\/1sEEeee---/_[]nCcceEerRrnNn—mysSssseeeeeeee?????lllllFff--------------foRr---MaySSeyseEeeL|lf,-wWWw|-|oooooaMmmm===EEeeQqquuaaally____---WWw\/\//IIII11tTtthhH GoDd_---TtTttThhhEEeenO00[]thiiiiNnng----====---=)¿¿????-------{{{{{{{[][]OFFFffff---===44aLLlll------------------------------oOTTtheEERrrSSSssssss,--==WwHhhhhOOOOo___----4MMm=Myall,WwHhh(oo)AM am amTheEeONlYwA4nYTT--------======================-------__________________----(2)

Nick land, Fanged Noumena, Urbanomic/Sequence Press, 2012, pg.320

Stirner, The Unique and Its Property

-φ