I'll start: the whole social media thing of everybody having to be a "brand" and the mainstream usage of corporate language (branding, SEO, engagement, content).
Related: trying to turn every single interesting post into a media empire. I remember a little while ago a funny video of a cat failing to use a treadmill hit the top of Reddit, and then suddenly it had its own subreddit and daily posts and just like that the magic was completely squeezed out in the pursuit of riches from viral fame
God pretty much everything related to social media, influencers, etc is just garbage
I despise the use of the term "side-hustle" that's cropped up in recent years. It romanticizes having to dedicate every spare moment to making money just to scrape by, by passing it off as entrepreneurship. Also I hate entrepreneurship, most of the "innovations" they have seem to be something which already exists, but with fewer worker protections.
The commodification of every single aspect of life. Not trying to go full anprim but I want to opt-out of this way of living but I can't even do that because everything is owned by someone or some entity.
Oof I feel this. Whenever I complain about modern society and someone suggests I go live in the woods, I laugh because I literally can't, it's all owned by someone or something and they don't allow squatters (not to mention things like climate change affecting everyone, property rights or borders be damned)
I've given thought to the idea of communes but they usually have some weird religious undertones or their own inherent problems. Small communal living like that would be ideal, tho. I kinda admire that Maine hermit guy that just said fuck it and went and lived in the woods for close to 30 years.
Small Business culture. The US really, really worships small businesses to the point of extreme fetishism. If I start selling plants I grew in my house online with a Facebook page, that makes me a small business even though there's only one employee (myself).
My business, as en entity that consists only of myself and my own labor, is now something separate from myself and is automatically added to a protected and much aggrieved class that both liberals and conservatives love to use as a pawn in their capitalist rhetoric. I really feel like to most of the US population, the small business might as well be the lowest rung on the ladder because the worker doesn't exist.
And it's weird as hell because small businesses can go from single employee/self owned to an establishment with 500 poorly paid employees. It's all the same to them.
If I die of coronavirus, Americans would sooner bemoan the loss of my "small business" than my own death, the person behind it. It's so weird.
ok this one is small but interesting and it weirds me the fuck out refusing to conform means literally no one understands what I'm doing.
the way we talk about and deal with money in interpersonal relationships is totally, completely fucked. people loan loved ones money and in extreme cases take them to court to extract repayment.
but it happens in smaller ways too. we're so wrapped up in the worship of money and have so deeply ingrained that our worth is tied up in our ability to repay debt that we insist on turning things into debt even when they're not.
personally, I got lucky, and the one decent thing my parents ever did was shield me from all that such that I never internalized debt culture. it means that the way I treat money and people is completely different from the norm: I don't loan money, ever. if I have the capacity to do something for someone that I care about, I just do it, even when it's costly and it weirds me the fuck out when people try to insist on repaying me. from the perspective of debt culture, there's an inherent superiority to being in the position of a debtor, and I get that intellectually. but what I'm hearing when people insist on repayment is that my gift, made on the basis of our relationship, must be returned.
this is so wildly, super fucked because what's the monetary value of a human relationship? can any amount of money ever touch real feeling, ever erode love?
apparently we believe it can. and I refuse to live in that world.
Same, if I give someone money or help them with something I don't expect anything in return, I see it as a gift. If the relationship is mutual surely at some point I might need help and the other person will be there for me? And it weirds me the fuck out when they insist on "repaying" as soon as possible.
I like giving gifts to friends and sometimes I worry I'm secretly a manipulative abuser by forcing them into a debt that they're then obligated to repay, despite me being very explicit about it being a gift that they don't need to repay or anything
Oh hey, me too! I only want for everyone to be happy, but sometimes I wonder if there isn't a more selfish motive for helping out. Maybe I just have low self esteem, and crave the validation that comes with being indispensable.
The hyper-competitive stuff wears me down so bad. Everything about it is structured to make the majority of people miserable for want of self-esteem.
Advertising. It's psychological class warfare and it has absolutely melted the vast majority of people's brains, more than any other type of propaganda
Commodification of identity. As soon as something gets popular, capitalism tries to figure out how to extract the most money possible. See punk for example. It went from a subculture, to a "lifestyle", to a fashion choice in the 2000's. Then every second pop artist from Kelly Clarkson to Adam Lambert tried to include loud guitar riffs in their music.
The desire to have the best tool to start a hobby.
I like working on cars, electronics, and music. I've been doing it for years. A coworker bought a project car and I was teaching him how to work on it, and he bought every tool in the catalog. Just toy after toy despite it taking 2 years to change the oil on the car himself.
Same dude wanted to learn to play guitar, was ready to drop 500+ immediately, i told him "hey borrow this guitar for a bit so you can figure out what you want" and he never touched the guitar.
Hobbies shouldn't be just a category to spend money on.
Hyper consumption and the need to continually buy new commodities to keep the economy going, we need real use value back in our economic system
I can't believe big tech controls dating now. Literally commodifying the human search for love. Glad I got that over with before the apps took hold.
I fucking hate this. Dating is fully commodified now and love is dependent on algorithms. Tinder is super hard for guys but guess what: you don't hate women, you hate capitalism.
Worst part is sending a resume, then having the same questions that were answered on the resume be asked again in a form field while applying.
I hate that words with such profundity, like an apple, the amazon, Tesla, etc. are all becoming more associated with brands and products than their original definitions.
"the Amazon is burning" doesn't ever mean the fun kind either :(
