Can we please

edit: now it's a meme and we can all hug in the comments.

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Isn't the whole gripe with Pumpkin Spiced whatever the same with Christmas decorations popping up in mid-October? Like, its not fucking special if you're putting nutmeg in my coffee in June.
Same with the D&D / Marvel / Roblox / Whatever fandom of choice. It was fine twenty years ago when it was the New Thing. Now we're pushing 100+ hours of Disneyfied extended universe content on Marvel alone. Half my "recommended" podcast feed is six C-list celebrities making the soy face in front of a pair of crossed battle axes. And my street is lined with shitty faux-bakery corporate cafeterias trying to sell a piece of rye bread covered in guacamole for $15/slice.
Who actually enjoys this shit anymore? It feels like I'm being sealed into Disneyland, like a Pharaoh buried alive in his pyramid. It stopped being fun ages ago. Now I'm torn between boredom and horror.
- You missed the entire point. If you're bored with it all, that's valid. If you don't like psls too early, that's valid. But let other people enjoy things. If they get enjoyment out of these products, does that really negatively affect you?
  
  let other people enjoy things
  What if they aren't enjoying it?
  What if they're just getting caught up in the oppressive frenzy of hype culture, getting bombarded with ad-induced anxiety, or simply trying to fit in with whatever they're told is "normal"? What if the emperor has no clothes but we're all told its rude to point?
  Am I allowed to make fun of Morbius? Or is that
  under the Let People Enjoy Things rubric?
  If they get enjoyment out of these products, does that really negatively affect you?
  If its getting injected into every webpage, spamming up my email, blaring across the radio, on billboards along every mile of road, and natively included in every other media venue I visit?
  Yeah.
  
  So who cares then? Stop worrying about other people and worry about yourself. Let other people enjoy things you think are a waste of time. If the worst it does is some billboards and spam, then it's the same as all the other spam. Letting yourself get worked up over it is only affecting you. You aren't making them better, you're making yourself worse with anger. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy a pumpkin spice latte.
  
  So who cares then?
  Presumably the people drowning in this suffocating deluge of mass marketing.
  
  Right, but they don't feel like they're suffering, they're out enjoying things. You're the one who is suffering, and it's only because you're letting it.
  
  they don't feel like they're suffering
  I've heard people who get tattoos often enough begin to enjoy the feel of the needle on their skin. So who are you to say tattooing bar codes on everyone's necks is a bad thing? Don't yuck my yum!
  
  Christ then be mad at advertisers then, not the people who enjoy things. I don't know man, just sounds like you're going to be triggered by almost anything if people drinking coffee they like triggers you this much. I don't know how to help you with that or what you want from me.
  
  Christ then be mad at advertisers then
  Right. Yes. This is what I'm mad at.
  
  Is it equally valid to complain about seeing ads for Mother's Day gifts when your mother was a drug addict and extensively abusive? Because that applies to me personally, and let me tell you, during the entire lead up to Mother's Day, and all the ads they make claiming how much your mother gives up for you, and loves you, and cherishes you... I don't complain even a bit.
  Because other people have mothers who do love them. And they're the target of those ads, not me.
  How disgustingly privileged it is to proclaim that since you aren't the target of advertising, it shouldn't exist.
  
  Ads for Mother’s Day gifts are indeed valid to complain about, regardless of one’s situation, because they cheapen their bond between mother and child to a transactional relationship, not uplift moms.
  
  I’d wager that because were the targets of advertising, it shouldn’t exist. Ok my problem isn’t with advertising, per se, but with the insane shit it’s been since Bernays.
  
  If someone liking something I don't like doesn't negatively impact me then doesn't that mean that me not liking something that someone likes doesn't negatively impact them?
  If so then why does any of this matter? They're free to gush on about the thing and I'm free to complain about it.
  
  They want narrative control and they want a squishy feel good world without any critiques. Poptimism and it’s consequences has been amazing for corporate brands who can now act like victims when the biggest franchises on earth are mocked, and their fans do the victim whining on their behalf
  
  let other people enjoy things
  No
- I don't think anybody's being pressured into drinking pumpkin spice lattes or eating avocado toast lmao. D&D is a fun and good creative, sociable activity and more people getting into it is good, actually.
  Any popular thing is going to have hype around it, that doesn't mean that it's inherently bad. You're free to dislike popular stuff but saying it's bad just because it's popular is a bad take.

263 comments