(yelling)
- Who are you?
I know who I am.
I'm a 33 year old Star Wars
fan, here's my light saber.
See those effects, ooh, right?
Cool.
You don't think this is cool?
What?
What is, what is wrong with you,
what is your problem?
What do you have against just having fun?
Why do you hate a community of people
who just love something?
Actually you know what,
what's your mailing address?
(upbeat music)
Gamers, white feminists,
anti-vaxxers, militant vegans,
carnetarians, and yes,
even Star Wars fans.
What is that a list of?
Well, they're things you can identify as,
and if you're buying what
capitalism is selling,
and let's be clear, many of us have.
That makes them an identity.
There's an overlapping
of science and marketing
called market research, market
research is the study of
the consumer, that's, that's us.
It's an ongoing work in
an attempt to understand
what the consumer wants
and what they may want,
in order to fulfill a
demand that already exists
or create a new one.
That list of things that
somebody might identify as
earlier is a list of consumer identities.
Whoa, hey.
Are you about to criticize me?
Is probably what you're
about to say right now.
I get that, just, unclench your butt hole,
I'm not coming for you specifically,
just coming for your childhood.
That's a joke, basically a joke.
Consumer culture is a carefully curated
set of social norms
with an agenda, profit.
It's easier to profit, either
monetarily or socially,
when people's culture and
identity does not conflict
with profit.
And just who do you think
is pre ordering more stuff
is it anti fascists or is it gamers?
I'll give you a hint, Richard
Spencer getting punched
was not DLC.
But if consumption can be
the center of an identity
why wait for it to just
happen, why not encourage it.
Why not look at identity as a resource,
as a commodity, like a crop.
A crop is defined as a
cultivated plant grown as food.
Eating food is a fairly common
activity and such a thing
is meant to be capitalized on
in our current economic system
crops are a resource and
are grown for profit.
We call this cultivating the land.
And if you ask me I
think that a better term
for consumer identity
is cultivated identity.
Cultivation of identity is using marketing
and other environmental control
to center a person's
identity around a consumable.
By consumable I mean a product, a TV show,
a franchise, a point of view,
a personality, whatever.
The eventual goal is
to nurture dependence,
to push people to consume
more as well as create
a subset of hyper consumers
that will reliably purchase,
advocate for, or simply loudly discuss
the consumable publicly.
Ideally, from an uncritical viewpoint.
Remember that attention is
currency in the marketplace
of ideas and the hyper
consumer's attention is infinite.
Now, an identity that is not
the result of cultivation
by a capital, one might
call an organic identity,
however there's consumptive
behavior in almost
all modern identities.
It's probably unlikely
that any identity exists
that is specifically organic
or specifically cultivated.
Organic and cultivated
are much more likely
to be at opposite ends of the spectrum
that everyone's identity
exists on somewhere.
The issue is not singularly consumption,
the issue is the capital uses identity
to encourage consumption, and
I just want that to be clear
before we move forward on anything because
otherwise you might tale this as criticism
of people consuming things
and, it is not that.
Consumption is pretty much
an unavoidable behavior.
You need food, you need water.
To take in these things
is to consume them.
And what would life be without
a little entertainment?
(soft music)
certainly that consumption is not evil.
And I think a lot of
people make the mistake
of criticizing individuals
for consumption.
In fact the popular meme about this is
there is no ethical
consumption under capitalism.
But I think it would be beneficial
if we started wording that
a little bit differently.
Specifically that there
are no ethical consumables
under capitalism.
I think we need to stop
putting the empathis
on the consumer or the
customer, and start putting it
on capital, with that in
mind, let's talk about fandom.
The word fan came into usage
in the late 19th century
and is an abbreviation for fanatic.
A basic definition for
fanatic is a person filled
with excessive and single-minded zeal.
Especially for an extreme
religious or political cause.
Someone saying the word fan
in our more everyday lives
now would mean something
more casual though.
Most people who say fan
don't mean obsessive.
But we often time see
people who identify as a fan
acting like this,
Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god
Oh my god oh my, Oh my god.
(yelling)
being a fan of someone or
something might seem like
something you very casually
do in today's society.
It doesn't matter if we're
talking about Star Wars
or the Republican party, in
fact I mentioned both of those
because you need to understand
this is not about something specific.
Everything has fandom,
no matter what it is.
Entertainment, political
parties, religions, activities,
other people, both in your
life and simply famous,
around, omnipresent, and
when we talk about this
we aren't talking about
just liking something.
If we were talking about
just liking something
we wouldn't be talking about
capital using your enjoyment
of something, pushing
you to go further with it
in service of their
ability to generate profit.
In cultivating identity in fans,
capital is annexing at
least part of your identity
that is taking ownership of it.
In an effort to extract value.
In effect, it acts as coercion demanding,
unconscious surrendering of
one's identity to capital
in exchange for a place to belong.
Where one might not find
friendship and acceptance
at school, at the office,
or other activities,
one might find it among
knights in medieval castles.
Pirate ships or beyond the stars.
Community can be defined
as fellowship with others
due to sharing common
attitudes, interests and goals,
as well as a groups with
similarity of identity.
Fandom can act and feel
a lot like community.
But if identity is created for or co opted
by the interests of
capital, what is the purpose
of this community?
Well having a lot of people
around you that specifically
like the thing that you
like, that just as you
all also consume it, and
given we're socialize
to view things as hierarchy,
is that we're to compete
to get to the top of, a
fandom based community
becomes a platform for
competitive consumption.
Marketing that asks us to integrate
a consumable into our
identity is not asking us
to consume in a healthy way.
In fact that the ultimate goal is profit,
the goal regarding your
identity is to get you
to consume as much as possible.
Whether or not it is
meant to, I don't know,
but this exploits the
vulnerable and the naive.
In exchange for identity and community,
we're asked to pledge fidelity
and opt into a sub economy
based entirely around a
thing that we consume.
This is in effect a reality
for us to exist inside.
And inside this reality,
there's a version of everything,
just for us, what I mean
by that, is there is
Star Wars brand chopped lettuce.
Chopped lettuce.
Now the level of commitment you would need
to feel excited about
branded lettuce with Ray
on the f*cking bag, well,
let's just put it this way,
that's no moon, it's a space station.
And if you've gotten to
the point of excitement
over chopped lettuce then
criticism would have to feel
excruciatingly personal.
If somebody said that
Star Wars brand lettuce
is f*cking dumb, but you
had accepted Star Wars
to the point where you thought
it was pretty goddam cool
that the lettuce has been
graced with the presence
of Kylo Ren, you must be the real fan.
Now this is done in less
stark terms as well,
kids on the playground argue
over how much merch they have,
I have all the Power
Rangers figures, do you.
No, hmm, must not be a real fan.
And thus competitive
consumption is unleashed
to create the hierarchy of the real fan.
You might have all the
merch, the action figures
you might have gotten all
the achievements in the game,
fandom becomes gamified,
and you're incentivized
to consume more, you know,
so you can win the game,
so you can be a real fan.
Now there is no such thing as a real fan
and a fake fan though.
You are not a poser if
you don't buy the merch.
It's only meant to create an
aspirational level of fandom
that functions as a system
not unlike meritocracy,
something that sounds good
but in which consuming
makes one merit worthy.
Now to label a group of people
all competing with each other
to figure out something more, a community,
I feel like is kind of wrong.
In truth a lot of fans differ
from one another a great deal.
There's deep seated hatred in fandoms
just over disagreements
over things that are,
ostensibly defined by the work
that they all like so much.
Star Wars fans fighting
over whether The Last Jedi
is good or not, especially
if done publicly
or say, through the use of
bots, that automatically
register accounts and log
negative reviews, or hell,
positive reviews, is simply
a means to validate people
with a certain opinion.
People often become
friends within the fandom
specifically over these types of things.
And I'm certainly not telling
you that you definitely do
any of this stuff, but
there are definitely people
who do this kind of stuff,
and there's definitely
more of them than you think,
and they're definitely
acting in service of capital's interest.
To have these arguments go on
gets the consumable attention.
And if the people who are seeking profit
using the consumable,
understand what they're doing,
it doesn't matter what that attention is,
it just matters that they're getting it.
The community generated
in fandom is often more
of a validation gang than a
fellowship of the commons.
Speaking in the logic of
a community based entirely
around the validation of
individuals taking part,
when a lot of people
feel as though a thing
is made specifically to validate them
and that other people they
constantly interact with
also believe this, whether
competitive or not,
eventually results in
a perceived ownership.
Now this is encouraged by
capital which often wishes
to cultivate the idea that the
fan gives the words meaning
the creators, the
distributors and the promoters
of the work will all
make subtle implications
that the meaning is derived
from fan's enjoyment.
But being what they're
asking of a fan is to consume
as they buy things, whether
it be a ticket to a movie,
merchandise or attendance of an event,
it's actually not that
outlandish of a reaction,
when a fan purchases the
consumption of the object
of their enjoyment, they're
not just buying that object,
they're buying everything,
they are investing
both monetarily and emotionally.
And while that perceived
ownership ultimately works
to generate profit, it also
encourages certain behaviors,
in defense of this thing, or
rather the fan's emotional
and monetary investment in the thing,
they can father, troll,
trick, threaten, harass, stalk
and even abuse, and that's
when we're talking about
harmless stuff like Star
Wars or Steven Universe.
The National Riffle Association
is doing all the same stuff
entertainment companies
do, except with guns.
Gun culture is consumer culture.
Gun owner is cultivated identity.
Whether one's identity is
cultivated by capital or not,
criticism of it often
feels, well, like a threat.
But for a person whose identity
is cultivated by capital
the threat obviously isn't actually real
but being the threat
feels like a real threat,
that's pretty confusing.
And though they may not know
what to do with the feelings.
Still evokes an emotional response.
- He's gotta put corning stone on.
He's gotta put corning stone on.
- Now expression of
emotion is often regarded
as attention seeking and
if attention is currency
in the marketplace of ideas, which it is,
then attention seeking is profit seeking.
Because the attention
seeking is done in a manner
that actually feeds
into the profit seeking
of whatever company owns
the rights to the thing
that people like, it legitimizes
the type of attention
seeking that people will do
in the name of a consumable.
Whether it's fan parodies
of popular music.
♪ Solo ♪
or the aforementioned trolling and abuse.
This kind of attention
seeking is legitimized,
because it contributes to a
thing they derive identity from
this ownership can also manifest as anger
towards the creators of a consumable,
for taking the consumable in a direction
that fans disagree
with, the fans own this,
this is ours, why didn't Shepard live,
at the end of Mass Effect 3,
the story literally exists
for my consumption and
validation, I own it.
But in my ownership I am
prisoner to imaginary threats,
people who are fans of
things that aren't the thing
that I personally like are
somehow a threat to my identity.
As are any mild changes
to what I grew up with.
If childhood is the time of
cultivation of your identity
that is if capital gets their
hooks in you when you're a kid
and 20 years later, a franchise
you've loved your whole life
suddenly does something you don't like,
it makes sense that you might
say, you killed my childhood.
You killed my childhood
means, you killed my identity
that I have held since childhood,
you killed my socialization
to believe that this is mine.
But the thing is, fans don't own it.
(belching)
capital does.
And if capital owns the thing
you derive identity from
your identity is a commodity.
And I don't know about you, but,
I think that's kind of gross.
Your identity is you Ray from nowhere.
In this environment, you are a commodity,
your enjoyment is a commodity,
your social interaction
is a commodity, this is what's referred to
as neoliberal capitalism.
Essentially all things are commodified,
and market dynamics are adopted.
The solution to every
problem is the market.
Certain actions are incentivized,
gamifying the situation
this essentially de humanizes
all aspects of something.
That something can be day to day life,
or it can be fandom, your
fandom may be justified
by some metric you got, maybe
Mark Hamil likes your Tweets
sometimes, maybe some people
don't like that because,
they don't think you're a real fan.
So they attempt to
damage the social capital
that you derive from it,
even if you don't really
look at it that way, which I
don't, as much as I do like
Mark Hamil and it's cool
that he liked my Tweets
it ultimately doesn't
change a lot in my life.
They've got to find some
way to knock you down a peg.
You're a threat to their identity.
Because you have been deemed merit worthy.
You have been deemed a real fan.
Even if only in the other fan's eyes.
And if you're saying to
yourself, those poor fools
and their Star Wars, tut
tut, it's not just Star Wars,
hell it's not just entertainment.
It's literally everything in your life.
This is part of your socialization
in neoliberal capitalism.
You're meant to look at
everything like this.
Even if no one is attempting
to cultivate identity
on behalf of capital,
people will still act
like someone is, there was
no one in the driver seat
for the whole Schezwan sauce debacle,
for whatever reason people
decided that it was part
of their identity that Rick
really loved Schezwan sauce
and McDonald's saw that and co opted it.
Capital works to co opt
organic identity as well.
Identity that I wouldn't
dare challenge in any way,
shape or form, is often
co-opted to sell soap,
or makeup or lumber, yeah
cause people who aren't
immigrant hating bigots
should buy their wood
at 84 Lumbar 'cause that
makes perfect sense.
Hell, leftist politics in theory
act like cultivated identity,
people will often find
a specific type of leftist
politics they agree with
and begin to form that perceived ownership
we were talking about, and
they'll engage in the real
fan dynamic of competitive
consumption of leftist theory.
You're not a real fan if you
haven't read the manifesto
you're not a real fan if you
haven't been bread pilled.
You're not a real fan if you
haven't consumed this thing
that I have consumed
that makes me a real fan.
Look at this Anarchy
shirt I'm wearing, see it?
I don't care that I
bought this at Hot Topic,
it symbolizes what I care about.
I have a This Is What a
Feminist Looks Like t-shirt
for a reason, I refuse to
buy anything that is not
specifically endorsed by a vegan vlogger.
My vegan vlogger, the one I own, got it?
If you don't watch that vegan vlogger,
if you haven't read that
book, if you don't subscribe
to this specific method of revolution
then you're not a real fan.
Is someone benefiting
from you acting that way?
Does someone make those shirts?
Does someone produce those
books and sell them for profit?
How about those shirts?
How about that food?
Who is benefiting when you consume?
That's not me though.
My fandom is healthy,
that fandom is toxic.
I don't care if you're a teenager
you should try to take your own life
if you draw characters
wrong, hashtag not all men.
Hey now, that's no fedora, it's a trilby,
it's a trilby, it's a
trilby, it's a trilby!
That is a trilby, it's a trilby.
Look, I'm not gonna tell you
that you shouldn't become
emotionally attached to or
affected by art and media.
I'm not gonna sit here and
say that you're the root
of the problem because you are
not the root of the problem.
You know liking stuff, even a
fair amount of the collecting
and this, it's okay, it's
normal, it's great even,
enjoy things, like
things, don't hold back,
be a person, but the world
isn't just you or just me.
There's an ever persisting
force that surrounds us
and penetrates us, it's called capitalism.
And it's creating an environment
where your consumption
is you, it's deeply embedded
itself into your psyche
and my psyche.
Now you and I didn't put it
there, it's not our fault
that we were born into a
system that encourages this
in the way it does, and
it really isn't fair
that it's up to us to do
anything about it at all but,
here we are.
(upbeat music)
♪ Just take those old
records off the shelf ♪
♪ And put those records
back on the shelf ♪
♪ And take those old
records off the shelf ♪
♪ And put those records
back on the shelf ♪
♪ Don't try to take me to a disco ♪
♪ They just don't have
my records or my shelf ♪
♪ They just don't have what
gives me my sense of self ♪
♪ Physical items that I'd never sell ♪
♪ I'd also never take one out the sleeve ♪
♪ Their condition's too important to me ♪
♪ They're all tied up in my identity ♪
♪ So I keep them all on the shelf ♪
♪ I love that old time consumable ♪
♪ That kind of item just is my soul ♪
♪ This is an effective means of control ♪
♪ And I'll be the first in
line to see solo, ha ha ♪
- [Man] I like that, I really like that.
