Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

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"work" and "job" are constantly being conflated as one and the same
work can be labor, it can be craft, its something that we as humans have to do our whole life to live and thrive, even hunting or gathering or building or farming, hell, even creating art, are all "work"

a "job" is something more finite and intentional, it can be something youre hired to do or set out to do

not all work is a job, and not every job is work
 
Rusty Cheeseknife said:
Very few of us actually know who actually produces the goods we consume--yet another way we are essentially detached from the system. The workforce is impersonal, and people are reduced to a number, a labor cost. Therefore, we have outsource all production to foreign countries because its cheaper. L
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It was always like that, since your town/your state didn't make most of the goods you bought and that included lots of cheap shit. Pick a Rust Belt town, it probably made something distinct. But nobody cared because the world was a lot smaller back then. Hell, they even outsourced labor in the US because ever since the 1880s they just sent it to the South since Southerners had less unions and more corrupt politics so they didn't need as many safety measures. The cotton mills of Appalachia were absolutely hellish even by the standards of the shitty mills in nowadays shithole towns like Lynn, Massachusetts (i.e. where Moviebob lives).
Rusty Cheeseknife said:
Not only are we detached from the process of production, consoomers are necessarily removed from the materiality of the products they consume. Products have been imbued with special meaning and purpose through branding. Advertisements are not informative, they are full of fantasy. Shampoo doesn't tell you it will clean your hair, it fills your mind with visions of sunlit beaches, warm sand, a cool breeze and fresh air. You're sold a dream, not a reality.
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They were selling people silly fantasies in ads since child labor was legal and wanting to work 40 hours a week a sign you were a criminal socialist.
 
Vingle said:
"Blue" fragrances aka Blue de Chanel and Dior Sauvage Eau de Gunt smells like glorified shower gels. They are the most popular, even tho they're boring af.
To no ones surprise, some people like fragrances that make them smell unwashed. Some do actually like the smell of manure. Well, some do like to play with the poopoo too:|
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IMG_1864.jpeg

Notes include vomit, pus, sweat, and mud.

I saw it in a shop once, it was covered with a cloche and had a sign on it with a warning not to spray it
 
Here's some of everything you need to know:

Detachment and Dissatisfaction:

Detachment from Production:

Detachment from Producers:

Detachment from Products:
 
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Cuntspiracy Man said:
"work" and "job" are constantly being conflated as one and the same
work can be labor, it can be craft, its something that we as humans have to do our whole life to live and thrive, even hunting or gathering or building or farming, hell, even creating art, are all "work"

a "job" is something more finite and intentional, it can be something youre hired to do or set out to do

not all work is a job, and not every job is work
Click to expand...
Laziness is a sin as old as time. People don't see that distinction, nor that you can have a GOOD job, one that serves a important purpose while not shafting its workers. You could make all that plastic junk in the US, with vacation and benefits. But that would require the paypigs to actually give a shit where their funkos come from, to make enough of a fuss to have it happen
 
WelperHelper99 said:
Laziness is a sin as old as time. People don't see that distinction, nor that you can have a GOOD job, one that serves a important purpose while not shafting its workers. You could make all that plastic junk in the US, with vacation and benefits. But that would require the paypigs to actually give a shit where their funkos come from, to make enough of a fuss to have it happen
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Even if they knew where the funkos are coming from, it still might not matter because most consoomers purchase them solely to signal their worth as a consoomer. It's all about identity and connection with a wider base of people who are buying the same or similar products. That's what Cavanaugh means by "detachment." People are thoroughly taught not to think about where stuff comes from, so people seem to imagine shelves just magically restock themselves with new stuff over and over.

Again, we are taught regularly not to think about production, producers, or the products themselves. We're just supposed to buy things. As far as these corporations are concerned, that is our lot in life: our sole purpose on this earth is to consume, consume, consume. It's like whenever Coca-Cola releases something new, your friends and co-workers need to go try it. They cannot help themselves. That is learned behavior. They truly believe it gives them a purpose in life to do this.
 
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Save the Loli said:
It was always like that, since your town/your state didn't make most of the goods you bought and that included lots of cheap shit. Pick a Rust Belt town, it probably made something distinct. But nobody cared because the world was a lot smaller back then. Hell, they even outsourced labor in the US because ever since the 1880s they just sent it to the South since Southerners had less unions and more corrupt politics so they didn't need as many safety measures. The cotton mills of Appalachia were absolutely hellish even by the standards of the shitty mills in nowadays shithole towns like Lynn, Massachusetts (i.e. where Moviebob lives).

They were selling people silly fantasies in ads since child labor was legal and wanting to work 40 hours a week a sign you were a criminal socialist.
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Yeah, Cavanaugh mentions this with regard to detachment from producers and from production. There was a point in time where things were more closely knit. The people who made your shoes, your clothes, your tools, your food, etc. may have been people you knew or your parents knew. You had a better idea where they got their materials from and whether or not their craft was legit. If you were a tightly-knit community, you'd buy their stuff even if it weren't as high quality as something you'd get elsewhere just because your community was that important.

You would have learned a craft or trade and performed that for your locale. Maybe a smith, a farmer, a tailor, etc. The system of production was closer to home. It's harder to sell a fantasy when you know you're getting your milk and bread from your neighbor down the road and you have a better idea what he's feeding his cows and putting in his soil.

Nowadays, all people are taught is how to buy things. People in retail are paid to sell things other people made. Having an actual trade skill is not as common anymore.
 
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Hahahaha.

There's a Facebook and maybe Twitter, RCheeseknife. More I'm sure. "WhattheEgad" huh? Before you rebranded? https://www.reddit.com/r/digimon/comments/8tiu00/input_on_my_in_retrospect_series_for_digimon/
Oh, your livejournal.
Birthday Dec 5th huh? I doubt as a tween you were smart enough to put in a fake day.

Your buddy Luke is ok at violin out in Virginia. EWU?

Listen. All the things on the sign up page? You need to go back and read them.

Consoom Digimon Cartoons
 
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Rusty Cheeseknife said:
Yeah, Cavanaugh mentions this with regard to detachment from producers and from production. There was a point in time where things were more closely knit. The people who made your shoes, your clothes, your tools, your food, etc. may have been people you knew or your parents knew. You had a better idea where they got their materials from and whether or not their craft was legit. If you were a tightly-knit community, you'd buy their stuff even if it weren't as high quality as something you'd get elsewhere just because your community was that important.

You would have learned a craft or trade and performed that for your locale. Maybe a smith, a farmer, a tailor, etc. The system of production was closer to home. It's harder to sell a fantasy when you know you're getting your milk and bread from your neighbor down the road and you have a better idea what he's feeding his cows and putting in his soil.

Nowadays, all people are taught is how to buy things. People in retail are paid to sell things other people made. Having an actual trade skill is not as common anymore.
Click to expand...
Markets were a little more complicated than that, even preindustrial had some distance between producers and consumers. Rome famously had to import their grain all the way from fucking Egypt for example. No settlement has the ability to provide for all its needs so trading goods from other communities was important. You had merchants moving shit every which way across the Mediterranean Sea or along the silk road then more inland routes to smaller villages and cities. Then once the age of exploration happens goods and products started to flow purposefully across the world to meet market demands. Outside of the most isolated and primitive settlements you will never find that tight knit production/consoomer relationship and its been like that since Mesopotamia days.
 
FILTH Tourist said:
Markets were a little more complicated than that, even preindustrial had some distance between producers and consumers. Rome famously had to import their grain all the way from fucking Egypt for example. No settlement has the ability to provide for all its needs so trading goods from other communities was important. You had merchants moving shit every which way across the Mediterranean Sea or along the silk road then more inland routes to smaller villages and cities. Then once the age of exploration happens goods and products started to flow purposefully across the world to meet market demands. Outside of the most isolated and primitive settlements you will never find that tight knit production/consoomer relationship and its been like that since Mesopotamia days.
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Crazy how Rome and China never came into direct contact with one another. No Roman ever reached as far as China but rich romans would still wear clothes made with chinese silks because products always found their own way.
 
Rusty Cheeseknife said:
Yeah, Cavanaugh mentions this with regard to detachment from producers and from production. There was a point in time where things were more closely knit. The people who made your shoes, your clothes, your tools, your food, etc. may have been people you knew or your parents knew. You had a better idea where they got their materials from and whether or not their craft was legit. If you were a tightly-knit community, you'd buy their stuff even if it weren't as high quality as something you'd get elsewhere just because your community was that important.

You would have learned a craft or trade and performed that for your locale. Maybe a smith, a farmer, a tailor, etc. The system of production was closer to home. It's harder to sell a fantasy when you know you're getting your milk and bread from your neighbor down the road and you have a better idea what he's feeding his cows and putting in his soil.

Nowadays, all people are taught is how to buy things. People in retail are paid to sell things other people made. Having an actual trade skill is not as common anymore.
Click to expand...
That time ended with the Industrial Revolution and most of those small producers being outcompeted by large producers, plus many, many people living in cities (and later suburbs).
FILTH Tourist said:
Markets were a little more complicated than that, even preindustrial had some distance between producers and consumers. Rome famously had to import their grain all the way from fucking Egypt for example. No settlement has the ability to provide for all its needs so trading goods from other communities was important. You had merchants moving shit every which way across the Mediterranean Sea or along the silk road then more inland routes to smaller villages and cities. Then once the age of exploration happens goods and products started to flow purposefully across the world to meet market demands. Outside of the most isolated and primitive settlements you will never find that tight knit production/consoomer relationship and its been like that since Mesopotamia days.
Click to expand...
That's because Rome was a big city and most of the grain in Italy was being consumed locally. It was very common in preindustrial societies for most (not all, of course) production to be local.
 
bliblblblbbllb said:
Hahahaha.

There's a Facebook and maybe Twitter, RCheeseknife. More I'm sure. "WhattheEgad" huh? Before you rebranded? https://www.reddit.com/r/digimon/comments/8tiu00/input_on_my_in_retrospect_series_for_digimon/
Oh, your livejournal.
Birthday Dec 5th huh? I doubt as a tween you were smart enough to put in a fake day.

Your buddy Luke is ok at violin out in Virginia. EWU?

Listen. All the things on the sign up page? You need to go back and read them.

Consoom Digimon Cartoons
Click to expand...
White man was here
How do you know
Video essay
 
WelperHelper99 said:
Laziness is a sin as old as time. People don't see that distinction, nor that you can have a GOOD job, one that serves a important purpose while not shafting its workers. You could make all that plastic junk in the US, with vacation and benefits. But that would require the paypigs to actually give a shit where their funkos come from, to make enough of a fuss to have it happen
Click to expand...
if funkiepoppers knew where their funkos are coming from, at most, itd make them feel even better about, and more eager to, consume them. there are many, many issues with these things, the fact that theyre chinese mass produced plastic crap is only one part of the problem, even if they werent chinese, theyre still mass produced plastic crap
if this shit was made locally and ethically, it would hardly exist, because the prospect of making samey consumerist plastic crap is in and of itself unethical, personally i dont want my town to be known for producing the world's ugliest, most poluting and least valuable landfill fodder

i think if someone was a huge fan of some cartoon or comic book series and they said "boy it would sure be neat to own a little figurine of marvel woman or something to put on my shelf"
and they went out and commissioned an artist to make them a unique, custom and one-of-a-kind clay piece.... i would respect that man so much i would overlook the fact that hes a capeshitter in a heartbeat
Rusty Cheeseknife said:
Even if they knew where the funkos are coming from, it still might not matter because most consoomers purchase them solely to signal their worth as a consoomer. It's all about identity and connection with a wider base of people who are buying the same or similar products. That's what Cavanaugh means by "detachment." People are thoroughly taught not to think about where stuff comes from, so people seem to imagine shelves just magically restock themselves with new stuff over and over.

Again, we are taught regularly not to think about production, producers, or the products themselves. We're just supposed to buy things. As far as these corporations are concerned, that is our lot in life: our sole purpose on this earth is to consume, consume, consume. It's like whenever Coca-Cola releases something new, your friends and co-workers need to go try it. They cannot help themselves. That is learned behavior. They truly believe it gives them a purpose in life to do this.
Click to expand...
you got that right ol rusty my good cringelord
people feel this need to be involved in everything, to try everything, to not miss out and be a part of the trend

it reminds me of that classic screenshot, where the guy says hes so stressed from all the TV he has to catch up on
surely if you liked a show, itd be a JOY to watch it whenever you have the chance to sit down and enjoy some TV, but if youre not having fun, why do it? becaue you have to be 'up to date'
and the longer we live and the faster the trade of information occurs, the most shortlived trends are and being up to date went from knowing about that new silk trade that happened in your country 2 years ago, to watching that radical new movie that came out a couple months ago, to just NEEDING to get in on this morning's current meme before it gets old by this afternoon
 
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Cuntspiracy Man said:
surely if you liked a show, itd be a JOY to watch it whenever you have the chance to sit down and enjoy some TV, but if youre not having fun, why do it?
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FOMO is a bitch.

No one wants to feel left out but the cicle of relevancy for things thanks to social media has become so short its impossible to keep up unless you literally do nothing else but consume all day and only consume new media that its trending because investing time in something older or niche you actually want to watch will set you back. If you blink too long you'll be out of the loop again, oops,you didn't got the meme from a show that aired yesterday. you are a pariah now. Its a game you can't win and is not worth playing.
 
Cuntspiracy Man said:
funkiepoppers knew where their funkos are coming from, at most, itd make them feel even better about, and more eager to, consume them. there are many, many issues with these things, the fact that theyre chinese mass produced plastic crap is only one part of the problem, even if they werent chinese, theyre still mass produced plastic crap
if this shit was made locally and ethically, it would hardly exist, because the prospect of making samey consumerist plastic crap is in and of itself unethical, personally i dont want my town to be known for producing the world's ugliest, most poluting and least valuable landfill fodder

i think if someone was a huge fan of some cartoon or comic book series and they said "boy it would sure be neat to own a little figurine of marvel woman or something to put on my shelf"
and they went out and commissioned an artist to make them a unique, custom and one-of-a-kind clay piece.... i would respect that man so much i would overlook the fact that hes a capeshitter in a heartbeat
Click to expand...
I mean, you do have the statue market with limited runs. But that's expensive says the Consoomer, and they don't want a model kit either that takes time and effort to build, so they buy a Funko.

I do agree, it would be cringe to have a funko factory in your town, but it doesn't nessicarily have to be that. They could make high quality pieces targeting the collectors market, offsetting the cost of being made in the USA. Manufacturing wise, once you have the plastic injection molding machines, you can haul ass in production. As long as they wernt pumping out plastic shit like funkos, and actual good pieces/ model kits, it might incentivise them to spend less since it costs more.
 
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