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

[Gutpuke]

 

[Johnny Clyde Cash]

How the hell did this thread get to 239 pages without a single mention of Kevin Gibes? Dude's a massive consoomer, and it's all paid for by people he's scamming with fake donation posts on Twitter.

Here are some of the highlights:

The audio comes from this video, which is frankly required listening for this entire thread:

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

How the hell did this thread get to 239 pages without a single mention of Kevin Gibes?

Probably because the dude's already got his own megathread and him last I knew him and the Tranch Extended Trooniverse are on the verge of spinning off into their own subforum.

 

[Sarcastic sockpuppet]

I am going to sperg a a little about K-pop and the South Korean Government since it being brought up a few pages back brought this information back to the forefront of my memory (please note that I have no sources for what I am about to say and what I am about to say is information that I THINK I at one point read about so take everything written with a cup of salt)

From what I understand/remember there is some kind of SK Government program/Initiative to make K-pop the new Global cultural phenomenon and it goes beyond simple cultural promotions/grants etc etc. Apparently, it is a serious thing with at least some weight behind it. I

That part is true for Korea and for Japan as well.

Weeaboos and Koreaboo are the way they are because the respective governments of those countries want them too. Was not the case for the OG Weebs from the 90's, they feel in love with Animu in spite of the difficulty to access that shit. Back then the Japs didn't care about other markets. But now everything has changed.

They both have made an effort to promote ANIime/mangas and Kpop, Kdramas, and with that food, fashion, language...

But i don't know about the conspiracy/ demographic shit, since the USA has been doing the exact same thing for a longer time: it's called Soft Power, bitches. I will explain it very crudely.
You export your cultural produces and with them your cultural model and values. Not only do you immediatly get money in return but also prestige, sympathies and opportunities for your country, for your citizens, for your compagnies... Also can be useful also in case of conflict.. Like for example if a war was to happen, in most countries you do need some sort of agreement from the population or at least some degree of apathy before sending troops. (That's why your TV often tells you that the world is a dangerous place full of savages and degenerates who hate americans.)

But to caricature, you couldn't easily go at war against South Korea tomorrow even if it was helpful for your national interests (like if there was suddenly oil or lithium there) because the supply of singing and dancing, fair-skinned manicured dolls of both genders might dry up, and so a vocal minority of your population would protest a conflict with SK, in a way they would never a conflict with another nation that doesn't have that cool factor.

 

[mrdk_04]

Also, it feels good owning something that is pretty good for your taste.

This'll only get worse as time goes on, chief example being those horrible e-steps/bikes and cars. An entire generation of impressionable inner-city kids is being taught not to own their personal transportation device.
It's infuriating, a bike I spent €1000 on five years ago still functions well today with just 3 necessary visits to the repair shop, apparently paying €60 a month for a substandard model is preferable.

These tacky LED strips aren't limited to just the TikTok "gaymur gurrrrrl". Take a look at any YouTuber whose videos are mostly their face, talking into a camera, and you'll see them used for a sort of ambient lighting effect. It can look good, I'll give them that, but most of these are kids just in their bedrooms, not even in a dedicated "studio" room. Oh and having such ambient lighting is of course also mandatory for your "battlestation" which lights up like a Christmas tree when you turn it on.

It's tacky and horrible, I much prefer it to be functional.

• 2-day shipping being omnipresent means that logistics companies, postal companies, and other such businesses are constantly working against the clock to make sure that products get to consumers on time. Have you ever worked in a shipping warehouse before? I definitely wouldn't recommend it unless you wanna do an IRL speedrun of how quickly you can get fired for being too slow.
  
  
• Companies nowadays are coming up with more and more ways to pamper the customer while putting unnecessary strain on their ops teams. Y'know, because curbside pickup definitely won't put added strain onto overworked retail employees who are responsible for store pickup, checkout, and customer service.

The logical conclusion of having access to everything 24/7, future generations are absolutely fucked.

This meme is probably relevant to this thread, considering how deep into the rabbit hole of cosoomerism most audiophiles are.

View attachment 2787181

Music is one of the few areas where you could call me a consoomer.

Unless you're a musician and need it for your job, there is absolutely no reason to go to the lengths described in the meme above.

Spoiler: Details

On the other hand, I do consider these important when dealing with any virtual music collection:

- own your music, it must be free of any and all DRM (Bandcamp & Quboz)
- never buy blindly from an artist, track their discography through Discogs, RateYourMusic, Deezer and Last.fm
- in keeping with the above principle, make sure you don't waste money on a compilation album or deluxe editions with tracks you don't care for
- all music must be in both MP3 and CD format, if possible
- buy an external SSD in case your shit gets fucked
- have a Sony Walkman (instead of using your absurdly sized phone) with an SD card installed
- have proper headphones, one closed-back for work, one open-back for relaxation
- have a portable speaker for entertaining company, they don't care about the quality anyway
- have BL earbuds for easy listening
- use a DAC/AMP where necessary
- use custom playback software, either Foobar or MusicBee
- find the time to construct playlists

Barring a bimonthly check of everything, I don't touch the setup when it's finished.

Tinkering with the audio setup is something I spent a lot of time on, the overall cost for the base equipment was €1750ish.
As for the music itself, the average cost of those tunes is around €100 a month, although I tend to spend it in bursts.

There is more nobility in the 50yo weird uncle train autist than there is in any compulsive collector.
View attachment 2845691
Look at him in his attic —away from the concerned eyes of family— he has found personal value in his autistic pursuit. He builds his little model not to seek prestige in a tiny subculture, but rather for his own personal satisfaction. The value of his model is created not purchased, and it relies upon no external validation.

Consumer behavior is not found in the material or quantity consumed, but rather in the motivations —or rather values— underlying the purchase. For what do you purchase? the utility inherent to the object? the personal value found in it? or merely to impress other consumers?

For some reason, a significant amount of people in my family's social circle were train autists. They'd either be my age or 40+, key difference being one had a cellar filled with pic related and the young'uns would obsessively play train sims.
They were always so excited when I showed interest in their hobby, kind souls across the board.

 

[Lady Bizness]

So ten years ago I went to the movie theater for the first time after a ten year run of not going to the movies. I was utterly shocked at how fucking retarded the commercials before the trailers had become, knowing they have always been retarded. They were just oozing the consume message, which wasn't surprising, but what shocked me was just how cornball and feel-good it all was. Like, who falls for this shit?

So I headed to my favorite corner of either Something Awful or Reddit (can't remember) to share a laugh about retarded ads with a community I thought I got along with. I was floored by the scathing pushback I got over making fun of some ads. I was told:

• some people find brands an integral part of their lives that give them meaning, and it's mean of me to point out how stupid that is
• same as above but for sports team loyalty
• some brands are trying to do the right thing
• defense of someone's consumption against other brands of consumption because xyz (see that a lot in this thread even)
• using a computer to post on the internet made me a consumer too, doncha know
• I must be boring and have no life if I don't have any attachment to any brands
• I must be old
• I must watch a lot of network TV shows or Youtubers if I'm not going to the movies and I'm lying when I say I don't

I felt like I was either talking to bots, 13 year olds, or that the people I thought I had been interacting with for years were actually just corporate shills. Otherwise the general public really is that fucking stupid and dull that they can't imagine the existence of a whole, actualized, and happy person who doesn't have attachment to a corporate intellectual property.

You know what, I think it must have been SA because I remember getting a red title after that and shortly before getting perma'ed. I haven't been on any forums for a long while, but all this tranny shit has started affecting my real life and so I find my way here. What the actual fuck is going on in the world? Endless video thumbnails of people making that face. Seemingly sane people in my real life not being able to talk about anything non-work or family related unless through the lens of whatever brand they're consuming, who they're following, what meme demonstrates the reaction they had to something.

I cannot empathize with the appeal of any of this, and it's not like I was raised any different than the average person. It's not like I'm smarter or a harder worker than some of the people I complain about . I just feel like everyone around me is in a cult.

 

[Gar For Archer]

This'll only get worse as time goes on, chief example being those horrible e-steps/bikes and cars. An entire generation of impressionable inner-city kids is being taught not to own their personal transportation device.
It's infuriating, a bike I spent €1000 on five years ago still functions well today with just 3 necessary visits to the repair shop, apparently paying €60 a month for a substandard model is preferable.


It's tacky and horrible, I much prefer it to be functional.


The logical conclusion of having access to everything 24/7, future generations are absolutely fucked.


Music is one of the few areas where you could call me a consoomer.

Unless you're a musician and need it for your job, there is absolutely no reason to go to the lengths described in the meme above.

Spoiler: Details

On the other hand, I do consider these important when dealing with any virtual music collection:

- own your music, it must be free of any and all DRM (Bandcamp & Quboz)
- never buy blindly from an artist, track their discography through Discogs, RateYourMusic, Deezer and Last.fm
- in keeping with the above principle, make sure you don't waste money on a compilation album or deluxe editions with tracks you don't care for
- all music must be in both MP3 and CD format, if possible
- buy an external SSD in case your shit gets fucked
- have a Sony Walkman (instead of using your absurdly sized phone) with an SD card installed
- have proper headphones, one closed-back for work, one open-back for relaxation
- have a portable speaker for entertaining company, they don't care about the quality anyway
- have BL earbuds for easy listening
- use a DAC/AMP where necessary
- use custom playback software, either Foobar or MusicBee
- find the time to construct playlists

Barring a bimonthly check of everything, I don't touch the setup when it's finished.

Tinkering with the audio setup is something I spent a lot of time on, the overall cost for the base equipment was €1750ish.
As for the music itself, the average cost of those tunes is around €100 a month, although I tend to spend it in bursts.


For some reason, a significant amount of people in my family's social circle were train autists. They'd either be my age or 40+, key difference being one had a cellar filled with pic related and the young'uns would obsessively play train sims.
They were always so excited when I showed interest in their hobby, kind souls across the board.

How much fucking music do you listen to to be spending $100 a month on new stuff? Granted, I’m someone who very rarely listens to music at all and when I do it’s on YouTube or pirated.

I don’t recall if comic book collectors have been brought up yet, but one particular subset of them are a truly unique brand of delusional consoomer - they despise everything Marvel and DC are doing to the heroes they loved, but they keep buying, because they just NEED a complete run of X-men, no matter how garbage it is - yes, even the one where Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey have a threesome and are in a poly relationship on the moon*. Because god forbid muh consecutive numbers aren’t consecutive! Funko consoomers are retarded for buying shit they don’t actively want just to complete a set… Comic consoomers are batshit fucking insane for buying stuff they actively hate.

I’m a fucking lazy asshole and don’t have any specific examples on hand, but people like this make up at least a quarter of what remains of the modern US comics market (another quarter being true believers who are all-in on garbage woke reboots, the remaining half being retarded speculators who though that comic books would be a good investment… in the year of our lord 2022.)

*[Yes, this actually happened. Yes, current year comics are fucking retarded.]

One example of mindless consoomerism:

His thesis is basically, “DC preys on customers by releasing $100+ worth of Batman books each month, forcing Batman collectors to waste their money!” As if DC has a gun against their head forcing them to buy Batman.

Here’s an idea… have you tried maybe not hoovering up every piece of garbage DC puts out with Batman on the cover?

 

[The REAL Hatsune Miku]

His thesis is basically, “DC preys on customers by releasing $100+ worth of Batman books each month, forcing Batman collectors to waste their money!” As if DC has a gun against their head forcing them to buy Batman.

Here’s an idea… have you tried maybe not hoovering up every piece of garbage DC puts out with Batman on the cover?

Ah come on man, you know that all the comic fans have got to have every last heckin' producterino that DC releases. It's really the fault of the company for not babysitting people who are too irresponsible to manage their insatiable appetites for consoomable proodoocts!

 

[Yaks]

So ten years ago I went to the movie theater for the first time after a ten year run of not going to the movies. I was utterly shocked at how fucking retarded the commercials before the trailers had become, knowing they have always been retarded. They were just oozing the consume message, which wasn't surprising, but what shocked me was just how cornball and feel-good it all was. Like, who falls for this shit?

So I headed to my favorite corner of either Something Awful or Reddit (can't remember) to share a laugh about retarded ads with a community I thought I got along with. I was floored by the scathing pushback I got over making fun of some ads. I was told:

• some people find brands an integral part of their lives that give them meaning, and it's mean of me to point out how stupid that is
• same as above but for sports team loyalty
• some brands are trying to do the right thing
• defense of someone's consumption against other brands of consumption because xyz (see that a lot in this thread even)
• using a computer to post on the internet made me a consumer too, doncha know
• I must be boring and have no life if I don't have any attachment to any brands
• I must be old
• I must watch a lot of network TV shows or Youtubers if I'm not going to the movies and I'm lying when I say I don't

I felt like I was either talking to bots, 13 year olds, or that the people I thought I had been interacting with for years were actually just corporate shills. Otherwise the general public really is that fucking stupid and dull that they can't imagine the existence of a whole, actualized, and happy person who doesn't have attachment to a corporate intellectual property.

You know what, I think it must have been SA because I remember getting a red title after that and shortly before getting perma'ed. I haven't been on any forums for a long while, but all this tranny shit has started affecting my real life and so I find my way here. What the actual fuck is going on in the world? Endless video thumbnails of people making that face. Seemingly sane people in my real life not being able to talk about anything non-work or family related unless through the lens of whatever brand they're consuming, who they're following, what meme demonstrates the reaction they had to something.

I cannot empathize with the appeal of any of this, and it's not like I was raised any different than the average person. It's not like I'm smarter or a harder worker than some of the people I complain about . I just feel like everyone around me is in a cult.

Welcome to late capitalism. It only gets crazier from here.

I mean we've always had hoarders and obsessives historically, it's not a new thing, it's just much easier to do now. We don't have to really work for anything, including socializing, so that spare time gets filled either with stuff or mindless consumption, both of which are also easier to get without even having to shift to a different ass cheek on the couch.

How much fucking music do you listen to to be spending $100 a month on new stuff? Granted, I’m someone who very rarely listens to music at all and when I do it’s on YouTube or pirated.

One example of mindless consoomerism:

His thesis is basically, “DC preys on customers by releasing $100+ worth of Batman books each month, forcing Batman collectors to waste their money!” As if DC has a gun against their head forcing them to buy Batman.

Here’s an idea… have you tried maybe not hoovering up every piece of garbage DC puts out with Batman on the cover?

Collectors of pop culture stuff are so fascinating to me. They're so proud of their ability to purchase large quantities of things that they end up tying it as a deep aspect of who they are. I honestly think if Batman just stopped printing tomorrow, people like this guy legitimately would go through some sort of mid-life crisis, because they've lived their entire lives worshiping the lives of someone or something else.

 

[Airbrushed Van Art]

Best teacher in my life was my Media studies in High School. Besides gaining an appreciation (and hatred) of old school photography with Dark Rooms, she taught our young, gullible, malleable minds never to fully trust corporate media, Ever. To paraphrase: “It is safer to assume that every news article, every commercial, contains at least one outright lie.” Best advice ever and needs to be taught to kids today, more than ever.

 

[AGPinochet]

I do not know why seeing as I am neither a woman nor a faggot but recently, I have been receiving Youtube Ads for the smartphone App “Depop“ which is an online marketplace for selling and buying used trendy and fashionable clothing. In the advertisement that I am being shown, an effeminate sounding negro says something along the lines of “I find out what the new trend is....and then I buy it *effeminate giggle*“. Really blatant promotion of mindless consumerism.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Best teacher in my life was my Media studies in High School. Besides gaining an appreciation (and hatred) of old school photography with Dark Rooms, she taught our young, gullible, malleable minds never to fully trust corporate media, Ever. To paraphrase: “It is safer to assume that every news article, every commercial, contains at least one outright lie.” Best advice ever and needs to be taught to kids today, more than ever.

i like some of the very old school advertising work from maybe the 1960s or under because a lot of it was still almost naive compared to today.

"Buy food brand because food brand is tasty yum!" with a beautiful illustration of a lady and the product looking impecable. Everyone knows its an ad , obviously is seeling you something material and it is advertising on the intrinsic qualities of the product. A lot of car ads from the 50s and 60s specially are really nice, with often great artwork.

Nowadays every ad is an obtuse psy ops, products are supposed to be moral, a part of your identity, even a political expression, the object itself of the ad campaign is an afterthough, they are selling you an abstract idea of a product through very indirect means. Conceptually what the consumer wants or needs doesn't matter as much anymore, because the ad psy ops wants to create a want and a need in someone who didn't have those before, so who gives a shit if you are someone who likes tomatoes or not, they'll sell you the idea of wanting to be someone who buys tomatoes and will exploit every insecurity to get to the goal line. Nowadays you can't even 100% tell whats an sponsored ad and what is content, every media has covert advertising and subliminal messages, if they know you are sick of ads they'll astroturf or hide them into something else pretending is not an ad, even on the news. "every day until you like it".

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

I do not know why seeing as I am neither a woman nor a faggot but recently, I have been receiving Youtube Ads for the smartphone App “Depop“ which is an online marketplace for selling and buying used trendy and fashionable clothing. In the advertisement that I am being shown, an effeminate sounding negro says something along the lines of “I find out what the new trend is....and then I buy it *effeminate giggle*“. Really blatant promotion of mindless consumerism.

First of all use an adblocker, and stop phone browsing.

Second of all, a common type of advertising contract is "We will pay you [x] amount of money and in return [y] out of every [z] number of advertisements played as a percentage will be our add for [period of time].

 

[Absolutetense]

Best teacher in my life was my Media studies in High School. Besides gaining an appreciation (and hatred) of old school photography with Dark Rooms, she taught our young, gullible, malleable minds never to fully trust corporate media, Ever. To paraphrase: “It is safer to assume that every news article, every commercial, contains at least one outright lie.” Best advice ever and needs to be taught to kids today, more than ever.

That was also the one thing I’ll always remember from school. During politics class we had two big groups working through an article about a fictitious catastrophe on an oil rig.
After both groups were done our teacher,who was hardcore in throwing her keys on your head if you disturbed her class, asked how can we be sure the corporation is telling the truth?
Why didn’t we ask if it’s true what they say?
It’s about money and for that they will always skew the truth to their will.

 

[Crass_and_Champ]

Speaking of the super bowl commercials- the theme I took away this year was celebrities. So many fucking celebrities. An Austin powers actor reunion to sell cars, a smart home ad with Scarlet Johansson and her SNL husband, Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek as Zeus and Hera, stifler’s mom and Trevor Noah for Uber eats where Gwenyth Paltrow eats a vagina candle, rocket mortgage with Anna Kendrick, Lindsay Lohan for planet fitness, zendaya wearing seashells for squarespace, the stars of that sitcom Scrubs for wifi, the zombie of Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus for T mobile...

Fuck I can’t even tell what they were advertising but J-Lo, DJ Khaled, Pitbull, Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, Guy Fieri, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor, Idris Elba had commercials. It was such a weird vibe to just have a shitload of big and small celebrities in every fucking ad. Weirdest globohomo shit I’ve seen in a while. Guess everyone wants an easy paycheck after a cozy two years not having to work as Hollywood is shut down.

Apologies for the weird capitalization my phone is about to brick trying to process all these made up names.

The entire Super Bowl, commercials and halftime show, just felt like a desperate cash grab. "Remember (celebrity x)?" "Remember BRAND?" There was honestly nothing to keep any viewers interested and a lot of football fans I know tuned out around halftime.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

The entire Super Bowl, commercials and halftime show, just felt like a desperate cash grab. "Remember (celebrity x)?" "Remember BRAND?" There was honestly nothing to keep any viewers interested and a lot of football fans I know tuned out around halftime.

I stopped watching the commercials several years ago. They stopped being funny/good at some point and just felt like overhyped versions of regular commercials. The Super Bowl a couple decades ago would have a handful of really great ones, some good ones, and a lot of meh ones. I still remember the EDS herding cats commercial from like 2000.

But lately they were all just meh, or only one pretty good one. I don't really like TV much anyway, so I just stopped watching it. Felt like a waste of time.

 

[NoReturn]

They were just oozing the consume message, which wasn't surprising, but what shocked me was just how cornball and feel-good it all was. Like, who falls for this shit?

I haven't been to a theater, but I remember on theater chain had some kind of pre-show "entertainment" instead of the slideshows of local shit that I saw as a kid, and I was like "WTF is this. It's ads before the ads!"

"Buy food brand because food brand is tasty yum!" with a beautiful illustration of a lady and the product looking impecable. Everyone knows its an ad , obviously is seeling you something material and it is advertising on the intrinsic qualities of the product. A lot of car ads from the 50s and 60s specially are really nice, with often great artwork.

I've found myself wrapping all the way around to finding myself wanting to buy things more if it's advertised in the old ways.
"Look, here's what we got, here's why it's good. Take it or leave it."
"Sold. Thank you for not bullshitting me."

 

[Yaks]

I haven't been to a theater, but I remember on theater chain had some kind of pre-show "entertainment" instead of the slideshows of local shit that I saw as a kid, and I was like "WTF is this. It's ads before the ads!"

I've found myself wrapping all the way around to finding myself wanting to buy things more if it's advertised in the old ways.
"Look, here's what we got, here's why it's good. Take it or leave it."
"Sold. Thank you for not bullshitting me."

Yeah I took a mental note of all the brands I noticed immediately putting up "In these trying times.... you might as well die at Burger King" type ads during the beginning of 2020 and have personally been avoiding those the best i can. Was it a horrific crime? No. I just hate being bullshitted at. Bitch I know you just want me for my money, you mega gold digger.

Probably the most surreal part of the whole thing was watching a cloth mask slowly spin on one of the jewelry displays on one of the Home Shopping networks like it was a solid gold diamond encrusted piece. I felt like I was in a doomsday satire movie.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

I stopped watching the commercials several years ago. They stopped being funny/good at some point and just felt like overhyped versions of regular commercials. The Super Bowl a couple decades ago would have a handful of really great ones, some good ones, and a lot of meh ones. I still remember the EDS herding cats commercial from like 2000.

But lately they were all just meh, or only one pretty good one. I don't really like TV much anyway, so I just stopped watching it. Felt like a waste of time.

When 'I Watch The Super Bowl For The Commercials' became a thing - seemed like the 90s? - that was a great leap forward for Consoomerism. There are some dedicated NFL fans that have TV rips of earlier Super Bowls and it's funny to see that the commercials from the late 70s Super Bowls are just another Sunday's commercials.

 

[Lady Bizness]

Best teacher in my life was my Media studies in High School. Besides gaining an appreciation (and hatred) of old school photography with Dark Rooms, she taught our young, gullible, malleable minds never to fully trust corporate media, Ever. To paraphrase: “It is safer to assume that every news article, every commercial, contains at least one outright lie.” Best advice ever and needs to be taught to kids today, more than ever.

I had a class like that in college...thank god. I can't imagine it still exists. Probably turned it into something like "Manufacturing Outrage for Fun and Profit 101".

For me it was just a short and easy little class to pad out my required units but it still helps me avoid many of the tricks even to this day. The tech has gotten more sophisticated, but at the end of the day bullshit still stinks.