Post 2600104 by Galdrakinn@todon.nl
(DIR) More posts by Galdrakinn@todon.nl
(DIR) Post #2225125 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:26:43Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
Imo, one of the most damning aspects of capitalism is that it encourages people to have consumptive hobbies over creative ones.It actively seeks to bar people from doing things like cooking, or writing, or making pottery, or anything else of that nature. Activities in which you are making somethingThings like that are made either too expensive (in terms of money, or time, or both) or framed as something not worth wasting time on, because you can't support yourself doing art/writing/etc
(DIR) Post #2225135 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:31:59Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Inversely, consumptive hobbies are encouraged to excess, despite being far fewer. Hobbies where the whole point is Getting Things, and Having Things. Wether that be shopping for clothes, or spending hours and hours consuming contents you can gain an encyclopedic knowledge of a movie or series, or collecting all ten thousand of those god damn funkopop figurines.Things like that, where at the end of the day all you really have is a lot less money, and a lot more stuff that you didn't make.
(DIR) Post #2225144 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:34:11Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
In a capitalist's ideal world, everyone would have consumptive hobbies, and no one would have creative ones. This slots cleanly into their worldview of having everyone define their identity by what they consume, so that there will always be things to sell, and whatever's being consumed or sold is wholly irrelevant.
(DIR) Post #2225155 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:35:31Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Thankfully, this is impossible. There's not a force on this Earth that can stop people from consuming things, and even with the artificial barriers capitalism has created, many people still do have creative hobbies, because creating things is enjoyable and satistfying on a deeply human level. Consuming things is not.
(DIR) Post #2225165 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:40:24Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
This is part of why I think it's so good to create things. It lends a deep satisfaction that literally cannot be bought or sold, and that's the kind of thing that makes capitalists tear their hair out. Think about how many things you otherwise wouldn't have wanted if you hadn't been barraged with ads and media and such, telling you that You Should Want These Things, literally every day you've been alive. Self-satisfaction is the penicillin to capitalism's disease.
(DIR) Post #2225177 by Dayglochainsaw@efdn.club
2018-12-23T16:43:35Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
So go! Spit in the eye of those who would have you lie consumptive and dead, another listless source of profit! Bear the power of your own hands, and the ten thousand year legacy of humanity's shared desire to make! Revolt! Create!
(DIR) Post #2225193 by erosdiscordia@radical.town
2018-12-23T19:00:53Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
@Dayglochainsaw I agree! To add to this, if you do have one of the creative hobbies, there's this pervasive and exhausting element of competition that always creeps in.You can't just be a writing/critique circle. There is no love, there is no art. The whole thing has to be about getting published, or who's published the most, in the most elite circles, or else getting into an elite MFA, or self-publishing with high numbers, etc etc etc Jesus Christ save us.
(DIR) Post #2600085 by elchapo@knzk.me
2018-12-23T17:34:34Z
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@Dayglochainsaw this aligns with something I’ve thought for a long time: consumption based activities inherently breed toxicity (eg gamers) bc when you consume the only thing that sets you apart and gives you social currency is making a demonstration of how narrow your tastes are (anyone can love a lot of things, after all, but your palette is so refined you hate it all). When you create you’re defined by ability rather than tastes, and your ability doesn’t require excluding others.
(DIR) Post #2600086 by alyxmaia@sunbeam.city
2018-12-23T19:28:46Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@elchapoThis reminds me of something Aldous Huxley wrote in an essay about culture, he said culture is a way to create an insider group, like a family sharing anecdotes, but instead of uncle John or aunt Mary you had uncle Goethe, aunt Woolf (or something like that) and people external to that didn't know what you talked about and got excluded. That way, a culture based in consumerism would not only benefit capitalism, it would support an elitist mindset and with that classism and white supremacy. @Dayglochainsaw
(DIR) Post #2600099 by erosdiscordia@radical.town
2018-12-23T19:10:21Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Dayglochainsaw And it's like, who does that serve? That exhausting and deadening of creativity into product-making?It serves well-connected agents and big labels. Massive publishing conglomerates. It serves Amazon, Hollywood studios, and universities.Even smaller publishers and journals and writing programs often work to maintain their elite status for financial reasons. Creators get isolated against each other, when the best eras of human creativity involve idea sharing.
(DIR) Post #2600104 by Galdrakinn@todon.nl
2018-12-23T20:04:06Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Dayglochainsaw If you do have a hobby that produces -things- you’re pressured into monetising it as well
(DIR) Post #2600105 by trebach@mastodon.sdf.org
2018-12-23T21:05:34Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Galdrakinn @Dayglochainsaw It seems anything vaguely creative gets shoved into competition or commoditization by capitalism. According to the capitalist machine, nothing can be made just because you wanted to make it or it helps you blow off some steam at the end of the day. It must be because you want to get ahead of others in your craft or because you want to sell the works you made.
(DIR) Post #2600130 by alkahest@slime.global
2018-12-24T10:10:13Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@Dayglochainsaw yah and when 'capitalism' encourages creative activities it always obsesses about what tools someone uses"she can't be a real photographer with THAT camera', 'what, you're drawing and don't have the latest photoshop', always pressuring people into buying new, more expensive stuff as of course that's what makes them 'good, productive artists'
(DIR) Post #2659698 by feathersong@weirder.earth
2018-12-24T00:45:53Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Dayglochainsaw There's a whole thread in this idea too that forcing people to be consumers takes away their power. If you are a pure consumer, you can't create anything, and you are a) not in any danger of usurping their power, and b) still consuming because you have nothing else to do. Capitalism is about concentrating power, and in capitalism, money is power, and someone who can't get it any other way than producing only for a capitalist is totally unempowered.