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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   35669 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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I mean you're right, it's just signalling. I'd bet those people who said they'd never eat at Chik-fil-A are lying or simply don't like it and happen to be telling the truth for that reason. I've seen numerous woke people just give up caring when it comes to boycotting anything they like. Sure, Chick-fil-A and In & Out* are "piece of shit" companies but they still order it anyway they just make sure to let you know that it's wrong to do it. It's also possible there are people taking a principled stand that just don't talk about it but every single person I've met, or seen online, who's talked about this issue (and recently, too) has admitted that Chick-fil-A is a bad or piece of shit company and then still bought Chick-fil-A.

People I've seen, for the most part, have no idea about the object-level reasons why someone or something is bad. It's the same for anything political, really. They get given a vague idea by someone else who summed it up and their mind is made up. JK Rowling might be a perfect example of most of these people being the most informed about the reason why they're supposed to hate, but I bet none of them know what she's actually said. They just know that she's anti-trans. But they'll still see the next Fantastic Beasts movie and buy the next Harry Potter game.

I will admit this is stronger on the left side of things. The not knowing part, but I wonder if that's partly because of their cultural dominance and maybe the fact that right side people maybe feel like they need to look everything up several times to verify it because they don't trust a left source which would be most of them. And part of the cultural dominance is keeping the signals straight and in line with each other. On Reddit right now there were about four or five coordinated stories about Jordan Peterson crying about being called an incel by Olivia Wilde. But actually he cried for incels in general but nobody read the actual article or the video it was about. Most people repeated things about him that were patently false to signal to everyone that they know he's bad news. I bet they believe it. Once it's about politics/culture war information becomes useless. It's shocking to me how cavalier people are with their hatred.

*I'm not sure that In & Out has even done the getting sullied with a game of telephone thing, but simply being openly Christian is mostly enough and the rest is filled in with whatever their head made up, incidentally this is why Chris Pratt is a "piece of shit". I've heard this about him several times. But I bet you they still see the next Chris Pratt movie and then make a big point to complain about him when they don't even know what he's bad for except that he's Christian and/or Republican.

JK Rowling might be a perfect example of most of these people being the most informed about the reason why they're supposed to hate, but I bet none of them know what she's actually said. They just know that she's anti-trans. But they'll still see the next Fantastic Beasts movie and buy the next Harry Potter game.

I have been a little disappointed in the anti-Rowling hypocrisy I see. I remember one thing that rubbed me the wrong way a while back. I was at a Ren Faire, and one of the performers made a "You're a wizard, Harry" joke and immediately followed it up with something along the lines of "Don't worry folks, that's only time we'll mention that TERF shit."

Like, either own the fact that you're making a Harry Potter joke or don't make one at all. Making the joke, and then virtue signaling that you shouldn't have made it and won't make one again seems like trying to eat your cake and have it too.

I've actually read Rowling's essay and tweets, and while I disagree with much of what she says, I can at least understand the emotional place she's coming from as a victim of abuse at the hands of a man. I'm not thrilled about the effect she's having on the conversation about trans people in Britain, but I haven't made the decision to boycott her.

Practically, I couldn't really "boycott" her nowadays anyways. The first Fantastic Beasts movie didn't wow me and I never saw the others, and most of her post-Harry Potter wizarding lore (particular her American lore) has been underwhelming to me.

I think I'll just do a matching donation to a pro-trans charity if I ever buy any official Harry Potter merch going forward. (I already did this on a recent trip in London, where Google guided me to King's Cross station, and I decided to pop into the Platform 9 3/4 store because I had time to kill before the train arrived.)

There's definitely multiple groups at play here.

You might well be right to make that bet; I don't know what the relative frequency is like. But there are sincere boycotters just like there are for Hobby Lobby or Nike. Our ridiculous level of prosperity means that most companies are selling commodities--a substitute is readily available. That can make it easy to switch to something else, and I think that keeps the number of hypocritical evangelists low.

Not understanding object level concerns is a separate issue. Tribalism is a powerful and convenient heuristic and really, what good does knowing Chick-fil-A trivia do...for anyone who isn't an activist? You only need to be ready to debate JKR's stance if you are trying to lead the charge. Otherwise, it's enough to follow your friend group.

JKR also happens to be a good example of how right-wing boycotts can look pretty different. It didn't take a Twitter hashtag to get Christian social groups denouncing her books. There is an industry of Christian reviewers and commentators who will tell you, in whatever level of detail you want, why a movie or book is un-Christian. I don't think the right is somehow more inclined to look things up. Easy heuristics are good enough for everybody.

See also Too Good To Check.

As a final note, I have never bothered to find an article that explains the problem with Chris Pratt beyond "he's into a culty church." But my sister was able to give a detailed summary of his comments about his autistic son to make it clear why she didn't like him. This was in the context of her choosing not to watch the Terminal List. So n = 1, at least some people are capable of committing to the bit.

A Google guy told me a story a few years ago about going on a conference road trip. Stopping at Chick-fil-A was their "what happens in Vegas" moment .

What a crazy and stifling environment.

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