I had to deal with some guy at work trying to do some tiktok video and including me in it so I could complement his side gig or some shit (and likely only including me because women get views). And if I complain too much about being included in their grift everyone will shit on me for being a karen or for not helping him with it. Jesus fucking christ, I hate people that try to constantly plaster their face and name on everything to make money. Fuck youtubers, fuck tiktok, fuck ads, stop stealing peoples work for a quick buck ‘by doing commentary’, leave me the fuck alone
No. I dislike people saying “everyone is doing this annoying thing” when it’s quite obvious that a large percent of the local and global population are not doing it.
Going on a rant is great, but you gotta be factual or it’s a waste of everyone’s time to listen. Have some decency, please.
Maybe this large percent of population not doing it cause it is annoying?
It’s hyperbole. A well established component of human interaction, used to stimulate engagement.
I dislike fake outrage that pokes fingers at innocent turns of phrases.
Yes. I know, un-be-lievable.
Commodity Fetishization
Not what that means
It means turning everything into a commodity - every hobby, every human act, every creative endeavor, every way of life. The commodity form is fetishized and the drive to commodify everything is what OP is railing against.
No, that is not what the commodity fetish is. This is literally first chapter of Capital. The commodity fetish refers to the appearance of relations between people as relations between things, and the way that things (commodities) appear to have person-like qualities. This is not something that happens in the mind but a real abstraction that actually occurs under the capitalist mode of production.
And what observable effect does that have on the world that isn’t exactly what OP is describing?
The commodity fetish isn’t about “everyone trying to make money all the time”… The commodity fetish explains the obfuscation of social relations. Not people trying to make money. People try to make money because it can be exchanged for goods and services, believe it or not.
And what observable effect does that have on the world that isn’t exactly what OP is describing?
One could say:
- The failure of workers to identify that they are members of an entire working class, rather than employees of different workplaces
- The appearance of political/social relations as natural and transhistorical parts of the world
- Arguably, the course of pretty much every attempted socialist project.
The commodity fetish is central to Marx’s project. This book is a good argument on the significance of the commodity fetish for Marx.
I don’t understand this ridiculous anti-intellectualism. Why reference Marx if you seem to refuse to actually learn what he said?
Characteristics which had appeared mysterious because they were not explained on the basis of the relations of producers with each other were assigned to the natural essence of commodities. Just as the fetishist assigns characteristics to his fetish which do not grow out of its nature, so the bourgeois economist grasps the commodity as a sensual thing which possesses pretersensual properties.
So when OP says “fuck why are videos like this. Why can’t videos just be like that” what is happening?
Is it that OP is assigning characteristics to videos that are actually expressions of the relationship between the producers and consumers of those videos, and of the distributors and the advertisers etc?
As far as I can tell, people chasing clout for money is a human relationship, one of deprevation, desperation, and manipulation. And those relationships drive behaviors which result in the characteristics of commodities, like media.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ve misinterpreted Marx all this time. It’s certainly a topic I haven’t deeply wrestled with in concert with others. Happy to be corrected and learn.
Genuine question, have you read any of Capital? Not trying to be an ass, but Marx explains in the first chapter, and the book I linked is a good supplementary text too. You don’t have to read all of Capital; like I said, the commodity fetish gets explained in the first chapter. (Though I highly recommend taking the time to read all of Capital; it’s a great text and provides the basis of a scientific critique of capitalism and class society.)
“Fetish”, in “commodity fetish” refers to the commodity appearing to have mystical properties, when in actuality it’s an inanimate object. But it appears animate; it appears to be capable of magical things; and it also makes social relations between people appear as relations between things, e.g. the relation of domination between capitalist and worker appears as an exchange of commodities, a wage in exchange for labour-power. The wording of “fetish” comes from an old racist conception where Europeans said that Africans had a “fetish” of particular religious objects, i.e. they ascribed magical properties to these objects that they didn’t have. Whilst that old conception is racist and wrong, I think the concept of the commodity fetish still holds true.
The commodity fetish isn’t particularly related to what OP is talking about. Clout-chasing is just clout-chasing. The desire to make money is because, well, we live in a capitalist society, and more money means you can get more stuff. The commodity fetish describes properties of commodities, not behaviour of people. It describes the way commodities actually appear; there’s no mental process or actions you can take to undo the commodity fetish, because it is a description of the actual way commodities function under capitalism.
I dislike it.
I have been surprised at the coworkers with that stream their daily activities.
Seems to be a symptom of a failing economic system (i.e. too many people have access to too little money). The minimum wage needs to go up.List of ways in which this would be illegal under a sensible government:
- affiliation with a banned for-profit privacy violation scheme known as “TikTok”
- attempting to compromise someone’s privacy by persuasion to permit the placement of their likeness on the aforementioned “TikTok” in spite of the human right to privacy
- participating in discriminatory sexism by attempting to encourage toxic forms of distinguishing between “women” and “men”
- prioritizing personal financial gain over human rights
- solicitory harassment
- attempting to recieve ad revenue from illegal forms of advertisement
Well in this case it probably isn’t money he is after, but attention and fame. That said, just tell him you had a past “incident” you don’t like to talk about, but that your image shouldn’t be on anything that might give away your current location. Lol.
just tell him you had a past “incident” you don’t like to talk about, but that your image shouldn’t be on anything that might give away your current location.
I appreciate that you are trying to help here, but I’d advise against that. This is a person who shows little respect for others’ privacy or feelings. Telling them a lie like this could easily result in them trying to find out what this “past incident” was, telling other people OP has some past trauma and making them even more uncomfortable.
It should be way more simple: no means no, and you’re not entitled to have other people play a part in your videos.
Yes. Everything is monitored, and it sucks. We’ve internalized it even, you can’t so much as have a hobby without dumping money into it to signal you take it seriously
Maybe ask some of your coworkers for help demonetizing, brainstorm hobbies with no payoff or audience to grift, put on a reflective HV vest or hat to screw up advertising slop commentary videos, play licensed popular music, swear and refer to drugs and ask people on camera how much they make, leave copies of Bertrand Russell’s In Praise of Idleness in the break room.
Yeah I did. It makes me want to scream. Everyone just shut the fuck up.
Did he ask you to sign a model release for being in his video? Did he offer payment for your work?
Everything is so hollowed out that the only thing that’s really left is making money. I remember a time when people used to cringe in front of a camera doing those viral dances and stuff. But nowadays everyone is sold on the idea that as long as you keep creating content on social media you will be rewarded for your efforts. Now whether it’s by actual people interested in the things you create or old men trying to sneak a peek into a girl is another thing…
The problem isn’t TikTok or YouTube—it’s some guy at work who felt entitled to use you for his side hustle. If someone treats you like a prop instead of a person, you don’t owe them compliance, and you don’t owe bystanders an explanation either.
Well TikTok is also extra reprehensible since it’s been taken over by CIA/Oracle.
Yep. Nothing forces anyone to do anything, people do this crap willingly, and then blame everyone else for their poor behaviors.
It’s called be a shitty human being.
My feed
deleted by creator
This really just goes to show how strapped everyone is. If all you ever think about is needing to make more money, you’re struggling.
If my ‘struggling’ you mean ‘i want to be wealthy but i constantly overspend’.
nobody doing social media posts is in poverty.
As a matter of fact, I take it very personaly. Making it near useless is one of my long-term goals, even if only localy.
It’s infuriating when you look at the online content creator landscape:
Everybody’s got a course. Everybody’s sponsored. Every channel pitches scams with a promo code. Even many anti-capitalist channels are pushing you to sign up for some program. It’s absurd.
