this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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askchapo

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Treatbrain - Site culture or an informed Marxist understanding of the average Westerner? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by SkingradGuard@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I was wondering if anyone has any Marxist literature related to this topic, if it exists at all. Talking about "treats" is very much a part of the site's culture, so I'm wondering if this part of hexbear has any grounding in the Marxist understanding of the world in the 21st century.

This is not a shitpost, I'm genuinely curious. Thanks! stalin-approval

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[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 35 points 2 months ago (3 children)

As far as I know the specific rhetoric comes from Matt Christman and is basically just updating the language used to critique consumerism and luxury commodities into something more vulgar and intuitive. The concept is definitely rooted in general Marxist discourse on luxuries and consumption although what's sticking out the most in my mind right now are pro-treat Marxist things like the quote about workers not only needing bread but also roses - that is, that luxuries without pragmatic use value are actually still necessary for morale and humanity - or how the Soviet Union did so many things that were just little "it would be nice for people to have this and we can provide it for them" shit like the carbonated water fountains.

I don't have any specific reading about the topic though.

[–] WayeeCool@hexbear.net 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Honestly it's just a modern take on the "bread & circus" concept that goes back to city-states of the ancient world. It's not unique to the US and is even something socialist governments must account for, but with the US it sure seems like an entire cultural identity has been built around consumption of treats. Just look at what happened in the US when COVID caused mass media entertainment (television, movies, novels) to be delayed indefinitely along with restaurants, bars, and themeparks closing down.

Other than treats citizens of the US often have nothing, living lives that can be quite hollow. Atomization. Freedom where to others they owe nothing and are owed nothing. No community, protestant religion centered around the individual, family is extremely shallow due to being limited to the so-called nuclear family that often abandons relationships when children turn 18, and suburban living where people often don't even know their immediate neighbors.

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah that seems right. Most countries have some level of commodity fetishization, but Amerikkka elevates it to the level of core national identity.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

elevates it to the level of core national identity.

So much so that it invades the political discourse a lot. The nonsense "culture war" focuses heavily on treats most of the time.

[–] TheModerateTankie@hexbear.net 11 points 2 months ago

frothingfash you commiefornians will never ban my cheeseburger!

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

We went from “women in the priesthood” as a cultural battleground to “women in my shitty live action service looter-shooter vidya”

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

Good post comrade 07

[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago

Other than treats citizens of the US often have nothing, living lives that can be quite hollow. Atomization. Freedom where to others they owe nothing and are owed nothing. No community,

wonder-who-thats-for

[–] Vampire@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't have any specific reading about the topic though

Caviar with Champagne: Common Luxury and the Ideals of the Good Life in Stalin's Russia. By Jukka Gronow

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 18 points 2 months ago

monkey-typewriter hmm that's one for the library, thanks comrade!

[–] lil_tank@hexbear.net 12 points 2 months ago

"Let the people have treats, they want it, if we don't give them treat we will end up like Gorbatchev"

  • Deng Xiaoping (paraphrasing) (I didn't make that up)
[–] axont@hexbear.net 27 points 2 months ago

It's more or less the same thing as calling someone a first-worlder. It's an accusation that imperialism uses trinkets to distract and satiate first world subjects based on the labor of global South subjects.

[–] Vampire@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Commodity fetishism

[–] axont@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's not exactly what commodity fetishism is, but it's probably part of it. People often do value brand names in regards to their treats, regardless of the labor input.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

Yeah I was going to say, it doesn't seem commodity fetishism explains "treats" fully.

[–] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 6 points 2 months ago

Commodity fetishism doesn't mean a consumer going "damn I love commodities so much I want to fuck them", it means ignoring the social relationships inherent in the way goods are produced and consumed