What's up with the r/consumeproduct sub-reddit?

[Deathknightish]

I don't get it. They criticise people buying things, because... why exactly?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ConsumeProduct/

What's wrong with liking video games, or buying some merchandise connected to movies or video games.

[ParanoiD84]

There is literally sub reddits for everything you can imagine. Does not mean it's got a point or that they are serious.

[Deathknightish]

There is literally sub reddits for everything you can imagine. Does not mean it's got a point or that they are serious.

This one in particular seems to have gotten traction though with that just as stupid "don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next product"-meme though, as if it's wrong to be a fan of franchises.

[Nobleshield]

It's making fun of blind fanboys who eat up everything no matter how good/bad it is, I'd guess. Basically saying they are close to mindless.

Which, seeing how some fans of some things are, I can believe.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

I recognize the kind of memes there, it's one of those /pol/ subreddits, although this one has a good message somehow despite the users, consumerism is consuming society, wouldn't it be better if we make do with what we have? Why get a new phone when the one you have works just fine? Do you really need to see that new movie in the cinema? Why not just wait for dvd or just pirate it? Go live a frugal life, it's good for you and the environment.

[Stormspark]

It's making fun of blind fanboys who eat up everything no matter how good/bad it is, I'd guess. Basically saying they are close to mindless.

Which, seeing how some fans of some things are, I can believe.

Yep exactly. I'm not afraid to call out garbage when I see it. Even if it's in something that up until that point was my favorite show of all time (which I had to do in the past few months - I'm not referring to Star Wars myself, but I can see it applying there as well). I saw that meme used against the folks that blindly ate it up.

[Kraenen]

Seems like a pretty generic anti-consumerist / overconsumption-critical forum?

[Vash The Stampede]

What's wrong with liking video games, or buying some merchandise connected to movies or video games.

I don't know anything about this subreddit, but from the way you describe it I can't fault them for hating those who buy into what's popular and trendy. Star Wars movies have been getting bad reviews but it doesn't stop people from obsessing over it to the point where you buy hot garbage to show how much you love hating the new movies. Just because its new and popular doesn't make it good. Buying the merchandise just enforced studios to continue to make hot garbage because there's nothing telling them to do otherwise.

[Dug]

Turbo nerds calling other people turbo nerds over identity politics

[Stormspark]

Good because acting pretentious and judging others on buying things that give them joy is pretty garbage if you ask me. (Not saying you are doing that just more of a general point).

Well things have glaringly obvious objective quality drops, and there is nothing wrong with calling out blind fanboys that do nothing but plug their ears and go "LALALALALALALA" when you try to point out flaws.

THAT is what this is about. Not calling out people who enjoy something. Calling out people who refuse to see any flaws and blindly fanboy over anything.

[s_bushido]

It's just an RLM meme:



They at least have the excuse of being cynical elderly people (at least Rich Evans does). I'm just going to assume the people on that subreddit (or who share a similar outlook) are doing it to be like the cool kids smoking out back of the school complaining about the conformists.

[Yadryonych]

Still sounds like garbage to me why can't we let bygones be bygones who cares who fanboys over what? How does that affect you to make you want to attack them?

@Stormspark just add a tiny bit of eco-activism on top of your hating of other people and it suddenly becomes justified and supported virtue. For example, consumption of plastic figurines hurts environment

[Revi]

Seems like a pretty generic anti-consumerist / overconsumption-critical forum?

On the surface. Weirdly the active userbase is like an extremely religious/far-right youthgroup. The premise is that the west is crumbling because we stopped worshiping god, so now we worship products and porn instead. The top rated comments are regularly complaining about either porn, womens rights, muslims, jews, blacks, gays or soyboys.

The anti-consumerism is directly tied to the belief that it replaces faith in the christian god.

No idea if it started out like that or just got taken over by some backwater 4chan sub, but yeah...

[Dug]

On the surface. Weirdly the active userbase is like an extremely religious/far-right youthgroup. The premise is that the west is crumbling because we stopped worshiping god, so now we worship products and porn instead. The top rated comments are regularly complaining about either porn, womens rights, muslims, jews, blacks, gays or soyboys.

The anti-consumerism is directly tied to the belief that it replaces faith in the christian god.

No idea if it started out like that or just got taken over by some backwater 4chan sub, but yeah...

It's just another off-shoot in the internet culture wars started around Gamergate so it's a pretty safe bet that's originally why it was started.

[Stormspark]

Flaws to you you mean. They may not be considered flaws to others or those flaws may just not be all that important to them. And even so if what you say is completely true the fact remains that you would still be meddling into somebody else's affairs for the sheer purpose of making fun of them in some capacity for doing/buying something that they enjoy and brings them happiness.

Still sounds like garbage to me why can't we let bygones be bygones who cares who fanboys over what? How does that affect you to make you want to attack them?

Again, not you personally but 'you' in a general sense.

Right, but we are talking about people that inhibit even civil discussion. You can be discussing the flaws in something with other people, having a civil conversation, then one of these blind fanboys goes nuts "IT'S COMPLETELY PERFECT AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE YOU'RE NOT A REAL FAN". I've seen it more than once. And while I don't take part in that particular reddit (I'm as athiest as it's possible to be for one), I have NO issue with calling people out when they do this with the Consume Product meme. I'm not talking about hating on people for having different opinions, I'm talking about calling out people when they blatantly try to stamp out legitimate criticism because they're a blind fanboy.

[s_bushido]

These are all examples that fly under the radar, as in: nobody seems to bother asking the question whether this is a mental illness issue. Consumerism seems to be sold / advertised as being the norm.

When the examples being pointed to are only noteworthy because they're so extreme/out of the ordinary, you'll forgive me if I don't buy this. People have been getting into fights over trivial crap for as long as we've had trivial crap to get into fights over.

[Nnyco]

I am seriously unsure if that subreddit is ironical or not. I hope its not because that would make it more hillarious.

[Graeham]

It's making fun of blind fanboys who eat up everything no matter how good/bad it is, I'd guess. Basically saying they are close to mindless.

Which, seeing how some fans of some things are, I can believe.

Yeah, it's a pretty reasonable observation to make. Just look at Fallout 76, for instance - a game mired in controversy, dubious business practices, mishandling of private data and numerous other issues and there's still people who zealously deem it to be the best thing ever.

Worse yet, a lot of 'fanboys' aren't even all that invested in whatever they're fawning over and seek to push out those who are more invested but also more likely to criticise poor decision making. The worst culprits just don't typically have much going for them and so their obsession with <insert product here> is all they live for.

[s_bushido]

So I don't see why the subreddit is being questioned if it points out such extreme cases.

Because pointing to extreme cases and pretending those are representative of whatever is considered normal for the group of people you're talking about...is incredibly stupid. It's exactly the sort of mentality that underlies bigotry.

[Mormolyce]

Seriously? It appears to be a subreddit doing a parody of mindless consumerism.

You know there's subreddits for this kind of question. Like maybe r/OutofTheLoop or whatever?

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Because pointing to extreme cases and pretending those are representative of whatever is considered normal for the group of people you're talking about...is incredibly stupid. It's exactly the sort of mentality that underlies bigotry.

I dunno man I feel like you're just describing the act of satire as bigotry.