So it’s “Star Wars Day” again, May the Fourth (be with you), and I’m not really feeling it anymore.
I think it’s part of a longer arc, a larger trend, one that I’d like to take the time to explore more fully. Either with a video, a podcast, or both. But I want to give it the attention it deserves, because there is some nuance to it, and it speaks to a larger trend, both in term of the non-consumption mentioned earlier, and wondering how to deal with fictional facism in an era of rising real facism.
The first with look at where we draw the line, and the second will look at the changing tone of the Star Wars universe, as it* negotiates it’s identity in the 21st century.
* As much as a corporate media franchise has intentionality or agency.
Since March of 2023, a virus has been loose in the mediasphere, drive by an AI art generator, and reaching across all media franchises.
Like other AIs, it is relentless, remorseless, and it will not stop until all franchises have been co-opted,
by Balenciaga.
(Of course it didn’t start with 40K, as that is a niche of a niche, but it’s meme-ification speaks to the reach and pervasiveness of the Balenciaga AI).
Know your meme has the deets. What started as a Harry Potter themed AI video on YouTube went viral, fast, and imitators doing the same for other media franchises soon followed. The full history is here. The W40K ones came a few weeks after, but seeing as they don’t normally get mainstream inclusion, their presence stood out as a marker of the pervasiveness of the spread.
What I’m not sure is why.
Is it simply the internet being the internet, or is it a PR stunt or image reclamation project after the recent cancellation controversy. Or controversies. 2022 had a rough landing for the French fashion house. But 4 months into 2023, and the image has improved, driven by a pervasive AI-driven meme.
I’m inclined to think that the first post was just the internet doing what the internet does, but is it beyond the realm of possibility to imagine a savvy team pouring some gas on the meme and helping it spread like wildfire? The inclusion of 40K is a little too nerdy for the savviest image consultant, but that could simply be fans hopping on the trend of the raging inferno.
If it was planned, then kudos. Well done.
The challenge is, as with the conspicuous non-consumption posts, is in discussing Balenciaga without promoting or spreading Balenciaga.
There are still a few more threads to tie together, and with fashion on the mind at the Met Gala, there’s more to review there as well.
What do vegan cordcutters who used to play D&D have in common?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. (And so will I.)
Because otherwise, how would you know?
Let me introduce you to the idea of conspicuous non-consumption. It can be seen as the antithesis to Veblen’s conspicuous consumption, where people will buy certain brands or products to show off how awesome they are, but what do you do if that brand sucks?
Well, much like the Road Dogg Jess James, you better call somebody. And tell them, obviously, because how else would they know… how awesome you are, for not buying that thing.
It’s the paradox of non-consumption, that the absence of an action doesn’t communicate the intent. It goes hand-in-hand with things like brand boycotts, where the option to not buy, or experience, or engage, for reasons, as opposed to preference, like I’d watch The Flash if I had the money, or time, or wasn’t sick of superhero movies, but I lack the means.
Conspicuous non-consumption is the vocalization of the un-uttered “I’d prefer not to”, that oft-repeated Zizekian aphorism.
But it goes much further than Zizek takes it in our social media driven, Instagram and TikTok influencer kind of age, where every post is an advertisement (some paid, some not) for that particular brand or product.
So, if you want to send a message to Hasbro, or DC, f’rex, you’d have to do more that just not buy those products, you’d have to let people know.
I’ll be building out this idea shortly, but in the interest of publishing, and not letting the interminable and never-arriving perfect drive out the immediate good, I’ll post this up for now and we’ll come back to it in a moment or three.
Right now, there’s a handful of threads floating about that I need to bring together…
Recently (like, within the last week) Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, and publisher of various games including Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, reportedly used members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to pay a visit to the YouTuber @oldschoolmtg who had accidentally received packs from the forthcoming “March of the Machines: the Aftermath” set, due to be released on May .
The YouTuber did what any content creator would in this late capitalist framework: they created content. Crack the packs and show them off. Get to work, doing what they do.
Now, since that story was posted, there have been follow-ups saying that the visit by the PDA was more of a “knock on door and have a chat” kind of visit, rather than the one that fills most minds when they hear of Pinkerton raid. Still, the optics need to be considered. Having the rather notorious detective agency available for these sorts of eventualities reflects rather poorly on WotC.
Especially since it didn’t need to be this way. Just one month earlier, the exact same thing happened to a competitor of WotC, GamesWorkshop. In March, GW accidentally shipped a copy of an unreleased model, Commander Dante of the Blood Angels, several weeks before the model was to be revealed at the upcoming Adepticon event in Chicago, along with a number of other models. The error was due to the old model still having it’s SKU in the system while the new one was being stocked, and they accidentally did the swap. The content creator did the same thing in this case, and posted pictures of their painted model to imgur (here).
“The Day of Revelation has come a little earlier than expected…” Indeed.
So rather than send an agency that was so notorious that the US Congress had to enact legislation (that is still on the books) that prevents members from being employed by the US Government, GW was able to provide a treat to a fan and to the community, and gain some overall good will.
And it likely didn’t hurt their sales: as of time of posting, the model was sold out online despite it’s $55 CAD price tag.
With podcast now up and running (and available here at http://www.buzzsprout.com/1935232/episodes we’re going to be returning to creating content here as well, as a mix of new posts, and companion pieces to go with the original content.
With the recent twit-pocalypse, we’ve also created an account on one of the federated servers for Mastodon. You can find me at @dr.implausible@mastodon.online There’s a few other options for non-Twitter microblogging, but this is the one we’re going to go with for now.
Finally, in behind-the-scenes information, I’ve worked out a mobile editing platform, which should allow for more consistent updates. This is the first test post from that system.