The harshest takedown of a pop music star that's also the safest possible critique ever

[Azrael]

First, I don't really think it's all that imaginary in reality - box stores have closed by the bushel, restaurants (I don't even enjoy) like Applebee's and Chili's are on the slide - but it's absolutely not imaginary in perception. Millennial men aren't growing beards and donning Patagonia vests because they live in the upper woods. They're embracing what they think to be broad cultural norms about what is and isn't cool.

There is a right and a wrong on Twitter - especially among people in the media. If you're liberal and progressive and up to date on what the correct celebrities and ESPN personalities think, you're right. If you're not - or you are and you don't agree - you're wrong, and perhaps not only wrong, but potentially a really bad person in need of cultural reeducation.

Aren't the craft beers and the flannel shirts and the watch caps and the small batch cold brew nitro-coffees and the handcut brisket sandwiches a response to more than half a century of flavorless corporate uniformity?

I'm not sure that liberalism has much to do with it.

 

[Azrael]

A flyover of the whole thing.

Welcome to the Culture War Issue

 

[John B. Foster]

Gordon Ramsay can be a bit much at times, however, when he does his individual cooking shows, he's really entertaining.

 

[Azrael]

Bearded men



not liberal

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Millennial men aren't growing beards and donning Patagonia vests because they live in the upper woods. They're embracing what they think to be broad cultural norms about what is and isn't cool.

Wait ... I've had a beard and worn Patagonia vests for about 30 years now. Does this mean I'm cool? I'm a trendsetter?

 

[Alma]

A flyover of the whole thing.

Welcome to the Culture War Issue

I guess there's something to it.

The piece on Democrats - in which it's revealed Ocasio-Cortez won her primary thanks to white college-educated gentrifiers - was notable.

Again, I'm someone who's voted democrat quite often in my life. More than many. And yet...am I welcome in the party? Am I welcome at the table? Or, because I'm Christian, am I "violent" for my views on certain social issues?

What's more, if progressivism morphs into a series of cultural gestures and lingo that favors those with college educations? Doesn't that necessarily disfavor the poor? Doesn't that necessarily create a kind of paternalism or maternalism where the east coast and west coast college grads - who came from money to begin with - "know best"?

 

[Alma]

Wait ... I've had a beard and worn Patagonia vests for about 30 years now. Does this mean I'm cool? I'm a trendsetter?

At least today, a Patagonia vest means you or your parents (in the case of millennials) have money. They cost about $90-130, depending. I suppose they can be bought secondhand. That doesn't seem to be my experience seeing it in others, but I could be judging.

 

[Azrael]

As I've said many times, the culture has moved left while our politics have moved right.

Do you honestly think all those grey-flannel Republican presidents from Yale didn't constitute the very kind of coastal elitism you're so suddenly wary of? That the Bushes didn't "disfavor the poor?"

I think whether or not the Democratic Party is for you is up to you. What issues do you value? Which parts of their platform do you support? Which do you oppose? Whatever happened to progressive Republicanism of the kind put forward by Fightin' Bob La Follette?

And while your Christianity should inform your personal choices, no individual religion or religious practice should be enshrined as American law. So no political party should use it as a blueprint.

 

[Azrael]

I also think fashion is fashion - and exists apart from politics.

Whether you're cool or not is just another way to catalog fashion. And it's been that way for hundreds of years.

Are you in? Are you out? Do you deviate from the norm?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

At least today, a Patagonia vest means you or your parents (in the case of millennials) have money. They cost about $90-130, depending. I suppose they can be bought secondhand. That doesn't seem to be my experience seeing it in others, but I could be judging.

End of season sales, man! You can get them for $40-50 if you time it right. I think I gave $70 for the black Nano Puff I'm wearing today, when it retails for $150 normally.

And while I know Patagonia has become a status symbol for some, the damn things last forever - unless you're mountaineering, I guess. I've got a fleece Snap-T that's at least 25 years old. I've gotten every penny's worth of usage out of it. (About 10 years ago, my wife issued an edict that I'm no longer allowed to wear it to holiday functions - because she was tired of seeing it in all the photos.)

 

[Azrael]

The Patagonia thing escapes me. Find it at 6 o'clock dot com at a huge discount, or on eBay.

But even if it's a signifier of some kind, aren't we cycling through others at the same time? Why are kids in the South Bronx wearing Helly-Hansen and North Face? Haven't we cycled through literally hundreds of brands and logos since about 1970? What does the Ralph Lauren polo player tell us about Republicans? How about the Brooks Brothers Golden Fleece?

What about Fred Perry on these guys?

 

[Alma]

And while your Christianity should inform your personal choices, no individual religion or religious practice should be enshrined as American law. So no political party should use it as a blueprint.

How do I put this? As a Christian, I'm not personally terribly concerned about what the Democratic Party - or any party - thinks of me, since it has zero effect on what I believe or where I'm going. What's more, a political/religious blueprint is worse for the religion than it is for the party. That's part of how Christianity got - and frankly earned - such a shirtty rap over the last 30 years, being coupled, as it were, to the Republican Party.

I write what I write - about myself - as a kind of example. I don't mean me specifically, per se. I'm too old to be overly troubled by it. Millennials are not.

Further, there's a difference between me choosing to vote Democrat - which, as I've said, I have done, and did do, in the most recent presidential election, and will do on Tuesday in at least a few races - and me (or someone like me) being told I'm not wanted, regardless of my voting record, because I'm not down for the cultural revolution that might take place.

I'm saying it's not really about the issues in the emerging Democratic party. It's about the posture. It's about whether I adhere to certain cultural totems and ideas.