The idea that a lot of us form our identities around fandom and celebrity holds a lot of weight, especially given recent events.
Politics, art, sports, fashion, tech, gaming… all manufactured constructs which have been grossly commodified and are all deeply rooted in the same vein of tribalism and ‘ingroups’ vs ‘outgroups,’ IMHO.
These folks explore that idea and present their arguments far more efficiently than I find myself capable of doing at the present time:
I’ll have to watch that later… thanks!
Incidentally, I just finished this book…
It’s longer form, but well worth it in my opinion; the nutshell is that ‘we need to be able to imagine what a post-celebrity/commodity world might look like.’
(Frankly, I couldn’t agree more, I just wish I could articulate that ideal better.)
“Read a book. A better, more challenging book. Turn off the screen and listen to some original music… {…} Go to a poetry reading, go to a small gig; find a great video essay… find a new cultural object and know nothing about the persona of its author; find new stuff new art to fall in love with {…} I’m excited about what lies beyond the event horizon of the collapse of capitalism.”
and they have several interesting video essays up including one explaining how they came to the decision to reproduce.