Kendrickās performance wasnāt meant for you to dissect like some detached art critic sipping lukewarm coffee in a gallery. It was the spectacleābecause thatās where the power lies. You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but thatās not how this works.
Corporate stage or not, he hijacked their platform and made them pay for it. Thatās subversion, not commodification. Youāre so busy clutching your purity checklist that you missed the point: this isnāt about your approval.
And spare me the faux-radical cynicism about Che t-shirts. If youāre waiting for a revolution that doesnāt touch capitalism, youāll die waiting. Meanwhile, Kendrickās out there making people uncomfortable. What are you doing? Writing snarky posts? Congrats on your service to the cause.
I donāt claim to be an activist. Iām interested in the ideological undercurrents
You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but thatās not how this works.
This is the very thing Iām claiming about the performance. Itās controlled rebellion. Performative dissent. Dissent and dissatisfaction itself becomes commodified and sold back to you. It allows the viewer to feel like theyāre part of something revolutionary without ever threatening the system. Imagine a safety valve, releasing just enough pressure to prevent real change. Itās like a laugh track in a sitcom. It tells you what to feel. You can have the experience of laughing without actually having to laugh.
This type of āsocially consciousā art (movies, music, etc) functions in a way lets the consumer feel like they have participated in something emancipatory without actually having to. Itās ideology.
Note at no point did he criticize the status quo. He did not mention president Trump, who was present in the crowd, at all. Kendrick, a legendary socially conscious rapper who is an icon for life- chose not to say anything at all. Why?
Either a) he doesnāt care or b) he understands there is a very small window of acceptable ādissentā he is allowed to express. I think this micro-dose of dissent pacifies and sedates the viewer.
hijacked their platform and made them pay for it
He made them pay? He made them hundreds of millions of dollars. This was the most highly viewed super bowl performance in my adult life.
this isnāt about your approval.
You seem to care more about my approval than I do. What difference does it make if I approve? I liked the performance but Iām discussing the ideological basis for these styles of performative vague dissent.
Me and you both are constantly eating from the trash can of ideology. Itās painful, but itās worthwhile to put on the glasses so you can at least see what you are eating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k
Youāre not wrong, but thereās a layer youāre missing. Yes, dissent is commodified, and yes, itās a pressure valve. But the system doesnāt just pacifyāit co-opts because it has to. The spectacle you describe isnāt just a distraction; itās evidence of cracks in the facade. Controlled rebellion still signals fear of uncontrolled rebellion.
Kendrick didnāt name names because he didnāt need to. The subtext was clear: the system that profits off his performance is the same one he critiques in his art. That contradiction isnāt a flawāitās the point. The machine canāt help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.
Youāre right to put on the glasses. Just donāt forget they distort as much as they reveal.
The machine canāt help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.
I appreciate your second response here, it seems less hostile.
My counterpoint would be that capitalism is an Ouroboros. Itās forever devouring its own tail- consuming its own critique and spitting it back out as commodity. Itās not a bug, itās a feature. Every once in a while there is some sort of social movement (punks, hippies, hip hop, gays, etc) and it has a real chance to threaten the system.
Punk becomes a fashion statement, hip-hop a soundtrack for commercials and corporate events, gay pride becomes a marketing gimmick. Itās incorporated, stripped of any revolutionary potential and repackaged as an ideological product for you to consume.
This is the perverse genius of capitalism. It doesnāt survive in spite of crisis. It needs the crisis to survive. The absurdity becomes palpable, like you mentioned, but it doesnāt matter. The system flaunts this absurdity, knowing full well that we have no way out.
It is a trap- a Mƶbius strip of ideology.
So while I enjoyed the performance and I donāt expect anything more from Kendrick (he is under no obligation to be a real revolutionary figure), I also think we shouldnāt delude ourselves into thinking this was anything more than a corporate spectacle meant to sell future Super Bowl tickets by way of exploiting the discontent and dissatisfaction of poor blacks. (and really, itās two fold. a) you exploit the black culture not only in the positive way thatās black-positive b) you exploit the angry white culture who is threatened by it). You get to double dip.
Youāre right to put on the glasses. Just donāt forget they distort as much as they reveal.
Yep. When you think you have been freed from ideology at that moment you are in ideology. Turtles all the way down. I am under no illusion that I am an not an idiot.
Iāll admit my initial tone was sharper than it needed to beāchalk it up to the sheer amount of garbage I usually get for posting opinions like this. That said, I genuinely appreciate you engaging in open discourse instead of resorting to knee-jerk dismissal. Itās rare and refreshing.
Capitalism as an Ouroboros is not just a metaphor but a mechanismāa system that thrives on consuming its own contradictions. Youāre absolutely right that it doesnāt merely survive crises; it metabolizes them, converting dissent into fuel for its perpetuation. But the trap isnāt just ideologicalāitās structural. Itās not just a Mƶbius strip; itās a cage.
The double exploitation you describeāof Black culture and white fearāis capitalismās perverse genius at work. It doesnāt just commodify rebellion; it weaponizes it, turning every critique into a product and every product into a reinforcement of the status quo. Kendrickās performance wasnāt revolutionary, but it wasnāt meaningless either. It was a mirror, reflecting the absurdity of a system that sells resistance as entertainment.
Kendrickās performance wasnāt meant for you to dissect like some detached art critic sipping lukewarm coffee in a gallery. It was the spectacleābecause thatās where the power lies. You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but thatās not how this works.
Corporate stage or not, he hijacked their platform and made them pay for it. Thatās subversion, not commodification. Youāre so busy clutching your purity checklist that you missed the point: this isnāt about your approval.
And spare me the faux-radical cynicism about Che t-shirts. If youāre waiting for a revolution that doesnāt touch capitalism, youāll die waiting. Meanwhile, Kendrickās out there making people uncomfortable. What are you doing? Writing snarky posts? Congrats on your service to the cause.
I donāt claim to be an activist. Iām interested in the ideological undercurrents
This is the very thing Iām claiming about the performance. Itās controlled rebellion. Performative dissent. Dissent and dissatisfaction itself becomes commodified and sold back to you. It allows the viewer to feel like theyāre part of something revolutionary without ever threatening the system. Imagine a safety valve, releasing just enough pressure to prevent real change. Itās like a laugh track in a sitcom. It tells you what to feel. You can have the experience of laughing without actually having to laugh.
This type of āsocially consciousā art (movies, music, etc) functions in a way lets the consumer feel like they have participated in something emancipatory without actually having to. Itās ideology.
Note at no point did he criticize the status quo. He did not mention president Trump, who was present in the crowd, at all. Kendrick, a legendary socially conscious rapper who is an icon for life- chose not to say anything at all. Why?
Either a) he doesnāt care or b) he understands there is a very small window of acceptable ādissentā he is allowed to express. I think this micro-dose of dissent pacifies and sedates the viewer.
He made them pay? He made them hundreds of millions of dollars. This was the most highly viewed super bowl performance in my adult life.
You seem to care more about my approval than I do. What difference does it make if I approve? I liked the performance but Iām discussing the ideological basis for these styles of performative vague dissent.
Me and you both are constantly eating from the trash can of ideology. Itās painful, but itās worthwhile to put on the glasses so you can at least see what you are eating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k
Youāre not wrong, but thereās a layer youāre missing. Yes, dissent is commodified, and yes, itās a pressure valve. But the system doesnāt just pacifyāit co-opts because it has to. The spectacle you describe isnāt just a distraction; itās evidence of cracks in the facade. Controlled rebellion still signals fear of uncontrolled rebellion.
Kendrick didnāt name names because he didnāt need to. The subtext was clear: the system that profits off his performance is the same one he critiques in his art. That contradiction isnāt a flawāitās the point. The machine canāt help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.
Youāre right to put on the glasses. Just donāt forget they distort as much as they reveal.
I appreciate your second response here, it seems less hostile.
My counterpoint would be that capitalism is an Ouroboros. Itās forever devouring its own tail- consuming its own critique and spitting it back out as commodity. Itās not a bug, itās a feature. Every once in a while there is some sort of social movement (punks, hippies, hip hop, gays, etc) and it has a real chance to threaten the system.
Punk becomes a fashion statement, hip-hop a soundtrack for commercials and corporate events, gay pride becomes a marketing gimmick. Itās incorporated, stripped of any revolutionary potential and repackaged as an ideological product for you to consume.
This is the perverse genius of capitalism. It doesnāt survive in spite of crisis. It needs the crisis to survive. The absurdity becomes palpable, like you mentioned, but it doesnāt matter. The system flaunts this absurdity, knowing full well that we have no way out.
It is a trap- a Mƶbius strip of ideology.
So while I enjoyed the performance and I donāt expect anything more from Kendrick (he is under no obligation to be a real revolutionary figure), I also think we shouldnāt delude ourselves into thinking this was anything more than a corporate spectacle meant to sell future Super Bowl tickets by way of exploiting the discontent and dissatisfaction of poor blacks. (and really, itās two fold. a) you exploit the black culture not only in the positive way thatās black-positive b) you exploit the angry white culture who is threatened by it). You get to double dip.
Yep. When you think you have been freed from ideology at that moment you are in ideology. Turtles all the way down. I am under no illusion that I am an not an idiot.
Iāll admit my initial tone was sharper than it needed to beāchalk it up to the sheer amount of garbage I usually get for posting opinions like this. That said, I genuinely appreciate you engaging in open discourse instead of resorting to knee-jerk dismissal. Itās rare and refreshing.
Capitalism as an Ouroboros is not just a metaphor but a mechanismāa system that thrives on consuming its own contradictions. Youāre absolutely right that it doesnāt merely survive crises; it metabolizes them, converting dissent into fuel for its perpetuation. But the trap isnāt just ideologicalāitās structural. Itās not just a Mƶbius strip; itās a cage.
The double exploitation you describeāof Black culture and white fearāis capitalismās perverse genius at work. It doesnāt just commodify rebellion; it weaponizes it, turning every critique into a product and every product into a reinforcement of the status quo. Kendrickās performance wasnāt revolutionary, but it wasnāt meaningless either. It was a mirror, reflecting the absurdity of a system that sells resistance as entertainment.
Your cynicism isnāt misplaced. Itās clarity.