Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Culture (Page 8 of 21)

These are posts on culture from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly the focus is on American culture. But there might be a few posts on broader, international issues.

Al Bundy Tribune Trumpism

Al Bundy: Tribune of Trumpism

February 14, 2022 /

Like lots of kids who grew up in the rural Midwest – at least prior to Internet access and smartphones – I watched a lot of trash TV as a kid. I mean, a lot. Including a little show about Al Bundy, which I’ll get to in a minute.

It’s not like you could just step out of your house, walk down the sidewalk, and play with other kids. I did the whole Little League Baseball thing for 10 years. But we played, what, 12 games a year? What did we do on the other 75 days of summer?

We watched trash TV, that’s what.

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rural midwest

Politics in the Rural Midwest

February 7, 2022 /

So, a few readers know I grew up in rural southern Indiana. The politics out there aren’t great. I mean, really not great. It’s been a bastion of various kinds of far right activity for some time. And it stands in well enough for the rural Midwest as a whole. It’s a bit more southern than, say, rural Iowa. But the politics are close cousins.

At the same time, lots of people – especially liberals – hold various misconceptions about life and politics in the rural Midwest. The truth of the matter is that there’s quite a bit of diversity of thought and opinion in the rural Midwest. Liberals miss that part.

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Between Inevitability and Avoidance: Omicron

January 6, 2022 /

My readers don’t live under a rock. So, they surely know the Delta variant has given way to Omicron in the last couple of months. At first glance, one might expect this to shake up public debate. Maybe people evolve with the evidence, see things in a new light, and so on.

Well, that didn’t happen. Omicron mostly locked people into their previous biases and hardened their attitudes on the pandemic and public policy. Let’s take a look at how this is working out.

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linkedin

The Problem(s) with LinkedIn

November 29, 2021 /

LinkedIn has a lot of haters these days. Why? According to critics, it combines the worst features of Facebook (lack of privacy, mindless chatter) with the worst features of the business world (corporate politics, self-promotion, professional class propriety). To boot, LinkedIn doesn’t even do the things it’s supposed to do, i.e., it usually doesn’t help you network or land a job.

I’ll admit I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with LinkedIn. I just know it sucks and I don’t like using it. Do I still have a LinkedIn account? Yes. Will I get rid of it? Probably not. But I rarely use it, and I don’t expect that to change.

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thought leader office space

‘Thought Leader’: A Business ‘Intellectual’

November 18, 2021 /

Not long ago, I watched a LinkedIn video that defined a ‘thought leader’ as “a person who helps people make difficult choices by being a decision leader.” As a philosopher, I wasn’t too impressed with this display. And as a definition of ‘thought leader,’ that’s about as unhelpful as it gets.

But I think it shows us a few things about business jargon and the nature of the ‘business intellectual.’ What does it show us?

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