HURRY! BUY MORE STUFF

November 26, 2015 12:14 PM

The 10 Best Black Friday Deals at Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon, by Vice Magazine and a Very Special Guest Writer.
posted by rorgy (51 comments total)

Wow, 199$ for an iPad.
posted by cacofonie at 12:31 PM on November 26, 2015 [12 favorites]

Compelling. Marxrolling could catch on.
posted by colie at 12:32 PM on November 26, 2015 [40 favorites]

Spoiler: it is the Communist Manifesto.
Double spoiler: Vice Media LLC's recent investors include 21st Century Fox, A+E, and Silicon Valley firm Technology Crossover Ventures.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 12:37 PM on November 26, 2015 [18 favorites]

See! See! The Sanders campaign has already gone too far! Look at the effect it has had on our online alternative magazines!
posted by scaryblackdeath at 12:48 PM on November 26, 2015 [11 favorites]

Yeah, yeah, capitalism sucks, and I'm a bad person to have to wait for the scraps of Black Friday to be able to afford things like a proper computer because I don't make enough money. Can we just start the sales now?
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:56 PM on November 26, 2015 [10 favorites]

Y'know, there's honestly nothing really wrong with having a holiday involving buying stuff though. Every other holiday or day of celebration there's at least some buying going on, including birthdays. Even before corporations when there was like a festival or other holiday there's such things as holiday markets, fairs, and other signs of capitalism.

And it should be okay to have a world where some people work on a holiday, especially if they can bank it as an extra day off on another day. Not everyone celebrates Christmas (see Jewish people eating Chinese food on Christmas), and not everyone celebrates even New Year's at the same time.

So, dragging Marx into Black Friday feels to me like a cynical attempt to be cool and also going for the low hanging and obvious joke that doesn't get into the root of why Black Friday is shit, which has more to do with corporate abuse and weird state of frenzy than the concept of exchanging money for goods and services.
posted by FJT at 12:57 PM on November 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

Should have included some comments, like for example a refitting Gramsci talking about cultural hegemony and that an ideology's power is not coerced but from consent, or a puzzled Foucault writing about modern consumerism-capitalism societies that not overtly authoritarian, with citizens willingly participating in social norms and adhering to values, they've internalize through self-regulating behavior, and that this is achieved through co-operation, not coercion.

C-
posted by bigendian at 12:58 PM on November 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Black Friday is an Ideological State Apparatus. But you can't jump straight into Althusser from Walmart so I think the page is a good start.
posted by colie at 1:02 PM on November 26, 2015 [8 favorites]

And it should be okay to have a world where some people work on a holiday, especially if they can bank it as an extra day off on another day.

Can't see where anyone has argued that nobody should work on any holidays. The problem now is a continuing encroachment on what holidays they do have. Black Friday has been a foregone conclusion for anyone working in retail for decades. It's overblown, sure, but it's nothing to freak out about.

The problem is all the companies that are now trying to push Black Friday into Thanksgiving Day.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 1:07 PM on November 26, 2015 [13 favorites]

I'm happy that we're finally getting around to ending mass buying on Black Friday... now can we also get rid of binge-eating on Thanksgiving, and just go out for PIzza instead?
posted by MikeWarot at 1:14 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

The problem is all the companies that are now trying to push Black Friday into Thanksgiving Day.

See, that's where the problem is. Thanksgiving is way too close to Christmas. Putting the holiday where everyone has to get home and eat with another holiday where everyone has to go home and eat (and get stuff for each other) was a huge mistake. We should just admit we messed up, and just push Thanksgiving back to late September.
posted by FJT at 1:19 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

See, that's where the problem is. Thanksgiving is way too close to Christmas. Putting the holiday where everyone has to get home and eat with another holiday where everyone has to go home and eat (and get stuff for each other) was a huge mistake. We should just admit we messed up, and just push Thanksgiving back to late September.

The Canadian solution is to put it in mid-October. Our weather makes it tough for us to have a harvest festival in late November. The end of November is when we have to do things like put on our snow tires and stop playing football.
posted by thecjm at 1:23 PM on November 26, 2015 [9 favorites]

+1 CAME FOR THE DEALS STAYED FOR THE COMMUNISM
posted by photoslob at 1:32 PM on November 26, 2015 [46 favorites]

But stuff is so great!
posted by shakespeherian at 2:05 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

This seems like something a college communist would do seriously thinking he could convert people.
posted by corb at 2:13 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

What's a college communist in 2015? Anyone who becomes a cadre in a revolutionary organisation knows that it's not about 'converting' people. This was just a bit of online silliness, but Black Friday deserves a bit of analysis.
posted by colie at 2:23 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's 'cute' but this on-line 'gag' seriously misunderstands how revolutionary Apple's design has been over the last two decades; this is no longer commodity or 'product' in exchange for 'capital' -- the iPad has already begun to redefine human existence through its boundary-pushing UX and design. Tim Cook (and Steve Jobs before him) understands, at his heart, what people need in terms of user experience before that need has been recognized by those very same users. You see this cycle over and over again in new product releases -- the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch -- the product Physical Manifestation of Design is widely mocked by internet anti-fanboys and Android enthusiasts as something unneeded, unwanted, doomed to fail, and within two years Apple has once again so defined or redefined a market realm of human experience that all of its competitors imitators are copying its design.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:32 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I went to MeFi to see if this was posted already, and I was not disappointed! What I then realized is that I had this open in the next tab over.
posted by yueliang at 2:37 PM on November 26, 2015

Oh snap I would not want to be Apple right now!
posted by Hoopo at 2:40 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

but Black Friday deserves a bit of analysis.

I think we've had more than just a bit of analysis. Black Friday is amateur hour for anti-capitalist commentary. A pinch of Society of the Spectacle, a hint of misanthropy as the author looks agape at the masses of people as "consumer zombies". Sometimes served with an dessert of "Wake Up Sheeple".

Well, if you are going to tell the sheeple to wake up, might as well use the vintage stuff.

I guess I'm just tired of nice middle class people, who can afford not to shop that day, complain about the masses in disparaging tones, while clicking through Amazon for cyber Monday sales.
posted by zabuni at 2:49 PM on November 26, 2015 [13 favorites]

It's an inspired bit of clickbait. No need to even write the article, just copy and paste some out-of-copyright work you barely skimmed once in college, to impress a girl.
posted by Nelson at 3:03 PM on November 26, 2015 [6 favorites]

I heard on the radio the other day that retailers in Guy Debord’s home country, who had chosen this year to make a big push to establish this new imported ‘holiday’, have been struggling to find other names for it than ‘vendredi noir’ in light of recent events. ‘Les jours spectaculaires’ was mentioned
posted by ormon nekas at 3:08 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

I got a bunch of leaflets for Black Friday (well, Black Weekend) stuff. The fourth Thursday of November here is usually the penultimate matchday of Europa League, which obviously is a major and much celebrated event.

I have no problems with doing a black friday type event here leading to xmas, but at least connect it to something relevant here, like Restoration Day, that would be next Tuesday, instead of connecting to harvest celebrations that are either celebrated way earlier (the Vindimas in late September and October, connected to winemaking) or don't exist.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:14 PM on November 26, 2015

Walmarx: EVERYTHING IS MARX DOWN!
posted by hal9k at 3:29 PM on November 26, 2015 [26 favorites]

The You Can't Tip a Buick team uses what we call a "Marxov chain generator" to produce a similar effect, though we've seeded it off of Capital¹ rather than using the Manifesto.

1: well, okay, Capital mixed in with some episodes of 30 Rock.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:39 PM on November 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

You know what, actually, I'm gonna be ridiculous and make a strong claim about this piece. It would be better if the authors had used just about anything other than the Manifesto. The Manifesto is Marx's Romeo and Juliet — like, sure, it's fun or whatever, but the dude wrote way better stuff later.

I would totes respect this more if they had used excerpts from the Grundrisse rather than the kind of lame "oh where for art thou, specter haunting Europe?" stuff everyone knows.

I declare this article unmutual. yeah, that's right, unmutual.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 3:47 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I think Marx wrote better stuff, but this doesn't work if it's not immediately recognizeable.
posted by Sequence at 4:12 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 4:29 PM on November 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's immediately recognizable but still a bit strange to me, as I am most familiar with an earlier translation ("Working men of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!").

One reason why communism can't win in today's world: modern media is geared to the quick and empty junk rhetoric of fascism. This was a fairly short political read in the 19th century. Nowadays if a listicle caption is more than four sentences, people tend to say tl;dr.
posted by infinitewindow at 4:42 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

That was mean, Tim. :(
posted by rorgy at 4:45 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

A local Canadian Tire had Red Thursday and had walkers and wheelchairs on deep sale.

"Want $100 off your assisted walking device? Of course you do. Hope you like long lines and crowded stores."
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 4:55 PM on November 26, 2015

Stay woke
posted by wotsac at 5:07 PM on November 26, 2015

I say in a really flat, disinterested voice, "I get it."
posted by codacorolla at 5:14 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I enjoyed the entire hell out of this. As a presently-poor person who cannot afford even Black Friday deals.

And frankly it would be nice to see more Marxrolling. We need it. Capitalism doesn't work for most of us and I want more people thinking about their options.
posted by Ashen at 5:19 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I guess I'm just tired of nice middle class people, who can afford not to shop that day, complain about the masses in disparaging tones, while clicking through Amazon for cyber Monday sales.

Serious question: Does anyone who's not middle-class get het up about Black Friday? I was under the impression it was middle-class sort of thing. $200 for an iPad is still $200, after all.
posted by Anonymous at 5:24 PM on November 26, 2015

Well played. Well played, indeed.

Ooh. Now do Boxing Day. Maybe using Foucault.

What?
posted by clvrmnky at 5:27 PM on November 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

People who are actually working-class but think they are middle-class get het up about Black Friday like 'hey, let's go buy some cheap shit' (so do people who just like to get het up about shit). People who are actually upper-middle-class but think they are middle-class get het up about Black Friday like 'hey, let's boycott this thing' (so do people who just like to get het up about shit, also folks who are into Buy Nothing Day and Black Twitter and shit).
posted by box at 6:00 PM on November 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

I think it was successful, but in the opposite way intended. Capitalism has won, and the bourgeoisie are no longer afraid of an uprising, even as they take more and more of the spoils. And we all know it! But just as you're starting to read about why we need a revolution, you find yourself skipping ahead to holy shit 199 for an iPad.
posted by fungible at 6:02 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

It's an inspired bit of clickbait.

Nah, just misleading BS. I'm a lefty and all for Socialism but you can't trick people into being revolutionaries.
posted by Rash at 6:29 PM on November 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Well, not with that attitude.
posted by webmutant at 6:54 PM on November 26, 2015 [14 favorites]

If anything it's pranking the left side of the political spectrum by using Marx's words to funnel money into a Murdoch enterprise via advertising dollars.
posted by codacorolla at 6:58 PM on November 26, 2015 [6 favorites]

Ooh. Now do Boxing Day. Maybe using Foucault.

TKO And Punish
posted by Daily Alice at 6:58 PM on November 26, 2015

Base and superstructure, folks. Base and superstructure.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:59 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Marx or not, Vice churned their ad clicks all the same. Still, it seems as good a time as any to drop a link to a free copy of Adorno's Minima Moralia and The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception:

"The most intimate reactions of human beings have been so thoroughly reified that the idea of anything specific to themselves now persists only as an utterly abstract notion: personality scarcely signifies anything more than shining white teeth and freedom from body odour and emotions. The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them."
posted by Bassariscus at 8:21 PM on November 26, 2015 [7 favorites]

I would much rather have read an argument which strongly criticizes a society in which the poorest of us can afford a 49" television but can't afford health care, and in fact criticizes us for living in a society in which "can't afford health care" is actually a phrase that is allowed to make sense.
posted by Automocar at 8:28 PM on November 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I am genuinely worried that this backlash against Black Friday is going to ruin the one day of the year when I was virtually guaranteed a crowd-free experience anywhere that wasn't a retail establishment.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:48 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

So, so clever! Wonder if the author will be able to talk himself out of his PoliSci incomplete in time for break.
posted by sfkiddo at 9:17 PM on November 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

The text is littered with links to marxists.org, fwiw, which i therefore impute to be the source of the copypasta employed.
posted by mwhybark at 10:42 PM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'd bought a lot of Black Friday sale makeup on Sephora and Urban Decay by 3 am today already I'm kind of tired, so I could only look at the pictures in the article. And "clickbait" is resembling "dickbait" everywhere. I'll go nap.
posted by discopolo at 6:06 AM on November 27, 2015

Man, I am so annoyed with all the people on my social media feeds who are all "boycott black friday" but who ALL have smartphones and tablets and game consoles and various other stuff they don't need*. What difference does it make if you buy that shit on one day of the year vs. another? The $199 iPad is meant to be a loss leader; if you buy it at the regular price you're just giving more profit to the capitalists. It's not like the workers got more because you bought it on Wednesday instead.
posted by desjardins at 3:03 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]

Initial reaction:

"Wow. I'm surprised this isn't under copyright."

....

"wait...."
posted by schmod at 3:42 PM on November 28, 2015