don't make no sense no more.
— John Prine
Excerpt from Report No. 32-04 VD |
Spotify's unconscionable decision to keep Joe Rogan and drop Neil Young proves what I've long thought about tech corporations' self-professed "values."
They're pure, unadulterated snake oil.
Spotify's video on values includes a Latino marketing manager claiming "we do not approve any sort of campaign that we don't believe in."
How's that for masturbatory marketing?
Obviously, her statement is bullshit—or, worse, Spotify believes in Joe Rogan's relentless antivaxxer messaging.
Let's stop the "values" marketing malarkey and get back to basics. It may play to Millennials, but it's bullshit.
The hard truth is: Spotify believes in one thing and one thing only.
Profit.
Pure and simple.
HAT TIP: Neil Young deserves everyone's thanks for spotlighting Spotify's horrendous hypocrisy. Thank you, Mr. Young.
POSTSCRIPT, JANUARY 29: Since Neil Young's ultimatum to Spotify, his greatest hits album has rocketed into the Top 5 on Apple Music, and Spotify has lost $4 billion in market value."
POSTSCRIPT, FEBRUARY 3: Neil Young has been joined in his boycott of Spotify by Crosby, Stills and Nash.
POSTSCRIPT, FEBRUARY 7: Spotify's CEO confirmed the company won't "silence Joe," even though he spouts the N-word as well as disinformation.
Real America is not Immuno-compromised America—those annoying wimps who worry they'll catch Covid-19.
Real America is not Black America—those whiney, dangerous, hip-hop lovin' ingrates.
Real America is not Latino America—those lazy, foreign, Catholic beaners.
Real America is not Asian America—those creepy gooks who want our jobs.
Real America is not Indigenous America—those all-time champion losers.
Real America is not Gay America—those unrepentant degenerates.Real America is not Jewish America—those overeducated loudmouths.
Real America is not Muslim America—those people who're worse than Jews.
Real America is not Poor America—those welfare-squanderin' weaklings.
Real America is not Homeless America—those whack jobs who foul the land beneath our beautiful freeways.
Real America is not Disabled America—those embarrassing feebs.
Real America is not Old America—those wrinkled, funny-smelling people.
Real America is not Female America—those witchy pretenders to equality.
Real America is not Expert America—those Commies with doctorates from fancy-pants universities.
Real America is not Liberal America—the true enemies of Real America. You know, Democrats.
My advice to Jim to is simple: grow a toothbrush mustache.
You'll complete the outfit.
I arrived at this conclusion when one of the agents, self-described as "passionate about creating spaces for those from historically marginalized communities," mentioned she was using her free time to ponder whether or not "to cling to one's own marginalization."
Another, self-described as "queer," said she was using her free time to study the "rise of the feminist anachronistic costume drama."
A third, self-described as an avid foodie, mentioned that she was using her free time to "exchange tweets with a BIPOC travel blogger" while she studied "decolonizing veganism."
WTF?
These are bright, educated, well versed people.
Why do they think and speak in these patently silly terms, leftover scraps from French philosopher Michel Foucault's lunch?
Teachers are to blame—and what conservatives call the "absence of intellectual pluralism" in colleges.
Teachers have allowed '70s-era jargon to substitute for thought, and identity for virtue.
Ask yourself: before you can "decolonize" veganism, you have to "colonize" it in the first place.
But how do you do that?
Do you sail a ship full of conquistadors to the New World and take over a vegan coop by storm? Do you loot and pillage the kale section and enslave all the stock boys? Do you seize all the kale, repackage it as Swanson's Cheesy Spinach, and ship it back to Spain? Do you cite divine rights to justify all this?
Possibly.
I had a logic teacher in college, a Brit, whose Cambridge training prohibited him from ever telling a student that his or her comment in class was inane.
He'd just listen politely, smile, and reply, "Possibly."
After a couple of weeks in his course, you understood he was saying, "That's utter nonsense!"
While I have nothing but admiration for queers, feminists, vegans, BIPOC, and literary agents, I cringe whenever I hear one of them say she wants to "decolonize" something or "open a space for the marginalized" (lest we be "uncritical" and "non-inclusive").
A voice inside me—with a British accent—says, "Possibly."
Because, no matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney.