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The Prius is a reliable car that gets good gas mileage. Why can’t we just leave it at that? I’ve noticed that there is a part of the culture war where certain

by csb6 4y ago

The Prius is a reliable car that gets good gas mileage. Why can’t we just leave it at that? I’ve noticed that there is a part of the culture war where certain consumer goods are aesthetically “liberal” and others are aesthetically “conservative”, not based on the running of the companies that make them, but on some loose association or fad (e.g. Goya beans). They are just products - buying them or not buying them based on abstract political associations doesn’t do anything. It is a way to feel like you are taking political action when in reality you are just consuming things.

benj111 4y ago
Because cars are status symbols. The car you drive says something deep and meaningful about you. If you drive a BMW or Audi you are successful and everyone understands that. If you drive a Prius you're a tree hugger and if you drive anything cheap you're a failure in life that obviously can't afford anything better. (Sarcasm btw)
Barrin92 4y ago
>when in reality you are just consuming things. nope, in reality a lot of consumption is implicitly political or cultural, it's just that a lot of people aren't used to looking at things that way because you swim in it like a fish in water. Pay attention to how things are advertised. Autonomy for trucks, freedom for cigarettes (formerly, now nasty cancer images on the package), happy animals and low carbon footprints for vegan beans, clean air and environmental protection for electric cars, patriotism for the newest Top Gun movie, happy diverse people in the newest Millennial Netflix show, and so on. Short of toilet paper a lot of modern consumption is about symbolic exchange, what you signal by consuming. I recommend William Gibson's Blue Ant series, he had a good eye for this many years ago.
- GuB-42 4y ago
  I think it is backwards. "Conservative" and "Liberal" are just labels, used in the context of traditional two party politics, and it is mostly a result of what happens naturally when you split the population into two similar sized groups based on their political ideas. One candidate will target "liberals", the other "conservatives". The definition isn't fixed, conservative ideas become liberal and vice versa all the time in order to maintain the roughly half/half two party system. There is no conspiracy here, it is emergent behavior that is seen in most democracies. There are similar phenomena in marketing, which is not surprising since politics and marketing are essentially the same thing, but it doesn't mean the categories are the same. The Prius is not a "conservative", "woman", "white", "middle-aged" or whatever automobile, though there may be some correlations. In reality it is an automobile for Prius customers, and what Prius marketing thinks their potential customers are.
  - smt88 4y ago
    > in order to maintain the roughly half/half two party system This is obviously untrue because, at least in the US, the conservative party has been the minority party since 1992. > The Prius is not a "conservative", "woman", "white", "middle-aged" or whatever automobile, though there may be some correlations. That's correct, but there is a subset of the right wing in the US that disagrees. They're the people who "roll coal" for example. This article is clearly targeted at a conservative audience. There are no liberals who are concerned about whether the Prius is appropriate for conservatives or not. They want conservatives to drive hybrids and electric cars.
- jjk166 4y ago
  Why would I buy a truck that still required me to go through someone else to move large loads? Why would I buy vegan beans that required animal harm to be produced? Why would I buy an electric car that ruined the environment? That's not signaling by consumption, that is things serving their intended purpose. It's no more political than advertising toilet bowl cleaner with clean toilets. People consume what they value for the reason they value it. That what people financially value correlates with what people culturally value is hardly surprising. I'm not watching millennial targeted netflix shows alone in my living room to demonstrate to my furniture how much of a millennial I am. The fact we all consume things that others would consider weird or otherwise socially disapprove of only makes sense in a world where we are trying to satisfy internal desires despite the potential social signals they might send.

by csb6 4y ago

benj111 4y ago

Because cars are status symbols. The car you drive says something deep and meaningful about you. If you drive a BMW or Audi you are successful and everyone understands that. If you drive a Prius you're a tree hugger and if you drive anything cheap you're a failure in life that obviously can't afford anything better. (Sarcasm btw)

Barrin92 4y ago

>when in reality you are just consuming things. nope, in reality a lot of consumption is implicitly political or cultural, it's just that a lot of people aren't used to looking at things that way because you swim in it like a fish in water. Pay attention to how things are advertised. Autonomy for trucks, freedom for cigarettes (formerly, now nasty cancer images on the package), happy animals and low carbon footprints for vegan beans, clean air and environmental protection for electric cars, patriotism for the newest Top Gun movie, happy diverse people in the newest Millennial Netflix show, and so on. Short of toilet paper a lot of modern consumption is about symbolic exchange, what you signal by consuming. I recommend William Gibson's Blue Ant series, he had a good eye for this many years ago.

GuB-42 4y ago
I think it is backwards. "Conservative" and "Liberal" are just labels, used in the context of traditional two party politics, and it is mostly a result of what happens naturally when you split the population into two similar sized groups based on their political ideas. One candidate will target "liberals", the other "conservatives". The definition isn't fixed, conservative ideas become liberal and vice versa all the time in order to maintain the roughly half/half two party system. There is no conspiracy here, it is emergent behavior that is seen in most democracies. There are similar phenomena in marketing, which is not surprising since politics and marketing are essentially the same thing, but it doesn't mean the categories are the same. The Prius is not a "conservative", "woman", "white", "middle-aged" or whatever automobile, though there may be some correlations. In reality it is an automobile for Prius customers, and what Prius marketing thinks their potential customers are.
- smt88 4y ago
  > in order to maintain the roughly half/half two party system This is obviously untrue because, at least in the US, the conservative party has been the minority party since 1992. > The Prius is not a "conservative", "woman", "white", "middle-aged" or whatever automobile, though there may be some correlations. That's correct, but there is a subset of the right wing in the US that disagrees. They're the people who "roll coal" for example. This article is clearly targeted at a conservative audience. There are no liberals who are concerned about whether the Prius is appropriate for conservatives or not. They want conservatives to drive hybrids and electric cars.
jjk166 4y ago
Why would I buy a truck that still required me to go through someone else to move large loads? Why would I buy vegan beans that required animal harm to be produced? Why would I buy an electric car that ruined the environment? That's not signaling by consumption, that is things serving their intended purpose. It's no more political than advertising toilet bowl cleaner with clean toilets. People consume what they value for the reason they value it. That what people financially value correlates with what people culturally value is hardly surprising. I'm not watching millennial targeted netflix shows alone in my living room to demonstrate to my furniture how much of a millennial I am. The fact we all consume things that others would consider weird or otherwise socially disapprove of only makes sense in a world where we are trying to satisfy internal desires despite the potential social signals they might send.