Let start this with a disclaimer. For those of you out there who really enjoy watching giant trucks crush old cars while inhaling gasoline fumes I totally respect your choice to do so. Have fun. However...
For the rest of you out there who thrive on irony this kindof sucks. Remember at the punk show when the two asshole rednecks from the bar started mocking the band or the crowd and made everyone have worse time? Yeah... they were at one of your cultural events mocking you. If they got their asses kicked we were all happy. And we should have been. How dare they come to our punk rock show and mock our music and ruin our good time.
So I think a lot of things about blue collar / redneck culture are pretty stupid. Jacked up trucks, mullets, shitty mustaches, big ass belt buckles, and trucker caps. Yeah that stuff cracks me up. I grew up in a rural area and these are the people I hand to go through school with. Not fun.
But here's the rub... that monster truck rally... that's their cultural event. That's not mine. I'm not going to go there and dress up like them and act like an asshole. If I did and got my ass kicked I would probably deserve it.
Racism and other ways that people's intolerance of one another manifest themselves are all equally shitty in my eyes. At times I'm guilty of this stuff too and I'm a dick for being that way. But I would no more go to a monster truck rally dressed in a costume and make fun of the people who paid to be there because they truly enjoy it then I would show up to an Asian food fest in a rice paddy hat and walked around saying "ching chong."
I will say what I find most disappointing about this behavior is that it perpetrated by college educated people who seem to have developed a bit of superiority complex over those who are blue collar. This is nothing new of course. Those with more money and education have always mocked those with less.
Irony and snark have killed modern conversation and culture. What's even worse is that these things are just plain boring.
3 years ago
10 comments:
I hope you would not be referring to the fact that there were a couple of us that went to the monster truck today because it was actually fun... we went and wore our very own clothes and laughed and watched motor cross jumps, and big shit crush cars and nobody said shit to us and we didn't say shit to anybody....damn......how bout you not assume that any time anyone goes to a cultural event outside of their own that they are doing so to mock people...... wouldn't that be you on a high horse...
Hey Julie, check out his first paragraph. If it's not you, then it's not you, though me reading your comment about you being there definitely sparked the conversation about it. It's awesome if you had a lot of fun, and you were going there because you truly love watching cars smash other cars. However, over the years I've watched a lot of people we know go for the irony of it all, and I am probably more incensed over it then Braden is. Hence the conversation, hence the post by him. Like I said, if you went because you really love monster trucks, then you shouldn't be offended by this. This wouldn't be a personal attack on you, unless you went for the wrong reasons.
Julie, did you actually read what I wrote? It's clearly not about you in the least bit.
Sarah didn't realize either that I was already talking about this before she even saw your facebook status and mentioned the whole thing to me.
I did have fun..... i mainly enjoyed the motor cross but also enjoyed the trucks smashing into things... i will however probably never go again as my legs cramped up pretty bad from all the C02 + hard workout earlier and I can't breathe today... don't know how people do that all the time.... p.s. grave digger is my favorite
Thank you braden...I'm so glad more people feel this way. This also annoys the shit out of me. Doing things for the sake of irony is one thing, but dressing up like, acting like, and making fun of "rednecks" is sad. Just because someone has a southern accent doesn't make them stupid or below anyone else. Being in college doesn't make you smart, it makes you fortunate.
question to consider: where do you draw the line between these guys who like to show up to events like that, and dress up like rednecks and get drunk, because they think it's ironic and awesome and hilarious, and make fun of and put down another groups ''culture''...and the kids who show up to VCU and go out and buy a sweet fixie because its cool and popular and hilarious, the kids who make up some of your customer base and the type of people you are advocating for the track series C races in the spring with the free shuttle from Shafer, who usually dont waste any time in making fun of someone riding down the road in a spandex kit and make our ''culture'' seem like a complete joke.
careful about poking fun or expressing opinions and ideas about a group of people on the internet that could be your customer base and/or potential racers later down the road....you could get in trouble over it.
food for thought
I'm pretty sure people are going to shop where they want to regardless of whether I have a beef with the bourgeois making fun of the proletariat.
Ben...really?
Your all whack ODoyle rules.
lulz
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