Too bad about Cracker Barrel

 

As these dis-United States sink into fascism, the right-wing mob's grievance of the day feels too entertaining to ignore. There's a MAGA faction that feels the new (boring, very corporate) Cracker Barrel logo is a defamation of all that is good, patriotic, and holy. 

 

Maybe you've encountered Cracker Barrel, the imitation old white men's diner, at some desolate Interstate interchange? 

 

John Ganz delightfully deconstructs this kerfuffle. 

... It’s sort of pathetic to reflect that we have so few—maybe no—authentic and unmediated experiences that the thing that now really upsets people is an alteration of a simulation of authenticity. 

It’s felt as a loss of national identity on par with the defacement George Washington, because our national identity is now just corporate brands and consumerism. It’s no different than the “trad wife” fantasy, which is also a simulation and simulacrum of pre-modern living. 

You see this across the reactionary right, and it would be amusing if it didn’t muster real political energy: people genuinely angry over the loss of comforting consumer experiences. ...

It’s tempting to look down on people for this, but on further thought, it reflects a deep spiritual poverty in our country. The right is capitalizing on this spiritual poverty, both politically and literally, and saying, “Yes, theyyyyyyyy are taking yourrrr beloved things.” 

This forecloses anybody asking whether we might deserve more. 

An actual small town in America might have problems with drugs, unemployment, it might be reduced essentially to a ruin, but as long as Cracker Barrel or the equivalent exists, people can feel okay about the country. 

The question is never raised, “Hey, why are we being fed commoditized slop all the time?” It becomes, “I want the red-brand slop, bring me my red-brand slop!”

... Conservatism is now the protection and hoarding of old-seeming simulations, hence all the AI-generated “traditionalism.”

Naturally, this brings me to fascism. On the one hand, fascism might seem to be an awkward fit because there was still some volkisch referent, a memory of pastoral existence, in the fascist imaginary. But that, too, was already a kitschy simulacrum of the pre-modern past. ...

Cultural poverty follows material poverty all the way down in too many of our lives.