aesthetics and capitalism

Verwoert asks how we can change the way our society lives as we consume our own products if we are performing and producing at a prolific rate?

Chloe Geoghegan • Tools for Slowing Down

and Dubai chocolate are clear examples of fads : They fast-forming, short-lived conventions. They don't have significant intrinsic value, but moreover, everyone is aware their core value is trendiness itself. Even the most rabid consumers of Labubus know deep down that they will be replaced in the near future. Compare this to fashions , where many... See more

Only Fads: A Culture (and Economy) of Labubu

Inner Chapter | The Aesthetics of Economic Upturn

innerchapter.co

nostalgia, capitalism and aesthetics in china.

The "aesthetics of economic upturn" refers to a nostalgic movement on Chinese social media that celebrates the visual and cultural style of China's millennial-era economic reform period. Unlike similar Western trends that focus on wealth displays, this Chinese version is more about middle-class aspiration and optimism.

The article suggests this nostalgia emerges because:

Current aesthetics are more class-conscious and restrictive
Economic conditions are tougher for young people
There's less genuine diversity in expression
People miss a time when differences were celebrated rather than standardized

Essentially, it's a longing for an era when China felt like it was opening up to infinite possibilities, before aesthetic choices became markers of social class and economic anxiety set in.

is it the same for other cultures?

For those interested in moving culture away from fads such as these, resistance requires much more than a refusal to consume.

Only Fads: A Culture (and Economy) of Labubu

When institutional financial advice assumes you have disposable income, long time horizons, and faith in market stability – none of which apply to most young people7 –

How AI, Healthcare, and Labubu Became the US Economy

This is the Labubu/Fartcoin economy - the attempt to maintain agency and community within constraints rather than spending energy fighting battles with Sam Altman who says things like“the whole structure of society will be up for debate and reconfiguration” due to AI. There are two core things to understand here"“

How AI, Healthcare, and Labubu Became the US Economy

Labubu and Fartcoin are the economy people can actually participate in. They’re a form of symbolic participation, what happens when ownership is out of reach and when expression replaces accumulation.

Both represent a form of aspirational displacement . This is the idea that when you can't afford a house, you buy mystery boxes that might contain a... See more

How AI, Healthcare, and Labubu Became the US Economy

I’ve been thinking of this Labubumatchadubaichocolate phase as IRL Brain Rot, a culture that exists physically but is incomprehensible without the internet, a set of artifacts and beliefs that adhere to the post-digital self.

Algorithms tailor to our nigh-subconscious preferences; matching with a friend expresses a kind of innate affinity, as if to

1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto,” which predicted, with optimism, a looming world of monstrous machine-human hybrids in which we take “pleasure in the confusion of boundaries”—post-gender, post-capitalism, post-biology. With that reference point, it hit me: We are the Labubus, grinning ecstatically amid the wreckage of our rapidly dismantling,