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from the will-provide-tattoos-for-right-applicant dept.
Seems someone got the whole thing seriously wrong, but evidently there was a casting call for actors for a Cadillac commercial that was looking for "alt-right" or "neo-nazi" types.
Cadillac caused a stir this week when a casting service put out a request on behalf of the American luxury brand looking to fill the role of an "alt-right (neo-Nazi)" in a new commercial. Cadillac denied it had ever authorized the notice and condemned it, while the casting company took responsibility, saying that it had been issued by mistake. Regardless of who did what, the idea had to have been hatched somewhere and by someone, which reveals something far more troubling than a mere streak of poor taste and even poorer judgement in corporate America: the marketability and mainstreaming of an alt-right population, or those "identified variously with anti-globalist and anti-immigrant stances, cartoon frogs, white nationalists, pick-up artists, anti-Semites, and a rising tide of right-wing populism," as Tablet contributor Jacob Siegel wrote in a profile of Paul Gottfried, the alt-right's "godfather."
Hmm, maybe now that the "alt-right" has become just another marketing demographic, we do not have to worry about them taking over the country? I mean, who buys Cadillacs as a status symbol anymore? Not like they are your father's Oldsmobile. Except that, really, it was your father's Olds. So that brand no longer exists. Are we at the point where we can say, "Brietbart: it's not your grandpa's fascism!"? Except, really, maybe it is?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:35PM
No, it does not. Both globalism and nationalism are forms of collectivism; what about individualism instead?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday December 30 2016, @05:53PM
I don't think even one in ten people, of either sex, has the strength of character for that unfortunately. I want to see it too but if you study people for any length of time you very quickly come to the conclusion that most of them are simply incapable of critical thought and self-examination.
It's kind of like something an atheist friend of mine said once: "I'm not entirely anti religion because so many people are moral retards. Just imagine what they'd do without that carrot and that stick." I hate this argument to hell and back, as I hate all "little people" arguments, but it seems to be true :(
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @08:33PM
Your friend is in good company.
George Washington, frequently cited by religionists as a man of faith, had this to say about religion:
Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
And to the more general issue of people being naturally collectivist animals - that's not a weakness, its our greatest strength. The ability to organize in groups and work collectively to accomplish goals that are far beyond the grasp of any individual is why we run the planet and not apes, tigers, sharks or any other animals far more physically fearsome than us. Its got its downsides too, but anyone preaching pure individualism is preaching a state of nature where few people would even have fire to warm themselves at night.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @11:12PM
Um... Individualism doesn't preclude the division of labor; it simply means that the division must emerge through the voluntary interaction of individuals, rather than be imposed by some external power.
A robust free market is still individualism.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:54AM
> A robust free market is still individualism.
That level of "free" doesn't exist, at least not for the vast majority of the population.
All markets for individuals are coercive. You need food, shelter, clothing, etc. Therefore you must participate in the market. The only people for whom such free markets actually exist are those who are free to completely walk away from the market at any time and for as long as they wish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @05:35PM
You're angry at the nature of this Universe, pal. You'll never be satisfied.