{"id":10656,"date":"2025-01-21T20:59:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=10656"},"modified":"2025-01-21T20:59:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:59:46","slug":"sticking-it-to-the-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=10656","title":{"rendered":"Sticking It To The Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
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School of Rock<\/em>\/ATG<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

With a dismal parade of tech bros queuing up to lie down and have their tummies tickled by King Trump, it\u2019s time to ask \u2018Whatever happened to \u2018sticking it to the man\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone wanting a definition of who the man is need look no further than School of Rock<\/em>, in which the inimitable Jack Black expands the consciousness of his pupils thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The world is run by the Man. Oh, you don’t know the Man? He’s everywhere. In the White House, down the hall, Miss Mullins [headteacher], she’s the Man. And the Man ruined the ozone, and he’s burning down the Amazon\u2026 And there used to be a way to stick it to the Man, it was called rock ‘n roll. But guess what? Oh no. The Man ruined that, too, with a little thing called MTV!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resistance and disruption are therefore the weapons to be used against the Man. Mark Zuckerberg probably thought he was sticking it to the Man for long time, but it\u2019s amazing how quickly yesterday\u2019s disruptors become today\u2019s establishment.  This was neatly summed up in a New Yorker<\/em> cartoon decades ago, showing two tycoons in a swanky office surveying their domain of acres of industrial plant, with one saying \u2018Remember when we were going to subvert the system from within?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the likes of Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg are so rich, the question is, WHY are they getting into bed with the Donald? They have most of the world in their thrall as it is  \u2013 what are they going to do with more money and power?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s a fear of losing even a scintilla of what they already have that drives them. The New Statesman<\/em> has noted the correlation, in a \u2018hyperfinancialised celebrity culture, between market value and media attention\u2019, quoting Trump Media, which has been losing money to the tune of $5m a month, yet is valued at $7.85bn. This goes some way to explaining the power of brands, which are the vehicle for securing undying devotion to the Man behind the logo, even if not actual profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can those if us who have not received our invitation to Mar al Lago stick it to \u2013 or at least resist \u2013 the Man? For the lure of the Man is subtle and pervasive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always admired the stand taken by a friend of mine, long before the war on plastic carrier bags. He was a great fan of M&S food, and would stock up at the weekends. He always took his own shopping bag, maintaining quite logically that they ought to be paying him to go around flaunting their name in public.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Princesses duvet\/Buy Cos<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

It’s heartening to see queues outside Muji, temple of non-branded goods, but for every one of those individuals there must be at least five desperate to buy into the Man in his Princess manifestation (Disney) or his sporting persona (Adidas), whether on clothing, breakfast cereals or bedding \u2013 and many more who don\u2019t mind doing so and wouldn\u2019t go out of their way to avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s far easier to resist the Man in the analogue world than on line. Wrenching myself from the familiar embrace of Google to navigate the unfamiliar waters of other search engines is too scary to contemplate (not least because of the inexplicable and unpredictable hostility of certain sites to a change of browser). And if I really wanted to stick it to Zuckerberg, wouldn\u2019t I leave Facebook forthwith? Readers will be glad to know that damesnet<\/strong> has at least quit X[1]<\/a> \u2013 but not without a twinge of regret at saying goodbye to the more than 1,000 followers we had so painstakingly built up over ten years (what\u2019s the opposite of going viral?!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now I will have to content myself with fantasising about what Zuckerberg will do after going on Josh Rogan’s podcast to preach for masculine energy in the workplace. Surely the next step in his self-abasement to the powers of darkness must be offering to clean Andrew Tate\u2019s toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> Find us on Bluesky: damesnet.bsky.social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why are they getting into bed with the Donald?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,55,65,56,307],"tags":[578,579,580],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10656"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10692,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10656\/revisions\/10692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}