Watching a stream of Times Square, I finally realized how every single screen there is an ad. ( conspiracy )

submitted by ElspethTirel

Not to mention all the ludicrously priced trinkets that have almost no actual value (goofy hats that say 2016, whatever those long things are, etc).

I feel sick looking at this crap. This isn't a celebration. This is thousands of sheep packed together in a tiny space. There isn't dancing. There's no room. What are you doing there? Spending hours in the cold waiting for the year to end. For no reason.

Empire_of_the_mind

Nearly all 8 million people in New York City agree with you.

unixfreak

If people can become entrenched by capitalism when a ritualistic display of advertisements becomes the main event at celebrating the new year... then the people are certainly spellbound. There's no denying the fact that Times Square is essentially a capitalistic ritual. It's not about anything other than brand names, logos, billboards and TV screens.

It's certainly casting a spell, because people are locked into a state of mind control as a consequence. If it didn't work, people wouldn't attend nor visit the place.... but they do.

A ritual doesn't necessarily mean lighting incense and burning herbs in a cauldron. In the simplest sense, a ritual can be initiated by a single billboard telling someone they need to buy something they do not need.

crazybananaman

I concede that it is a valid perspective i simply feel the inlcusion of the mystic is a detraction from the final freeing of the proletariat.

unixfreak

And the ball drop. What the hell does that even symbolize? All i get from it (along with the ad-spam of times square).... it's like the ball symbolizes a cannonball coming down to the ground towards the people so they can be shackled to the corporations and their adverts like a prisoner.

Honestly... Times square at new year is the freakiest, strangest event on Earth during the new year. It's just very very weird.

Quawonk

People are raised to be obedient consumer sheep so what do you expect?

TheBigBlabberMouth

Hear hear!

draaaak

Yup

ElspethTirel

Note these very important two words in my post:

were there

This implies a hypothetical tone to my comment.

Also, denying that the powerful and wealthy are obsessed with the occult is fucking stupid.

LetsBeNakedOutside

Why would someone downvoat this? This is amazing! Thanks buddy!!

FriedFood100

What is wrong with those people just standing there like a bunch of docile sardines.......no wonder we're in such a pathetic state, I couldn't think of a worse way to spend New Year's Eve

Tommstein

This is how I know you don't live here in New York. This wouldn't be a revelation otherwise. I literally don't know a single person who has ever been stupid enough to spend New Year's there, that's where tourists go to learn the price of their stupidity. Which includes freezing and standing in place for the majority of a day while pissing themselves.

srgmpdns

Not the first to notice:

Times Square with adblock.

Redditsdead

I've always been averse to advertising but ever since I watched They Live, it's all I see everywhere. Buy. Consume. Work. Upgrade. I'm so sick of it.

NikoMyshkin

my brain has developed its own adblock. i don't really see them anymore. if i do and if they annoy me - i make a point of never buying that product <pettyrevenge> feels good.

Redditsdead

I do the same thing. I boycott things at the drop of a hat. I might cut my nose off to spite my face at times but I've never felt deprived of any needs. I've found that it's given me a lot of perspective on what I buy.

I think I clicked on my first and probably only banner ad about a year back. I was on a fairly niche site and it was a cool product. I don't even fall for clickbait, even though I sometimes wish they were worth it as the topic is appealing.

NikoMyshkin

the way i see it is that i am the ultimate authority on what things i would like to buy. therefore anyone else collecting data on me (at best) or just randomly advertising to me is going to be at a definite disadvantage. even if they do manage to correctly guess what i want - i will know it too and i won't buy from the advertisers because presumably it would be cheaper for another site to sell it to me if they don't have to give a fraction of the sale to the advertiser that forwarded me.

Zednix

Is that a documentary?

Redditsdead

It sure feels like it at times. I just need to find a big black buddy to beat me up for 10 minutes.

ElspethTirel

It's not even like I have anything against silly hats. Love em. But this is just...it feels like an endorsement of everything American: no personal space, a lot of money, a lot of time, still getting advertised at even though you paid to be there...

crazybananaman

It is always been fascinating, the passivity of our various social conventions, the way we take them granted.

Never questioning the meaning behind them.

Rather make my own traditions not this inherited capitalist crap

jobes

Hi Amalek

ElspethTirel

I feel like, were there dark forces at play in the government (see: satanism, black magic, etc), I would definitely call New Years/Eve, this whole Times Square event- a ritual.