Anybody else noticing that people are using 'leftist' terminology in everyday discussion?
My roommate insists on calling anything 'boojie' now if it isn't of shit quality.
Drinking champagne? Oh, you're bourgeois now.
Driving a car that looks ok? Oh, you're bourgeois!
Wear clothes that were freshly washed? Bourgeois!!!
This wouldn't piss me off so much if it weren't for the fact that
A) The usage isn't correct at all. Me buying a bottle of alcohol, whether its vodka, champagne, or beer, doesn't make me "bourgie". Proles should drink whatever the fuck they want and enjoy whatever they want (ok, within reason) without having some asshole talk about how its "bourgeois."
B) It's used by liberals who want to sound edgy while still not reading/understanding any actual Marxist theory
C) Follow up to point "A" : Calling everything "bourgeois" when it isn't actually "bourgeois" just comes off as a tactic to further demonize poor people that are often prevented from enjoying the same things people with more money do.
For example, a person of low / moderate income isn't "bourgie" because they took a vacation. Chances are, they fucking deserved it – a hell of a lot more than the *actual* bourgeois cunts running the world at that.
you could reply with propaganda. a coworker of mine pointed out that an ad was blatant capitalist propaganda. I'm not sure on their beliefs but it was pretty sweet to hear something so "woke" in the wild.
Wyatt Gutierrez
Just use it as an excuse to teach leftist ideas to people OP. Anticapitalist sentiment is growing among most people around the world, they just don't have the language they need to express what they're feeling/experiencing. I've had conversations with loads of my friends and colleagues about leftist topics recently and they've been really receptive tbh.
Jack Garcia
If we achieved anarcho-communism under a different name and people were still vehemently against "communism" and "anarchy" like today, I would be ecstatic at the former and not really care about the latter.
Language simply doesn't matter because it reflects the world around you, not the other way around as structuralists and their kin would have it. Yeah, they're wrong in how they use it, but who cares? In this case, it's just a word. Unfortunately, it makes leftist theory meaningless words like everything else today that is outside of science. We need not worry, however, so long as some people can articulate left theory within the context of modern society, because so long as the material conditions out of which it first arose remain, it can and will rise again in the popular mind.
This sums it up.
Liam Cox
Well, bougie has been black slang for a long time, so it's probably just bleeding over from that. It's just a word, and most people don't even realize it means something else. Just take it easy, user.
Levi Fisher
Da fuq is up with that spacing tho.
Adrian Hernandez
one does not necessarily negate the other
Bentley Watson
It's funny ….at first.
But like any joke they aren't funny if you say it every 5 seconds… then perhaps its the person telling the joke
who's teh fcukin autist now m8
Jordan Carter
I agree this is annoying. People just use bougie and bourgeois as a synonym for yuppie and its totally incorrect. I also never want to be the ackshually guy who corrects them.
I have done this before also, but I only feel comfortable doing it with friends who wont just think I'm a pretentious know it all. It should also be noted that in explaining the word bourgeois to someone you have to define means of production and explain the marxist concept of class. From there its easy to give a definition of socialism that is extremely rudimentary but still more accurate then what 95% of people know.
Oliver Sanchez
It's a bad habit. I'm a redditfugee but have been here for quite a few months now. sometimes when i go full sperg the old 'reddit spacing' comes back. sorry
Jonathan Morris
...
Chase Hall
I'm sorry OP, but you seem pretty materialist. It takes empathy and selflessness to make change. Your car? Gotta go. Any shirts not bought in Wal-Mart? Sent to your international comrades in Tanzania. Alcohol? Getting rid of that. Wife? What, you're bourgeois AND reactionary? You don't own anybody shithead, she's her own person.
I'm tired of brocialists like you acting like you can be a communist and live a decadent lifestyle. We're all muh privileged and we all have to give up a lot we took for granted under an exploitative system like global capitalism. I'm not sure why you really care, though, unless you're just a crybaby. Buddhism teaches us that that stuff doesn't make you happy.
Hudson Mitchell
I think that you've got nothing to worry about as long as you're not making it your goal to try to convert them. People can sense when you're trying to manipulate them. Honestly just having a conversation and helping them to learn and develop their own ideas is the best strategy to take. If you act like you're an authority on a subject people will generally come to you on their own with questions.
And yeah, it can be kinda hard not to go full theory on someone and lay everything on them at once. I generally explain socialism vaguely along with a bit on exploitation. If they're still interested I'll talk a bit about exchange vs use value & how that relates to labor.
Gabriel Long
Right, I think you got this post the most. That's basically what he's doing. He's equating it with "yuppie" and is basically taking normal everyday shit and trying to make it sound like that is something rich people do.
It just shows how out of touch he is with what it truly means to be a part of the ruling class. It goes beyond just buying champagne or going on a trip somewhere.
I think people who do this end up trivializing or mitigating the severe inequality we're actually living under by doing this, that's why it pisses me off after a while.
Pretty soon he'll be calling people "bourgie" for buying lobster at the store, almost like those assholes on Fox News that criticize poor people and think they can tell them exactly what they can and can't spend their government allowances on. Its fucked and I don't think he realizes how it just comes off as "fuck poor people for trying to enjoy nice things" instead of it being a lighthearted joke.
Good point.. I'll keep this one in mind.
Its actually really funny bc this person is a "minimalist" too. So your shitposting here isn't too far off the mark. He legit gets into that "stuff doesn't make you happy!" "get rid of everything11!" bullshit philosophy.
Which, sure, I get that being hyper consumerist / a hoarder is fucking retarded, but """"minimalists""" to me take it to a whole new level. They only get rid of shit so they can look down on other people who have more stuff than them. "Getting rid of shit" is a literal contest and its like they find ways to purposefully not enjoy life or something. I don't get it. Minimalism sucks. So yeah. I guess I am a materialist, heh.
Is it? I guess I didn't know that it was "black slang." You mean black twitter? or what? I have never seen black people say this.
Carter Perry
But he wasn't the first? Did you even read the post you responded to?
Luke Hall
Uh.. so? Who caress? The point is I first encountered this term in quotes from Marx. What's the point in nitpicking? I don't get the context for sperging out about this and greentexting it.
Jack Perez
Idk man maybe you just hang out with a different type of person then me but most of the people I know who use the term bougie are like hipsters or kids in the punk scene. Giving people like this lessons in political theory based off a word they use offhandedly is not exactly good social skills. Like I said its different with my friends but I'm not just going to start talking about Marxism while having a smoke with strangers outside the bar.
Xavier White
Well, I just butted into the conversation. Carry on.
Austin Miller
…I might have to agree with you here. This guy is def. stereotypical hipster type. And honestly I have tried talking to him about Marxism "seriously" in the past and it just ends up being an anti-communist shitshow for him.
He loves to call himself a communist sometimes, but its only as a joke. I think he does this so I'll think he's my """"comrade"""" or something but he regularly says a lot of shit that is bleeding porky propaganda and rabidly anti-communist. Typical socdem tactics, basically.
Michael Williams
Sorry to be such a faggot about it, but I just don't get the point. Educate me maybe? Who said it then? That's all I wanna know. As far as I have ever been concerned its a "Marxist term" because it is often properly used by Marxists, socialists, and anarchists. Its never used by capitalists in a serious manner, so I just said "Marxist terminology" as a catch-all. It wasn't meant to be some historical treatise on the proper usage of "bourgeois" or something. It was totally besides the point.
I just don't get the point in greentexting it.
Its like posting about a basketball game your favorite team lost and then someone comments with a total non-sequitur about how you were wrong about the brand of scoreboard they used for the game or something. Totally irrelevant to the point, lmao
Champagne is legitimately bourgeois, even if it's just sparkling wine and not legitimate Champagne from the region in France (which is about as bourgeois as it gets). Cars are another luxury item though. Bourgies often have much nicer cars than poormies. Nigga who freshly washes clothes before wearing them? Even rich people do laundry in loads, and it's not like you change into a set of clothes when you're done. Someone who can actually afford to have their clothes laundered right before putting them on for that fresh-out-the dryer warmth and coziness is definitely a pampered rich fuck.
All of this is lifestyleism and has jack to do with class conflict btw.
Mason Cook
Well obviously you've got to wait for it to come up naturally, but most of the people using terms like 'bougie' tend to be against commodification and capitalism, even if they wouldn't use those exact words to say it. Obviously you shouldn't force people to talk about shit they don't want to, but that's just basic social skills.
Idk, maybe my experience isn't the norm, but I've kinda built up a reputation with my more liberal friends as being an expert on this kind of stuff so this stuff kinda just comes up. (they also call me 'woke' all the time and I fucking hate it lel)
Leo Lewis
No worries dude. Thanks though.
Easton Robinson
lol if champagne is bourgeois, then so are car oil changes dude. I can get champagne for $15. You can't be fucking serious with this argument lmao
they do have nicer cars, sure, but i'm saying driving a car in general. my care is not "nice" in the sense that its luxury. It gets me from point A to B. It's from 1995 and was less than 2 grand when i bought it in high school.
….and i'm not advocating for lifestylism so i don't know why you bothered mentioning that. I was just having a discussion on language.
"Lifestylism" would be me telling everyone to become vegan with me or some shit….
Xavier Moore
It may just be particular to one region of America, so you don't hear it. Like how "deadass" is just New York.
Jacob Lee
Ok that's a new one. "Deadass." I like that. I'm gonna have to google that one.
Robert Campbell
Holy shit you're dumb. What I'm saying is that Marx made use of terminology that was already popular, but he didn't invent the term, and people who say Bourgeois or Bourgeoisie are not necessarily misusing a Marxist or left-wing language. That's like sperging out if someone uses "labour" or "capital" in a way different to the way Marx used them.
Jayden Hall
You are honestly a retard if you don't think people use this term with the intention of trying to seem 'educated' and 'ironic' in regard to left politics
It's no different than hipsters who make jokes about the 'proletariat' and don't actually know shit about left politics
David James
The point is, yeah, sure, it was popular for him at the time, but its not anymore.
People in regular everyday language don't fucking use these words unless they're trying to do ironic hipster twitter humor.
The only people, in this fucking day and age, who do use it, are leftists in my experience.
If you seriously use any term like "bourgeois" "proletariate" etc. in an actual political discussion people look at you like you're fucking autistic…
Andrew Morales
t. materialistic consumerist who buys the capitalist propaganda that buying the capitalist's shit will make you happier until capitalism.
Seriously though, stuff doesn't make you happy, a meaningful life with meaningful relationships do. You don't actually own your shit, your shit owns you. t. someone who sleeps on the ground and lives in a tiny home who's mostly unhappy because of a unfullfilling life and lack of relationships, not because he doesn't have a bed or live in a real house.
Evan Clark
Hard to believe.
You are legitimately porky
Anthony Mitchell
Kill thyself.
Ryan Anderson
My life was shittier when I had a bed and a regular house.
