Leftist critics of other leftists always sound so unhappy. The world will not wake up magically in a leftist utopia tomorrow (no one could agree on what that would be anyway) because about a third or so of the population would rather die than see things change. Progress happens no matter what, but a lot of people have to be brought forward kicking and screaming.

A lot of progress made in the last few decades is being violently taken back by an unprecedentedly authoritarian right around the world. People are losing rights they may have had their whole lives. Priorities are going to shift as things change in the world.

But you don’t have to look far too see people haven’t stopped with anti-advertising and anti-consumerism. How many communities in All are about privacy, reducing waste, FOSS, anti-capitalism, pro-labor, etc? Everyone all month has been mad at Google for wantng to prevent adblocking on YouTube and the Web. You will find no shortage if people hating on Nestle, Unilever, or oil companies.

The last few years have been dominated by people taking back rights won by feminists, LGBT, voters, and evironmentalists. Most people in there 30s and younger have grown up with a worldview offering little hope. That is a very large group of people with bigger problems than ads and discretionary spending.

Advertising catering to Product X will make your life feel better even if it really isn’t better is going to at times be hard to resist. People are allowed to forget their problems for a little while though. If Matel sells some more Barbies to parents enjoying a pro-feminist message that are given to kids without mandatory gender equality playtime guidelines, people will still be fine. Right now there may be bigger fish to fry, while the world still has fish.

Didn’t go into this intending to vent so much. It just seems so many leftists btag other leftists as much as the auth right does anymore. Be proud of what ever accomplished and work on keeping those victories while still working on new ones, even if they’re small or don’t go far enough.

I mean, to most people that have some high-level understanding of economy and marketing, it’s evident that the Barbie movie is about selling Barbie toys to increase Mattel’s sales.

That was the premise and the director would have been fired if the movie were anything but that… All the socially progressive elements of the movie are well received by the audience but ultimately just stylistic flavour that doesn’t take away from the underlying message to purchase their product.

I wouldn’t call it a lack of critique or skepticism from the left, to me it’s more that it’s obvious that a franchise-based movie is to push the consumerist franchise and even as a leftist it’s not worth discussing.

Is the author expecting something like Barbie and the Quest for Labour Rights, Marvel Avengers: Infinity Class War (as if Disney would allow that), My Little Pony: Friendship is The Working Class Rising Up, or Hello Kitty: Rebellion Against the Ruling Class?

I’d rather see this author’s opinion on Oppenheimer. There were some good themes portrayed there, and it prominently showed how progressive movements were being shut down and ridiculed as “Communist”, where is wasn’t fully warranted.