OMG Black Friday 2013

There is a riff I posted on Twitter, accompanied by some of my "Know Your Class War" posts, where the basic gist is: Black Friday is becoming a structured, arranged bum fight, where American consumers are the bums. I can cast shade as much as anyone about people getting into shoving matches over who is laying hands on the bargain consumer goods, or whatever, but it isn't with glee to see people acting like asses or vindication that consumerism brings out the worst in people. It's freaking weird. People are trading elbows for the privilege of handing over their money to corporations who fully expect this day to be very profitable for them. Over consumer goods that people can very often purchase for similar good prices any time of year, with the right research.

It's odd. I described the news coverage of Black Friday sales and the potential for violence therein as being the ultimate advert: "Deals so good, there will be blood!" It's only funny to a point, though. Sometimes people really do get hurt. And retail workers are financially hurt by most of this mishegas all year long--mostly in poor benefits and low wages with flexible, but crappy hours as the general rule.