blahaj, a stuffed animal sold by a company that is the number one consumer of wood in the world. it becomes extremely popular because of memes, more people buy it. i dont get it comrades, it seems like pandering to me. ikea isnt like boeing in terms of awfulness but its existence is resulting in increased deforestation around the world. the ikea stores act as cultural embassies for sweden, they provide a sanitized commodified disneylandesque experience of sweden which really helps their public image on the world stage when they are allowing hate crimes against muslims to occur in their country, but hey, buy the toy shark, trans rights, consume treats, all being trans is is buying useless shit with the pride flag on it from corporations that wouldnt have hired you ten years ago but now want your money. in conclusion blahaj is a class traitor, embrace neopets, i sure hope theres no weird shit going on there like a christofascist owns it and is donating money to trump, and no i didnt look up anything about neopets, im just assuming theirs something bad there too. i wonder how right i am about that?
Samsies. It seems like something that started organically and when Ikea noticed it they took advantage of that.
I would contrast it to something I noticed decades ago - Before Corporate Pride reached it's final evolution one of the few sponsors of Pride events you would reliably see was liquor companies. Liquor companies recognized that for a wide variety of reasons, including the stress of marginalization and oppression, queer people tended to drink a lot. Their support for Pride was a purely predatory attempt to sell more alcohol to a demographic vulnerable to alcoholism and excess drinking. Really gross, Capitalist way of looking at the world. Of the two I prefer the shark.
Ngl this rings so fucking true for me