I’m in a group project currently in which we are linguistically analyzing AdBusters magazine. I basically spent last night outlining why the magazine makes no sense at all from a linguistic point of view. They use intertextuality in such a way that it almost never supports their point or has anything to do with what they are even talking about. They make up narratives that we’re supposed to just know (whether they exist or actually cohere properly with what they are talking about is another matter). They coopt jargon improperly – for instance, from the field of economics. They use this to allude to various professions in which are all blasted in the most reductionistic way possible.
For instance, all economists care about is “their precious rising GDP levels.” Also, they prove that no economists understand environmental issues by quoting “ecological economists” and “public policy” officials – who of course consider the imaginary lowered GDPs because of pollution as the “biggest market failure” in history. Also, Starbucks is also the biggest market failure in history. By reading the beginning of the sensationalistic article you think Starbucks has just gone out of business, sold everything, went bankrupt, etc. But then you read that it’s because now they have thurmases and candy and sell CDs in their stores. The employees they hire are not even experts on coffee. Some are kids, some are old people, none know how to grind coffee beans without a machine or know what unsealed coffee smells like. Their coffee store atmosphere is not authentic anymore. It’s just brown, green, sepia color – some orange and that same old logo in every store! How dispiriting! If the market really produced anything, they’d have more colors, no thurmases!, the coffee beans wouldn’t be sealed. Wait what hell were we talking about again? Oh yeah, Starbucks has destroyed civil society with thurmases and CDs and their dull color pallette. And now people are taking to the streets to fight the power! Some place in China refused to allow Starbucks to be built and this proof!
By the end of every article you’re left scratching your head. What kind of fascists run this miserable magazine?