Apparently Beats Headphones are Oppressive and Racist Now
Apparently Beats headphones are now a "symbol of oppression" and wearing them is grounds for being berated and perhaps attacked by protesters.
Now, I always thought Beats were over-priced and over-hyped, and thought they were mainly a marker for people who preferred brand signaling over performance (at the risk of angering some of you, I would put Louis Vuitton bags as the leader of this category of products).
Apparently, making Dr. Dre wealthy(er) from his involvement as a co-founder of the product, and enriching the bank accounts of many other hip hop artists for their endorsements, is now "oppression." Hmm. Well, I am happy to do a public service here and take their endorsement checks and thus the burden of this oppression off their shoulders and on to myself. Who says we libertarians are not public spirited?
So what is next? I can't see any particular different between Dre's involvement with Beats and Michael Jordan's involvement with Nike -- are Air Jordans the next symbol of oppression? What am I missing here?
ErikTheRed:
I completely agree with the assessment of Beats headphones (overpriced ODM garbage), but as a symbol of oppression of anything other than the public's taste... that's pretty funny. And for extra irony, I would bet that many of the complaints were expressed through Apple devices...
November 17, 2015, 11:49 amSamWah:
Consistency of thought is not a common trait amongst the permanently aggrieved.
November 17, 2015, 12:36 pmTrapper_John:
I love the follow-up article where the Dartmouth official apologizes for the "not very nice" media coverage of the protest. “There’s a whole conservative world out there that’s not being very nice,” Ms. Ameer said. Really? A couple of articles that relate accounts of profanity and borderline physical violence during the event constitute "not being very nice"? These students are in for a rude awakening when they leave this coddled space they bemoan for not being safe enough...
November 17, 2015, 12:38 pmJim Collins:
From what I read they were berating "white" students for wearing the headphones.
November 17, 2015, 1:30 pmAllen Ingling:
Overpriced is right. The website blog.bolt.io did a tear-down of the $200.00 Beats headphones and estimated the BOM cost at $17.00. Notably, the headphones contain weights to make them seem more substantial. Bolt accidentally tore down knockoff Beats headphones first and published their findings. Then they realized the mistake, did the real Beats headphones and it turned out about the same. Links here: https://goo.gl/tiK2Az and here: https://goo.gl/LVL2US.
November 17, 2015, 2:03 pmMatthew Slyfield:
According to the linked article, they were berating white students for wearing the beats headphones. It's probably another one of those "cultural appropriation" things.
November 17, 2015, 2:10 pmobloodyhell:
}}}} What am I missing here?
WRONG QUESTION.
Q: What are they missing here?
November 17, 2015, 7:26 pmA: The slightest fucking clue.
obloodyhell:
"Perpetually Indignant"
P.J. O'Rourke commented about them 25 years ago in "Parliament of Whores"
November 17, 2015, 7:27 pmMatthew Slyfield:
No, you are wrong. your answer implies that they have zero clue. This is not true. They have anti-clue in large quantities. It would take a cluetron bomb to bring them up to clueless.
November 17, 2015, 10:34 pmbeautox:
I could never figure out why Apple thought it a good idea to buy Beats. Although apple-haters say so all the time, the fact is that apple gear does work well, not like the crap that is Beats.
November 18, 2015, 1:10 pmMorven:
Yes, it seems to be a "cultural appropriation" thing; Beats are for black people, not white people. Rather silly.
November 27, 2015, 7:58 pmChristopher Ratliff:
I agree that they are overpriced. With so many options available in the market these days, why would anyone choose so highly priced headphones. I have a friend who formerly had one of those headphones, but after a period of time he got another affordable noise isolating earphones from http://www.soundmagic.us/ for an affordable price and is really happy with the quality. One can definitely look for other options that are better and also fit in the budget.
February 9, 2017, 2:04 am