Kendrick dropping truth bombs on the NFL’s biggest stage? Cue the MAGAverse hyperventilating into their flag-print fainting couches. Nothing terrifies fragile hegemony more than Black artistry that isn’t sanitized for their comfort. Oh no—a Pulitzer-winning rapper dared weave politics into the sacred ad-break circus! Next they’ll demand halftime shows be replaced with Lee Greenwood AI covers.
The meltdown’s a feature, not a bug. Conservatives need perpetual outrage to mask their cultural irrelevance. Imagine stanning a draft-dodging conman but seething when an actual poet weaponizes the mic. Stay mad—the future’s rhyming without you.
Remember, these are the free speech absolutes that are anti cancel culture. Right?
Headlines are short and easy to understand for sure.
you like write
Writing’s just thinking with structure, friend. Some of us wield words like a scalpel; others prefer crayons. Both have their place, but don’t confuse one for the other.
your so wise
Kendrick dropping truth bombs on the NFL’s biggest stage
What truth bombs did he drop? Some vaguely rebellious sounding lines? “The revolution will be televised?”
This was milquetoast at best. Actively harmful at worst. I really enjoyed the performance but he is doing exactly what he criticizes the record labels of doing. Taking black culture and commodifying it by turning it into a spectacle.
This was corporate spectacle and nothing more.
“Come, comrades, and claim your Che Guevara t-shirts. Indulge that half-buried discontent with the system by picking up these subversive punk rock accessories. For a fleeting moment, we’ll even add a trans flag poster—yours for nothing but shipping and handling. Put on the revolution you crave.”
Kendrick’s performance wasn’t meant for you to dissect like some detached art critic sipping lukewarm coffee in a gallery. It was the spectacle—because that’s where the power lies. You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but that’s not how this works.
Corporate stage or not, he hijacked their platform and made them pay for it. That’s subversion, not commodification. You’re so busy clutching your purity checklist that you missed the point: this isn’t about your approval.
And spare me the faux-radical cynicism about Che t-shirts. If you’re waiting for a revolution that doesn’t touch capitalism, you’ll die waiting. Meanwhile, Kendrick’s out there making people uncomfortable. What are you doing? Writing snarky posts? Congrats on your service to the cause.
I don’t claim to be an activist. I’m interested in the ideological undercurrents
You want revolution without the mess, rebellion without the noise, but that’s not how this works.
This is the very thing I’m claiming about the performance. It’s controlled rebellion. Performative dissent. Dissent and dissatisfaction itself becomes commodified and sold back to you. It allows the viewer to feel like they’re part of something revolutionary without ever threatening the system. Imagine a safety valve, releasing just enough pressure to prevent real change. It’s like a laugh track in a sitcom. It tells you what to feel. You can have the experience of laughing without actually having to laugh.
This type of “socially conscious” art (movies, music, etc) functions in a way lets the consumer feel like they have participated in something emancipatory without actually having to. It’s ideology.
Note at no point did he criticize the status quo. He did not mention president Trump, who was present in the crowd, at all. Kendrick, a legendary socially conscious rapper who is an icon for life- chose not to say anything at all. Why?
Either a) he doesn’t care or b) he understands there is a very small window of acceptable “dissent” he is allowed to express. I think this micro-dose of dissent pacifies and sedates the viewer.
hijacked their platform and made them pay for it
He made them pay? He made them hundreds of millions of dollars. This was the most highly viewed super bowl performance in my adult life.
this isn’t about your approval.
You seem to care more about my approval than I do. What difference does it make if I approve? I liked the performance but I’m discussing the ideological basis for these styles of performative vague dissent.
Me and you both are constantly eating from the trash can of ideology. It’s painful, but it’s worthwhile to put on the glasses so you can at least see what you are eating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVwKjGbz60k
You’re not wrong, but there’s a layer you’re missing. Yes, dissent is commodified, and yes, it’s a pressure valve. But the system doesn’t just pacify—it co-opts because it has to. The spectacle you describe isn’t just a distraction; it’s evidence of cracks in the facade. Controlled rebellion still signals fear of uncontrolled rebellion.
Kendrick didn’t name names because he didn’t need to. The subtext was clear: the system that profits off his performance is the same one he critiques in his art. That contradiction isn’t a flaw—it’s the point. The machine can’t help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.
You’re right to put on the glasses. Just don’t forget they distort as much as they reveal.
The machine can’t help but consume its own critique, and every time it does, it exposes its own absurdity.
I appreciate your second response here, it seems less hostile.
My counterpoint would be that capitalism is an Ouroboros. It’s forever devouring its own tail- consuming its own critique and spitting it back out as commodity. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Every once in a while there is some sort of social movement (punks, hippies, hip hop, gays, etc) and it has a real chance to threaten the system.
Punk becomes a fashion statement, hip-hop a soundtrack for commercials and corporate events, gay pride becomes a marketing gimmick. It’s incorporated, stripped of any revolutionary potential and repackaged as an ideological product for you to consume.
This is the perverse genius of capitalism. It doesn’t survive in spite of crisis. It needs the crisis to survive. The absurdity becomes palpable, like you mentioned, but it doesn’t matter. The system flaunts this absurdity, knowing full well that we have no way out.
It is a trap- a Möbius strip of ideology.
So while I enjoyed the performance and I don’t expect anything more from Kendrick (he is under no obligation to be a real revolutionary figure), I also think we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking this was anything more than a corporate spectacle meant to sell future Super Bowl tickets by way of exploiting the discontent and dissatisfaction of poor blacks. (and really, it’s two fold. a) you exploit the black culture not only in the positive way that’s black-positive b) you exploit the angry white culture who is threatened by it). You get to double dip.
You’re right to put on the glasses. Just don’t forget they distort as much as they reveal.
Yep. When you think you have been freed from ideology at that moment you are in ideology. Turtles all the way down. I am under no illusion that I am an not an idiot.
I’ll admit my initial tone was sharper than it needed to be—chalk it up to the sheer amount of garbage I usually get for posting opinions like this. That said, I genuinely appreciate you engaging in open discourse instead of resorting to knee-jerk dismissal. It’s rare and refreshing.
Capitalism as an Ouroboros is not just a metaphor but a mechanism—a system that thrives on consuming its own contradictions. You’re absolutely right that it doesn’t merely survive crises; it metabolizes them, converting dissent into fuel for its perpetuation. But the trap isn’t just ideological—it’s structural. It’s not just a Möbius strip; it’s a cage.
The double exploitation you describe—of Black culture and white fear—is capitalism’s perverse genius at work. It doesn’t just commodify rebellion; it weaponizes it, turning every critique into a product and every product into a reinforcement of the status quo. Kendrick’s performance wasn’t revolutionary, but it wasn’t meaningless either. It was a mirror, reflecting the absurdity of a system that sells resistance as entertainment.
Your cynicism isn’t misplaced. It’s clarity.
Kendrick killed it, who gives a shit what haters think.
I enjoy kendrick and found the SB entertaining, but I can see where people can say it was a fine performance. Certainly nowhere close to worst of all time though
Taking shots at Drake when Trump is there seems kinda petty tho.
Hardly shots at Drake, that victory lap already happened at the grammys. Just giving ppl what they want. Really though was bigger than that, he brought black uncle sam lmao
There was a very direct shot at Drake. When he teased not like us and said, “I wanna play this song, but people like to sue”
Dude used one of the largest platforms available to cook that beef. Agree, def petty.
Why would the pedophile Matt Gaetz be offended by a song dissing pedophiles?
But also fuck this type of partisan rage bait article. This type of writing is what divides us, even if it’s saying things you wanna hear.
Im 50 and white. A lot of the people I know who hated the halftime show aren’t hip-hop fans and/or have trouble interpreting dance performances. The racist people I know just didn’t watch it at all.
I definitely didnt like it.
And that’s fair. I did
I didnt
don’t forget about Trump…and Musk.
The Daily Beast is to the left, what Fox News is to the right.
This is why i only read from centrist news sources
Or… there’s always independent sources. For instance:
• Reuters
If you find that the source of yours news is in constant agreement with your opinions, and you are in constant agreement with the news they provide, I hate to break it to you, but both you- and your news source are biased, and biased news doesn’t automatically default to being true just because you want it to.
It’s not about left, centrist, or right sources. And thinking it is- is exactly why we are having the problem we currently have. It’s about finding an HONEST one.
Find a source of notes that isn’t afraid to tell you shit you won’t always agree with.
Yeah, anytime I find myself nodding along I try to head over to Allsides and expand my view. I’m sure someone here has something to say about Allsides, I admittedly didn’t dig too deeply into the site itself, but it is essentially an aggregator that tells you whether a site is right left or center.
The catch is finding a goid conservative English language source is very difficult. A Financial Times sub runs $300usd a year almost for the more news and opinion focused online version (lacks the in depth business stuff that runs 7-800/yr.
But also fuck this type of partisan rage bait article. This type of writing is what divides us, even if it’s saying things you wanna hear.
Hear, hear.
This kind of ‘information’ is like doing drugs, it feels good but it destroys your ability to function as a normal human being. Getting addicted to outrage and ‘owning the <other side>’ is playing into the divisive politics that allows the powers that be to divide us. Nobody is going to want to work with you if you’re calling them a MAGAT and you’re not going to want to work with anyone who’s attacking you.
Your enemy isn’t the other middle class and poor people who’ve been convinced to wear a different color hat than you. If you can’t see that and adjust your behavior appropriately then you still have a lot to learn and I hope we have enough time for you to catch up.
I thought Kendrick was very good, and I don’t listen to him or very much of that style music. He is amazingly talented and I thought a top tier showman. In the article, Jack Posobic said that he wished it was Creed (like In the 2001 half time) instead. Since this was the Apple Music streaming halftime show, I looked it up. #1 Streamer of last year was Kendrick, I didn’t see Creed in the top 50. Also Billboard has Kendrick at #4 all year for Streaming, also no Creed. I know Creed had a big resurgence last year touring, but I was around listing to music in 2001 and we all voted that Creed sucks. I didn’t like those people who liked Creed then, and even more so now.
but I was around listing to music in 2001 and we all voted that Creed sucks
Can confirm, was also listening to music in 2001, and Creed sucks
Given current events though, I wonder if Disturbed and System of a Down will be moved to make something new.
I was in my late 20s back then. Anyone who told me they were into Creed during that time always ended up being the guy the women around would all have a story about regarding abusive behavior.
John Dolmayan from SOAD is actually a huge Trump supporter for some reason.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer John Dolmayan, who has publicly voiced his support for former U.S. president Donald Trump on a number of occasions, claims that he has lost “friends” and “hundreds of thousands of fans” due to his opinions.
I remember when creed came out, it gave rise to a shitload of bands with lead singers that would go out of their way to sound like Scott Stapp. If you hated creed, this became very obvious and annoying
I just remember the drunk suburban girl who would load up the jukebox with Creed and Nickelback at the bar. Nothing kills a good Friday night at the bar faster than that.
My pool hall had the ability to pay a buck to move someone’s song behind yours…
It was a godsend
I’ve always noticed growing up that there seems to always be one band that music fans seem to randomly focus their hate on disproportionately, often for little reason beyond “because fuck you that’s why”.
When I first entered middle school, it was Quiet Riot. Then Winger. Creed. Nickelback. I’m sure I’m missing some in the middle, but you get the idea. There was always one band that everybody just focused their hate on, and god help you if you were actually a fan of the band because you were bullied relentlessly and labelled a “poser”. And the thing is…most of the time, these bands weren’t that bad. They were mostly cookie-cutter, middle of the road bands who brought nothing really new to the table, but they weren’t terrible either. But they got a disproportionate amount of hate for merely existing.
They were mostly cookie-cutter, middle of the road bands who brought nothing really new to the table
Sounds like you know exactly why they catch so much hate.
Right. But why did those bands get the hate when there were dozens of other bands around doing the exact same thing? That’s the point. The amount of hate those bands received was disproportionate compared to others doing the same thing, for no other reason beyond “because fuck this band in particular.”
Smashmouth and Imagine Dragons would fit too. It seems every few years there’s a band everyone decides they like and then a few years later everyone suddenly hates them.
Creed gets the hate for being an overtly Christian band.
Some of their songs are alright, but the 100% Jesus 100% of the time is fucking exhausting.
Nickelback gets the hate because they constantly recycled songs. The same background music to different lyrics. All so that they could get more radio play or some shit.
Which is what really drove the hate. These bands got a disproportionate amount of radio play.
Creed gets hate becayse the music is cookie cutter and it’s that bullshit form of performative Christianity that has no actual faith behind it.
LOL, Creed?
Probably because of the xtian thing, but…still.
Right-wing commentators Eric Daugherty and Benny Johnson took their criticism to the extreme, describing the performance as “Black nationalist" and calling Lamar a “mumbling pagan Satanic cultist”.
This would only make me want to see it if I hadn’t already lol
And Kendrick Lamar is famously Christian and makes references to God frequently in his lyrics. Although, I doubt they consider the black church “Christian” since prosperity gospel megachurch bullshit strays so far from Christ that they probably can’t recognize an actual Christian any better than they can recognize a fire beat.
Prosperity gospel is by no means a white only thing. Unless he’s gone into detail about the church he attends you can’t know what version of Christianity he is part of.
Can you even be both pagan and Satanic?
“He’s a mumbling pagan, Satanic, Jewish, Mexican, Socialist, Antifa, Chinese…” Beyond all the social abuses, I hate MAGA and right-wing pundits because they’ve robbed words of meaning, on a scale that forces adjustment unlike anything else.
He can be if you don’t know what a dictionary is and you get revenue by being divisive. The more charged the language, the higher the revenue gets.
If your entire personality, beliefs, reactions, actions, debates, arguments and statements are all based on anger … at one point nothing in this world will make you happy and you’ll just be angry at everyone and everything.
Stay mad America … we can’t help you any more.
That Star Trek quote about and becoming comfortable like a leather glove still rings true
When one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable, like… like old leather. And finally… becomes so familiar that one can’t ever remember feeling any other way.
Quote from Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek … wow, I’ve watched so much Star Trek in my life that stuff like this is probably ingrained in memory without me knowing it at this point. I watched all of TNG years ago and honestly, I don’t remember much and hope to rewatch all of it again some day because of writing like this. Thanks for sharing this.
Same, it has been years since I’ve watched any Star Trek but every now and then I’ll dream about an episode or just randomly remember a scene or quote.
Maybe a rewatch is exactly what I need to restore my faith in humanity right now?
It’s my favourite show of all time.
Yeah, it’s cheesy as hell and rough around the edges, but there are episodes that go so hard on a topic and the characters all feel like good role models to emulate.
I rewatch it every now and then.
I think people write it off as cheesy and silly because they don’t like admitting the quality of the writing and content that is part of these shows. Some of the episodes are cheesy and fun … but some just hit the nail right on the head and place a big giant mirror in front of society to ask everyone to have a deep dark look at who we really are. I think that insight into ourselves is what upsets people about these shows … most people don’t want to think about things like that and instead want to watch a funny show about some soap opera love story.
It’s been about 20 years since I last saw TNG … I have so much more Trek to watch but I’m looking forward to rewatching TNG again some day.
comfortable, like… like old leather.
You were helping? Huh, and well, to take a note from Kendrick: Damn.
The opening was propaganda and the ads were propaganda. What do they have to complain about?
Yeah, I couldn’t hear what they were singing though.
I’m just mad he didn’t say the word “pedophile”
can’t say that on tv!!!
I assumed it was because of the lawsuit that is already pending. I don’t think “pedophile” is a censored word
Depends on who owns the network
That’s our word.
It was most likely pre litigated and conceded that he wouldn’t say it
Honestly, I thought the nod early in the performance was all we were gonna get. I didn’t think he was going to do ANY of that specific song. The fact the only thing censored was the word pedophile just makes more people that don’t know what’s up want to look it up.
It definitely wasn’t the only censored word. Kendrick skipped more than a few words overall. But it was far and away the most obvious one
Annoying generalization and useless Internet noise what even is journalism
They saw like five tweets and they wrote a story about it. And here we are on the front page
Well of course.
- The host and musical guests were black.
- Kendrick calls out pedophiles.
They can’t have either of those obviously.
deleted by creator
Well considering a lot of the discussion on here is around tech and specifically Linux that doesn’t surprise me. Very online tech people usually aren’t that interested in sports.
Because it’s American capitalism 💸💰and jingoism 🛫🇺🇸💣 at it’s finest.
thank you for the little pictures, now i understand :)
i flipped the game on for a bit. one play, two commercials. i was done.
I searched “Superbowl 2025” and just refreshed that result every so often. Zero commercials, and the score and quarter time was up to date.
i went back later and basically did that once, saw the score partway through the 3rd. i had no doubt that the falcons collapse eight years ago would not be topped.
Sports is boring. The games are vaguely entertaining if you’re actually playing them, but watching? Washing dishes is more engaging.
Hell, CSPAN is a better watch.
Im glad you have your opinion but I respectfully disagree. Sports can be a good time to watch for certain people, but dont rag on it just because its not your cup of tea.
As an Eagles fan, I fucking loved that shit. But I can understand why Chiefs fans would have not enjoyed it, and everyone else would have been bored.
Kendrick fucking killed it, though. That was a great halftime show.
I always preferred CFL rules tbh
me too. it is a much more entertaining game.
Fun fact:
unpopular is not antonym to popular.Unpopular implies active dislike or hate. Antonym to popular is “not popular”, which also includes stuff that is not actively hated, but simply ignored.ok, i confused my message by unneccesarilly and incorrectly bringing too narrow meaning of the word antonym into it.
so: unpopular is not the same as largely ignored. just because there is not that many fans of sport on lemmy, being created largely of tech-people, doesn’t mean it is unpopular, as unpopular implies active dislike, which is not the case here.
to save some googling for anyone interested:
so we have so called polar antonyms, such as cold / hot or strong / weak, which do not cover whole spectrum of choices (there is some middle ground between hot and cold).
then we have complementary antonyms, which create two disjunct sets covering whole spectrum. these are basically logical negation.
they are often created by using a prefix from the other word. american / non-american, mortal / immortal, but also entrance / exit.
the terminology also differs between languages, it definitely does between my native language and english.
Yeah, nah buddy
i edited my message for better clarity
If all MAGAts just spontaneously died that would be fucking boffo.
Bitches can stay mad.
Why? It was straight up nationalist propaganda
Maybe you don’t know 1. Gang colors or 2. TV networks are bound contractually to always support the military or they can get their broadcasting licenses revoked.
Nothing spells freedom better than gov mandated propaganda
Which part?
