MAGA on aisle 6: grocery stores, Frasier, and the cultural creep of the far right
Amber Rose kicked off the Republican National Convention professing her love for all things MAGA and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I know next to nothing about Amber Rose, beyond the fact that has been romantically involved with other famous people and she once had a SlutWalk to protest rape culture, which is both very cool and the sort of thing I imagine many RNC attendees would condemn her to eternal damnation over. Beyond that bit of dissonance, Rose really caught my attention describing her moment of MAGA liberation: “I let go of my fear of judgment, of being misunderstood, of getting attacked by the left, and I put the red hat on too,” she said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by born anew Trumper Elon Musk, who agreed with a Tweet which claimed that, following the attempt on Trump’s life, more faithful devotees have been spotted in their trademark red hats in San Francisco, of all places, surely verboten in any previous point in the Trump era. A Rolling Stone article noted that Jeff Bezos didn’t hesitate to heap praise on Trump following the assassination attempt, perhaps a gesture of goodwill in the face of near-tragedy, but also suggestive that he too may look forward to wearing his own hat publicly in the near future.
Are the secret Trumpers finally actually ready to come of the woodwork? Will all our liberal enclave cities be flooded by a wave of red caps from coffee shops to the c-suite, finally free at last? The claim about San Francisco seems pretty dubious and the evidence, thus far from a couple of tweets and Ms. Rose, is not persuasive. Trump never really even breaks 50% approvals in the polls.
That said, there’s more than one way to don the proverbial cap.
I’ve been thinking a lot about hegemony and communication and the ways we come to form our “common sense” understanding of the world. In my academic work, I consider what happens when local journalism - a major but significantly weakened player in the process of hegemonic sense-making - comes under attack by actors which seek to clam the institutional mantle of journalism, but without any fealty to truth, reason, or democracy. But that’s just mass media - hegemonic construction hardly need be limited to newspapers, news networks, and YouTube. Really, it’s what enters my field of vision outside of the news that’s got me sweating.
I grew up in rural America and I’m long accustomed to camo gear and rifle bumper stickers. But I don’t recall ever seeing the same iconography outside sporting goods stores and truck stops. Recently, though, I noticed my local Giant grocery store carrying Black Rifle Coffee, a veteran-founded coffee brand with blends like “Freedom Fuel Roast,” “AK-47 Espresso Roast,” “Silencer Smooth Roast,” and “Thin Blue Line Roast.” One of the company’s logos is a rifle sight with its initials in it; the outlines of assault rifles regularly make the packaging for their beans. The company is loud and proud about its values; they claim to make coffee for people “who love America” and prioritize veterans and law enforcement in their marketing materials.
Apparently, it’s a successful approach. BRC attracted equity funding, went public, and is partnering with even more major grocery chains around the country, according to recent investor materials. What used to be the aisle of Folgers and Starbucks now makes room for overt nationalism and, depending on the packaging for a given blend, police and gun iconography. Coffee, apparently, has too long withered in the patriot’s closet. Its time for fear of judgment is over.
Speaking of food and bev - did you watch the new Frasier? It’s OK, very much in the shadow of its indisputably great 90’s era predecessor (update: also now cancelled!). But if you’re an eagle-eyed viewer, you may have noticed that Frasier and friends no longer drink Marty Crane’s favorite brew, Ballentine’s but, rather, they enjoy a cold one from Faith American brewing, Kelsey Grammer’s private beer label. One assumes the presence of Faith American was contractually mandated by Mr. Grammer, a longtime conservative who once backed a right-wing video-on-demand startup network.
Like Black Rifle, Faith American shares an unabashed love of god and country; on its website, the welcome note “signed” by Mr. Grammer shares that “Free of shame and without apology, we thank God for the abundance in our lives and for this opportunity.” Beer, like coffee, like Amber Rose, is also ready for its moment in the sun under a gently waving American flag.
God-fearing media doesn’t stop with the good Dr. Crane, of course. Season 6 of Netflix’s mainstream and extremely heteronormative reality dating show phenomenon Love is Blind featured almost exclusively Christian couples, including one contestant who described herself as a “patriot” during initial conversations with a potential future mate. Another contestant identified as a 26 year-old high school principal. As you do with influencer TV, I checked out his Insta profile - he’s a principal with Movement Schools, a network of tuition-free public charter schools serving under-resourced communities in the American south. A bit more wiki-digging, though, reveals Movement Schools as an arm of the Movement Foundation, which itself is an outgrowth of Movement Mortgage and its founder and CEO Casey Crawford, a deeply Christian former NFL player who sees his ventures as an opportunity to advance a Christian worldview. “We think about how we can honor God and see his kingdom extended even with our company profits,” he told the National Christian Foundation. “There is an incredible opportunity in America today for Christian business owners to step back into this important work that God’s called us to.”
I’m aware that’s all pretty surface level - really, I know very little about each of these ventures in and of themselves. But, wondering whether we’re about to be overrun by a sea of MAGA hats may miss the point, even as it nods in the right direction.
In this highly unscientific observation, there’s a shift in our cultural common sense that’s quickening. Musk, officially a proud Trump lover, owns a highly influential social network for which he intentionally changes rules and technical capabilities to support the promotion of far right content. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, recently said he doesn’t care who wins the Presidential election so long as the winner favors de-regulation - good guess he’s looking forward to a Trump victory in November. Bezos, owner of the Washington Post and proud space wang developer, is openly impressed with Trump’s “grace under fire,” after the attempt on his life. Across the cultural milieu, from big media leadership, to schools, to entertainment, to coffee, the frog-boiling creep of a worldview which, at least currently, includes MAGA, seems poised to fully displace legacy expectations about where and when we encounter it - caps or no.
Two days after the attempt on Trump’s life, I walked my son to a doctor appointment. On the way, we passed an F-250 parked in a driveway with a striking accoutrements:
Look, if it were me, I might take the giant bullet off the hood for a few days after a presidential assassination attempt but my taste is - chuckle - conservative in this regard. That said, if there’s anything we’ve learned post-Columbine, it’s that any tragedy can be an opportunity to profess fealty to firearms, so maybe not worth the trouble. No fear on this truck, freedom only.
In any case, if what you literally see is part of how you constitute “the common sense” for yourself, some things feel increasingly inextricable from regular view; even a quick walk to the doc includes a symbol of violence and menace. I know from my childhood how hard it is to find non-dominant perspectives if you’re not intentionally exposed to them. Where will we find other worldviews, if the schools and the groceries and the beer and the news and the bumper stickers and the entertainment are all here to advance uncritical worship first and actual nourishment second, if at all? Does anyone in charge of pushing such priorities meaningfully understand what you get if ammo, AKs, and crosses are all you see? Do they like it? Do they even care?