I wasn't going to actually post this, but...

The part I wasn't going to post :

Me mcsweeneys.net/an-open-letter-to-the-dude-bros-who-yelled-usa-usa-at-a-lynyrd-skynyrd-concert

Maybe bands in their heyday can skip “the hit” under the guise of artistic integrity. But not musicians 30 years past their Bilboard 100 peak. This was a sure thing. We raised our voices in a unified chant, joy filling the places where our cartilage used to be. We were riding the nostalgia crest of every road trip, every party, every rock show, every stolen kiss that ever mattered in our lives.

Dude, nothing sucks more than being a proper american.
Her Why does this aspect exemplify it? They're just overinlove with a thing.

Me Exactly. That thing happened to matter back when they were young and could have had anything and done anything. And they believed then that well... it's things. So they got the best thing that there was. It's a shitty thing.
Her Why's it a shitty thing? What, cause now they know they can't have or do anything? So what?

Me It sucks to have bought into the american way, because it consists of proposing you invest yourself not into power, like the gangsters of the 20sⁱ not in themselves, like the cowboy cultureⁱⁱ, not into others & teh cosmos, like every crazy murdering cult since the 60s.
Her They still love what they love, loving it doesn't suck.

Me Yes, it does. Because they love a thing, for what they thought the thing was. It's like loving a cat. A cat is not a person. What you see in its eyes is your own reflection.
Her But as long as the subject here is music, can't it be argued that what they love/d is art and therefore not at all a cat but something more in the realm of ideas?

Me No, it can not. Because this is not music. This is pop music.
Her Is it solid Lynyrd skynryfuckthisshiti'm not speellng it? If it is, I agree. But mebbe it was a fest or something, iono. There was some music came outta those decades in the US.

Me Think about it. the whole appeal is the collective consumption thereof. This is not music, but a product. A thing. Not in any sense different from loving that one hotdog, back in the summer of 69.
Her Hm. Well this is a convincing argument.

The but (literally five minutes later) :

Her Lulzy. Imagine a generation of such butthurt strivers. That's the US millenials. It makes me appreciate your fine oasis that much more.
Me I know. Tis sad. But anyway, through the power of coincidence you've activated another article. BRB.

Her Good I love to be a muse.

This may be a little opaque, given that it's transcript of the advanced class. But anyway : the people who bought into the whole hardass gangster path-to-power thing got killed. Arguably this is a bad thing, but it neatly eschews the entire "a long long old age dedicated to contemplating your failure". The people who bought into the whole hardass cowboy path-to-personal-perfection generally had enough sense to pick more friendly fields, and so Wyatt Earp died recently still as great a shot as any.ⁱⁱⁱ The people who bought into US consumer culture however... well, enjoy your 401(k)s, what can I say.

1. This was a huge cultural thing, before being a criminal thing. The public loo-ho-oh-oooved the gangster, and for a reason which had a lot less to do with the gangster per se and a lot more to do with philosophy, specifically the solutions available to the problem of investment. [↩]
2. The lone ranger type of guy with his dreaded, cvasi-mystical skills (and the later and weaker rebound of the karateka) are a different sort of solution to the same sort of problem. Today's grotesque continuators, with their protein shakes and sick gainz are perhaps ill suited to represent the concept. [↩]
3. This'd be why lifting isn't really a good choice, incidentally. Talk to old strongmen if you wish to hear sadness. [↩]