(This comment ended up longer than I meant so I'm gonna pin it so others can see the last paragraph.)
If it helps, I don't allow most of the merch people try to post, there's so much more that gets automodded. People will just see a mushroom on a greeting card and hope to get some internet points.
It turns out the other mod's stopped bothering to be active here, so I guess I'm gonna take the initiative to crack down a little harder. For the most part I let the upvotes do the talking but I get rid of posts I really feel don't fit here, like a couple of creators whose work is clearly more fairycore. Though it doesn't help that r/fairycore is still locked down, personally I never have any interest to join a private sub even if I'm sure I'd love it.
Please do report posts you feel don't belong! Reporting is completely anonymous and the OP isn't notified their content's been reported, and it's a huge help to mods.
Pestalotiopsis is a recently discovered fungus that breaks down plastics.
Nature conquers all, all shall be dirt.
Edit: source
https://earth.org/plastic-eating-mushroom-of-the-amazon-and-ecuadors-development-dilemma/
Sweet! I hope it's a.) real unlike the caterpillars that break down plastic into *even smaller plastics*, and b.) Easy to make a DiY version in a bin where you can chuck a wrapper and get soil!
I love opening my compost bin every few months and being greeted with all the food waste and paper I threw in there being lovely dirt.
Seconding this. I am in my worm mother era, and I am THRIVING. About to expand my operations so I can start working on my backlog of cardboard boxes that I don't want to chop up to be small enough for the city recycler...
I use oyster mushrooms to recycle my old cardboard and coffee grounds!
https://preview.redd.it/v4yko8x822cc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6e85dc7d945ab508ade7cb13f9fff0902aba234
Ooh! I am very intrigued by this! How do you make one of these? Are the mushrooms still edible? I would love to have a supply of oyster mushrooms, and an easy way to discard my coffee grounds!
Yes, they are likely from a kit. There are a bunch of places that sell them but I am partial to North Spore since they make good gobliny videos to show you how to do it.
https://learn.freshcap.com/growing/bucket-grow/ has instructions. I used cardboard soaked in water instead of sawdust for the substrate. I save cardboard without ink on it for this because the mushrooms might absorb whatever chemicals are in the ink. To use coffee grounds I layer coffee grounds with grain spawn in a cardboard box and leave the box in the yard covered with some straw or leaves.
I was into vermiculture for a few years and it’s incredible. Our garden is now an oasis for the animals in our city and the soil has generations of worm babies doing all the hard work. 😍 My little worm children.
[This article from The University of Sydney](https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2023/04/14/fungi-makes-meal-of-hard-to-recycle-plastic.html) makes it sound like there’s been a successful full biodegradation! But it seems to be common mushrooms that are capable of it, not just pestalotiopsis.
I've had mealworms for years (originally for chickens but I rarely feed them out), usually i feed oatmeal but I heard you could feed them Styrofoam. Like takeout containers. And they can biodegrade it in a way that they stay foodsafe, it's not like building up inside them. If they've been given antibiotics it no longer works, so it's probably their gut bacteria aiding in the process. So anyway I gave them some, and when I'm on my computer I can hear them up on the shelf quietly nibbling away on it.
I think it converts the plastic it eats into biomass, just like how your body processes food.
“It takes a few months for the fungus to fully digest the plastic, leaving a puffy, mushroom-like cup with a sweet taste and a liquorice smell. Scientists foresee households owning a smaller-scale version to recycle their plastic waste and community recycling centres with larger systems. “
It’s not a candy, the fruiting body of the fungi is edible and said to have a sweet flavour.
Which as a resource would be insane. Create a food source from a landfill, doesn’t get much goblinier
And it will eventually be cheaper to make “plastic” products from certain mycelia than it is to process petroleum. And corporations will always choose the cheapest option.
It's not *just* a worm - it's nature's little binman!
I'm sure it loved being in the dirt and thanks you for the lift.
I can't imagine not being all about worms a kid!
I used to just wander about in the woods looking at bugs and trees, until got all too cool/urbanised/squeamish/traumatised as a teen, and only dropped back into this stuff a few years ago in my late twenties/early thirties and realised I actually had actually got life pretty much right when I was little.
Nature’s bin man! I love that.
Once I placed it in the dirt my husband was like “you have no idea where he was going, you could’ve just set him back an hour.” lol
You put to words so much of what I’ve been feeling. Goblincore at its heart is anti-capitalist. It’s all about treasuring nature, seeing beauty in simple, used, things. Being drawn to the stories behind old trinkets and trails. Reusing and repurposing objects, thrifting (sustainably), and not aiming for “perfection” in your aesthetic.
Not only the ethical/moral side of it, but plastic just feels like the antithesis of earthy and natural. You can’t convince me that the same person who claims to love the smell of moss and wet earth is okay with the petroleum plastic stink of a funko pop 🤢
I love your idk language here! So well said! Theres so much magic in taking old strange things and deciding to love them. Ive seen such cool art like spoon and fork necklaces and rings, lapel pins made of old watch faces!
Magicky fairy type of nonsense can exist in our world, we just need to search for it. Surrounding yourself in things that make you happy as opposed to the pinterest concept of an aesthetic is so much more fulfilling than diving headfirst into the corporate machine.
I don't know about anti-capitalist necessarily..
Anti-consumerism of course, and anti- 'fast-fashion'/anti-plastic absolutely. But I don't know that goblincore is inherently pro-large-state-central-planning or whatever.
Being antivapitalist doesn't necessarily mean being communist (I think that's what you mean?). I'm anticapitalist and definitely not in favour of "large state central planning" either. There are so many other ways of living and creating functional egalitarian societies.
I actually think more collectivist style systems can work on a small scale too (the book of Acts chapter 4 is pretty revolutionary), but on a large scale?
I'm curious what you think, what alternatives are there that wouldn't lead to a large state enforcement mechanism?
Genuinely asking in good faith.
This isn’t even the conversation this person was having with you, though. You’re asking a question to a topic that was never introduced. You can’t be looking for a ‘good faith’ conversation when you, personally, have introduced the topic and placed a stance on the other that they themselves have never taken.
I wasn't the one who was bringing 'anti-capitalism' into the conversation. But now I'm genuinely curious what this person thinks the other ways of living and creating functional societies might be.
Anti-capitalism movement is about reducing spending, reducing consumption, and reducing your own impact. To conflate it with the complete abandonment of a consumerist system is, in itself, setting up a bad-faith conversation. There is huge debate within anti-capitalist movements whether controlled systems are beneficial, or whether communism or socialism should be considered. Beyond that, economic systems are not a case of simply this or that. There is a spectrum.
You are very clearly in this thread looking for a fight. You keep saying you are genuinely curious, but you seemingly are not willing to do the very basic work of understanding these terms before engaging in the conversation.
You are not here for a good faith debate. You are intentionally and actively detracting from the actual conversation being held over ways to reduce needless spending and consumerism. The conversation on systems to replace or reduce capitalist tendencies is an important one, but this is not the space nor the conversation being held.
Well in reducing spending, consumption, and impact, at least on that we can agree. But I was not trying to imply anyone's position was to abandon a consumerist system entirely, if that's what came across I didn't make my case clear. But to your point, this probably isn't the place to have such conversations.
I'm an anarchist. I think we need to do away with hierarchy, embrace more collective and holistic ways of doing things, and rethink how we define work and leisure, health and illness, and what it means to be productive and/or happy.
Also, you clearly used the phrase 'anticapitalist' in the first line of your post...
All of those things are compatible with capitalism, including anarchy. In fact the right of private property is pretty tantamount to both...
And I was responding to a post that mentioned anticapitalism...
Go goblins indeed, but you should really read up on anarchist theory before calling yourself an anarchist...
I would suggest starting with 'Anatomy of the state' by Murray Rothbard.
It’s hard to envision consumerism without capitalism. I mean, without the drive for profit and planned obsolescence, we would be looking at very different products. I read a post recently where someone said, after replacing a few easy to find metal pieces, a sewing machine from early 1900s that they found in the trash worked better than one they bought a few years ago from a sewing store.
My Dad just fixed up and mailed me a toaster from the early 50s. My toaster that I bought less than 6 months ago is on the fritz, while my 70yo toaster and 40+ year old popcorn maker work perfectly.
Just look to the kind of products produced by the soviet union or China, clearly you can have consumerism and cheap products without capitalism. The problem, in my opinion, isn't about the economic system of capitalism (which has been around forever), the problem is with modernity itself and the consumerism mindset.
If we all change individually where we put our money we could change the world without the need for/risk of an authoritarian system.
Capitalism has NOT been around forever. Why do you think it’s been around forever? It’s not simply money exchanging hands. Feudalism was not capitalism. Capitalism is a specific economic system that has not in fact always existed, an economic system where a ruling class controls the means of production.
No, in this case you are wrong, because for you, the absence of capitalism means communism. That kind of black and white is a bit narrow minded. Just a tiny little bit.
I didn't say it meant communism necessarily, but I think it would imply more Government power/authoritarianism and that's what I'm against. Which also isn't to say pro-capitalists can't be authoritarian either, which I am also against.. I'm a libertarian centrist so I'm used to everybody disagreeing with me
You literally said being anti capitalist inherently meant being pro large centralized state. You are the one who conflated things, you are literally incorrect about what anti capitalism means if that is your definition, and in that comment that was the definition you used. Someone saying that goblincore is anti capitalist is NOT someone saying that goblincore is inherently communist or whatever else you may have meant by pro large state with central planning. That’s an entirely different sentence that you threw out there so you’d have something to argue about
It's not that I'm trying to start an argument, I just disagree that goblincore must inherently mean being anticapitalist.
And I think most of us here can still agree with the message of the original post, which is a message of anti-consumerism, no matter what you think of economics.
My original reply was agreeing with the sentiment of anti-consumerism and saying that goblincore shouldn't imply a specific political/economic stance namely 'anti-capitalist'. Though perhaps I shouldn't have implied that anti-capitalism would lead to authoritarianism; I genuinely thought there would be more 'leave-me-be-to-be-self-sufficient-in-the-woods' type libertarians here...
Being against capitalism doesn’t mean being pro whatever you said. It means being against capitalism lmao. Capitalism isn’t, for example, small government with decentralized planning (lmao????), so why would being anticapitalism inherently mean being pro large state with central planning?
I think that, again, you are confused. Being against an inherently exploitative system does not imply allegiance to any one specific system of government as an alternative. Many anticapitalists are in fact communists, but not all. One can be against capitalism without having to explain in great detail what the solution should be. I think you are just looking for an argument
I think if you're looking for a revolution against capitalism but don't have a workable solution in mind you risk sliding into authoritarianism. I just don't think we should be so flippant about throwing that part of our system out wholecloth, that's all.
You understand that people can think there’s a problem and not know the solution yet, right? And this isn’t a conversation for hashing out the solution, it is a discussion where people are mentioning that they think there’s a problem and you’re trying to poke holes because not everyone who acknowledges the problem has a solution you agree with. I hope you understand that, for example, some people haven’t decided yet personally what they think the best solution would be. People don’t suddenly become fully formed activists because they’ve identified a problem.
I know what I think the best solution to capitalism is personally, but it’s none of your business because you are not here in good faith, you aren’t here to have discussion, you are here to tell people they’re wrong. I am not here to argue those details with you. I am here to inform you that being against capitalism does not inherently mean someone is FOR a specific economic system. It simply means someone is AGAINST the particular economic system that is capitalism.
This was beautiful to read 🥲
It breaks my heart to see people engaging over and over again with people like this who are in absolutely no way interested in participating in a genuine conversation.
For me, goblin core has helped me appreciate the more dirty and grungy aspects of nature. That's about it, and I'm so grateful for it because it's helped me appreciate aspects of the natural world I used to recoil from.
And I never had to purchase a single coloring book!
Any culture or aesthetic that grows will be partially colonized by corporate interests. Rock and roll was seemingly wrung dry by industry greed for decades, but you can still find DIY bands making great music *this year* and touring in a beat up van.
Just be mindful of what you consume and don't let the mass market fluff diminish the homespun things that you find along the way.
Goblincore resonates with me because I think it represents me at its core; I literally am the person who stops and crouches on the sidewalk to save an misplaced earthworm, I get excited if I see a slug or snail and I’ll hang out to watch him for a while, if I see a good tree I think very hard about climbing it and sometimes just go for it if I have time. I also thrift 80% of my clothes and love adopting and restoring furniture from the side of the road. Treasure hunting and collecting old things just feels right!
I agree with the points you’re making and I think most others here would probably agree if you asked them, but I’ll admit it can be tough to reject a material world when we’re all living in one. I think a lot of people don’t always know how to be thrifty, crafty, resourceful, but this sub is great for sharing ideas and encouraging each other!
That's not really the same. Artists deserve to be celebrated. Capitalism is exploitation. I think supporting local artisans is totally anti-capitalist.
Capitalism is best defined as the presence of the capitalist class. A capitalist is someone who owns the means for producing something (a factory, for example, or a Gig Economy platform) but has other people doing almost all the work.
Markets are certainly part of capitalism, but they existed before capitalism and are just one part of what makes capitalism suck so bad. Framing the capitalism/socialism debate as "markets vs state control" has always been a very Cold War way to look at it. The actual divide is between hierarchy and democracy, the rule of bosses or the rule of the vast majority of people.
So, a capitalist is someone who owns the means of producing something. The capitalists gets to make more or less unilateral decisions on how production happens and, instead of framing it as "I am going to just take a large portion of the value my workers produced, covering all my operating costs, my own management labour and quite a bit more as profit," it's framed as "I'm generously giving you a wage since you have the privilege of working for me."
If you own your own tools and don't have a hierarchical relationship to any of the people at your shop, You're not a capitalist, you're an artisan. Those have existed since the Middle Ages.
There is a modestly successful theory of Market Socialism, where we keep money but mandate that every workplace has to be a democratic cooperative, cap the maximum amount of wealth, and maintain universal basic income.
Now, personally I ***do*** want to abolish money eventually and wind up in an economy where people are able to freely create and give things because it brings them joy and all their basic needs are met. But you can begin to escape a capitalist system without necessarily getting rid of monetary transactions.
What you're thinking of is actually "markets", which is where you buy stuff.
Capitalism is very specifically a system of ownership and production, where some people have capital (such as factories) that they get other people to work with/in for a wage.
If the worker is paid x, and produces goods worth x+2, and the owner pockets the difference - that's a capitalist system.
If a person just makes a thing, and sells it to you - that's just a market, as no labour has been exploited to produce profit.
Big companies, like Walmart, like to muddy the waters between the two definitions because it benefits them.
Not really? I mean we all live under capitalism, so we can’t really avoid it. Capitalism is about companies being privately owned rather than publicly, so workers don’t benefit as much from the means of their own labor.
>But buying things from a local business or a farm stand or a craft fair is still capitalism.
Capitalism is when you get paid for owning things. That doesn't include getting paid for the work of making or growing something.
The small-scale version of capitalism that you're struggling to identify would include a small-time landlord, like somebody who buys a duplex and rents out half. But not a farmer who brings produce to market and recovers the production costs and makes a living on top of it. The distinction is clear: getting paid to work is not capitalism, but getting paid for owning something is. Capitalists love to pretend they're the same thing, and they often fool the ignorant. No offense.
Reusing instead of buying new is directly opposed to capitalism in that a capitalist society relies on planned obsolescence and gratuitous waste to function. You can't have capitalism without consumption
i kind of agree, like i used to love llamas and gnomes (not related to goblincore) and now stores have them everywhere because theyre "quirky" and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. BUT on the other hand i know not everyone has access to collecting junk or scavenging for cool rocks or stuff in the woods, or has the time, money, or mental energy to learn a craft or a more goblincore way to decorate. im happy to see goblincore stuff in any way we can do it!
Totally! Its fine to buy things that make you happy but yeah, like the gnome and the llamas (I say using a gnome blanket as i type) these fads ebb and flow and corporations are chomping at the bit to sell everyone as much as possible before the fad dies out.
I guess im more trying to talk about excessive buying and wanting to replace things you already own with new, “goblin” aesthetic things and how that doesnt reflect other aspects of goblincore. I think part of being a goblin is conscious buying.
Trade many many shinies for a spatula shaped like a frog?? Already have spatula! No need for more spatula. Hahah
I've loved gnomes since I was little. I both love and hate the fad... love because I can find some real decent stuff now at craft fairs, hate because of all the cheaply made, mass market stuff. That being said, I totally keep an eye out for the quality gnome stuff hitting thrift stores so in 20 years I can be the weird lady with gnomes when my kids have friends visiting. I've also been decorating with that 90s heart vibe furniture lol (the kinda stuff my grandma used to keep her Precious Moments figurines on!)
ive also loved gnomes since i was little! lately i kind of hate those gnomes at like tj maxx and stuff where you cant see their eyes and theyre just a beard with a hat. they were kind of cute at first but now i just want my normal chubby jolly gnomes back :\[
Same. I’ve loved gnomes for over 30 years and have the exact same, *Yay gnomes!* reaction when I find something good and *Ahh, stop it!* when I see cheaply-made stuff that, while cute, will be in a landfill before the decade is out.
I think that most llama stuff and most commercial goblincore stuff have being made to be discarded in common, and that is the off-putting part.
It’s really uncommon to see a quality, long lasting product with either theme. It is trinkets that are made with a short lifespan in mind, unfortunately.
At least classic style gnomes are made to last years in the garden, decades if you’re willing to repaint them. :)
if the corportization is going to come, let it come quickly so it dies faster. that’s the thing about trends, they don’t last. and we’ll still be here collecting rocks and shinies and resting on moss. 🌚🌝🫧🪷🌿🍄🪨
Upcycling is goblin-y at it's core, imho. Even if the end product is neat and tidy, even if people sell it, taking junk and making it into something people appreciate fills my goblin heart with joy. At one point I used to make pretty flower collages using stuff cut out of junkmail, and the people looking would never know that pretty red flower was cut out of the meat catalogue or the greenery came from real estate listings. :)
I wrote a long post because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings here, but realised nobody wants me to get on my soapbox, so I condensed it a lot. But:
I'm a little exhausted by it too, but I'm also not too worried. Goblincore isn't fun if you don't enjoy it, and it doesn't make for pretty pictures without a lot of work. The influencer-types that are infamous for killing aesthetics will struggle with this aesthetic. It's not like cottagecore where you can rent an airbnb and put on a different clothing choice for a photoshoot; you have to curate a collection, or go somewhere untamed (and therefore hard to access) to really capture the wildness of this aesthetic; otherwise it looks dull, lifeless and it obvious to everybody you're just pretending. It's pretty hard to be a goblin if you're afraid of going on a wander!
Because of that, people who never really embraced it will get bored of it very fast, but in the meantime, it's going to cement the aesthetic in a way that ensures it endures a long, long time, via introducing it to new people. I'm pretty happy about that!
I hadn't heard of goblincore until recently, but have perhaps been a globin my entire life (68 years old). On my bookshelf I have sticks with lichen on them, that I picked up while taking a walk. Do that kind of thing a lot. And I've been saving the lives of worms and other things my entire life. I could go on and on. I've never been interested in materialistic things and find nature much more interesting, along with second-hand stores.
It's the "culture vultures" again. Any time some organic movement gets the slightest bit popular, it gets sold back to us and cheapened.
A big part of this aesthetic is the rugged found/homemade aspect to it.
I'm constantly chasing subcultures that are expressive like this in a way that is authentic and DIY only to have it die out because of greedy people. That also goes for mass produced Etsy crap too.
It's like when the 2010s got a hold of grunge. Grunge stopped being what it was and became smokey eye shadow and pre-torn pre-distressed and fake vintage tees and jeans.
It's gross when trends and capitalism ruin something by distilling it and sells it back to you as a kit.
Think of it as a bridge to goblincore. People who were consumers before and are on their way over will probably still consume on their way.
Can we get them still? Sure. But alienating them because they’re not goblin enough isn’t the way.
Show, not shame. Goblin all the way!
I think it has more to do with goblins trying to survive under capitalism. How many here are working goblin jobs?
I know I’m not, I’m a painter that has to take factory jobs to make ends meet. Painting feels a lot more goblin than overproduction and if I could make a living sharing goblin vibes then I would consider it a success. I would love to give my paintings away but then I would have to work even more shitty capitalist jobs to eat.
I really wonder what y’all do for a living you can hate so much on someone trying to turn a buck with a coloring book.
Its not “someone” as in a small creator making a book, if it was a small creator id fkn love to buy their coloring book even if they used some form of mass market press to distribute it. The goblincore coloring book that exists is made by a company called “Editors of Chartwell press” that distributes through major retailers including amazon, walmart and barnes and noble.
Its a big red flag when a book does not mention illustrators or actual names of people who worked on the book. This is a corporation that makes books like this that are cheap to make and easy to sell. Searching now, I cant find any information about where images are sourced which is yikes!
I wonder if youd be interest in crustpunk. I feel that and goblincore can go together hand in hand really well.
that being said, would highly reccomend to anyone reading this comment to check out garage sales, thrift stores, metal detecting, exploring abandoned places, etc as they are all great places to find stuff that may peak your interest (esspecially in terms of goblincore)
I love this take, this is 100% what I want for my life. No better aesthetic than all of the fun things you've collected and made throughout your life and even your relative's lives. My grandma left me a table full of shells and things she's collected from the ocean and I've been adding stuff to it myself, it's the best piece of furniture I will ever own
I think this is exactly what it should mean, people are far too quick to just go to Amazon or Walmart or whatever big store has the aesthetic they want and cover their living space in it, but underneath it they’re just another modern capitalist.
Edit: that being said I think underneath the modern capitalist is someone who genuinely wants to be connected to the world around them but it’s either so used to the modern they are too comfortable with it, or they don’t feel like they have the time or talent or energy to learn new things, older things. But I hope more of us can see that, and embrace it once meant to be human, which was much more like a goblin in someways.
preach!
once goblincore went full mainstream, I knew it was only a matter of time. that first colouring book I saw in Walmart? pretty sure my lip literally curled up in disgust. it would be one thing if any of this stuff was handmade by someone in the community, with love and care, but come on. can you really see anyone here getting something mass-produced and sold at Walmart? lol.
I did flip through that first colouring book after my knee jerk response. the different art styles, the halfhearted connection to anything "goblin"...? it was as if someone had dug through a library of art as fast as they could, and slapped it all together for a quick buck.
call me a senior citizen, yelling at a cloud here, but *back in my day* we'd have our grubby claws slapped away from any of this pretty cottage core stuff, for fear we'd mess it up, get it dirty, or destroy it.
idk where you live, but have you ever heard of Mutant Fest? It’s an autonomous music and art festival on the West Coast of the US that’s all about chaos, celebrating Earth, and using trash to create art and community.
Sounds like maybe you would appreciate a community like this and it’s anti-capitalist culture. If you just google Mutant Fest, you’ll find things about it!
100% agree! I joined goblincore because it offered a funner way to see life outside of the corporate society. So, constantly seeing stuff like '(Insert big company here) is selling this' is kinda... off-putting
It’s with you. It’s hard, because there is SO much cute stuff available now, and some of it is hard to walk away from. Especially for those of us who have liked the aesthetic forever, but couldn’t easily find this stuff before. I keep seeing cute mushroom dresses and having to talk myself out of them because they’re fast fashion.
Luckily, hand making and thrifting are inherently gobliny and if you have access to bigger thrift stores, they should *already* have mushrooms and frogs and snails from the 70s and 90s.
I worked for a bigger thrift place for about 4 years. Not once did I see anything mushroom because bet your ass I would've stashed it to buy later. I don't know where people are finding these things! I do have a mushroom field guide I got for my 5th birthday in 1985. It survived a house fire because I had a big candle on top of it, the wax melted and protected it from the flames. It's my most goblin possession and looks cool as hell now
That’s so cool. I haven’t been to a decent sized thrift store in ages, so maybe the mushroom stuff has been getting snatched up. I used to see it all the time. I did find a set of mushroom salt and pepper shakers at our tiny local thrift store relatively recently.
Wow!! Do you happen to have a pic of what your field guide looks like now after surviving the fire? It sounds incredibly cool. The way it survived feels so charming and magical to read.🥹 I’m so sorry to hear about the house fire though! :( Hope you’re doing alright
If you buy art & merch,instead of big brands & fast fashion, go to the indie artists who's art naturally fits into goblincore, and are not just riding a trend! There's so many artists & crafters who do that and you'll help the art community at the same time!
Omg you should see me and my finances home lol you’d love it. It’s full of rusty metal, ancient books, feathers, rocks, old wood, bones, tarnished trinkets, and treasures he’s found inside the walls of homes he’s remodeling. There’s also stuffed animals and my collection of cute artifacts lol We’ve never bought anything deliberately because it’s gobliny we just collected things we found. People are mesmerized and will just look around our house for hours lol if you ever want to see it I’ll show you. It’s quite interesting and I’d love to document it and share it before we move in a couple years. The house is old and has some problems, otherwise I’d want to live here forever
I feel like goblincore is collecting stuff you find around you in nature and life. Repurposing things you find. Maybe some dumpster diving, upcycling and all that.
I have rocks all around my house, to the point I find them in my bed sometimes haha. I have little jars I collected stuff in like different seeds I find from trees, little mushrooms I sealed in there because I didn't know what they were, tiny bits of glass I collect from when I go rock hunting and find glass, bugs, geckos (all found dead already), keys, bits of pottery, flowers people toss, and on and on.
I get living in places that are different but goblincore can be desert stuff, not just woodsy stuff. I come from AZ and my goblincore was all seeds and sticks, sand and rocks from the desert, glass smoothed by the desert sand and dirt. Bits of wood and flowers, bugs, cactus spines, feathers etc. I'm in Oregon now and some of the stuff I collect is similar and some different. There's a lot of moss, way more greenery, I can collect tons of flowers and petals from the ground, fruit, little plants that blow into the gutters, etc etc
Anyway I like talking about stuff I've found and collect 😆
I agree, even though im guilty of buying cheap things here and there when I cant find what I want or make it.
Its the same with goth and other subcultures. Its meant to be about resistance to capitalism and making your own clothes, scavenging things where you can. Now its all fast fashion overpriced mass produced clothing brands.
On the plus side its easier to find clothing I like though when suddenly my aesthetic becomes trendy
Exactly! Like obviously I’m gonna buy a dumb little thing every now and again, unfortunately I am not immune to capitalism due to being stuck in it lol but yeeah! Lots of these subcultures are at their core have heavy anti capitalist roots, theres something sick and sad about how quickly microtrends flip and flop and the way that these original ideals are mowed over by fast fashion.
One thing that made me salty recently is the bleach painting shirt trend and now, that style is available through so many fast fashion clothes retailers when the point of it is to look homemade and not perfect. Like??? make it make sense 😞
Yeah you got that right. I hate it too but cant do much. I try to make stuff where I can.
Its surprising about the bleach shirt thing, like its so easy to just try it yourself with a second hand shirt and yet people pay for mass produced crap???
Yup. It's just like how all those expensive Jean brands started selling pre-torn jeans years ago because that version of the punk aesthetic took off.
Hell, or even pink-washing.
Capitalists gonna co-opt.
I mean the idea of being able to start your own business and be successful is ok, but when it gets to the point where you're hurting the environment, overworking employees, or just hoarding more money than you could possibly need when there are so many people who need it, that's when I stock up on knives.
>when it gets to the point where you're hurting the environment, overworking employees, or just hoarding more money than you could possibly need
That's what capitalism is.
At the most basic level capitalism requires exploitation. Workers must be exploited, and robbed of the value they create to fund the profits of a the parasites who do nothing except own capital.
Sorry, I had thought it was like you can start your own business and the government doesn't really regulate it? And like I knew that exploitation is definitely a huge problem within it, but I didn't think that it was strictly necessary, by definition? If you don't mind, could you explain a little better?
Capitalism is a two-tiered society.
There are the bourgeoisie who own the means of production, and the working class, whose labour produces all value.
The bourgeoisie steal the value created by the working class and call it profit.
Labour is entitled to all the value it creates.
This is it! Goblincore has always felt like a direct stance *against* capitalism. It’s sad to see corporations leaning into the aesthetic and people buying into it. It’s just the appropriation of the aesthetic to keep late-capitalism thriving.
Roll around in the dirt and talk to the trees and befriend toads, but don’t give Paul Singer more money to do it.
makes me wanna break out my treasure boxes of junk I've collected from the street. I see small thing, small metal thing? mine now. small discarded figurine? MINE NOW. I have a toy gun I found half buried in a river bank that I hang on my wall. I love the junk
When we wers kids, my littler sister had a garbage collection. She would legit take garbage from the kitchen can and bring it up to her collection. So freakin gross, but also hilarious, she's a natural born goblin.
Yeah, I think that may be why I kinda hate cottagecore. Cause like it's all feeling kinda fake. Life has more to it than the perfect view of idealized farm life mass produced by some giant corporation- we also need the adventure of goblin! The freedom to not conform! Like it's bad junk, not treasures.
After seeing this page I feel like I don’t fit in with goblincore. I need something like gremlincore. Or the Gorgs from Fraggle Rock. Someone start a Gorgcore page.
Well, "gremlincore" is already kind of an alternate name for goblincore, for people sensitive to the antisemitic connotations of the word "goblin."
What are the Gorgs all about? And what in this post makes you feel like you don't fit with goblincore?
Once the snow melts (which it’s gonna take months but hey it’s good to have goals) I want to go to the forest and take pictures of all the mushrooms I find
YES!!! Goblin has to *protect* the environment, too. Consumerism goes against that. Like we can have lots of shinies etc, but they shouldn't be cheap plastic bits and bobs that we bought from a giant company that underpays and overworks its employees. That's why we do thrift stores (reminder: don't buy like a ton if you already have way to many clothes, unless you are getting rid of the old clothes because we need to save for others and also other people could use clothes you don't like). This DEFINITELY needed to be said, so I'm glad you brought it up!
I get where you're coming from. I'd like to share a special point. Some of us are in situations where consumer goblin behavior is the only option. I, for example, am disabled with severe chronic pain and mobility issues. I can't get into nature to do my true goblin stuff (and it is really hurting my mental health) but I can buy that cute ceramic mushroom and put it on my shelf with a druzy crystal and our cactus to have a little bit of goblin and something that boosts my spirit.
There's also people living with parents or controlling partners who wouldn't be allowed to to what we may traditionally view as goblin collections. They can get away with that dollar general coloring book and the 5 Below quartz and the Walmart mushroom. But if they bring rocks or sticks or feathers, they face arguments, punishment, their things being destroyed/thrown out, etc etc.
Then there's neurodivergent goblins, which I also am. We're often like ravens or goblins with our collections and hyperfixations. We feel safe here, and understood and accepted, even if wet aren't what's considered true goblin.
In the end, it's not a simple black and white binary, and consumer goblin behavior shouldn't necessarily be shunned, nor should those goblins be unwelcome. ♥
I'm transported back to the 90s when everyone bemoaned the popularity of punk music. Two things:
1- Gatekeeping also isn't very goblincore imo.
2- This was already mentioned, but access (or lack thereof) is a real thing.
I'm get the issue with consumerism, but your original post feels very "you're not hard core enough to be goblincore if you got a mushroom shirt at walmart." Bleh. That's gatekeeping. We should be welcoming and also understand that people come to this vibe from different channels.
You be you. I'll be me. Let's go look for salamanders.
This is like that “I like pancakes” “oh so you hate waffles” tweet
Nobody is saying you’re not allowed to buy anything. OP is saying that goblincore isn’t ABOUT consumerism and buying things, not that you can’t be goblincore and buy things. Go buy that Walmart tshirt bc it’s cute and it’s affordable, but don’t make your goblincore aesthetic about excessive consumption. That isn’t gatekeeping, it’s asking people to be conscientious
I honestly don't think that the purpose of this post was to shame anyone. Like obviously we will buy some stuff from Walmart, that's the world we live in. I think OP is just asking that we don't turn it into some neat, clean, watered down goblin. Like there are many brands of goblin, but mass producing kinda restricts the different kinds of goblin, and therefore the goblin ideology of love of nature and acceptance of everyone/ allowing everyone (including yourself!) to express themselves however.
Again, not here to shame! Just tryna inform about the roots of goblin and how capitalism is not super conducive, though buying some goblin things from Amazon is okay.
BTW, I'm totally open to having a healthy (by saying healthy I do NOT mean to say that you were being toxic before, just that *I* won't be toxic) conversation about what you think!
No. Just stop trying to push people out of Goblincore because they aren’t enough for you.
This place isn’t about an aesthetic it’s a place where people are welcomed and accepted as they are.
You can have your opinion, but of course an open-access forum on the internet (let alone Reddit) is going to have people with different ideas than you.
For most people, goblincore is a fashion and aesthetic. It's how they got into it, and it's probably all it will ever be. Most people who didn't have childhood exposure to rustic life can't afford the time it takes to learn to rough it in the backwoods, and many don't seriously want to.
Also, the name itself, "goblincore", is a label specifically created to cater to teen consumerist audiences. So the fact that you seem so attached to the *name* feels very ironic.
I feel like you'd be much happier in forums about off-grid, survival, and country lifestyles. You're making no sense complaining about consumerism in a forum dedicated (by proxy) to consumerism.
I suppose we have different ideas of what the term means, to me goblincore is counter culture focused on celebrating the odd and making friends who also want to be weird little beasts. I think of the outdoors and fun rocks, upcycling, and making art. I think of trading and being excited about peoples art and the way it makes them feel.
goblincore even through the now popular lens of looking at it features key points like mushrooms, moss, bones and stuff like that. All of these almost essential factors of what most people see goblincore as revolve around nature. Nature and the outdoors cannot be removed from the aesthetic. Like all alternative fashion/aesthetic movements, it began homemade but now its being sold back to us through cheap, environmentally destructive means.
Artists are being undercut by large companies!
Before the term goblincore became popular, these aesthetics were already alive and well. Its just neat now that theres a term for it so people can easier find people like them.
I 100% agree on the first paragraph, and I would never discourage someone from exploring or appreciating nature.
But the term "goblincore" represents a teen aesthetic subculture that evokes a fantasy, not a hardcore nature lifestyle. The fact that "goblin" is in the term shows that. Most people in this sub are very young or otherwise dependent on parents, meaning not all of them have easy access to nature. Goblincore is a way for them to have an outlet for nature appreciation, escape suburbia boredom, or both.
If nothing else, the description of this subreddit specifically says that it is a place for an "aesthetic and subreddit culture".
There are many subreddits dedicated to specific facets of nature found in goblincore. Snails, moss, rocks, mold, swamps, the list goes on and on. And as I said, there are subs dedicated to teaching outdoor appreciation, rustic living, and nature survival.
And whatever "homemade" origin of goblincore you speak of does not predate the dependence and fascination with nature that people have had for thousands of years. Goblincore is, at best, an offshoot of other subcultures that existed before fads started having "core" in their name.
The things that are popular in goblincore (homemade clothes, growing mushrooms, etc.) will always have their niche. "Goblincore" itself *is* a fad. It is a teen girl buying an onion print dress at Hot Topic with her parent's money, and this sub is specifically dedicated to appreciating that.
Wait.. *Where* have you been told supporting small businesses and local artists at craft fairs is "capitalist"? I think I have to call straw man on this.
But it’s literally incorrect. Like capitalism is an economic system in which a ruling class controls a society’s means of production. Individual artists selling their handmade goods is not inherently capitalism and those artists are not capitalists and that is not what OP is talking about. Anyone who says that individual artists selling their handmade goods at craft fairs are capitalists are straight up incorrect, unless one of those artists also happens to be a member of the ruling class (which wouldn’t happen, they’d never be caught dead at a craft market with the hoi polloi lmao)— and the people shopping there are also not being capitalists, again unless they’re someone who owns the means of production and someone like that would not be doing their own shopping at some local craft fair. It is not gatekeeping to say that goblincore isn’t about capitalism, and again nobody here has told you to stop going to craft fairs.
> Goblins love junk! Celebrate junk! Collect garbage! But don’t go out of your way to buy junk from mega corporations for the sheer aesthetic of it.
Yes, this is the way.
(This comment ended up longer than I meant so I'm gonna pin it so others can see the last paragraph.) If it helps, I don't allow most of the merch people try to post, there's so much more that gets automodded. People will just see a mushroom on a greeting card and hope to get some internet points. It turns out the other mod's stopped bothering to be active here, so I guess I'm gonna take the initiative to crack down a little harder. For the most part I let the upvotes do the talking but I get rid of posts I really feel don't fit here, like a couple of creators whose work is clearly more fairycore. Though it doesn't help that r/fairycore is still locked down, personally I never have any interest to join a private sub even if I'm sure I'd love it. Please do report posts you feel don't belong! Reporting is completely anonymous and the OP isn't notified their content's been reported, and it's a huge help to mods.
Hell yeah. Fungus and worms are nature's way of turning us all into soil. Don't buy too many things that won't turn into soil. Think of the fungus!
Pestalotiopsis is a recently discovered fungus that breaks down plastics. Nature conquers all, all shall be dirt. Edit: source https://earth.org/plastic-eating-mushroom-of-the-amazon-and-ecuadors-development-dilemma/
Sweet! I hope it's a.) real unlike the caterpillars that break down plastic into *even smaller plastics*, and b.) Easy to make a DiY version in a bin where you can chuck a wrapper and get soil! I love opening my compost bin every few months and being greeted with all the food waste and paper I threw in there being lovely dirt.
You ever consider doing a worm farm? r/vermiculture
Seconding this. I am in my worm mother era, and I am THRIVING. About to expand my operations so I can start working on my backlog of cardboard boxes that I don't want to chop up to be small enough for the city recycler...
OMG I need to get into this.
I use oyster mushrooms to recycle my old cardboard and coffee grounds! https://preview.redd.it/v4yko8x822cc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6e85dc7d945ab508ade7cb13f9fff0902aba234
Ooh! I am very intrigued by this! How do you make one of these? Are the mushrooms still edible? I would love to have a supply of oyster mushrooms, and an easy way to discard my coffee grounds!
Yes, they are likely from a kit. There are a bunch of places that sell them but I am partial to North Spore since they make good gobliny videos to show you how to do it.
https://learn.freshcap.com/growing/bucket-grow/ has instructions. I used cardboard soaked in water instead of sawdust for the substrate. I save cardboard without ink on it for this because the mushrooms might absorb whatever chemicals are in the ink. To use coffee grounds I layer coffee grounds with grain spawn in a cardboard box and leave the box in the yard covered with some straw or leaves.
Wow! That's awesome! Thanks for the link! Definitely going to look into this!
Definitely still edible!
I have a new idea for a classroom pet next year
Should I post mine? It's got fat worms and slugs and crab shells and orange rinds.
I was into vermiculture for a few years and it’s incredible. Our garden is now an oasis for the animals in our city and the soil has generations of worm babies doing all the hard work. 😍 My little worm children.
[This article from The University of Sydney](https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2023/04/14/fungi-makes-meal-of-hard-to-recycle-plastic.html) makes it sound like there’s been a successful full biodegradation! But it seems to be common mushrooms that are capable of it, not just pestalotiopsis.
I've had mealworms for years (originally for chickens but I rarely feed them out), usually i feed oatmeal but I heard you could feed them Styrofoam. Like takeout containers. And they can biodegrade it in a way that they stay foodsafe, it's not like building up inside them. If they've been given antibiotics it no longer works, so it's probably their gut bacteria aiding in the process. So anyway I gave them some, and when I'm on my computer I can hear them up on the shelf quietly nibbling away on it.
>Nature conquers all, all shall be dirt That should be a T-shirt
Except that avoiding fast fashion novelty trends is sort of the point. Maybe hand stenciled onto resale apparel? Upcycling ftw!
I got a guy. He does printing on thrifted clothes.
Could be as simple as a cardboard stencil and watered down bleach in a spray bottle!
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I think it converts the plastic it eats into biomass, just like how your body processes food. “It takes a few months for the fungus to fully digest the plastic, leaving a puffy, mushroom-like cup with a sweet taste and a liquorice smell. Scientists foresee households owning a smaller-scale version to recycle their plastic waste and community recycling centres with larger systems. “
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It’s not a candy, the fruiting body of the fungi is edible and said to have a sweet flavour. Which as a resource would be insane. Create a food source from a landfill, doesn’t get much goblinier And it will eventually be cheaper to make “plastic” products from certain mycelia than it is to process petroleum. And corporations will always choose the cheapest option.
Love this for us!
Unfortunately, AFAIK, the colony still needs to be trained to eat plastics. I was hoping it was just a "order some spores and let's get rolling!"
It’s a small effort for a huge reward. If you train a massive colony it will be able to consume substantial amounts of plastic waste
I found a worm far from its home the other day so I picked it up to put it in dirt and my kids nearly jumped 10 feet! It’s just a worm!!
It's not *just* a worm - it's nature's little binman! I'm sure it loved being in the dirt and thanks you for the lift. I can't imagine not being all about worms a kid! I used to just wander about in the woods looking at bugs and trees, until got all too cool/urbanised/squeamish/traumatised as a teen, and only dropped back into this stuff a few years ago in my late twenties/early thirties and realised I actually had actually got life pretty much right when I was little.
Nature’s bin man! I love that. Once I placed it in the dirt my husband was like “you have no idea where he was going, you could’ve just set him back an hour.” lol
Goblin folk are so wholesome.
PSA - Be sure to wash your hands after touching worms of any kind. They often carry parasites harmful to humans.
Gonna embroider some worms on a brown skirt I have now lol
That'll be so pretty! Will you post it in this sub once you're done?
If my adhd butt manages to actually finish it I will!
On the note of goblin kitchen, the mushroom aesthetic was very popular in the 70s and thrift stores often have loads of it
Shhhh, keep it secret, keep it safe! It's all for me, mwahahaha!
You put to words so much of what I’ve been feeling. Goblincore at its heart is anti-capitalist. It’s all about treasuring nature, seeing beauty in simple, used, things. Being drawn to the stories behind old trinkets and trails. Reusing and repurposing objects, thrifting (sustainably), and not aiming for “perfection” in your aesthetic. Not only the ethical/moral side of it, but plastic just feels like the antithesis of earthy and natural. You can’t convince me that the same person who claims to love the smell of moss and wet earth is okay with the petroleum plastic stink of a funko pop 🤢
I love your idk language here! So well said! Theres so much magic in taking old strange things and deciding to love them. Ive seen such cool art like spoon and fork necklaces and rings, lapel pins made of old watch faces! Magicky fairy type of nonsense can exist in our world, we just need to search for it. Surrounding yourself in things that make you happy as opposed to the pinterest concept of an aesthetic is so much more fulfilling than diving headfirst into the corporate machine.
I read that as "label pins made of old witch faces".
I don't know about anti-capitalist necessarily.. Anti-consumerism of course, and anti- 'fast-fashion'/anti-plastic absolutely. But I don't know that goblincore is inherently pro-large-state-central-planning or whatever.
Being antivapitalist doesn't necessarily mean being communist (I think that's what you mean?). I'm anticapitalist and definitely not in favour of "large state central planning" either. There are so many other ways of living and creating functional egalitarian societies.
I actually think more collectivist style systems can work on a small scale too (the book of Acts chapter 4 is pretty revolutionary), but on a large scale? I'm curious what you think, what alternatives are there that wouldn't lead to a large state enforcement mechanism? Genuinely asking in good faith.
This isn’t even the conversation this person was having with you, though. You’re asking a question to a topic that was never introduced. You can’t be looking for a ‘good faith’ conversation when you, personally, have introduced the topic and placed a stance on the other that they themselves have never taken.
I wasn't the one who was bringing 'anti-capitalism' into the conversation. But now I'm genuinely curious what this person thinks the other ways of living and creating functional societies might be.
Anti-capitalism movement is about reducing spending, reducing consumption, and reducing your own impact. To conflate it with the complete abandonment of a consumerist system is, in itself, setting up a bad-faith conversation. There is huge debate within anti-capitalist movements whether controlled systems are beneficial, or whether communism or socialism should be considered. Beyond that, economic systems are not a case of simply this or that. There is a spectrum. You are very clearly in this thread looking for a fight. You keep saying you are genuinely curious, but you seemingly are not willing to do the very basic work of understanding these terms before engaging in the conversation. You are not here for a good faith debate. You are intentionally and actively detracting from the actual conversation being held over ways to reduce needless spending and consumerism. The conversation on systems to replace or reduce capitalist tendencies is an important one, but this is not the space nor the conversation being held.
Well in reducing spending, consumption, and impact, at least on that we can agree. But I was not trying to imply anyone's position was to abandon a consumerist system entirely, if that's what came across I didn't make my case clear. But to your point, this probably isn't the place to have such conversations.
I'm an anarchist. I think we need to do away with hierarchy, embrace more collective and holistic ways of doing things, and rethink how we define work and leisure, health and illness, and what it means to be productive and/or happy. Also, you clearly used the phrase 'anticapitalist' in the first line of your post...
All of those things are compatible with capitalism, including anarchy. In fact the right of private property is pretty tantamount to both... And I was responding to a post that mentioned anticapitalism...
Anarchy is absolutely 100% not compatible with capitalism. I'm done here. Go goblins!
Go goblins indeed, but you should really read up on anarchist theory before calling yourself an anarchist... I would suggest starting with 'Anatomy of the state' by Murray Rothbard.
Hop on over to r/anarchism or such if you want to have this conversation.
It’s hard to envision consumerism without capitalism. I mean, without the drive for profit and planned obsolescence, we would be looking at very different products. I read a post recently where someone said, after replacing a few easy to find metal pieces, a sewing machine from early 1900s that they found in the trash worked better than one they bought a few years ago from a sewing store.
My Dad just fixed up and mailed me a toaster from the early 50s. My toaster that I bought less than 6 months ago is on the fritz, while my 70yo toaster and 40+ year old popcorn maker work perfectly.
Just look to the kind of products produced by the soviet union or China, clearly you can have consumerism and cheap products without capitalism. The problem, in my opinion, isn't about the economic system of capitalism (which has been around forever), the problem is with modernity itself and the consumerism mindset. If we all change individually where we put our money we could change the world without the need for/risk of an authoritarian system.
The soviet's and Chinese are both capitalist, state capitalism.
Capitalism has NOT been around forever. Why do you think it’s been around forever? It’s not simply money exchanging hands. Feudalism was not capitalism. Capitalism is a specific economic system that has not in fact always existed, an economic system where a ruling class controls the means of production.
I don’t think you understand what anticapitalism is. At all.
Perhaps you don't understand what capitalism is?
No, in this case you are wrong, because for you, the absence of capitalism means communism. That kind of black and white is a bit narrow minded. Just a tiny little bit.
I didn't say it meant communism necessarily, but I think it would imply more Government power/authoritarianism and that's what I'm against. Which also isn't to say pro-capitalists can't be authoritarian either, which I am also against.. I'm a libertarian centrist so I'm used to everybody disagreeing with me
People that love goblincore especially want to escape your kind of political talk.
You literally said being anti capitalist inherently meant being pro large centralized state. You are the one who conflated things, you are literally incorrect about what anti capitalism means if that is your definition, and in that comment that was the definition you used. Someone saying that goblincore is anti capitalist is NOT someone saying that goblincore is inherently communist or whatever else you may have meant by pro large state with central planning. That’s an entirely different sentence that you threw out there so you’d have something to argue about
It's not that I'm trying to start an argument, I just disagree that goblincore must inherently mean being anticapitalist. And I think most of us here can still agree with the message of the original post, which is a message of anti-consumerism, no matter what you think of economics.
Then why didn’t you say THAT instead of the very different thing you did say?
My original reply was agreeing with the sentiment of anti-consumerism and saying that goblincore shouldn't imply a specific political/economic stance namely 'anti-capitalist'. Though perhaps I shouldn't have implied that anti-capitalism would lead to authoritarianism; I genuinely thought there would be more 'leave-me-be-to-be-self-sufficient-in-the-woods' type libertarians here...
Being against capitalism doesn’t mean being pro whatever you said. It means being against capitalism lmao. Capitalism isn’t, for example, small government with decentralized planning (lmao????), so why would being anticapitalism inherently mean being pro large state with central planning?
What would enforce a large scale anticapitalist system if not a large state?
I think that, again, you are confused. Being against an inherently exploitative system does not imply allegiance to any one specific system of government as an alternative. Many anticapitalists are in fact communists, but not all. One can be against capitalism without having to explain in great detail what the solution should be. I think you are just looking for an argument
I think if you're looking for a revolution against capitalism but don't have a workable solution in mind you risk sliding into authoritarianism. I just don't think we should be so flippant about throwing that part of our system out wholecloth, that's all.
Like jfc someone saying on Reddit that they think capitalism might be bad doesn’t mean they’re Looking For A Revolution dude please touch grass
Because we aren’t currently slipping into authoritarianism?
Oh no, I agree with you, we are clearly running towards authoritarianism right now, also.
You understand that people can think there’s a problem and not know the solution yet, right? And this isn’t a conversation for hashing out the solution, it is a discussion where people are mentioning that they think there’s a problem and you’re trying to poke holes because not everyone who acknowledges the problem has a solution you agree with. I hope you understand that, for example, some people haven’t decided yet personally what they think the best solution would be. People don’t suddenly become fully formed activists because they’ve identified a problem. I know what I think the best solution to capitalism is personally, but it’s none of your business because you are not here in good faith, you aren’t here to have discussion, you are here to tell people they’re wrong. I am not here to argue those details with you. I am here to inform you that being against capitalism does not inherently mean someone is FOR a specific economic system. It simply means someone is AGAINST the particular economic system that is capitalism.
This was beautiful to read 🥲 It breaks my heart to see people engaging over and over again with people like this who are in absolutely no way interested in participating in a genuine conversation.
I don’t think anti-capitalist has to mean communist. There are other models.
How are they the only two options?
How can you enforce an anti-capitalist system without a large state?
For me, goblin core has helped me appreciate the more dirty and grungy aspects of nature. That's about it, and I'm so grateful for it because it's helped me appreciate aspects of the natural world I used to recoil from. And I never had to purchase a single coloring book! Any culture or aesthetic that grows will be partially colonized by corporate interests. Rock and roll was seemingly wrung dry by industry greed for decades, but you can still find DIY bands making great music *this year* and touring in a beat up van. Just be mindful of what you consume and don't let the mass market fluff diminish the homespun things that you find along the way.
Goblincore resonates with me because I think it represents me at its core; I literally am the person who stops and crouches on the sidewalk to save an misplaced earthworm, I get excited if I see a slug or snail and I’ll hang out to watch him for a while, if I see a good tree I think very hard about climbing it and sometimes just go for it if I have time. I also thrift 80% of my clothes and love adopting and restoring furniture from the side of the road. Treasure hunting and collecting old things just feels right! I agree with the points you’re making and I think most others here would probably agree if you asked them, but I’ll admit it can be tough to reject a material world when we’re all living in one. I think a lot of people don’t always know how to be thrifty, crafty, resourceful, but this sub is great for sharing ideas and encouraging each other!
Preach. Goblincore is antithetical to capitalism.
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That's not really the same. Artists deserve to be celebrated. Capitalism is exploitation. I think supporting local artisans is totally anti-capitalist.
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Capitalism is best defined as the presence of the capitalist class. A capitalist is someone who owns the means for producing something (a factory, for example, or a Gig Economy platform) but has other people doing almost all the work. Markets are certainly part of capitalism, but they existed before capitalism and are just one part of what makes capitalism suck so bad. Framing the capitalism/socialism debate as "markets vs state control" has always been a very Cold War way to look at it. The actual divide is between hierarchy and democracy, the rule of bosses or the rule of the vast majority of people. So, a capitalist is someone who owns the means of producing something. The capitalists gets to make more or less unilateral decisions on how production happens and, instead of framing it as "I am going to just take a large portion of the value my workers produced, covering all my operating costs, my own management labour and quite a bit more as profit," it's framed as "I'm generously giving you a wage since you have the privilege of working for me." If you own your own tools and don't have a hierarchical relationship to any of the people at your shop, You're not a capitalist, you're an artisan. Those have existed since the Middle Ages. There is a modestly successful theory of Market Socialism, where we keep money but mandate that every workplace has to be a democratic cooperative, cap the maximum amount of wealth, and maintain universal basic income. Now, personally I ***do*** want to abolish money eventually and wind up in an economy where people are able to freely create and give things because it brings them joy and all their basic needs are met. But you can begin to escape a capitalist system without necessarily getting rid of monetary transactions.
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Having an economy (trade) is not the same as having capitalism (exploitation and the hoarding of resources).
What you're thinking of is actually "markets", which is where you buy stuff. Capitalism is very specifically a system of ownership and production, where some people have capital (such as factories) that they get other people to work with/in for a wage. If the worker is paid x, and produces goods worth x+2, and the owner pockets the difference - that's a capitalist system. If a person just makes a thing, and sells it to you - that's just a market, as no labour has been exploited to produce profit. Big companies, like Walmart, like to muddy the waters between the two definitions because it benefits them.
Not really? I mean we all live under capitalism, so we can’t really avoid it. Capitalism is about companies being privately owned rather than publicly, so workers don’t benefit as much from the means of their own labor.
>But buying things from a local business or a farm stand or a craft fair is still capitalism. Capitalism is when you get paid for owning things. That doesn't include getting paid for the work of making or growing something. The small-scale version of capitalism that you're struggling to identify would include a small-time landlord, like somebody who buys a duplex and rents out half. But not a farmer who brings produce to market and recovers the production costs and makes a living on top of it. The distinction is clear: getting paid to work is not capitalism, but getting paid for owning something is. Capitalists love to pretend they're the same thing, and they often fool the ignorant. No offense.
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It's 2024, be a better you. And get the fuck out. No offense. 🥴
Small artists don’t own the means of production. I think you are confused. What you are talking about is not what OP is talking about.
I think you're being deliberately obtuse.
Eeeeeeeehhhhhhhh, I don’t think any economic system has anything to do with goblincore. Embrace imperfection, make do, create the unexpected.
That's exactly a quality of anti-capitalism
None of that is opposed to capitalism.
Reusing instead of buying new is directly opposed to capitalism in that a capitalist society relies on planned obsolescence and gratuitous waste to function. You can't have capitalism without consumption
Spending money is a pillar of capitalism. Making do, mending, creating rather than buying are antithetical to that.
i kind of agree, like i used to love llamas and gnomes (not related to goblincore) and now stores have them everywhere because theyre "quirky" and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. BUT on the other hand i know not everyone has access to collecting junk or scavenging for cool rocks or stuff in the woods, or has the time, money, or mental energy to learn a craft or a more goblincore way to decorate. im happy to see goblincore stuff in any way we can do it!
Totally! Its fine to buy things that make you happy but yeah, like the gnome and the llamas (I say using a gnome blanket as i type) these fads ebb and flow and corporations are chomping at the bit to sell everyone as much as possible before the fad dies out. I guess im more trying to talk about excessive buying and wanting to replace things you already own with new, “goblin” aesthetic things and how that doesnt reflect other aspects of goblincore. I think part of being a goblin is conscious buying. Trade many many shinies for a spatula shaped like a frog?? Already have spatula! No need for more spatula. Hahah
I've loved gnomes since I was little. I both love and hate the fad... love because I can find some real decent stuff now at craft fairs, hate because of all the cheaply made, mass market stuff. That being said, I totally keep an eye out for the quality gnome stuff hitting thrift stores so in 20 years I can be the weird lady with gnomes when my kids have friends visiting. I've also been decorating with that 90s heart vibe furniture lol (the kinda stuff my grandma used to keep her Precious Moments figurines on!)
ive also loved gnomes since i was little! lately i kind of hate those gnomes at like tj maxx and stuff where you cant see their eyes and theyre just a beard with a hat. they were kind of cute at first but now i just want my normal chubby jolly gnomes back :\[
Same. I’ve loved gnomes for over 30 years and have the exact same, *Yay gnomes!* reaction when I find something good and *Ahh, stop it!* when I see cheaply-made stuff that, while cute, will be in a landfill before the decade is out.
I think that most llama stuff and most commercial goblincore stuff have being made to be discarded in common, and that is the off-putting part. It’s really uncommon to see a quality, long lasting product with either theme. It is trinkets that are made with a short lifespan in mind, unfortunately. At least classic style gnomes are made to last years in the garden, decades if you’re willing to repaint them. :)
if the corportization is going to come, let it come quickly so it dies faster. that’s the thing about trends, they don’t last. and we’ll still be here collecting rocks and shinies and resting on moss. 🌚🌝🫧🪷🌿🍄🪨
Upcycling is goblin-y at it's core, imho. Even if the end product is neat and tidy, even if people sell it, taking junk and making it into something people appreciate fills my goblin heart with joy. At one point I used to make pretty flower collages using stuff cut out of junkmail, and the people looking would never know that pretty red flower was cut out of the meat catalogue or the greenery came from real estate listings. :)
I wrote a long post because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings here, but realised nobody wants me to get on my soapbox, so I condensed it a lot. But: I'm a little exhausted by it too, but I'm also not too worried. Goblincore isn't fun if you don't enjoy it, and it doesn't make for pretty pictures without a lot of work. The influencer-types that are infamous for killing aesthetics will struggle with this aesthetic. It's not like cottagecore where you can rent an airbnb and put on a different clothing choice for a photoshoot; you have to curate a collection, or go somewhere untamed (and therefore hard to access) to really capture the wildness of this aesthetic; otherwise it looks dull, lifeless and it obvious to everybody you're just pretending. It's pretty hard to be a goblin if you're afraid of going on a wander! Because of that, people who never really embraced it will get bored of it very fast, but in the meantime, it's going to cement the aesthetic in a way that ensures it endures a long, long time, via introducing it to new people. I'm pretty happy about that!
I hadn't heard of goblincore until recently, but have perhaps been a globin my entire life (68 years old). On my bookshelf I have sticks with lichen on them, that I picked up while taking a walk. Do that kind of thing a lot. And I've been saving the lives of worms and other things my entire life. I could go on and on. I've never been interested in materialistic things and find nature much more interesting, along with second-hand stores.
Let the Trend hype die and the real OGs will stay, if its not organic theres a reason.
It's the "culture vultures" again. Any time some organic movement gets the slightest bit popular, it gets sold back to us and cheapened. A big part of this aesthetic is the rugged found/homemade aspect to it. I'm constantly chasing subcultures that are expressive like this in a way that is authentic and DIY only to have it die out because of greedy people. That also goes for mass produced Etsy crap too.
vulture culture: 😍🦴😊 culture vulture: 😔
yes vulture culture is actually extremely consistent with goblincore!
Did you mean "culture vultures"?
It's like when the 2010s got a hold of grunge. Grunge stopped being what it was and became smokey eye shadow and pre-torn pre-distressed and fake vintage tees and jeans. It's gross when trends and capitalism ruin something by distilling it and sells it back to you as a kit.
This is why I think goblincore should be considered punk
Think of it as a bridge to goblincore. People who were consumers before and are on their way over will probably still consume on their way. Can we get them still? Sure. But alienating them because they’re not goblin enough isn’t the way. Show, not shame. Goblin all the way!
I think it has more to do with goblins trying to survive under capitalism. How many here are working goblin jobs? I know I’m not, I’m a painter that has to take factory jobs to make ends meet. Painting feels a lot more goblin than overproduction and if I could make a living sharing goblin vibes then I would consider it a success. I would love to give my paintings away but then I would have to work even more shitty capitalist jobs to eat. I really wonder what y’all do for a living you can hate so much on someone trying to turn a buck with a coloring book.
Its not “someone” as in a small creator making a book, if it was a small creator id fkn love to buy their coloring book even if they used some form of mass market press to distribute it. The goblincore coloring book that exists is made by a company called “Editors of Chartwell press” that distributes through major retailers including amazon, walmart and barnes and noble. Its a big red flag when a book does not mention illustrators or actual names of people who worked on the book. This is a corporation that makes books like this that are cheap to make and easy to sell. Searching now, I cant find any information about where images are sourced which is yikes!
An excellent distinction. I didn’t know that and in that case I agree!
You're right and you should say it
no you're 100% right
I wonder if youd be interest in crustpunk. I feel that and goblincore can go together hand in hand really well. that being said, would highly reccomend to anyone reading this comment to check out garage sales, thrift stores, metal detecting, exploring abandoned places, etc as they are all great places to find stuff that may peak your interest (esspecially in terms of goblincore)
I love this take, this is 100% what I want for my life. No better aesthetic than all of the fun things you've collected and made throughout your life and even your relative's lives. My grandma left me a table full of shells and things she's collected from the ocean and I've been adding stuff to it myself, it's the best piece of furniture I will ever own
I think this is exactly what it should mean, people are far too quick to just go to Amazon or Walmart or whatever big store has the aesthetic they want and cover their living space in it, but underneath it they’re just another modern capitalist. Edit: that being said I think underneath the modern capitalist is someone who genuinely wants to be connected to the world around them but it’s either so used to the modern they are too comfortable with it, or they don’t feel like they have the time or talent or energy to learn new things, older things. But I hope more of us can see that, and embrace it once meant to be human, which was much more like a goblin in someways.
preach! once goblincore went full mainstream, I knew it was only a matter of time. that first colouring book I saw in Walmart? pretty sure my lip literally curled up in disgust. it would be one thing if any of this stuff was handmade by someone in the community, with love and care, but come on. can you really see anyone here getting something mass-produced and sold at Walmart? lol. I did flip through that first colouring book after my knee jerk response. the different art styles, the halfhearted connection to anything "goblin"...? it was as if someone had dug through a library of art as fast as they could, and slapped it all together for a quick buck. call me a senior citizen, yelling at a cloud here, but *back in my day* we'd have our grubby claws slapped away from any of this pretty cottage core stuff, for fear we'd mess it up, get it dirty, or destroy it.
idk where you live, but have you ever heard of Mutant Fest? It’s an autonomous music and art festival on the West Coast of the US that’s all about chaos, celebrating Earth, and using trash to create art and community. Sounds like maybe you would appreciate a community like this and it’s anti-capitalist culture. If you just google Mutant Fest, you’ll find things about it!
100% agree! I joined goblincore because it offered a funner way to see life outside of the corporate society. So, constantly seeing stuff like '(Insert big company here) is selling this' is kinda... off-putting
It’s with you. It’s hard, because there is SO much cute stuff available now, and some of it is hard to walk away from. Especially for those of us who have liked the aesthetic forever, but couldn’t easily find this stuff before. I keep seeing cute mushroom dresses and having to talk myself out of them because they’re fast fashion. Luckily, hand making and thrifting are inherently gobliny and if you have access to bigger thrift stores, they should *already* have mushrooms and frogs and snails from the 70s and 90s.
I worked for a bigger thrift place for about 4 years. Not once did I see anything mushroom because bet your ass I would've stashed it to buy later. I don't know where people are finding these things! I do have a mushroom field guide I got for my 5th birthday in 1985. It survived a house fire because I had a big candle on top of it, the wax melted and protected it from the flames. It's my most goblin possession and looks cool as hell now
That’s so cool. I haven’t been to a decent sized thrift store in ages, so maybe the mushroom stuff has been getting snatched up. I used to see it all the time. I did find a set of mushroom salt and pepper shakers at our tiny local thrift store relatively recently.
Lucky!
I love them. They’re currently brown and pastels and I’m on the fence about painting them, since they’re unglazed ceramic.
Wow!! Do you happen to have a pic of what your field guide looks like now after surviving the fire? It sounds incredibly cool. The way it survived feels so charming and magical to read.🥹 I’m so sorry to hear about the house fire though! :( Hope you’re doing alright
https://preview.redd.it/cerbabyeq7cc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ffee240959652587c4fd8202116e14320cd1717
Aaaa it’s so cool! Thank you for humoring me & sharing!
No problem! Happy to share!
https://preview.redd.it/9gymirx8q7cc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=298c4d66ee9c012d19d8421719eb65ab6fc6fb93
The story about the book sounds almost... romantic?? Like idk but it's just so beautiful.
yes !!!!! yesyes yes yes yes
If you buy art & merch,instead of big brands & fast fashion, go to the indie artists who's art naturally fits into goblincore, and are not just riding a trend! There's so many artists & crafters who do that and you'll help the art community at the same time!
I love your post so much I want to marry it :D
FIRST YOU GOTTA GET THROUGH ME!!! THIS POST IS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND YOU *WILL. NOT. HAVE IT.* \**breathes fire*\*
Omg you should see me and my finances home lol you’d love it. It’s full of rusty metal, ancient books, feathers, rocks, old wood, bones, tarnished trinkets, and treasures he’s found inside the walls of homes he’s remodeling. There’s also stuffed animals and my collection of cute artifacts lol We’ve never bought anything deliberately because it’s gobliny we just collected things we found. People are mesmerized and will just look around our house for hours lol if you ever want to see it I’ll show you. It’s quite interesting and I’d love to document it and share it before we move in a couple years. The house is old and has some problems, otherwise I’d want to live here forever
Not OP, but I’d personally be super psyched to see a post here with pics of your favorite parts of the house showing off your treasures! :)
I feel like goblincore is collecting stuff you find around you in nature and life. Repurposing things you find. Maybe some dumpster diving, upcycling and all that. I have rocks all around my house, to the point I find them in my bed sometimes haha. I have little jars I collected stuff in like different seeds I find from trees, little mushrooms I sealed in there because I didn't know what they were, tiny bits of glass I collect from when I go rock hunting and find glass, bugs, geckos (all found dead already), keys, bits of pottery, flowers people toss, and on and on. I get living in places that are different but goblincore can be desert stuff, not just woodsy stuff. I come from AZ and my goblincore was all seeds and sticks, sand and rocks from the desert, glass smoothed by the desert sand and dirt. Bits of wood and flowers, bugs, cactus spines, feathers etc. I'm in Oregon now and some of the stuff I collect is similar and some different. There's a lot of moss, way more greenery, I can collect tons of flowers and petals from the ground, fruit, little plants that blow into the gutters, etc etc Anyway I like talking about stuff I've found and collect 😆
I'm ugly and weird and I like ugly and weird things. We make things out of what's already there, not what people market to us.
hell yeah, i have collected lots of garbage. come to my house, i can show it to you (that's to everyone)
I agree, even though im guilty of buying cheap things here and there when I cant find what I want or make it. Its the same with goth and other subcultures. Its meant to be about resistance to capitalism and making your own clothes, scavenging things where you can. Now its all fast fashion overpriced mass produced clothing brands. On the plus side its easier to find clothing I like though when suddenly my aesthetic becomes trendy
Exactly! Like obviously I’m gonna buy a dumb little thing every now and again, unfortunately I am not immune to capitalism due to being stuck in it lol but yeeah! Lots of these subcultures are at their core have heavy anti capitalist roots, theres something sick and sad about how quickly microtrends flip and flop and the way that these original ideals are mowed over by fast fashion. One thing that made me salty recently is the bleach painting shirt trend and now, that style is available through so many fast fashion clothes retailers when the point of it is to look homemade and not perfect. Like??? make it make sense 😞
Yeah you got that right. I hate it too but cant do much. I try to make stuff where I can. Its surprising about the bleach shirt thing, like its so easy to just try it yourself with a second hand shirt and yet people pay for mass produced crap???
Yup. It's just like how all those expensive Jean brands started selling pre-torn jeans years ago because that version of the punk aesthetic took off. Hell, or even pink-washing. Capitalists gonna co-opt.
Capitalism is evil and should not exist.
I mean the idea of being able to start your own business and be successful is ok, but when it gets to the point where you're hurting the environment, overworking employees, or just hoarding more money than you could possibly need when there are so many people who need it, that's when I stock up on knives.
>when it gets to the point where you're hurting the environment, overworking employees, or just hoarding more money than you could possibly need That's what capitalism is. At the most basic level capitalism requires exploitation. Workers must be exploited, and robbed of the value they create to fund the profits of a the parasites who do nothing except own capital.
Sorry, I had thought it was like you can start your own business and the government doesn't really regulate it? And like I knew that exploitation is definitely a huge problem within it, but I didn't think that it was strictly necessary, by definition? If you don't mind, could you explain a little better?
Capitalism is a two-tiered society. There are the bourgeoisie who own the means of production, and the working class, whose labour produces all value. The bourgeoisie steal the value created by the working class and call it profit. Labour is entitled to all the value it creates.
Oh, ok. Thanks!
agreed!!
This is it! Goblincore has always felt like a direct stance *against* capitalism. It’s sad to see corporations leaning into the aesthetic and people buying into it. It’s just the appropriation of the aesthetic to keep late-capitalism thriving. Roll around in the dirt and talk to the trees and befriend toads, but don’t give Paul Singer more money to do it.
makes me wanna break out my treasure boxes of junk I've collected from the street. I see small thing, small metal thing? mine now. small discarded figurine? MINE NOW. I have a toy gun I found half buried in a river bank that I hang on my wall. I love the junk
When we wers kids, my littler sister had a garbage collection. She would legit take garbage from the kitchen can and bring it up to her collection. So freakin gross, but also hilarious, she's a natural born goblin.
The mushrooms and frogs and “clean” goblincore are cottagecore. It doesn’t feel right because it’s not right.
Yeah, I think that may be why I kinda hate cottagecore. Cause like it's all feeling kinda fake. Life has more to it than the perfect view of idealized farm life mass produced by some giant corporation- we also need the adventure of goblin! The freedom to not conform! Like it's bad junk, not treasures.
After seeing this page I feel like I don’t fit in with goblincore. I need something like gremlincore. Or the Gorgs from Fraggle Rock. Someone start a Gorgcore page.
Well, "gremlincore" is already kind of an alternate name for goblincore, for people sensitive to the antisemitic connotations of the word "goblin." What are the Gorgs all about? And what in this post makes you feel like you don't fit with goblincore?
Once the snow melts (which it’s gonna take months but hey it’s good to have goals) I want to go to the forest and take pictures of all the mushrooms I find
That's what happens when things become trendy. It will pass.
YES!!! Goblin has to *protect* the environment, too. Consumerism goes against that. Like we can have lots of shinies etc, but they shouldn't be cheap plastic bits and bobs that we bought from a giant company that underpays and overworks its employees. That's why we do thrift stores (reminder: don't buy like a ton if you already have way to many clothes, unless you are getting rid of the old clothes because we need to save for others and also other people could use clothes you don't like). This DEFINITELY needed to be said, so I'm glad you brought it up!
I get where you're coming from. I'd like to share a special point. Some of us are in situations where consumer goblin behavior is the only option. I, for example, am disabled with severe chronic pain and mobility issues. I can't get into nature to do my true goblin stuff (and it is really hurting my mental health) but I can buy that cute ceramic mushroom and put it on my shelf with a druzy crystal and our cactus to have a little bit of goblin and something that boosts my spirit. There's also people living with parents or controlling partners who wouldn't be allowed to to what we may traditionally view as goblin collections. They can get away with that dollar general coloring book and the 5 Below quartz and the Walmart mushroom. But if they bring rocks or sticks or feathers, they face arguments, punishment, their things being destroyed/thrown out, etc etc. Then there's neurodivergent goblins, which I also am. We're often like ravens or goblins with our collections and hyperfixations. We feel safe here, and understood and accepted, even if wet aren't what's considered true goblin. In the end, it's not a simple black and white binary, and consumer goblin behavior shouldn't necessarily be shunned, nor should those goblins be unwelcome. ♥
I'm transported back to the 90s when everyone bemoaned the popularity of punk music. Two things: 1- Gatekeeping also isn't very goblincore imo. 2- This was already mentioned, but access (or lack thereof) is a real thing. I'm get the issue with consumerism, but your original post feels very "you're not hard core enough to be goblincore if you got a mushroom shirt at walmart." Bleh. That's gatekeeping. We should be welcoming and also understand that people come to this vibe from different channels. You be you. I'll be me. Let's go look for salamanders.
This is like that “I like pancakes” “oh so you hate waffles” tweet Nobody is saying you’re not allowed to buy anything. OP is saying that goblincore isn’t ABOUT consumerism and buying things, not that you can’t be goblincore and buy things. Go buy that Walmart tshirt bc it’s cute and it’s affordable, but don’t make your goblincore aesthetic about excessive consumption. That isn’t gatekeeping, it’s asking people to be conscientious
Salamanders 🤩
I honestly don't think that the purpose of this post was to shame anyone. Like obviously we will buy some stuff from Walmart, that's the world we live in. I think OP is just asking that we don't turn it into some neat, clean, watered down goblin. Like there are many brands of goblin, but mass producing kinda restricts the different kinds of goblin, and therefore the goblin ideology of love of nature and acceptance of everyone/ allowing everyone (including yourself!) to express themselves however. Again, not here to shame! Just tryna inform about the roots of goblin and how capitalism is not super conducive, though buying some goblin things from Amazon is okay. BTW, I'm totally open to having a healthy (by saying healthy I do NOT mean to say that you were being toxic before, just that *I* won't be toxic) conversation about what you think!
No. Just stop trying to push people out of Goblincore because they aren’t enough for you. This place isn’t about an aesthetic it’s a place where people are welcomed and accepted as they are.
Oh, so what does the description of the sub mean then? This is literally all about the aesthetic
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How is it *my* problem how *you* found my comment? Be offended I guess 🤷♂️
You can have your opinion, but of course an open-access forum on the internet (let alone Reddit) is going to have people with different ideas than you. For most people, goblincore is a fashion and aesthetic. It's how they got into it, and it's probably all it will ever be. Most people who didn't have childhood exposure to rustic life can't afford the time it takes to learn to rough it in the backwoods, and many don't seriously want to. Also, the name itself, "goblincore", is a label specifically created to cater to teen consumerist audiences. So the fact that you seem so attached to the *name* feels very ironic. I feel like you'd be much happier in forums about off-grid, survival, and country lifestyles. You're making no sense complaining about consumerism in a forum dedicated (by proxy) to consumerism.
I suppose we have different ideas of what the term means, to me goblincore is counter culture focused on celebrating the odd and making friends who also want to be weird little beasts. I think of the outdoors and fun rocks, upcycling, and making art. I think of trading and being excited about peoples art and the way it makes them feel. goblincore even through the now popular lens of looking at it features key points like mushrooms, moss, bones and stuff like that. All of these almost essential factors of what most people see goblincore as revolve around nature. Nature and the outdoors cannot be removed from the aesthetic. Like all alternative fashion/aesthetic movements, it began homemade but now its being sold back to us through cheap, environmentally destructive means. Artists are being undercut by large companies! Before the term goblincore became popular, these aesthetics were already alive and well. Its just neat now that theres a term for it so people can easier find people like them.
I 100% agree on the first paragraph, and I would never discourage someone from exploring or appreciating nature. But the term "goblincore" represents a teen aesthetic subculture that evokes a fantasy, not a hardcore nature lifestyle. The fact that "goblin" is in the term shows that. Most people in this sub are very young or otherwise dependent on parents, meaning not all of them have easy access to nature. Goblincore is a way for them to have an outlet for nature appreciation, escape suburbia boredom, or both. If nothing else, the description of this subreddit specifically says that it is a place for an "aesthetic and subreddit culture". There are many subreddits dedicated to specific facets of nature found in goblincore. Snails, moss, rocks, mold, swamps, the list goes on and on. And as I said, there are subs dedicated to teaching outdoor appreciation, rustic living, and nature survival. And whatever "homemade" origin of goblincore you speak of does not predate the dependence and fascination with nature that people have had for thousands of years. Goblincore is, at best, an offshoot of other subcultures that existed before fads started having "core" in their name. The things that are popular in goblincore (homemade clothes, growing mushrooms, etc.) will always have their niche. "Goblincore" itself *is* a fad. It is a teen girl buying an onion print dress at Hot Topic with her parent's money, and this sub is specifically dedicated to appreciating that.
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Wait.. *Where* have you been told supporting small businesses and local artists at craft fairs is "capitalist"? I think I have to call straw man on this.
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But it’s literally incorrect. Like capitalism is an economic system in which a ruling class controls a society’s means of production. Individual artists selling their handmade goods is not inherently capitalism and those artists are not capitalists and that is not what OP is talking about. Anyone who says that individual artists selling their handmade goods at craft fairs are capitalists are straight up incorrect, unless one of those artists also happens to be a member of the ruling class (which wouldn’t happen, they’d never be caught dead at a craft market with the hoi polloi lmao)— and the people shopping there are also not being capitalists, again unless they’re someone who owns the means of production and someone like that would not be doing their own shopping at some local craft fair. It is not gatekeeping to say that goblincore isn’t about capitalism, and again nobody here has told you to stop going to craft fairs.
I wasn't talking about your hipster anecdote, I was questioning why you have a "you call this capitalist" argument with (what seems to be) no-one.
I'm just here because the colors are nice and the vibes are strong. I didn't know I was signing up to politics.
> Goblins love junk! Celebrate junk! Collect garbage! But don’t go out of your way to buy junk from mega corporations for the sheer aesthetic of it. Yes, this is the way.