I loved this from the venerable Charlie Pierce on the new College Football Playoff and how much he hates branding:
“There is something fundamentally dehumanizing in the idea that the primary purpose of so many things, and so many people, is to maintain their ability to sell themselves to the suckers.”
That’s true, but for which group of people is it more dehumanizing for?
“‘Protecting the brand’ has become the all-purpose excuse for treating people as though they were pieces of equipment, as though they were products. And that is all that this new playoff system is. It is a battle of the brands.”
I’m pretty sure that’s all anything is.