Why Pop Culture Keeps Selling Us Struggle Disguised as Dreams

 This week’s readings had me looking at everyday life like, “Wow… capitalism really has us in a chokehold.” Marx talks about commodity fetishism, how we forget the human beings behind the products we consume. Suddenly I’m side‑eyeing everything from my iPhone to the sneakers my students obsess over. It’s wild how quickly we stop seeing people and start seeing price tags.

Sellnow’s Marxist perspective helped me see how pop culture keeps this system running. Entertainment doesn’t just reflect.         inequality; it teaches us to accept it. We’re trained to admire wealth, hustle culture, and “making it out,” even when the             system is designed so most people never do. Pop culture becomes the PR team for capitalism, smiling while it sells us the same struggle in different packaging.

A perfect real‑world example popped up recently:

The New York Times reported on massive layoffs at Tesla despite record profits.

It’s a textbook case of Marx’s argument. The product is worshipped, the labor is invisible, and the workers are treated as replaceable. The system protects the commodity, not the people.

Kendrick’s reading on James Cameron made me laugh because Cameron has basically been preaching anti‑capitalist sermons in blockbuster form for decades. Avatar is literally about colonizers destroying land for profit. Aliens is about a corporation sacrificing workers for money. Terminator is about technology becoming a monster because of unchecked power. Cameron has been giving us Marxism in IMAX, and we’ve been munching popcorn through the whole message.

Wartenberg’s take on Good Will Hunting hit me hardest. Will is brilliant, a once‑in‑a‑generation mind, and still can’t escape the limits of his class. The film shows that intelligence doesn’t erase poverty or trauma. “Hard work” doesn’t magically fix inequality. The system is the system, and the movie quietly exposes that.

All these readings made me realize how often pop culture sells us the fantasy of upward mobility while quietly reinforcing the structures that keep most people stuck. We’re encouraged to dream big, but not to question why the dream is so hard to reach.

So here’s what I’m wondering:

1. Do you think pop culture genuinely critiques capitalism, or does it just package rebellion in a way that still benefits the system?

2. What’s one movie or show you now see differently after thinking about Marxist ideas?