for the Super Bowl halftime show we should bring back Up With People corny right wing cults > Maroon 5 imo
ICYMI Up with People invented the Super Bowl halftime show. they were a weird Christian positivity cult beloved by Nixon & astroturfed by Exxon, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, GE, Halliburton, Coors, Enron etc & evangelical leaders to counter 60’s lefty pop music. deadspin.com/5980867/rememb…
Interesting how no other sport was underwritten & contrived by the US govt & corporate America more than football. Obviously it’s popular in its own right but it helps to have a tax code section & antitrust carveout written specifically for your benefit. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
tbc the NFL lost their taxexempt status 2yrs ago but that’s a long time having the US govt subsidize your growth. To say nothing of the tens of billions spent throughout the yrs by local municipalities building the NFL’s infrastructure for them (stadiums, parking, security etc)
reminds me of how square dancing was an astroturfed anti-Semitic, anti-black plot. Seriously, when I saw this headline I rolled my eyes because it seemed oversold but I read the article and it’s... true. qz.com/1153516/americ…
anyway it’s amusing to consider much of what we think of as organic American culture that emerged from some democratic free market was, to put it kindly, nudged along the way every now and then
