From Mav: So while I was watching the Democratic National Convention coverage last week — yes, I watch all of the DNC… I also watch all of the RNC… I do it so you don’t have to — Anyway, while I was watching I started thinking about the concept of conventions. Political conventions had a purpose once. In the long long ago, they were how the candidates were actually picked. Meaningful primaries are a relatively recent invention… but they are still a thing and the convention hasn’t mattered for picking a candidate in any real way for either major American party in like 60 years. Sure, there are lots of important meetings going on. But those aren’t really televised and not really what people think about when thinking about the conventions. What they think about are the speeches people make. Since the cable news era of about the late 80s and early 90s, political conventions became a pretty successful “commercial” for the presidential candidates. Honestly, that’s not true either though. There’s an internet and there’s TikTok and YouTube. And most of the speculation there was about whether or not Beyonce would show up; not on the details of Kamala’s economic policy. It’s all vibes!
These days, the political conventions are primarily about vibes for nerds like me, and hopefully producing a couple of viral clips that can be used later. In short, they’re basically the same thing as San Diego Comic Con. Sure… there’s a whole week of signings and commerce going on at SDCC. There are whole companies that make a significant portion of their yearly revenue in the floor sales they can make that week. The Eisners happen that week. There’s an honest to goodness academic convention built in. But that’s all niche nerd stuff. But, the general public doesn’t really care about most of SDCC. It’s all about Hall H… and whatever gets announced there. And really, mostly from the BIG panels: Marvel, DC, and Star Wars level stuff. Again, everyone is fighting for viral moments. You want to have an RDJ walk out on stage for 5 seconds and get you weeks of press. Again, all vibes!
But that’s just the big conventions. If I say “political convention”, people will talk about the DSA and RSA, but no one is thinking about the Green Party National Convention that was two weeks ago. Absolutely no one is thinking about the Libertarian Party National Convention that was all the way back in May! And certainly no one is thinking of any of the smaller regional party conventions… except the people really into those niches. Similarly, if I say “comic con”, people will think about SDCC. But there’s basically comic conventions every week in America. Wayne and I and a lot of our friends have worked at MANY of them. Like I’ve seriously been to too many to count. I don’t even know… and we have friends who make their entire livelihoods just selling artwork at a different convention every weekend. And then there are other cons that aren’t comic related at all… toy conventions, popular culture conventions, music conventions, kink conventions. In a way I’d argue that academic conferences like PCA and the others we often talk about on the show are basically just niche conventions for … well, nerdy academics. And I’d argue stuff like renaissance fairs fit in here too.
But in all of those cases, I’d argue that they’re not really “popular” in any real sense. They’re niche. BUT also juuuuuust popular enough to sort of warrant consideration as a pop culture topics. After all, I expect there’s far more people who enjoy the spectacle of Anthrocon, Pittsburgh’s annual furry convention, than are actually interested in the furry lifestyle in and of itself.
So we want to do an episode talking about why do we care about conventions. Do you go to them? Do you work at them? Is it about the camaraderie? Is it about the information you learn at them? Is it just silly fun and an excuse to get drunk and hook up with other people into whatever your weird hobby is? Give us your thoughts in the comments.
Call For Comments: Why do people like conventions?
August 28, 2024
From Mav: So while I was watching the Democratic National Convention coverage last week — yes, I watch all of the DNC… I also watch all of the RNC… I do it so you don’t have to — Anyway, while I was watching I started thinking about the concept of conventions. Political conventions had a purpose once. In the long long ago, they were how the candidates were actually picked. Meaningful primaries are a relatively recent invention… but they are still a thing and the convention hasn’t mattered for picking a candidate in any real way for either major American party in like 60 years. Sure, there are lots of important meetings going on. But those aren’t really televised and not really what people think about when thinking about the conventions. What they think about are the speeches people make. Since the cable news era of about the late 80s and early 90s, political conventions became a pretty successful “commercial” for the presidential candidates. Honestly, that’s not true either though. There’s an internet and there’s TikTok and YouTube. And most of the speculation there was about whether or not Beyonce would show up; not on the details of Kamala’s economic policy. It’s all vibes!
These days, the political conventions are primarily about vibes for nerds like me, and hopefully producing a couple of viral clips that can be used later. In short, they’re basically the same thing as San Diego Comic Con. Sure… there’s a whole week of signings and commerce going on at SDCC. There are whole companies that make a significant portion of their yearly revenue in the floor sales they can make that week. The Eisners happen that week. There’s an honest to goodness academic convention built in. But that’s all niche nerd stuff. But, the general public doesn’t really care about most of SDCC. It’s all about Hall H… and whatever gets announced there. And really, mostly from the BIG panels: Marvel, DC, and Star Wars level stuff. Again, everyone is fighting for viral moments. You want to have an RDJ walk out on stage for 5 seconds and get you weeks of press. Again, all vibes!
But that’s just the big conventions. If I say “political convention”, people will talk about the DSA and RSA, but no one is thinking about the Green Party National Convention that was two weeks ago. Absolutely no one is thinking about the Libertarian Party National Convention that was all the way back in May! And certainly no one is thinking of any of the smaller regional party conventions… except the people really into those niches. Similarly, if I say “comic con”, people will think about SDCC. But there’s basically comic conventions every week in America. Wayne and I and a lot of our friends have worked at MANY of them. Like I’ve seriously been to too many to count. I don’t even know… and we have friends who make their entire livelihoods just selling artwork at a different convention every weekend. And then there are other cons that aren’t comic related at all… toy conventions, popular culture conventions, music conventions, kink conventions. In a way I’d argue that academic conferences like PCA and the others we often talk about on the show are basically just niche conventions for … well, nerdy academics. And I’d argue stuff like renaissance fairs fit in here too.
But in all of those cases, I’d argue that they’re not really “popular” in any real sense. They’re niche. BUT also juuuuuust popular enough to sort of warrant consideration as a pop culture topics. After all, I expect there’s far more people who enjoy the spectacle of Anthrocon, Pittsburgh’s annual furry convention, than are actually interested in the furry lifestyle in and of itself.
So we want to do an episode talking about why do we care about conventions. Do you go to them? Do you work at them? Is it about the camaraderie? Is it about the information you learn at them? Is it just silly fun and an excuse to get drunk and hook up with other people into whatever your weird hobby is? Give us your thoughts in the comments.
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