A Defense of Overthinking Pop Culture

Popular culture is an abstract location, where values are secured and challenged.  Rugnetta thinks pop culture is important material for intellectual investment, and that it’s a word worth over thinking. He goes on to talk about four arguments about overthinking that he believes to be mindless. First, how the meaning contained in a piece of media can be completely understood just by looking at the surface of it. Second, how going past the surface level of said media leads to what the complainers call “opinions dressed as facts,” which means the only important things we should look for has to be objectively verifiable. Third, how there is a possibility that whoever created the piece of media did not even intend for a deeper meaning. And fourth, why bother, when there are a lot more other things to worry about. The channel has held that nothing is just itself, and that the social and economic impact of media is definitely there and important. Meanings in media have been found to often not intended by the creators, however it is very much there. Deleuze stated that film is important as a material and source of philosophical thinking. There is an idea that only certain thoughtful medias do philosophy, however Rugnette believes that all media can be capable of doing philosophical work, and to find those media we must look at popular culture. To define popular culture, it is media and goods which are available to the masses. What Rugnetta defines media is any material made by one person or group of people to be enjoyed by another group or people, and goods are just media through commercial lenses. In essence, pop culture is the set of media and goods, however in an abstract location, where different cultures go to meet, interact, and get passed around. Having knowing what popular culture is, it will be possible to explain why it is worth overthinking. Popular culture is the most prominent, if not the only place, where different perspectives and outlooks gather and discuss their ideas, thoughts, and reactions about a piece of pop culture. Due to this, our understanding grows from learning about other points of views, however it is also a breeding ground for conflict. The biggest conflict is between the producer and the consumer, between those who have the power to create, and those who consume. The producers of pop culture have so much power because they decide what shows up on TV, what’s printed, etc. Any popular culture is a statement of the world, and for that reason it is philosophical. The problem with the phrase overthinking is that often times people who are accused of overthinking see themselves as just thinking. Overthinking is a way to break down and dismantle the culture that has been given to us by the creators. Overthinking refines our relationship with our own culture, and lets us see the culture on own terms. It’s important to do it because no matter how shallow the media may seem, it always has some form of value.