Touch Grass Is Anti-Intellectual Discipline

Every time someone points out how a pop song, movie, or fandom reproduces power,
someone jumps in with:

“Oh my god, touch grass.”

This is a discipline command.

It means:

Stop noticing.
Stop naming what is shaping you.
Stop being inconvenient to the vibe.

It’s an enforcement of not thinking.

Why This Happens

People don’t get defensive because the critique is wrong.
They get defensive because the critique touches something pleasurable.

Pop culture is where we:

• feel beautiful,
• feel powerful,
• feel seen,
• feel chosen.

Critique threatens the fantasy-self they get to inhabit inside the media.

So they say:

“Don’t ruin this for me.”

But what they mean is:

“Don’t make me see the part of myself that is being trained.” ^{ideology-as-feelingIdeology is not believed—it is felt. Culture teaches you what emotions are “reasonable.”}

Pop Culture Is Political Because It Trains Desire

It teaches:

• who is lovable,
• who gets punished,
• whose pain is tragic,
• whose pain is aesthetic,
• whose pain is funny.

This is not background noise.
This is curriculum.

And when someone points that out, and the response is “there are more important issues”—

what they are doing is protecting the emotional architecture of power.

“You’re Overthinking It” Means “You’re Getting Close”

The moment critique touches:

• identity,
• attachment,
• self-concept,
• fantasy life,

people panic.

Because now we are talking about who they know themselves to be.

Critique becomes intimacy.

And intimacy is always terrifying.

If Culture Weren’t Political, It Wouldn’t Be Defended This Hard

If it were just entertainment,
no one would care when you critique it.

The intensity of the backlash is the evidence.

You don’t defend something that doesn't matter.

You don’t protect something that isn’t working on you.

You don’t shout “touch grass” unless you are trying to silence the person who has seen something you depend on staying invisible.

Critique is not joyless.
Critique is how joy becomes conscious.

And once it’s conscious,
it can be chosen.