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naraburns  nihil supernum  3yr ago (text post)   34059 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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Edgy is just an aesthetic now. It doesn't mean a damn thing. People who self-describe as "punk" will mandate all the exact same speech codes in their spaces as HR departments in multinational megacorps across the world do, if not even more stringent. Rebellion has been successfully co-opted by the monoculture and you can buy it at your local strip mall now.

Or the barber pole turns eternal. Perhaps the true counter-culture in a society awash with twitter narcissists, outrage porn and nihilistic realpolitik is a throwback to something like Victorian era propriety. Subs like /r/Cleanlivingkings and /r/nofap (although the latter included a bizarre strain of muslims struck by self-loathing for being horny and masturbating) always fascinated me for this reason. Maybe if we can make it edgy and high-status to be a decent human being without coding it red or blue, to value honesty, earnestness and a moral code we can rein in the brinksmanship and hatred coursing through our country's veins. A man can dream.

And if Your (the royal you, not picking on you personally) visceral reaction to this is 'But the left/right are the lying fascists/cartoonish villains intent on destroying society, consider that you might be part of the problem.

Maybe if we can make it edgy and high-status to be a decent human being without coding it red or blue, to value honesty, earnestness and a moral code we can rein in the brinksmanship and hatred coursing through our country's veins.

And then the barber pole, which turns eternally, would continue to turn, making it, as they say, "cringe" to be concerned with honesty, earnestness, and a moral code.

Ties into the whole "counterculture became commodity culture" issue, but aren't these two generally at odds?

I suppose I was trying to invoke the high-(social) status low-class activist being invited as a set piece to a high-class gathering. The avant-garde artist, philosopher, psychologist, social scientist etc. rubbing shoulders with wealthy elites. The elites are wealthy and control what is fashionable to some degree, but they don't control what is cool, right?

When our news anchors are dishonest demagogues who rant from our televisions every night, when corporations are legally obligated to fuck their workers and society in the name of shareholder value, when half of the political body is constantly outraged at the party in power, maybe the counter-culture move is a retreat to decorum and a stricter moral code.

Straightedge reached a decent level of popularity at my high school which is amusing considering nobody drank or did drugs. I bet the majority of our class of a few hundred were virgins when they graduated. It's somewhat perplexing in retrospect.

Ties into the whole "counterculture became commodity culture" issue, but aren't these two generally at odds?

It depends. That is why there is a new niche of the right that is 'edgy' yet holds high-status belief, such as being pro-vaccine (or downplaying vaccine side effects). Criticizing the woke but also being pro-vaccine or downplaying vaccine side effects is appealing to the likes of Marc Andreessen, Scott Adams, and other high status people. There is way to have the best of both worlds or to have your cake and eat it too.

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