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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34513 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023

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Someone on Twitter asked an interesting question, which was essentially, why is this topic so fraught? And the best answer I can give, is that it's the first topic (maybe) to be "born" in the forge of Postmodernism and Critical models of power at a popular level. Sure, they existed in academia before this, but I do think there was this divide between these ways of thinking and a much more transactional, retail, boots on the ground level productive politics. Frankly, it's possible that the other candidate for the "First topic" is COVID, and I do think you see a lot of the same patterns in that debate as well.

Please help me understand this paragraph, because I'm having trouble. By "this topic" I assume you mean either trans issues generally or something more specific. If this topic was "born", what is it's "birthday"? 2020? 2014? 1969? Is the birthday when the public first becomes generally aware of the issue? How long has the "forge of Postmodernism and Critical models of power at a popular level" been operating? 2020, 2016, 2014...? What other topics might qualify as being a "first topic"? Russiagate? Gamergate? Brexit? Ukraine War?

I only ask these questions because it sounds like you have an interesting model, but I can't put the puzzle pieces together in my head.

To be frank, I think Gamergate was the "Dirty Bomb" that blew this model/culture of Critical Theory into the world. Or at least the reaction to such. It existed, to a degree, before that, but that's when I think it became fairly well known. So, when I'm talking about the culture of Postmodernism/Critical models of power, I do think that begins in 2015 or so. Maybe some people might look back to what happened to Operation Wall Street and take that into account..and they're not incorrect there to be clear, but I don't think support for that hit any sort of influential mass until the mantle was taken up by parts of the media/activist base, because it was being actively challenged for its own particular power/influence dynamics. Critical theory/Postmodernism is an easy "antidote" to those criticisms.

That's my opinion at least. And I think it's fairly obvious that Trans status as a mainstream issue came after that point.

But yeah, I think there's a reason that some people/communities hold on to Postmodernism/Critical Theory like a life vest that if they release they're going to fall down into the depths. And let me be clear...I don't think that's entirely wrong. I do think there's a legitimate self-interest at play here, even if frankly on the other hand I couldn't care less about said self-interest.

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