'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#201

Post by bserge » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 5:45 AM UTC

schnevets wrote: post #56

I love my backyard garden (even though my Brussels Sprout experiment this year proved to be a huge waste of time). I also love the aesthetic that cottagecore is revitalizing. I love drinking at local wineries, buying stuff at my local farmer's market, brewing beer and swapping bottles with homebrew friends, etc... But holy shit am I repulsed by the influencer aspect that is growing with this "movement". Ways of Seein…

> Maybe this is why I like homebrewing: everyone is a bearded, chubby 35 year old nerd and there no way to make a 5 gallon carboy of bubbling alcoholic liquid into something "glamourous"

Alcohol is very prominent on Instik, don't give them ideas. They might not have the brains to actually make it but they sure can buy the equipment and use water pretending it's moonshine :D

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#202

Post by ollifi » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #160

ollifi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that ridiculous? If you set up a farm that releases GHG surely you are the producer of it. Oil industry spinned us to calculate personal carbon foot prints [1]. That’s a good tool, but at the same time it dissolves the responsibility. In one hand the people actually producing the harm get to blame consumer demand and consumer can aknowledge that what ever they do makes no difference in the big picture. If you…

> Why is that ridiculous? If you set up a farm that releases GHG surely you are the producer of it. Are you saying this is actually how GHG calculations are done with respect to rural/urban, or that's how it should be counted? >consumer can aknowledge that what ever they do makes no difference in the big picture. a single consumer can't make a difference because they're one person out of 7 billion. consumers in aggre…

I think trying to get average urban/rural numbers is interesting but also misleading. What matters is what is actually happening and where the harm is produced.

My city is heated with district heating, which comes from coal. Thats big chunk of my personal carbon footprint and makes living in a city look bad vs rural life.

I think focusing on consumers and making this about urban/rural lifestyle choices is only half the equation and to change things you need to go in and swap the power plants, farms etc.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#203

Post by theonlybutlet » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #16

Really interesting twitter thread by @SarahTaber_bww breaking this down from yesterday: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1443225915073437698.html

A rant looking for a racist angle...

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#204

Post by theodric » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 5:55 AM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #16

Really interesting twitter thread by @SarahTaber_bww breaking this down from yesterday: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1443225915073437698.html

"Leaving the city to own and operate a small poultry farm is racist, misogynist, colonialist, and CANCELLED: a thread." I wonder if I get a pass since mine is in Ireland.

There needs to be a Rule 34 variant which states that for any given thing there is someone saying it violates progressive principles.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#205

Post by bserge » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 5:56 AM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #120

ramesh31 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One of the worst things we did in the past century is paint the idea of an apartment high rise full of decent sized family apartments overlooking a green shady courtyard as some communist evil, to be actively outlawed. How many large apartment blocs have you lived in? It's not a very enjoyable way to live, particularly with a family. People want houses, garages, yards, and cars. Don't try to paint the selfish realit…

I've lived in three large apartment blocs. None were decent sized family apartments overlooking a green shady courtyard. They were all cramped 2-bedroom units overlooking shopping malls, designed for people who didn't want to buy a house in the suburban sprawl around my Midwestern city. The courtyards were decrepit and unmaintained, the only nice green spaces had 'keep off the grass' signs. Obviously no one wants tha…

So it's a self fulfilling prophecy. Bad design, no maintenance, no park, no sidewalks - apartment building are shit.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#206

Post by bserge » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 6:00 AM UTC

Veen wrote: post #19

tibbydudeza wrote: post #8

Dealing with septic tanks - rotting uneven floors , shitty no pun intended plumbing and electrics - broadband from the copper era. No thanks - much prefer my modern sterile IKEA isocube.

Yes, I learned my lesson after moving into a 400-year-old thatched cottage because I thought it was quaint. The roof and windows leaked. It had limited central heating and was largely heated by a multi-fuel burner. That meant spending an absurd amount of money on wood, which I had to schlep around and split while the weather was appalling and then spend far too long lighting a fire and keeping it going all day, only…

Yeah, you fix the roof and windows. You buy and split all the wood during summer and place it as conveniently as possible. Building grading is major bullshit in this case, as is Instatok

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#207

Post by drpotato » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 6:02 AM UTC

mbg721 wrote: post #184

redisman wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the have Stardew Valley either tapped into this or caused some of this trend.

Stardew Valley disturbs me, because it makes farming and even gardening seem too easy. There's too little substance between planting and harvest; playing it feels like eating candy for dinner for a week.

Strange… I found the cave full of monsters in Stardew Valley makes it seem way too hard to cut your way through slimes, skeletons and beings of darkness.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#208

Post by bserge » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 6:03 AM UTC

tibbydudeza wrote: post #50

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, if I were to move I'd go for something modern. That said, it's an idealized lifestyle, everyone's guilty of some of that - "I'd love to live in a van" but where do you shit? "I'd love to become a digital nomad and live in a cheap 5-star resort" but where do you keep your stuff? What about family and friends? "I'd love to retire to a cabin in the woods" but what about all the amenities you're used to, like elect…

Since I am close to retirement been watching videos about tiny homes and van life and log cabin in the middle of the woods and of late living on a narrowboat on the English waterways. But I then go camping and realize after a few days how much I would miss my modern amenities. Nostalgia.

Narrowboats are the best compromise here. Can't think of anything you'd really miss on one except maybe the car? It's definitely not camping or a van.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#209

Post by xxs » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

redisman wrote: post #181

nickthemagicman wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Van lifers feel your pain. The instagram influencer skinny young cute blonde girl with painted toenails and backdoors open to reveal the grand canyon is a far cry from the reality that's 90% pooping in a composting toilet in a walmart parking lot and spending your entire weekend trying to install a water tank to supply a shower.

I just don’t understand how that affects you van life? Just.. don’t hate-browse shitty social media?

Generally affects people's expectations - even if you personally have zero interaction w/ social media, incl. no accounts. Alternatively it affects kids, which are exceptionally subjected to peer pressure.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#210

Post by javagram » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 6:15 AM UTC

TrispusAttucks wrote: post #180

lmm wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're throwing a bunch of arguments at the wall and hoping some of them stick rather than trying to figure out what's true. Wealth is presumably fixed at first-order, so comparing equally wealthy rural or urban residents seems fairest (unless you're trying to argue that cities are bad because they increase economic growth?); if the argument is something like "emissions are only higher in rural areas beca…

> I can't even follow what your unsourced talk of sub-urbanization is trying to claim. I can't find the paper at the moment. I will try to get it posted here tomorrow. The gist is that suburban grow is an overflow of city growth onto the surrounding area. When a suburban areas GHG accounting is taken into consideration it further removes any "apparent" per capita efficiency of the city. It is really all just another…

Urban and suburban are different lifestyles though. Suburban residents typically have a SFH and need multiple cars to do their errands and commute. Residents of an urban core would be more likely to live in multi family housing and use public transportation or walk/bike to their errands and job. Disputing a rural v urban GHG comparison by pointing to suburbs doesn’t make sense in that model - a suburban lifestyle is much closer to a rural one as both are car-dependent.