191–200 of 319 posts
> Like most online culture, it all feels so profound until you realize that he hasn’t said anything at all. So pretty much like TFA... Which is basically a virtue signalling hit piece (the target even asks "if they're planning to write a hit piece"). "The content of his work would repel, or simply confuse, a traditional viewer" ... and then the author points to a screenshot of a tweet (the "drop out of college, defau…
The only thing changed by the Internet is accessibility. Previously people tended to know each other personally. Now they can mix it up online. This makes their presence a little more obvious and a little harder to ignore.
But there must be hundreds of these micro-scenes with their nano-gurus and micro-leaders, and most people will still never come across them.
They only become dangerous when they grow - or are grown - to the point where the groups stop being small and insignificant, and where the messaging is carefully and deliberately tailored to trigger irrationality and self-harm in mass audiences.
That's not a good thing. But it's no worse - and often less effective and less toxic - than some of the nonsense pumped out by supposedly respectable mainstream media.
I'm not sure if the sociological experiment that the author conducted was really immersive enough to produce a good take on the subculture. It's fairly obvious this was intended along the lines of Hunter S. Thompson's "Hell's Angels" - which may have spawned an entire genre of sub-culture literature (I don't know if Thompson really originated it or not, there may be earlier examples, perhaps Zora Neale Hurston). The…
In any case, I noticed the Thompson similarities as well. This kind of reportage flicks the light switch in a dark room, in which then the cockroaches run for the corners.
I'm pretty sure this generalizes to everything. People who cultivate a persona in any sub-culture or domain seem to be a fish out of water when confronted in a different context. Take someone from the rave scene and plop them down in a microbrewery bar and everyone will gawk at the brightly colored fidgety person that has no idea what to order. Take a polished SV entrepreneur and deposit them in an Idaho roadhouse an…
I'm sorry, are you making some sort of offensive joke or do you really think the world works in such stereotypes and prejudices? Rave people are "brightly colored and fidgety" ?? A polished entrepreneur is incapable of ordering in a low class bar? Jesus F Christ.
And yet, here you are.
I grew up a geek in a rural area, learning how to filter conversations for your audience was a critical skill. Topics and conversational style amongst my D&D group was very different than amongst my other high school classmates and very different than when at my summer jobs. This is just an article about people who never learned that skill. I'm reminded of a few moments in my life that drove this home ... A coworker…
I grew up very geek in a VERY rural area. I knew that there were places that I could be me, where I could be "country" me, and where I could be me "for adults". I learned that the me what I was, was also super unacceptable once I entered the world of higher education. I had to be "smart" me. Then in my undergraduate degree, I learned about code switching in the context of Mexican-American children of immigrants. And…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not reverse it, I push a button on the computer and something falls out of the sky IRL. Your smart electric meter turns off. The water company shuts off your service. The internet is real life as much as you cannot tow a leaking oil tanker 'out of the environment'. People don't need the internet to be narcissistic, they've done that fine for thousands of years without it.
no, when you meet many grounded people they're helpful, want to help fix your tire, see if you're ok. Things have changed towards narcissism and unless you're older than 35 you probably can't see that. pressing a button to have something fall into reality is another thing that creates narcissism. You don't see any of the people involved in getting that thing to you. You can start seeing the world as your personal sla…
Aristocracy in some parts of the world didn't talk to staff, they would just announce in the presence of the servant that something was needed and expect that it be provided.
The take would be a lot more interesting if the targets weren't so utterly, predicably, boringly safe to criticize either. I guess dissecting a counterculture that isn't predominantly young white men into NFT's would take a bit more courage. though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I grew up very geek in a VERY rural area. I knew that there were places that I could be me, where I could be "country" me, and where I could be me "for adults". I learned that the me what I was, was also super unacceptable once I entered the world of higher education. I had to be "smart" me. Then in my undergraduate degree, I learned about code switching in the context of Mexican-American children of immigrants. And…
Code switching is completely natural to me, I would not know how to express myself with just one language to some people. What did you learn about it that impacted you the most?
I grew up feeling very outcast. I grew up in a town of less than 50, in a super poor, rural part of the US. My interests were outdoors related, but not guns and god like everyone around me. I was more interested in learning about natural systems and the interplay of wild plants and animals and humans in the world. I never 'fit in' anywhere. None of the school clubs, none of the classes, everywhere I went I felt that I had to 'be someone else'.
Then I went to college and learned that, for many people, they literally get to do that every day, and that there was a name for it! It felt validating that someone else in the world experienced what I experienced (even if it was whole-language based instead of just dialect/cultural norm based).
I'm not sure if the sociological experiment that the author conducted was really immersive enough to produce a good take on the subculture. It's fairly obvious this was intended along the lines of Hunter S. Thompson's "Hell's Angels" - which may have spawned an entire genre of sub-culture literature (I don't know if Thompson really originated it or not, there may be earlier examples, perhaps Zora Neale Hurston). The…
Raymond Williams has theorized the nature of subcultures (residual and emergent), which are almost always incorporated into the mainstream in one form or another. I'm afraid that because this culture is so incredibly toxic that the effects of this incorporation will be like a collective poisoning. This can already be seen in the resulting superstructure (art, politics, finance) and mainstream social relations, all of…