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The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

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Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#141

Post by thinkingemote »

Counterculture may not be on the internet because the counterculture is normal, or ... square. It's not boring, it's not exciting it's just normal, or common. (Perhaps more accurately we should say that there is no counterculture anymore when the mainstream culture continues to performs the roles that it used to hold)

Current culture rejects the normal, what people think is basic or commonplace in favour of the spectacular, the colourful, the exciting, the transgressive, the provoking, the radical. Many things that were shunned when we were growing up as being geeky are mainstream now as it is packaged up and made available to buy in as many formats and products as possible.

Washing your car on a Saturday, working 9 to 5, mowing the lawn, taking your kids to the park, not caring about politics much, visiting elderly relatives, going on holiday, having a hobby, doing a craft, not worrying about authenticity, getting a mortgage, going to church. Be there by being square.

The past radicals used to say "the revolution will not be televised". Perhaps now we have to say "the revolution cannot be televised" as it's anti spectacular.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#142

Post by lom888 »

ravenstine wrote: post #19

The real counterculture right now is non-participation . In a world where virtually everything is either designed to completely waste your time or fail and not be repairable, it's a highly radical act to stop consuming like the 95%, preferring to spend time with other humans in reality doing something that isn't technological. In spite of the popular world pushing the message that you will be fulfilled living in virt…

>pub trivia

This was one of my two outlets for social participation until about 10+ years ago, but this pursuit has been ruined by phones. Participants cheat without a second thought and the emcees refuse to enforce rules.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#143

Post by jhartwig »

tekla wrote: post #60
wtsktte wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize the irony of this question, but any suggestions on how to find these kinds of parties?

Join a local art collective or makerspace/hackerspace. Be open to not crying on the internet because you got hurt or someone said mean things, that comes with the package. Eventually you may start connecting with people who know things

Good lord, HN nerds are just as bad as the Instagrammers they detest. Nobody is going to makerspaces and losing fingers and whining on social media.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#144

Post by dfxm12 »

Llamasponge wrote: post #12

In a time where tolerance and respect for minorities is slowly becoming mainstream, you could argue that the far-right has become counterculture. The far-right is VERY prevalent on both Instagram, Twitter and other social media.

In a time where tolerance and respect for minorities is slowly becoming mainstream

You could have said this at least for the last 70 years. It doesn't change the systemic issues that enable prejudice against minorities. This means prejudice is still more mainstream than tolerance. Recently, there was a SCOTUS ruling that allows one to refuse making websites for same sex couples. This whole case was based on a falsified request. https://newrepublic.com/article/173987/mysterious-case-fake-...

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#145

Post by MisterTea »

tekla wrote: post #20

Counterculture requires gatekeeping, because most people can't take it, ESPECIALLY anyone who uses Instragram The best times I've had were having parties where we would work on cool exhibits with barely contained pyrotechnics, Tesla coils that would kill you if you touched it, and an expectation that YOU DO NOT PUT IT ON THE INTERNET and if you get hurt, YOU DID NOT GET HURT HERE. Everyone wants a nice and curated ex…

To me, what you describe sounds like bravado and self indulgence in adrenaline with the goal of gaining clout.

Counter culture is based on taking social risks which threaten the status quo. It does not need to include bodily risk. (edited for clarity)

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#146

Post by soupfordummies »

dogman144 wrote: post #133
ravenstine wrote: post #19

The real counterculture right now is non-participation . In a world where virtually everything is either designed to completely waste your time or fail and not be repairable, it's a highly radical act to stop consuming like the 95%, preferring to spend time with other humans in reality doing something that isn't technological. In spite of the popular world pushing the message that you will be fulfilled living in virt…

I think this is accurate. I feel more on the outside the more I push into keeping costs low, not opting in to millennial megaplex apartments, all the consumption, all the social media. I hate feeling like in this position of a Luddite-hipster but I’m not hustling in my career and comp just do I can suck all my money and time into that. But increasingly, doing this brands you as “alternative.”

My non-tech-working buddies don’t understand why I don’t want to PC game on discord all night at the same desk I just spent all day working in. Hell, even some of my tech-working buddies don’t either.

Kinda ironic that it’s more often than not the techie folks who are unplugging more often so to speak.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#147

Post by Swizec »

ipaddr wrote: post #61
krapp wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"never trust anyone over 30" was a maxim for a reason. It's difficult to fight culture once you've become invested in the status quo, and so alienated by the cutting edge that modernity disgusts you.

That was for a different time. Those under 30s grew up and many are more countercultural than kids under 30 now

> Those under 30s grew up and many are more countercultural than kids under 30 now

Pretty sure this is exactly how my Gen X parents feel. My mom couldn't understand how the music I loved in high school doesn't have a political message.

But she grew up in a time when you'd go to jail for speaking up against the regime unless it was masked through art. I grew up in a democracy. Very different.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#148

Post by omoikane »

krapp wrote: post #33
smithcoin wrote: post #14

You’ll find it on 4chan.

4chan is about as mainstream as it gets. Being edgy and racist isn't countercultural, certainly not nowadays.

Maybe the observation is that each platform can be countercultural roughly once, after which they come to be associated with a certain culture of their own. Then, in order to counter that new culture, you need to move to a different platform. It's like the thesis-antithesis-synthesis cycle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic#Hegelian_dialectic

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#149

Post by dogman144 »

soupfordummies wrote: post #146
dogman144 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is accurate. I feel more on the outside the more I push into keeping costs low, not opting in to millennial megaplex apartments, all the consumption, all the social media. I hate feeling like in this position of a Luddite-hipster but I’m not hustling in my career and comp just do I can suck all my money and time into that. But increasingly, doing this brands you as “alternative.”

My non-tech-working buddies don’t understand why I don’t want to PC game on discord all night at the same desk I just spent all day working in. Hell, even some of my tech-working buddies don’t either. Kinda ironic that it’s more often than not the techie folks who are unplugging more often so to speak.

Ya I work in tech for the opp to keep it all at a distance from me.

I’ve specifically thought about how stupid the loop is of building stuff at the computer and then turning around and consume all the same stuff I build for work (so to speak). Every time I’m on Reddit I hate myself. I also hate that that I can’t install an easy DNS blocking tool that isn’t likely selling my traffic and also works always (ie mobile and Wi-Fi, so PiHole is only half of this).

It’s like being too far past the abstraction to see the tech product galaxy as a “worthwhile activity” and I try to keep it out of my life now.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture, it's just not on Instagram (2021)

#150

Post by [deleted] »

maxbond wrote: post #101
Pannoniae wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Conspiracy theories isn't an epistemological designation, it's a political and rhetorical one." Well, that's the problem. If the word was only used for baseless things, it would be taken seriously. But nowadays, "conspiracy theory" is mostly used to discredit legitimate opinions or ideologies just because the powers being don't like them.

"Political and rhetorical" does not mean "without substance." These are legitimate fields of inquiry, not dirty words. (The same goes for "ideology", which often gets this treatment as well.) ETA: I think I understand better the miscommunication here, I didn't mean "for political ends," I meant more, "within the context of political science." Like you might say, "it's a physical phenomenon as opposed to a chemical on…

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