181–190 of 292 posts
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.
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 always think it’s so interesting that on the threads about counterculture, nobody brings up the obvious counterculture that is a huge topic of conversation in America: Homeless people. A large group of individuals who live their life very differently from the mainstream (countercultures do not have to be opt-in), who have completely different goals/morals/motivations than the mainstream, and are fully and violently…
Oh, this is such an excellent point. I talk with a lot of homeless people regularly, and they've even begun to adopt a more overt tone of counterculture: I've been increasingly hearing fantasies from them about a "homeless uprising/revolution".
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I don't know why you needed to derail a good point with the insect conspiracy theory dog whistle tho. If me and the homies get together weekly for bible study and fried crickets does that not fit into what you're describing?
The best indicator for "is this a conspiracy theory" is "is this true, or at least plausible?" The "live in virtual reality and consume insects" is a point pushed by at least a few people, so it's not a baseless conspiracy theory. You might say they are not influential or whatever, but it's not like this was made up on the spot. Even if it was a baseless conspiracy theory, it doesn't detract from the value of the res…
If that's the threshold for calling a conspiracy theory baseless, then no conspiracy theory is baseless. I'm not sure that's a useful way to think of it.
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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 falsifi…
>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 While I find it impossible to quantify, I think we can at least assure that prejudice is frowned upon by society. Things have definitely changed in 70 years. >Recently, there was a SCOTUS ruling that allows one to refuse…
No, you can't. If it was, at a minimum SCOTUS wouldn't be playing games wrt signaling that it's OK do discriminate against same sex couples. Also at a minimum, we wouldn't have so much, let alone rising amounts of hate crime [0]. Unfortunately, society is pretty split on the whether prejudice is good or bad.
0 - https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-supplem...
In 2023 counterculture is right wing but that's a hard to swallow pill for a lot
The billionaire right has funneled gobs of money into mirroring racist, fundamentalist, nationalistic loons as a troop rally for tax breaks downstream at the ballot box. It's only counter-cultural if you fail to see through it.
Doubt.
Sure, in the early 90s it was still possible to shock conservatives but what really made counterculture viable back then was that you could afford an apartment without having a career. It wasn’t just housing costs, either - in general, the benefits of participating wholeheartedly in the system were much more modest than they are now.
The internet has certainly been a factor, particularly in making the concept of a local music scene kind of obsolete, but the demise of counterculture is definitely due to material concerns.
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> risking body parts for a thrill is uncool - Free divers - Rock climbers - Motorcycle riders - Mountain bikers - Sky divers - Skateboarders - Glider pilots - Base jumpers There is a vast array of body-part-risking hobbies with a spectrum of associated risk. While I’m not one to encourage obvious stupidity, bodily risk is at the center of so many things that humans value, that I think there’s a framing problem by say…
Like some dude said, that's just, like, my opinion. I'm not forcing it on anyone, but I do want a fair chance of trying to convince others of it. I understand that mastery and control can come from dangerous activities, but I can still voice my disapproval of these activities, since you can get the same feeling through safer ways.
Interesting position which I dont personally think is true. I dont think it can be proven either way, but my counterpoint is below
1) Variability: Different people have different attraction/affinity and passions for activities or lifestyles.
2) Non-fungability: Not all feelings/experiences have equivalent replacements and not all personalities can be modified find equivalent satisfaction in something else.
3) Risk: Given that not all feelings are replacable with similar life satisfaction, individuals can and should balance risk against the life they want. Some feelings and values are worth dying for. (e.g if base jumping makes you so happy you would rather risk dying than live without it, DO IT). This should be celebrated, not condemmed.
There are worse fates than death, and I think a safe and unfulfilled life is one of them.
Of course everyone's opinion and "general advice" on this depends on if they think the current cultural norm is erroring on the side safetyism or risk-taking behavior. Based on my experience, I am far more concerned about my friends, family, and children stifiling their self actualization by taking too few risk opposed to too many.
People's advice will also obviously depend on where they their personal attractions are. For me, many of the things that make me satisfied with my life involved some risky behavior. Someone who's life satisfaction is derived from knitting might feel otherwise, but thats not me.
In short: "Different strokes for different folks"
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4chan is about as mainstream as it gets. Being edgy and racist isn't countercultural, certainly not nowadays.
> 4chan is about as mainstream as it gets. 4chan certainly isn't mainstream. Being somewhat well-trafficked != mainstream. > Being edgy and racist isn't countercultural, certainly not nowadays. That's just so obviously wrong, it's hard to know where to start. I mean, pretty much the entire media and business apparatus of the country spends a lot of effort loudly condemning those things. You might have the arrived at…
... and it's widely claimed by many that they're out of touch with Real American culture for doing so.
There's no easy, solid definition here. Disney and DeSantis are fighting over culture hot potatoes; which one is "establishment" and which one is "counter-culture" in that fight? (Neither, really. Both are establishment, and both are a little counter-cultural.)
4chan has become a lot less shocking than it used to be. That's a bit of a cultural shift in its direction.