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The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

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131–140 of 471 posts

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try explaining next that computing and gaming used to be subcultures/countercultures. I remember how Mortal Kombat and DOOM were going to cause the fall of civilization.

> I remember how Mortal Kombat and DOOM were going to cause the fall of civilization. redisman, could you tell more about this?

Probably referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_congressional_hearings_on...

Keep in mind when these games were released there was no rating system for video games. The ESRB came about because of these hearings.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#132
There's definitely an old internet culture that eschews social media and it has seemed to grow (again) over the years. One example is Freenode:

- The network has some moderation, but bans are last resorts where on social media bans and temporary bans are part of the process.

- Much of the moderation is left to channel operators and guides are given by the network on how to moderate.

- Much of the network is apolitical and you can even be banned for talking about politics in many channels. This runs counter to pop-culture with encourages not only discussing politics but airing your politics with known dissidents.

- Nearly every channel is topic focused, where pop-culture and social media encourage broad, boundaryless discussion.

- Pseudoanonymity is still an option; in contrast to real identity policies in social media.

You can't tell me that's not culture, but maybe it's not a whole culture just yet. That said, keep poking the bear cub and see if it doesn't grow up.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#133
post #35
post #20

I agree that you have to be essentially anonymous to take part in counterculture these days. But the author claims that Discord and Reddit are examples of counterculture. I wholeheartedly disagree, these platforms are overly sanitized, moderated by the company, not the community. On Discord, people get banned for empty mass reports, and they can delete servers as they please. Reddit is valuable for driving communitie…

Further, reddit is built from the ground up to force consensus. Counterculture cannot exist on the site by definition, as anything prevalent on the site is there by consensus.

Agree - and People should also be aware who funds these sites. Especially reddit.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube is filled with so many interesting little channels. I wish the algorithms highlighted them more. I remember one channel of an old guy just smoking a cigar for an hour. Said nothing, just sat there. There were thousands of videos of him doing this, going back years. I don’t remember the name of it, unfortunately.

Can you share a few? YouTube always seems to stick me in a bubble and never recommends any worthwhile new channels.

I think you just have search for something, then go to the later pages of results.

Not sure I’d call it obscure, as Nick Knight is pretty well known as a photographer, but I really love the ShowStudio channel. They experiment with film and fashion in really interesting ways.

https://youtube.com/user/SHOWstudio

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hadn't thought of boycotting much of popular online space as being counter-cultural. It's an interesting thought I think the interesting part is that it's kind of counter-culture but it itself is not really a culture at all. There are no groups (as far as I know) for people who eschew social media. They don't meet up at the pub and talk about it, they don't have any kind of organization, even a loose one. People…

Yes, I think that's an important distinction - you need a critical mass of people sharing in countercultural behavior/practices in some way to get an actual counterculture. Many people have eschewed social media for one reason or another but not in some unified way that I know of.

There’s 40% of the population you’re missing that doesn’t participate in social media because their ideas have been banned. Sure, they might have a Facebook or a Twitter but nothing substantive happens there. They believe in things like gun rights, freedom of speech and religion, and they often go to meeting places called a “church”, which these days could be considered “counter-culture”. Their values don’t come from TV or Hollywood movies but instead have been passed down from generation to generation.

From my experience people from US costal states seem to think these people are a small minority (5%) and tend to be shocked every time an election comes around.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#136
I think platforms like onlyfans will end up bringing back counterculture, especially if more platforms emerge outside the uber-censorious US and esp, if they can embrace new forms of payments. porn is showing the way once again

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#137
From what I see on TikTok, GenZ are coming out as low-key marxists in droves. As a millennial I grew up through a process that started with believing in free-market ideals and slowly seeing them shattered with each passing atrocity of monopolists. I'd mark Enron/Worldcom times as a coming-of-age for my economic cynicism, and its been exponentiating ever since, especially through my journey as an entrepreneur and employer. These kids have had cynical humor and class struggle as mother's milk, and have little interest in repeating history. That isn't to say that conservativism doesn't have a place among today's youth, but its largely promoted with billions of dollars being poured into targeted influence campaigns. Bullshit has a tiny half-life these days as fact-checking anything is a matter of moving one's thumbs in a small incantation.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#138
post #42

My teenage son asked me the other day what "grunge" and "goth" were. I was then trying to explain "subculture" and "counterculture", and it was surprisingly difficult to explain.. or convey, especially in the context of what he's seen so far in his life. I tried using examples of my own youthful adventures and communities -- still not easy.

Kpop stans are a live example of a subculture, if not a counterculture, that teenagers may be familiar with.

I wouldn't call them a counterculture by any stretch of the imagination.

Kpop is deliberately manufactured culture. The personalities and music are meticulously curated by corporations. "Underground Kpop" is practically an oxymoron like a "married bachelor" would be.

And that's not to insult or knock it.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is the least countercultural site I can imagine. It's still Top 10 in sites visited, is it not? It's the very zeitgeist of the times. Those examples weaken an otherwise good article.

Maybe Reddit as a whole, but what are your thoughts on WallStreetBets? It seems that WSB has all of the elements of a counterculture, although maybe diluted after the wide spread GME interest.

Yeah because WSB uses another language that many do not know, or care to know.

Re: The internet didn’t kill counterculture – you just won’t find it on Instagram

#140
post #25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What side of the counter culture position would you have been while MLK was pushing for reform? Would your line "its clear which way the cultural winds are blowing today" align with the prejudice side? I think so. Do you look back and see that movement as an evolution and betterment for all of mankind or do you see it as "winds were blowing the wrong way"? Change is hard and change requires you to acknowledge your li…

I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at here, but I will always side with human rights. I am not American BTW so this little piece of cultural trivia is not especially relevant to me. > Would your line "its clear which way the cultural winds are blowing today" align with the prejudice side? ??

I was trying to make a point, not well, that cultural trends are hard to understand while you are living them.
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