Ethel Cain says we are in an irony epidemic – is she right?
What we’re dealing with is a full-blown cultural moment. The 20-year nostalgia cycle, climate-change nihilism, information saturation, streaming-era content overload, and our collective Long COVID of the soul have converged in a tidal wave of tackiness. What TikTok teens, white collar workers marooned in home offices, and the gatekept super-rich al... See more
judy berman • Welcome to the Era of Unapologetic Bad Taste
Perversely, irony relies on some remains of cultural capital in order to coherently express its destructive message. If elevated beyond commentary and analysis to its own pedestal of artistic value, its essence become desacralization and the making trite of deep truths we might prefer to respect and conserve.
Sacha Meyers • Bitcoin Is Venice: Essays on the Past and Future of Capitalism
Nara's meticulously staged domesticity is less an earnest embrace of tradition and more a savvy recognition of the internet's underlying logic: to succeed in the future, one must cloak themselves in remnants of the past.
Nara’s audience loves her nostalgic conservatism because it reorients them away from today’s particular brand of anxieties – clim... See more
Nara’s audience loves her nostalgic conservatism because it reorients them away from today’s particular brand of anxieties – clim... See more
Matt Klein • Future Burnout: On the False Promises & Expectations of What Comes "Next"
