when you take an ironic, negative, or numb attitude to everything, you are by definition not on the line for solutions, and when you stop looking for solutions, you lose all agency and will in your life.

It’s true—so many of the things that once gave the average person’s life real meaning are now treated with sarcasm and contempt: college is a waste of money, work is a waste of your life, getting married is just a piece of paper, having kids is a nightmare, family is a burden, hobbies are merely quaint, earnestly expressing yourself is cringe,... See more

People started coping with this lack of meaning through a kind of ironic detachment (which is very much still around), but it has matured into a pervasive cultural apathy, a permeating numbness. This isn’t nihilism per se. (Even nihilists have a sincere belief system ; they just sincerely believe that life is meaningless.) What we’re dealing with... See more

“It is a joy to be hidden, and a disaster not to be found.”

The picture is bleak. It’s so sad it’s difficult to comprehend. How do you protect yourself in such a world?

You simply don’t allow yourself to experience it.

Everything is delivered with a wink from one eye and an eye-roll from the other. We live in a mud puddle of memes, ironic hot takes, and self-conscious self-reference.

It’s been hard for me to identify what is going on and what is missing. I’ve had my own cycles of coping with it. I’ve been telling myself that I don’t care about people not caring.

Life has gotten very chaotic incredibly quickly. It has become increasingly difficult to parse anything from the static.

“It is a joy to be hidden, and a disaster not to be found.”