satire is a collective sedative
Satire is a creative superpower that has the ability to liberate us from the status quo, but our overreliance on it has turned it into a collective sedative.
satire is a collective sedative
It feels like there’s been a dimming of our imagination and even of possibility. Are we somehow becoming less creative?
The New York Times • The Algorithm Has Been Hiding Something From You | NYT Opinion
There are obvious downsides to this line of thinking. It’s anti-intellectual, for one. But also, the incessant caricaturing and dumbing down of major life events numbs us to their significance. If a meme pokes fun at someone’s bad behaviour, it gives the bad behaviour a pass. Through our rapid meme-fication and IJBOLing, we obfuscate the evil of th... See more
Have We Lost Our Minds?
There are countless examples of how we turn everything into a meme or a joke online. Musician Ethel Cain (Hayden Silas Anhedönia) has noticed this too, ranting on Tumblr earlier this week about how “nobody takes anything seriously anymore“. “It makes me feel so crazy and annoyed because I am constantly bombarded by jokes,” she wrote. The now-delete... See more
Halima Jibril • Ethel Cain says we are in an irony epidemic – is she right?
“The role of a creative director has become a meme,” says Chris Black, the founder of Done to Death Projects, a consultancy. It’s a quippy summary of the fast-changing pace of creative director appointments and the fact that the same group of people periodically move between major luxury houses, to the extent that one would think there’s a dearth o
... See moreSSENSE • What’s a Creative Director For, Anyway?
She’s not wrong. In recent years, I’ve noticed that, as a culture, we struggle to engage sincerely with art – or with life (at least, that’s how it seems online). I first observed this in 2016 when Donald Trump ran for president; his actions and comments were defanged as he was endlessly memed because no one thought he’d actually win. I saw it afte... See more
Halima Jibril • Ethel Cain says we are in an irony epidemic – is she right?
then how have irony, irreverence, and rebellion come to be not liberating but enfeebling in the culture today's avant-garde tries to write about? One clue's to be found in the fact that irony is still around, bigger than ever after thirty long years as the dominant mode of hip expression. It's not a mode that wears especially well. As Hyde puts it,
... See morethefreelibrary.com • E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.
“Sometimes those ironic and satirical memes are too heavy-handed, and they go into things that, at a certain point, it’s not really a joke anymore,” Mr. Luna said. He said he appreciated wholesome content instead. Watching cat videos is one of his favorite pastimes. “I really enjoy seeing that type of content as opposed to people making fun of othe
... See moreSadiba Hasan • When Did ‘Wholesome’ Become a Gen Z Compliment?
exactly—irony was defeatist, timid, the telltale of a generation too afraid to say what it meant, and so in danger of forgetting it had anything to say.
D. T. Max • Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace
Or Grant McCracken put it,
”If you are under 25, popular culture is on perpetual spin cycle. Everything is in motion. Except you.”
Memes by definition are idea viruses. And it feels like our cultural immune system is able to move on quicker and quicker. Perhaps built in remixing features on platforms have helped the viruses spread, but has diminish
... See more