this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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There’s always been a problem with surface level vibes analysis of media, hence Reagan using “born in the USA” as a campaign song.
I think the difference these days is that the internet has made more people aware of the idea of subtext, allegory, metaphor, etc in media in a way that prior generations mostly didn’t even consider. But, the awareness of the idea wasn’t coupled with a greater education on how to evaluate media for those things. So it’s less that it’s gotten worse overall, than it is that people who previously weren’t exposing how bad they are at it are doing so on the regular now.
I always find it funny when the narrative is beating the audience over the head with a theme and meanwhile people are like "but what could the cup on the table mean?" theory crafting and its consequences.
If Amazing Digital Circus is anything to go by, you might think people pay more attention to the background details than the dialog.
If you look in the background in episode 3 at 8:37 minutes, for half a frame you can see the silhouette of Sans Undertale, thus proving that ADC and Undertale take place in the same universe!
Over-reading is the counterpart to nothing meaning anything. Then there's also weirdos who try to say every noble sacrifice is a jesus figure but i don't think they're doing analysis per se.
That's an interesting point I've never seen brought up before. I guess we'll never really know how much of the silent generation watched Twilight Zone and their only takeaway was "huh, weird show" and then never thought of it again.
It could also be that the internet lets people stew on an opinion far more than they would've back in the day as well. Someone who didn't like Twilight Zone and thought it was weird and offputting might have a brief chat with their coworkers on Monday about it, and that was it.
These days though, you could find a hundred video essays/rants complaining about how Twilight Zone is the worst thing on TV and a travesty and uhh...whatever 1960s buzzword they would've used instead of "Woke". It's much easier for people to get caught in a spiral of confirming their own opinion and making it into something much bigger than it needs to be than it would've been back then.
the word you're looking for is "hippie"