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This is probably a bit, but this kind of thing is what I mean when I say people pathologize everything now.
(hexbear.net)
A less wild example I can think of is that someone that is antisocial and had their nose in books used to just be called an introvert or a nerd, but now such a person would probably accused of using escapism to avoid the real world. A harmless personality trait is now considered a concerning problem that an individual should be shamed for.
Not everything outside of reproducing and generating capital is cope.
There’s something to be said about how hiding behind irony allows nastiness to fester.
I started to feel this way after watching a whole bunch of Joe Pera and it kept making me cry. Stupid shit about trees and stuff was making me weepy. Obviously it’s absurd but it pointed to something deeper in me longing to feel a world that isn’t couched behind 15 layers of irony and memetic recitation.
I wish Mark Fisher lived long enough to have finished Acid Communism. But what we have from the intro is him imploring the left to recapture hope. To me, the kindness of someone like Ms. Rachel exemplifies that hope. Sincerity and empathy in an era of ironic detachment and nihilism is radical and gives me hope.
I think you're totally right, but I do still think parody is a useful tool, it's just counter-productive to have communities in perpetual roleplay of a semi-directionless "parody" that ends up just as an excuse for real antisociality, which is what "irony poisoning" usually is.