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So, I'm making this thread to discuss the political implications of this exotic variation of the soyjack meme.
I think this meme is trying to attack stuff that's obscure, weird, and grotesque to normies but really it's some normie-core shit all along. So like, it's trying to point out how mass culture ends up sublimating unique/fringe ideas for its own purposes. I will try making an effort to post down the line about this, but coincidentally, I've been thinking about this sort of issue recently, even before I saw this meme. Ever since the rise of mass media, it has been a major concern for artists to avoid their art being subjugated by The machine, and what can you do to avoid something like that? Novels like Mao II seem to imply that the novelist (And by extension artist) has lost this battle, and the only message that can avoid being consumed by mass culture is radical violence (Though I don't think Delillo was saying this is a good thing). From the few things I've read on guro, this seems to also have been a major interest of guro artist. The issue is, I think, because of our current mode of cultural consumption, to become individualized in many ways means to become alienated. I've also heard that staying authentic and was a major thing for the punk/goth people, hence the selling out meme. I guess all the things in here can be considered as stuff that sold out. Though some of the entries here are sort of baffling since I don't think they ver pretended to be unique or eccentric at all in the first place, like Scott the Wozz.
Anyways, the OP is a bit rambly cause my brain is a bit tired lol. But I'll probably effort more about my ideas on the matter later, or write an essay about it. I think there's something tying 'normie culture' and kitsch together in a way that illuminates the modern role of the artist, though that also produces some very important questions.
What is normie/normie culture?
Why do people of our stride look down upon normies? Or in more agora-friendly terms, Why is being >reddit undesirable?
What does it mean for something to be posser or a prep, to become normie? Is normie friendly a bad thing?
If we grant that normie is undesirable, how can we escape being normie?
And with respect to the image. Is everything here truly normie? It's weird because I feel like most things here are normie-fringe or normie-teetering. Hope that makes sense. Like it's not something most people on the street know about but most people who spend a good amount of their day online on 'fringe' websites like 4chan/Tumblr know about. See, here's the difficulty, for example, is 4chan/tumblr even not-normie when most young people know about them?
I also want YOU to help me catalog everything that's in here. We'll start by cutting segments of the image and writing down what each one is referring too, because like @SolidStateSurvivor pointed out, this is a great timecapsule of zoomer internet culture. After we catalog something it could be fun for the COUNCIL OF AGORA ROAD to decide if the thing in question is normie or not.
DOC with catalogue/explanation of everything in the meme: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IHlQ5TmKyr2INDeLOdYCgCoUJUKe1ccF7-CNh3eg6mk/edit
If you want to edit:
Add explanation and context of the thing and its impact on internet culture. If you want to go the extra mile, add links to vids explaining the thing, or memes, fanart, discussion boards, etc.
Image with Keys:
View: https://imgur.com/a/KAAf3RJ
Current Progress:
Circle means we know what it is.
X means we don't know what it is.
?? means we've seen it but don't know enough about it to make a description.
View: https://imgur.com/GiF8PIW
I think this meme is trying to attack stuff that's obscure, weird, and grotesque to normies but really it's some normie-core shit all along. So like, it's trying to point out how mass culture ends up sublimating unique/fringe ideas for its own purposes. I will try making an effort to post down the line about this, but coincidentally, I've been thinking about this sort of issue recently, even before I saw this meme. Ever since the rise of mass media, it has been a major concern for artists to avoid their art being subjugated by The machine, and what can you do to avoid something like that? Novels like Mao II seem to imply that the novelist (And by extension artist) has lost this battle, and the only message that can avoid being consumed by mass culture is radical violence (Though I don't think Delillo was saying this is a good thing). From the few things I've read on guro, this seems to also have been a major interest of guro artist. The issue is, I think, because of our current mode of cultural consumption, to become individualized in many ways means to become alienated. I've also heard that staying authentic and was a major thing for the punk/goth people, hence the selling out meme. I guess all the things in here can be considered as stuff that sold out. Though some of the entries here are sort of baffling since I don't think they ver pretended to be unique or eccentric at all in the first place, like Scott the Wozz.
Anyways, the OP is a bit rambly cause my brain is a bit tired lol. But I'll probably effort more about my ideas on the matter later, or write an essay about it. I think there's something tying 'normie culture' and kitsch together in a way that illuminates the modern role of the artist, though that also produces some very important questions.
What is normie/normie culture?
Why do people of our stride look down upon normies? Or in more agora-friendly terms, Why is being >reddit undesirable?
What does it mean for something to be posser or a prep, to become normie? Is normie friendly a bad thing?
If we grant that normie is undesirable, how can we escape being normie?
And with respect to the image. Is everything here truly normie? It's weird because I feel like most things here are normie-fringe or normie-teetering. Hope that makes sense. Like it's not something most people on the street know about but most people who spend a good amount of their day online on 'fringe' websites like 4chan/Tumblr know about. See, here's the difficulty, for example, is 4chan/tumblr even not-normie when most young people know about them?
I also want YOU to help me catalog everything that's in here. We'll start by cutting segments of the image and writing down what each one is referring too, because like @SolidStateSurvivor pointed out, this is a great timecapsule of zoomer internet culture. After we catalog something it could be fun for the COUNCIL OF AGORA ROAD to decide if the thing in question is normie or not.
DOC with catalogue/explanation of everything in the meme: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IHlQ5TmKyr2INDeLOdYCgCoUJUKe1ccF7-CNh3eg6mk/edit
If you want to edit:
Add explanation and context of the thing and its impact on internet culture. If you want to go the extra mile, add links to vids explaining the thing, or memes, fanart, discussion boards, etc.
Image with Keys:
View: https://imgur.com/a/KAAf3RJ
Current Progress:
Circle means we know what it is.
X means we don't know what it is.
?? means we've seen it but don't know enough about it to make a description.
View: https://imgur.com/GiF8PIW
Last edited: