Current Thing meme analysis and research

[Deleted member 4436]

I'm at a loss for words on what I want to say about this. I've rambled on a few times, asking "what the fuck are you people talking about?" or about whatever the "entropy" is supposed to be, and all of those times I've been talking about this image. It's like some sort of Lovecraftian amalgamation that came to me, like a dream foreshadowing Cthulhu, and it's just kind of summarized in that image. All of those emotions that compelled me to think those things were fighting against this image before I saw it.

Now, I'm 99% sure that the original creator made the image as a kuso, but the fact that it exists at all is more what perturbs me. The image is both depicting entropy in its purest form, while also being created from that entropy, as well. It says nothing. It's just an overflow of images combined into one. It's the emptiness that exists behind beauty. It's the true modern aesthetic, the everything with no meaning behind it. Looking at this image is no differing from looking at any "aesthetic" image that you'll find by looking up that word online: it's beautiful to look at it, but you don't really look at it. It's not really an image, even.

For reference, I've only been really posting on the internet for a couple of years now. I used it before that, but not really in the same ways that the average person does nowadays. And everywhere I've looked, there's been this underlying discussion about "fandom culture" and all topics related to it, that has been pervasive everywhere I go and it's always rubbed me the wrong way. It's like those multi-hour-long Youtube video essays--something that happens to be included on the image; they say so much, and yet so little at the same time. All of these discussions mean nothing. Not to throw you guys under the bus either, but most of what's said in this thread and on this website in general kind of feels the same.

It's like we're all playing the ultimate game of Chmess.

 

[remember_summer_days]

All of these discussions mean nothing.

What's a discussion that means something though

 

[Deleted member 4436]

Here's me btw lol
Most of this is just from osmosis from /v/
"x" is something that I don't recognize,
"?" is something that I do recognize but I couldn't really put a name to

Forgot to mark MGR/DE/Lost Media Wiki/sewerslvt but they're on there too

Another large portion of my familiarity of these things comes from word of mouth/searching them out on my own, so I'm not sure if the algorithm theory is all that true

 

[remember_summer_days]

Here's me btw lol
Most of this is just from osmosis from /v/
"x" is something that I don't recognize,
"?? is something that I do recognize but I couldn't really put a name to
View attachment 58122

Forgot to mark MGR/DE/Lost Media Wiki/sewerslvt but they're on there too

Lol, I was about to do something like this. Tomorrow I'll post a doc corresponding to the numeration, I'll also try cross-checking yours with mine so that we can see which numbers are left unanswered.

 

[Deleted member 4436]

I realize that I could actually just DM the OP of the image and ask him some questions. That may be a good idea, instead of overanalyzing the image and talking out of our asses.
Would anyone like to contribute some interview questions?

 

[RealTomCruise]

I don't understand where the thread is going with the hyper analysis of the message behind the image itself, isn't it just a general statement on how those who actively seek "alternative" or "underground" media often resemble those who they deem to be mainstream and try to alienate themselves from? It's just looking at the zoomer in particular but it's really prevalent along all the generations (hippies, punk, etc). It's not if something is "normie" in and of itself but of the way the people treat the content resembling the people they actively mock. Keep in mind I'm effectively a boomer when it comes to irony so I may be missing something. Dissecting the individual components seems interesting though, the image is quite dense for sure.

 

[remember_summer_days]

I realize that I could actually just DM the OP of the image and ask him some questions. That may be a good idea, instead of overanalyzing the image and talking out of our asses.
Would anyone like to contribute some interview questions?

We could... But I think the fun is in trying to catalogue everything ourselves. Though we could DM him if we cant find something.

I dont thinm there's anything that deep about this image. It's just ironically making fun of 'Iloveweirdthing' 'normies', probably in an ironic fashion since I doubt OP doesnt enjoy anything that's in the pic.

I was also gonna PM him, but I guess since you took the initiative first, ask him what has his message with the pic or if it was just some nonsense bait meme

 

[Vaporweeb]

This is probably the most retarded thread I've seen on this website. Period.

I personally don't think this thread has anything new to it. No content worth analyzing. It feels like an idea that has been FUCKING RAPED to death by this point. It feels like it comes to the same conclusion:

ZE
NORMIE
IS ZE
BIGGEST
THREAT

ZOOMIES WANT TO RAPE OUR WAFIUS
CUT THEM INTO A THOUSAND PIECES
THROW THEM IN DITCHES
COOK N' BROIL THEM

THEY'VE BEEN INFECTED
WITH THE NORM
N O R M
N O R M

ZA GARDEN OF EDEN
MY PERCIOUS INTERCONNECTED FORUM
GREEN FIELDS ONCE WERE
BEEN SCORCHED TO ASH

MEDIA MEDIA
THIS MEDIA IS ZOOMED
IT'S NORMAL
IT'S NORMAL
IT'S NORMAL

I'M WAKE, JUST AS MUCH
ABOVE THEM, I AM
BELOW, THEY ARE

CUT THEIR HEADS
SPEAR THEM
BOIL THEIR TONGUES
POP THEM EYE BALLS
AND BLOW THE DRUMS

SAVE EDEN, EVEN IF ASHED
WHAT EVER IS LEFT
IS OURS TO TAKE.


>Heil Neruda.

Hey man what's ur favorite pizza topping

 

[Andy Kaufman]

every douchey fintech bro that I couldn't stand

hi

 

[Andy Kaufman]

OYC had this already in a much more entertaining way imo:
ofc it's a little outdated but the idea is the same

View: https://youtu.be/_AExKc6dgFA

 

[Andy Kaufman]

BTW I think "deep normie" is the perfect label for this

 

[Some_porcupine]

"It is popular, now it sucks" is main phrase from Tropes wiki on Hipster term.

Lol, also, remember "hay" music? (Family guy reference). Cca 2009/2012 ... Do you?

Sorry not sorry, I still didn't grew out from this iam14 phase. Just. Can't. Accept these things.

Like, maybe it is the way I am supposed to be, by Big media, I mean. To hate normalcy. To be quirky, weird, different.

Perfect marketing campaign, for weak, vulnerable and lost. Those w/o personality, NPC.

It ends all the same. Becoming what you hate, nonetheless. You simply can't ; discover something new. To see something new, weird, you have to...

In first place, to do that, to get "out", "run away" from all this - don't you need to know what you want, what you look for - in the very first place?! Ironic, isn't it, lol
...

 

[SomaSpice]

I think its an image meant to rile up people who invest too much of their identity into the media they like. If you huff up and are like "none of this is obscure", it got you. If you are irked by the soyjack, it got you. If you try too much to make sense of it, it got you. If you're annoyed by the mixed-in "normie" or popular stuff, it got you. If you count how many IPs/concepts you know as a badge of honor, (nothing wrong on doing it for fun) it got you.

Basically, the only non-soyjack choice is to have mild curiosity or apathy towards the image.

In a related tangent, this discussion has made me refine the thoughts I had when I made this thread:
https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.p...-to-take-a-life-of-its-own-and-then-die.4696/

To summarize my thoughts, in an age of mass discoverability and permutation of media and information, there is no canon. The origin points, timelines, and ethos get lost in the fandom. I found particularly frustrating the deformation of the original intention or soul of original works by virtue of becoming liked.

Relating back to the image, being knowledgeable about obscure stuff has never been cool, but at least it earned you cred. Now it doesn't even do that since nothing remains obscure for long. Worse, the mass of media has grown so much that being able to keep up is just a bad look.

But we should still enjoy the things we like and we should still enjoy talking about them. Let's just forget about the labels of normie or weird, in-the-know or not. They've become completely meaningless, things just move too fast. And in any case, real life comes first, so let's not get too attached.

But also I'm hell down to cataloging this shit and doing a normie/weird judgement. Kill all r*dditards with shit taste SOY! SOY! SOY!

 

[RIG]

 

[SomaSpice]

View attachment 58134

Take it as a badge of honor. Soyjack fights snd lives for you.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

hi

Andy you're cool though. But I f I catch you walking around NYC or San Francisco in a $3,500 rain jacket, drinking meal replacements while lecturing strangers on why their medical records should really be stored on the etherium blockchain...

 

[LostintheCycle]

This image is stupid and I don't understand why people here are taking it seriously. It deliberately has a incongruent and wide net which captures a wide range of disjunct people, and tells you that you're the soyjack for liking this stuff. It's shitting on everyone basically. It's pressuring you to rethink your choices. Well I'm not so easily manipulated, and will continue to listen to Machine Girl and play Fallout.
Now I'd like to explain why I think obscurity is a stupid idea. I had a think about what obscurity really means, because even though we 'get' it, we don't really know what it is. So in reference to media, what is obscurity? I have decided on three distinct possible meanings:

1. The ceiling, difficulty, or investment required, to engage with the thing.
2. A measurement of some group's inverse engagement with the thing.
3. The group of people 'in-the-know' arbitrary choice of whether the thing is 'obscure'.

These are terrible metrics because:

1. is almost nonexistent anymore. It's probably the most genuine measure of obscurity out of all three. For example, before streaming if you wanted to engage with anime you need to be willing to invest more time and money into shipping over the media, thus it's sort of obscure. Compared to watching sports, you could easily do so at your home or likely at a friends house, thus it is not obscure. All there really is now is the investment of time and effort, which keeps some things sort of obscure until people make breakdown videos online and loosen that hurdle.
2. is relative to whatever group is assumed, in the way that Binding of Isaac is obscure to most people but not to gamers. It's also too wide, as it would mean that the chiptune I made when I was 14 would be the ultimate 'obscure' media. People aren't really interested in this sort of a metric I think, and this isn't what they'd usually mean.
3. is not even a metric, just a loose collective choice. I'd say it is the closest to what happens anyway. For example you'll hear some people say 4chan is obscure, even if a lot of people have heard of it and many like the funny greentexts, because people just agreed that it is obscure at some point.

There is that issue that zoomers started seeking out media by the time that first metric was dead, so how could they engage with something that is 'obscure' when it all takes the same amount of effort? Since the second metric is kinda useless, people just use the third metric, which is based on absolutely nothing but arbitrary consensus. It comes down to group dynamics.
What even is the point in pondering the obscurity of media? Does it enrich you to know the obscurity level of your media of choice? Obscurity doesn't matter, in fact it's not even real. So we should stop worrying about that, and just enjoy what we enjoy.
Finally, I'd just like to say THANK GOD Aphex Twin isn't on that graph or I would look like such a poser for enjoying his music.

 

[deepfreeze]

I, too, cannot understand what the fuck is going on in this thread. I'm not sure if I've finally succeeded in dissolving my brain with alcohol or if it's actually incomprehensible.

 

[Deleted member 4436]

I, too, cannot understand what the fuck is going on in this thread. I'm not sure if I've finally succeeded in dissolving my brain with alcohol or if it's actually incomprehensible.

It's just the current equivalent of saying "liking Pink Floyd isn't a personality trait".

It's an obvious kusopost btw


And I actually agree with the message I think, even if it was just a joke. If you locked me in a room and forced me to do nothing but browse Twitter for 72 hours I think I would have made this image myself immediately afterwards.

This isn't anything new, images aren't anything new, liking things isn't anything new, not liking things isn't anything new, pointing out that liking things isn't anything new isn't anything new, saying that there's nothing new isn't anything new, saying that Agora is dying isn't anything new, the post I'm making isn't anything new, we're all just doing the same things over and over again. We're actually just going over the same few things in this thread as we have in most of the previous threads, which were probably touched on on earlier websites back in the 2000s, which are just the same conclusions that people were making in the 70s and the 50s before that, and probably has more precedents than even that.

 

[UCD]

Basically this picture says: You are not cool and it doesn't matter what you like or know about. Liking an obscure thing is cosmologically equal to liking a popular thing. If you don't know anything shown, you win, if you know everything but don't care that your precious secret content was shown in a soyjack meme, you also win. Like any soyjack meme, if you get angry at any of it you lose.