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Setting aside arguments that could be considered more partisan...I think its partially mainstreaming. I'm sure an early Church father or Renaissance secularist

Setting aside arguments that could be considered more partisan...I think its partially mainstreaming. I'm sure an early Church father or Renaissance secularist were a bit more sophisticated in promulgating and defending their creed than your average Joe Schmoe door to door evangelist or random early 2000s poster to r/atheism. What was the domain of (still crazy imo) but select group of activists/academics is now to the point where people with actual diagnosed mental disorders are latching on to it in large numbers. (my personal favorite way of measuring whether something is mainstream) https://youtu.be/Gzdf4V7Cf_M https://youtu.be/Gzdf4V7Cf_M Also theres the new dynamic which has emerged within the past decade or 2 but has ramped up considerably where Progressives are the new establishment. They of course have dominated certain areas for a long time but its at the point now where every major sector of society (with a current trivial exception of a tenuous hold on a few offices in the federal government) is controlled by people who are fanatics for or at least bow to what would have been considered ridiculous political correctness/social justice only a few short years earlier. Parody walks hand in hand with fighting against something larger. So does self actualization. Hence the desperate attempts for people to convince themselves that Google/MS/Facebook/Amazon/CNN/HuffPo/NYT et al is 'The Resistance'.

taurath 7y ago
Excuse me for a moment while I mourn for my youtube suggestions. I think mainstreaming is an interesting point - a similar strain to what people are calling the "rise of populism" which ends up being more direct. In some ways its empowering the unwashed masses, and in others its being more genuine/less filtered. I had another paragraph here that went into how progressives aren't the establishment economically by any means and was about to disagree, but after re-reading and scoping your argument to just having command of the social landscape I think you're probably correct. The lines of attack brought on by some in the social justice world can be patently ridiculous, and are ripe for parody. Its difficult to come around to being empathetic to that fact when most of my upbringing was during the culture wars against the "prudes", who had all the power and were using it to gatekeep everyone. I'm certainly more comfortable living in this social environment myself, but I remember the feelings of empowerment when we got to call out something in society that was obviously bullshit bullshit. I suppose I have some fear around that as a natural backlash on some issues can turn into a general backlash against the entire thing - are we heading for another Disco Demolition? Or will a more middle ground maturing of language happen? One thing does seem almost certain - the corporations will make a lot of money any way the wind blows.
- pjc50 7y ago
  > are we heading for another Disco Demolition? I think we're well past that and into the indiscriminate murder. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/28/charlottesville-james-fields-life-sentence-heather-heyer-car-attack https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/28/charlottesvi... There have been a few attempts to start mass destruction of consumer products in response to companies getting involved in the culture war, such as Nike supporting the "take a knee" protests. The only reason nobody's done this with music is that it's dematerialised.
  - taurath 7y ago
    I wouldn’t take the act of destruction as being literal. However, if all of a sudden Nike’s became actually uncool and not just uncool with the alt-right then that would be a Disco Demolition.
dillonmckay 7y ago
I agree with this. Political humor used to fill a small niche, and was always an ‘easier’ form of comedy. I remember Bill Maher’s standup in the 80s and 90s, and was completely disinterested. It was simply not amusing. Political humor is one of the lowest forms of comedy to me, and unfortunately has become a quite popular genre.

taurath 7y ago

Excuse me for a moment while I mourn for my youtube suggestions. I think mainstreaming is an interesting point - a similar strain to what people are calling the "rise of populism" which ends up being more direct. In some ways its empowering the unwashed masses, and in others its being more genuine/less filtered. I had another paragraph here that went into how progressives aren't the establishment economically by any means and was about to disagree, but after re-reading and scoping your argument to just having command of the social landscape I think you're probably correct. The lines of attack brought on by some in the social justice world can be patently ridiculous, and are ripe for parody. Its difficult to come around to being empathetic to that fact when most of my upbringing was during the culture wars against the "prudes", who had all the power and were using it to gatekeep everyone. I'm certainly more comfortable living in this social environment myself, but I remember the feelings of empowerment when we got to call out something in society that was obviously bullshit bullshit. I suppose I have some fear around that as a natural backlash on some issues can turn into a general backlash against the entire thing - are we heading for another Disco Demolition? Or will a more middle ground maturing of language happen? One thing does seem almost certain - the corporations will make a lot of money any way the wind blows.

pjc50 7y ago
> are we heading for another Disco Demolition? I think we're well past that and into the indiscriminate murder. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/28/charlottesville-james-fields-life-sentence-heather-heyer-car-attack https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/28/charlottesvi... There have been a few attempts to start mass destruction of consumer products in response to companies getting involved in the culture war, such as Nike supporting the "take a knee" protests. The only reason nobody's done this with music is that it's dematerialised.
- taurath 7y ago
  I wouldn’t take the act of destruction as being literal. However, if all of a sudden Nike’s became actually uncool and not just uncool with the alt-right then that would be a Disco Demolition.

dillonmckay 7y ago

I agree with this. Political humor used to fill a small niche, and was always an ‘easier’ form of comedy. I remember Bill Maher’s standup in the 80s and 90s, and was completely disinterested. It was simply not amusing. Political humor is one of the lowest forms of comedy to me, and unfortunately has become a quite popular genre.