it’s interesting from my perspective that obscure little things from long ago have amplified to the public sphere.
Fewer people were online. I was and was lucky. Now the world is, and a lot of the experimental ideas from then in the college are common but too often done wrong or just as misunderstood.
So it’s been fascinating.
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Being one of the poor kids, I saw the weird combination of hypocrasy and good intentions. I liked multiculturalism and political correctness (although nobody called it that unless they hated it), but only as a choice.
I loved – and love – the idea of respect, of calling people not by slurs but by what they wanted. It felt like the potential for a greater future was at hand, and I still believe.
But the pushback started right when it started. Mostly people just didn’t understand. Strange ideas, strange way of talking.
There’s room enough for everybody but even at 18 in 1990, I’d proudly quip, “How can you be tolerant if you don’t tolerate intolerant people? Maybe it’s THEY who are tolerating you?” I thought I was clever.
But I never foresaw fascism. So, it’s been an interesting ride so far.
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I think a lot of that stage of the experiment ran its course. Today people are harder, tougher, more layers of irony in a Spongebob meme made by a 12 yr old than any post modernist essay could bring.
All of it is “out there”, available, public knowledge. Still lots of misunderstanding and folks have their camps, but I think it’s all post modern now, both for better and not. Concepts are deconstructed and reconstituted millions of times a day by countless people.
I think we’re moving past an inbetween stage of “hard camps” and towards a future of subcultures. I see positive things on the horizon but first I think these last bits of extreme idealisms both left and right have to run their course and find their awkward peace. It’ll have to at some point. Just, not yet.
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[but I don’t see tribalism but rather subcultures, groups formed by interest and obsession. I think it’ll be good]
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I _definitely_ want to compare notes. I’m always trying to upgrade my understanding of the planet and hopefully counteract any cynicism I might have developed.
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“whoa. that sounds like something a character from my dreams or nightmares would say. nice.”
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