Combined with a lack of whimsy in the world, it really does create an environment of drab just emptiness, a culture of null. Where you're not allowed to be passionate about anything, you're not allowed to feel the gravity of anything, while simultaneously not giving you any room for lightheartedness or any kind of real humor. You're allowed to make snarky comments and be apathetic, and that's the end of it! You're gonna be a blob of nothing and like it!
This reminds me of how millennials & zoomers go rabid at things like skibidi toilet & the cotton eye joe nugget for being "BRAIN ROT!!1!" and think gen alpha will die from watching it. It's extremely similar to the YTPs of the 2000s & the MLG edits of the 2010s, which they acknowledge and have gone back and mocked. It is a true revelation at their lack of responsibility to bear the task of parenting & so they shout blind rage at goofy memes, expecting that the internet become more boring so they don't have to deal with turning off pablo's ipad. /caca/ wins!
I've always felt like the world could use some people just being a little silly goofy, but if nobody is ever serious about things that matter, being silly goofy doesn't mean anything. The world needs people to be serious and to care about things, otherwise the world will just be uninteresting for everyone as we slowly decay into generation upon generation of people too unserious to put forth effort to maintain society, but not silly enough when it matters to keep things lighthearted.
Recognizing this is an important step to moving above those that participate in this behavior. Other generations aren’t blind, they see what the majority of zoomers are. If you do not act this way you are far more likely to succeed if only because people in other generations, the ones currently seated in power, will view you more favorably. My point, do not succumb to the social pressures of your contemporaries because if you do you will never rise above them, only continue to be among them.
Notice how the most common zoomer insult is "ok but who asked/don't care, didn't ask." To these place, the ideal person is a drugged out emotionless husk with no dreams or ambitions. Terrible!
I've noticed that in most arguments online, it's not really an "intellectual" competition taking place, but a pointless back-and-forth of portraying the other as mad, coping, seething, malding, trolled, baited, whatever. This trend appears often in site-spanning debates and two-man reply chains alike (take note of it whenever you see it in the future), but discourse over that Japanese McDonald's ad Twitterites have become obsessed with is a strong, recent example. Once again, passion is taken in bad faith and conviction will be held against you.
Irony is such a strong tool for the midwit because it acts as both a sword to cut you down and shield to protect them from all assaults at the same time. The creation of anything of worth takes two main ingredients, passion and skill. The midwit has neither and tries to use this simplicity as a proof of having skill. The most common area I see this in is philosophy, and even more specifically, when talking to a nihilist. Even if your attack on them is completely logical they see any existentialism as drivel that they are too smart to take part in. It protects their ego because they never have to really have to throw their worldview to the wolves.
Also just want to point out if this was posted on ifunny there would 100% be at least one person who would stretch big chungus onto it.
I definitely agree with this sentiment. In my experience there seems to be a sort of exception Zoomers have to their typical ironic disposition, and that seems to be their sacred cows of marijuana, mediocre media, or their special classes of people. There is nothing a certain subset of Zoomers takes more seriously than accusations of -isms or opposition to their political ideology. These Zoomers however are so poorly equipped to respond to genuine pushback against their objects of worship they only know how to respond in the stupid "kill-shot" method. This invariably results in almost comically retarded responses - E.G. redditors accusing anyone who disagrees with some minor aspect of the Democratic Party as simultaneously fascist, communist, "magat," chud, Russian agent, or whatever inane insult they can come up with.
I am a zoomer, but work with kids younger than me, and I see this affecting the next generation even more. These young kids are growing up with older siblings, or even parents, who subscribe to this constant irony, and they mimic it since their older sibling/parents are their role model. Even if neither of those role models follow that culture, the internet or their school friends will fill that gap. It’s becoming impossible to escape, which I think adds an extra layer of concern that we should have regarding this issue.
I should clarify two things: I work with kids at a camp OUTDOORS where we don’t let them on their phones, and I work with predominantly middle school age White or Asian boys, and this problem is still very apparent. This isn’t just affecting the next generation of midwits, it’s tearing down the next generation entirely.
Humor, at least how it used to be, was always plentiful and unifying because it relied on the adherence of the audience and the comedian to a certain set of values and morals: for example, we found jokes like "A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar..." funny because we had certain expectations about priests and rabbis. Now, since far fewer people really believe in anything like we used to, and society as a whole is more polarized and disjointed, irony and post-irony dominates the public humor space. They're a way to make something out of nothing, to try to be funny without caring about what you're joking about, and without violating new rules of social engagement.
I was recently sent a meme on Instagram that could probably be described as "lobotomy-core." (I hate to say it, but its a kind of "iykyk" deal) I thought about what in that video is actually funny, and came to realize (probably rather late!) that younger folx like me nowadays try to disrupt and reinvent the basis of humor to, essentially, turn it into incoherent mush that's funny because it's incoherent mush. Maybe this was apparent a couple of years ago, but I never thought about it to such an extent as til recently.
“Not caring/mocking makes you cool” is an oooooold trope. Gen X was prob the most recent to normalize it. But the character of the scoffer is as old as the Bible
This corollary to the nihilistic, anti-numinous Neil deGrasse-Tyson school of thinking. "You SAY you love your daughter, but all you really mean is that some dopamine molecules are floating around in your brain. There's nothing special about it, really."
I don't really blame them. In the face of the absolute absurdity of boomer clown world, where everyone's greatest virtue is their total lack of shame at their own hypocrisy, a serious demeanor codes "I'm lying for my own petty advantage and I'm going to throw a tantrum if you don't buy it."
Our culture is unserious because its self-appointed role models are unserious. I think the kids will come around if/when they see someone who takes himself seriously, behaves seriously, and doesn't almost immediately turn the whole thing into a farce.
The deeper reason why young people are so irony-poisoned is because they're afraid that people will laugh at any sincere thoughts and feelings they might have. It's like ripping out your heart and submitting it for peer review. They don't want to go through that pain, so they cope by becoming detached and treating everything like a joke.
This is an excellent article, describing to a far better extent of what I could about this topic. I find myself far too familiar with this zoomer ironic humor, especially when I read P. Lav.'s reply, the mention of lobotomy-core humor caused me to reflect on myself. In many other cases I participated in this hollowing phenomenon, still even now I'm sympathetic of it. Yet the recognition of it is invaluable; as what Bjark replied, it's a means of improving and being better than your past self. Overall, a very encouraging post, I can move forward more confident now.
Combined with a lack of whimsy in the world, it really does create an environment of drab just emptiness, a culture of null. Where you're not allowed to be passionate about anything, you're not allowed to feel the gravity of anything, while simultaneously not giving you any room for lightheartedness or any kind of real humor. You're allowed to make snarky comments and be apathetic, and that's the end of it! You're gonna be a blob of nothing and like it!
This reminds me of how millennials & zoomers go rabid at things like skibidi toilet & the cotton eye joe nugget for being "BRAIN ROT!!1!" and think gen alpha will die from watching it. It's extremely similar to the YTPs of the 2000s & the MLG edits of the 2010s, which they acknowledge and have gone back and mocked. It is a true revelation at their lack of responsibility to bear the task of parenting & so they shout blind rage at goofy memes, expecting that the internet become more boring so they don't have to deal with turning off pablo's ipad. /caca/ wins!
I've always felt like the world could use some people just being a little silly goofy, but if nobody is ever serious about things that matter, being silly goofy doesn't mean anything. The world needs people to be serious and to care about things, otherwise the world will just be uninteresting for everyone as we slowly decay into generation upon generation of people too unserious to put forth effort to maintain society, but not silly enough when it matters to keep things lighthearted.
Me when the me and when the
Le
Real
Recognizing this is an important step to moving above those that participate in this behavior. Other generations aren’t blind, they see what the majority of zoomers are. If you do not act this way you are far more likely to succeed if only because people in other generations, the ones currently seated in power, will view you more favorably. My point, do not succumb to the social pressures of your contemporaries because if you do you will never rise above them, only continue to be among them.
Notice how the most common zoomer insult is "ok but who asked/don't care, didn't ask." To these place, the ideal person is a drugged out emotionless husk with no dreams or ambitions. Terrible!
I've noticed that in most arguments online, it's not really an "intellectual" competition taking place, but a pointless back-and-forth of portraying the other as mad, coping, seething, malding, trolled, baited, whatever. This trend appears often in site-spanning debates and two-man reply chains alike (take note of it whenever you see it in the future), but discourse over that Japanese McDonald's ad Twitterites have become obsessed with is a strong, recent example. Once again, passion is taken in bad faith and conviction will be held against you.
Irony is such a strong tool for the midwit because it acts as both a sword to cut you down and shield to protect them from all assaults at the same time. The creation of anything of worth takes two main ingredients, passion and skill. The midwit has neither and tries to use this simplicity as a proof of having skill. The most common area I see this in is philosophy, and even more specifically, when talking to a nihilist. Even if your attack on them is completely logical they see any existentialism as drivel that they are too smart to take part in. It protects their ego because they never have to really have to throw their worldview to the wolves.
Also just want to point out if this was posted on ifunny there would 100% be at least one person who would stretch big chungus onto it.
that would be me
I definitely agree with this sentiment. In my experience there seems to be a sort of exception Zoomers have to their typical ironic disposition, and that seems to be their sacred cows of marijuana, mediocre media, or their special classes of people. There is nothing a certain subset of Zoomers takes more seriously than accusations of -isms or opposition to their political ideology. These Zoomers however are so poorly equipped to respond to genuine pushback against their objects of worship they only know how to respond in the stupid "kill-shot" method. This invariably results in almost comically retarded responses - E.G. redditors accusing anyone who disagrees with some minor aspect of the Democratic Party as simultaneously fascist, communist, "magat," chud, Russian agent, or whatever inane insult they can come up with.
I am a zoomer, but work with kids younger than me, and I see this affecting the next generation even more. These young kids are growing up with older siblings, or even parents, who subscribe to this constant irony, and they mimic it since their older sibling/parents are their role model. Even if neither of those role models follow that culture, the internet or their school friends will fill that gap. It’s becoming impossible to escape, which I think adds an extra layer of concern that we should have regarding this issue.
I should clarify two things: I work with kids at a camp OUTDOORS where we don’t let them on their phones, and I work with predominantly middle school age White or Asian boys, and this problem is still very apparent. This isn’t just affecting the next generation of midwits, it’s tearing down the next generation entirely.
Humor, at least how it used to be, was always plentiful and unifying because it relied on the adherence of the audience and the comedian to a certain set of values and morals: for example, we found jokes like "A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar..." funny because we had certain expectations about priests and rabbis. Now, since far fewer people really believe in anything like we used to, and society as a whole is more polarized and disjointed, irony and post-irony dominates the public humor space. They're a way to make something out of nothing, to try to be funny without caring about what you're joking about, and without violating new rules of social engagement.
I was recently sent a meme on Instagram that could probably be described as "lobotomy-core." (I hate to say it, but its a kind of "iykyk" deal) I thought about what in that video is actually funny, and came to realize (probably rather late!) that younger folx like me nowadays try to disrupt and reinvent the basis of humor to, essentially, turn it into incoherent mush that's funny because it's incoherent mush. Maybe this was apparent a couple of years ago, but I never thought about it to such an extent as til recently.
well said
“Not caring/mocking makes you cool” is an oooooold trope. Gen X was prob the most recent to normalize it. But the character of the scoffer is as old as the Bible
This corollary to the nihilistic, anti-numinous Neil deGrasse-Tyson school of thinking. "You SAY you love your daughter, but all you really mean is that some dopamine molecules are floating around in your brain. There's nothing special about it, really."
The only appropriate response to such a statement is, "Shut up, nerd."
Or the better answer, the Norm McDonald one of showing the inherent logical flaws of such thinking.
I don't really blame them. In the face of the absolute absurdity of boomer clown world, where everyone's greatest virtue is their total lack of shame at their own hypocrisy, a serious demeanor codes "I'm lying for my own petty advantage and I'm going to throw a tantrum if you don't buy it."
Our culture is unserious because its self-appointed role models are unserious. I think the kids will come around if/when they see someone who takes himself seriously, behaves seriously, and doesn't almost immediately turn the whole thing into a farce.
The deeper reason why young people are so irony-poisoned is because they're afraid that people will laugh at any sincere thoughts and feelings they might have. It's like ripping out your heart and submitting it for peer review. They don't want to go through that pain, so they cope by becoming detached and treating everything like a joke.
I said that tho
This is an excellent article, describing to a far better extent of what I could about this topic. I find myself far too familiar with this zoomer ironic humor, especially when I read P. Lav.'s reply, the mention of lobotomy-core humor caused me to reflect on myself. In many other cases I participated in this hollowing phenomenon, still even now I'm sympathetic of it. Yet the recognition of it is invaluable; as what Bjark replied, it's a means of improving and being better than your past self. Overall, a very encouraging post, I can move forward more confident now.