Joshua, I've probably put in about two hours of time listening to three interviews, reading as much of the articles as I can see without paying and I'm listening to some of your longer form stuff. What should I read or listen to from you that you feel encapsulates your project? Why are you doing what you are doing?
You should join Katherine's discord and we can talk there, artist to artist. My theory is that one of the unifying questions as to why people are here is they are trying to understand; where am I? As software ate the world it also ate our consciousness and it "extended" this "sense" of being both in and of the world where one has to work out an identity and then live in accordance with what they worked out. So the kids, as they always do, try on identities like hats and put upon their plate various ideologies from the buffet. The problem is beliefs are like buses not like taxi cabs, you have to follow the beliefs where they go and you can't just cut out a core piece say, the abolition of private property in every sense because you like "your" stuff on planet luxury wherein you wish to accelerate the destruction yet somehow magically view yourself as mentally able to endure great suffering. We're talking about a people where when the power goes out for 24 hours they are begging their parents to take them to a hotel. I think part of your project is somewhat comical in this sense but also serious because they don't have anyone in their lives mentally strong enough to confront them and ask them in a serious manner; what at the airport will be different if your ideology has unrestrained power? I know I'm getting a little off topic here but I think many parents of these kids may deeply believe that if they confront their children, they'll destroy them. I dunno. It would be very interesting to hear about the home-life, school-life and work-life of these kids jumping into various ideological taxi cabs wherein as you pointed out in one interview, they haven't done the reading because they have the arguments from authority.
Anyhow, my art delves into Hypermodernity which I believe is the current epoch and my answer to "Where am I?" so I'm working on manifesting this epoch into a physical performance/form including a mask for the Psyche. One has to work the problem and seek not refuge in the false consensus of the audience. Why I'm doing what I'm doing in creating a gesamtkunstwerk is in part because whatever one chooses, partially chooses you and there is a tension there. Things have to be confronted until maturity comes out the other side.
The comparison to MMORPGs is striking. Maybe MMORPGs provided a template or influenced how Zoomers experience ideologies. Or, maybe what attracted so many people to MMOs in the first place was the ability to choose classes, because it fulfilled their need to "belong" to a tribe. Both MMORPGs and ideology are subject to the same deeper need which influences both of them, and they end up converging together in this self-aware way.
> On the right, there is noticeable shift away from the free market evangelism that characterized conservative politics for the millennial generation. No one under the age of 25 is a “lolbertarian”. They make jokes about Ayn Rand and call Paul Ryan a cuck. Everyone believes in climate change.
And by doing so, they ironically contribute to the collapse that further radicalizes the next generation.
This is modern journalism at its finest. People always shit talk Gen Z but have no real understanding of them. Internet based subcultures are some of the most toxic ideology breeding grounds to have ever existed in human history. Echo chambers gone radical.
These kids are similar to us in their humanity, but live very different upbringings than most millennials/gen x/boomers are familiar with. There is a darkness that looms over the American dream these days that causes wide ranging mental illness in youth that live primarily online.
I've argued that Gen Z & Millennials aren't quite as different as people think. I believe the real fault line is between Geriatric Millennials (pre-1992 births) and Young Millennials. Young Millennials + Gen Z are much more similar in character. Geriatric Millennials aren't quite like Xennials or Gen X either. They're very much their own thing.
It's a new element of the centre that seems to have grown regardless of the popular support of either conflict. spawning and off shooting from the same online ideological milleau as these more niche extreme groups.
Have you heard of polcompall? I’m involved in that community and it seems quite similar, especially polcompball anarchy-basically a wiki for young people, teenagers or in their 20s, to write about their exact, ideal political ideologies in detail, like this: https://polcompballanarchy.miraheze.org/wiki/General_Studios_Thought
I'm interested in seeing what the writer thinks about the new classical liberals and neo liberals that have kind of created there own ideas since the start of the Ukraine war. pro Israel, pro Ukraine, leftist for the most part, but extremely anti communist, people kind of lump them into the NPC category but they don't actually follow current normie trends, a lot of them seem to be disenfranchised Bernie bros that got sick of the post left,
I'm thinking of Destiny's following, a bunch of the OSINT guys autistically tracking conflicts around the world and the guys posting Francis Fukuyama memes with him pointing the pistol.
I would say that both of those conflicts are waning in popular support and that Fukuyama’s more recent pro social democracy stance is an indication that “the center” is a moving target.
“While people often talk about mutual aid and helping the less fortunate, his real world experiences at the food pantry are always with conservative religious people doing charity work.” — I wonder how it affects us to push everyone into these neat labels. Of course we can observe trends, but it just seems to work against our favor in the long run
Very interesting. I was extremely into politigram back in 2016-7. Wild times.
Joshua, I've probably put in about two hours of time listening to three interviews, reading as much of the articles as I can see without paying and I'm listening to some of your longer form stuff. What should I read or listen to from you that you feel encapsulates your project? Why are you doing what you are doing?
You should join Katherine's discord and we can talk there, artist to artist. My theory is that one of the unifying questions as to why people are here is they are trying to understand; where am I? As software ate the world it also ate our consciousness and it "extended" this "sense" of being both in and of the world where one has to work out an identity and then live in accordance with what they worked out. So the kids, as they always do, try on identities like hats and put upon their plate various ideologies from the buffet. The problem is beliefs are like buses not like taxi cabs, you have to follow the beliefs where they go and you can't just cut out a core piece say, the abolition of private property in every sense because you like "your" stuff on planet luxury wherein you wish to accelerate the destruction yet somehow magically view yourself as mentally able to endure great suffering. We're talking about a people where when the power goes out for 24 hours they are begging their parents to take them to a hotel. I think part of your project is somewhat comical in this sense but also serious because they don't have anyone in their lives mentally strong enough to confront them and ask them in a serious manner; what at the airport will be different if your ideology has unrestrained power? I know I'm getting a little off topic here but I think many parents of these kids may deeply believe that if they confront their children, they'll destroy them. I dunno. It would be very interesting to hear about the home-life, school-life and work-life of these kids jumping into various ideological taxi cabs wherein as you pointed out in one interview, they haven't done the reading because they have the arguments from authority.
Anyhow, my art delves into Hypermodernity which I believe is the current epoch and my answer to "Where am I?" so I'm working on manifesting this epoch into a physical performance/form including a mask for the Psyche. One has to work the problem and seek not refuge in the false consensus of the audience. Why I'm doing what I'm doing in creating a gesamtkunstwerk is in part because whatever one chooses, partially chooses you and there is a tension there. Things have to be confronted until maturity comes out the other side.
The comparison to MMORPGs is striking. Maybe MMORPGs provided a template or influenced how Zoomers experience ideologies. Or, maybe what attracted so many people to MMOs in the first place was the ability to choose classes, because it fulfilled their need to "belong" to a tribe. Both MMORPGs and ideology are subject to the same deeper need which influences both of them, and they end up converging together in this self-aware way.
Definitely read Life on the Screen
> The pervasive sense that you are living in a society whose best days are behind it,
Ironically the main cause of this problem are the ideologies unleashed by a previous generation of kids who fell down somewhat similar rabbitholes.
> On the right, there is noticeable shift away from the free market evangelism that characterized conservative politics for the millennial generation. No one under the age of 25 is a “lolbertarian”. They make jokes about Ayn Rand and call Paul Ryan a cuck. Everyone believes in climate change.
And by doing so, they ironically contribute to the collapse that further radicalizes the next generation.
I wonder if Josh has ever written about “meritocrats”?
What specifically are you referring to?
This is modern journalism at its finest. People always shit talk Gen Z but have no real understanding of them. Internet based subcultures are some of the most toxic ideology breeding grounds to have ever existed in human history. Echo chambers gone radical.
These kids are similar to us in their humanity, but live very different upbringings than most millennials/gen x/boomers are familiar with. There is a darkness that looms over the American dream these days that causes wide ranging mental illness in youth that live primarily online.
I've argued that Gen Z & Millennials aren't quite as different as people think. I believe the real fault line is between Geriatric Millennials (pre-1992 births) and Young Millennials. Young Millennials + Gen Z are much more similar in character. Geriatric Millennials aren't quite like Xennials or Gen X either. They're very much their own thing.
It's a new element of the centre that seems to have grown regardless of the popular support of either conflict. spawning and off shooting from the same online ideological milleau as these more niche extreme groups.
Have you heard of polcompall? I’m involved in that community and it seems quite similar, especially polcompball anarchy-basically a wiki for young people, teenagers or in their 20s, to write about their exact, ideal political ideologies in detail, like this: https://polcompballanarchy.miraheze.org/wiki/General_Studios_Thought
Very familiar! It’s an incredible resource. I did a podcast with Jreg (will come out in the fall) where we talk about some of these
yes!! Someone from that community did one of *my* case studies recently
I'm here to sugar bully Josh into writing more guest columns!
This is a fascinating project, I would love to read more from you here.
It would be amazing!
I'm interested in seeing what the writer thinks about the new classical liberals and neo liberals that have kind of created there own ideas since the start of the Ukraine war. pro Israel, pro Ukraine, leftist for the most part, but extremely anti communist, people kind of lump them into the NPC category but they don't actually follow current normie trends, a lot of them seem to be disenfranchised Bernie bros that got sick of the post left,
Who might be an example of this?
I'm thinking of Destiny's following, a bunch of the OSINT guys autistically tracking conflicts around the world and the guys posting Francis Fukuyama memes with him pointing the pistol.
I would say that both of those conflicts are waning in popular support and that Fukuyama’s more recent pro social democracy stance is an indication that “the center” is a moving target.
“While people often talk about mutual aid and helping the less fortunate, his real world experiences at the food pantry are always with conservative religious people doing charity work.” — I wonder how it affects us to push everyone into these neat labels. Of course we can observe trends, but it just seems to work against our favor in the long run
I would broadly agree with you. My phrasing here is from Zoomer’s interview. These are the categories that he used to describe people
Yeah, I gave it to his youth for the most part but also who doesn’t love it when things (and people) fit perfectly into certain categories?
I totally agree here. It can, in some situations, create some really weird cognitive dissonance, too.