Like no one can psychoanalyze a person over the internet but that's the impression I get from any kind of unironic "cringe" discourse, anything that looks down on people for sincerity or earnestness or buying-in or caring.

I'm not trying to attack you, you already admitted it was a you problem, and this mindset is widespread across social media, maybe caused by it. I felt it in myself back when I used reddit too much. Maybe a result of our identities being alienated and commodified, forcing people in the west to adopt an ironic, detached non-identity. Fear of the critical gaze of social media, internalized then projected outwards as a defense mechanism.

Idk, but it's not conducive to healthy interpersonal interaction nor organizing. Movements and revolutions require radical sincerity, no one's going to dedicate their life to anything based on nihilistic detachment. Historic revolutionary leaders weren't irony poisoned and neither are the global subaltern. The latter can't afford to be.

If that's not you I apologize, it's just a vibe I notice a lot on reddit and Twitter (and hexbear) and have started to see in real life. Maybe a continuation of the south park nihilism that hit a generation of white guys. But if so it may be worth examining and deconstructing.

[–] pinkeston@hexbear.net 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

asdfdas

[–] FanonFan@hexbear.net 3 points 7 months ago

Yeah that makes sense. The version of that I've seen seems to be an insecurity about being a bad person (or perceived as one). So seeing people care and do activism causes cognitive dissonance between the self image of goodness and the reality of inaction + privilege. Otherizing and demeaning the offender is an easy defence mechanism. Really strong effect in Mormon/evangelical culture ime.

If that's more accurate to you, if you're out organizing and working with marginalized people, that feeling seems largely vestigial, then.

Regardless of the source, I think it's still worthy of examination and deconstruction. But hopefully it diminishes with direct action experience (even if it's working at a food bank or something, if your current orgs aren't ready for direct action).

Also reading about successful revolutions helps on both an emotional and rational level, for me.