Rec | POSTMODERNISM IS BEING USED AS A WEAPON TO DISEMPOWER SOC...

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Postmodernism is being used as a weapon to disempower social movements and insulate/legitimize corporate and federal soft power

let me just adjust my tinfoil hat here I think that as a mode of understanding the world, postmodernism is a very potent tool in unraveling meaningful social change in the way that it embraces relativism and subjectivity over a large overarching truth This is the perfect playing field for government officials to facilitate infiltration into social movements run by laborers, students, academics, etc - by obscuring objective truths or reality, this enables: A. those a part of those movements themselves engaging in myopic engagements with themselves or others over minor slights or differences or lapses in a unified truth B. infiltration by agitators who assume leadership and mislead their followers away from material changes C. the professional-managerial class to assume a relative level of comfort by having their lives structured by pomo. Why do you think identity and speaking about privilege thrives in corporate jargon and environments but neuter labor movements? I truly believe that a majority of social movements are full of honeypots looking for weak links or areas to exploit. I think this about Occupy especially But it happens probably in many other social movements and why for a while in socialist circles especially, myopia around privilege and identity failed movements but thrived in the corporate sector I sound schizo but I stand by it, postmodernism is fed shit

@aidanaguirre

May 15, 2024

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YES AND…

i think it’s paired with anti-intellectualism - we’re getting to a place where nearly everyone wants immediate gratification so they need a constant stream of consumption. i think this is particularly true in capitalist countries and in the west. i do think superficial interests in culture by the masses are the historical norm, partly bc historically that media was often the most accessible, but i think, combined, the internet and trends changing so rapidly nowadays has exacerbated the issue. everything is cheapened, there’s little respect for craft or appreciation of Doing. many people want everything fast fast fast, so it’s tiktok instead of movies, AI summaries instead of books, chatgpt instead of research (or simply google), fast fashion to keep up with trends, etc. many of us are privileged enough to be able to access an impossible amount of information through the internet and yet so many people are simply using that resource to mindlessly consume whatever content. also, with the internet i feel we’ve lost subcultures’ uniqueness because it’s easier to find them - you can quickly learn about the symbolic aspects of basically any subculture and adopt those (ie fashions, slang, media) without having a personal relationship with whatever community it is. which basically means (tongue-in-cheek) we’re in a poser renaissance. i think as living conditions gets worse for most people, there’s a lower ability to think as clearly and increased desire to escape, so most of the people who can live so mindlessly, do it. plus throw in the American dream (which i think is just the myth of success that exists in all capitalist societies) and there’s this other group of people who prioritize “hustle culture” or whatever and that takes up time they could’ve used to really engage with art, film, reading, etc (alienation as the other Marx once said lol). which is its own unique depreciation of art and scholarship! in his essay on ur-fascism, umberto eco notes the opposition to most artistic and intellectual pursuits as an aspect of fascism (which we can observe in the right-wing movements of many countries today), in part that, to fascists “thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes.”

@marxinista

May 18, 2025

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Humans have been doing this for a long time

We love looking backwards to try to get in touch with ourselves, our history, traditional ways of doing things. I think this is a noble pursuit but the pace of cycling through eras in the trend cycle for example has grown increasingly rapid to the point that it feels like we’re endlessly regurgitating everything all at once, without context. Rediscovering the past can look like going back to pre-industrial ways of living which is a beautiful thing to strive toward. In a lot of ways, we’ve also abandoned a lot of traditional ways of doing things in favor of methods that are easier, faster, and simpler, not necessarily better. On the other hand, one of the three essential elements to fascism identified by Jason Stanley is invoking a mythic past to manufacture nostalgia for a more traditional, patriarchal, and racially pure past, which is I think what we’re seeing with a lot of people who romanticize 1950s Americana as some kind of utopian traditional society. Carl Sagan said: “In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion: they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierarchy: an exchange of one set of rituals for another, or perhaps for a less structured society with fewer rituals. And yet there are times when societies must change.” “As a consequence of the enormous social and technological changes of the last few centuries, the world is not working well. We do not live in traditional and static societies. But our government, in resisting change, act as if we did. Unless we destroy ourselves utterly, the future belongs to those societies that, while not ignoring the reptilian and mammalian parts of our being, enable the characteristically human components of our nature to flourish; to those societies that encourage diversity rather than conformity; to those societies willing to invest resources in a variety of social, political, economic and cultural experiments, and prepared to sacrifice short-term advantage for long-term benefit; to those societies that treat new ideas as delicate, fragile and immensely valuable pathways to the future.” So I think we need forward-thinking transformational change, though it may not be as comfortable as nostalgia…

@taterhole

Jan 15, 2025

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Too Much for one post

In short: I view it as a contemporary take on a modernist interpretation of Goethe’s Faust, in extremely short: - corruption through seeking of power - part one making deals with the devil - part two reconciling with those deals Overarching metaphors for the “american dream” and zionism; both beliefs are success at what costs, exploiting others for power Capitalism is inescapable “you think you fell out of a coconut tree? You” (all expression, including the movie you’re watching) “exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you?” those are some of my broad takes, also watched the movie a couple weeks ago so there might be more that i’m forgetting but also that’s just like my opinion man