I associate irony with Gen X. Growing up surrounded by a culture that they pioneered, it was ironic distance from anything that might smack of emotion. I assume that it was a reaction against the fake earnestness of Hannah-Barbara and the 80’s reactionary nostalgia of Stand By Me, Back to the Future, the Outsiders, &etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, when you are surrounded by constant reminders that the Cold War could end at any moment with nuclear holocaust, the antics of Shaggy & the Gang seem pretty stupid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As that irony bled into the 90’s. As Gen X started to produce culture we saw this in the post-modern deconstruction of pop culture in Clerks & Slacker. And I ate it up. As a millennial, I was drinking in all of this ironic distance from anything that could remotely be considered authentic. Authenticity was hokey. It was cheesy. And my generation internalized this message, to our detriment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Irony became the wedge that inserted itself between authentic enjoyment of life and our lived experiences. Being cynical and jaded and ironically enjoying pop culture was acceptable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This created two problems: you couldn’t authentically enjoy something and enjoying awful stuff was excused under the umbrella of irony. This latter problem would go on to create the Internet based ecosystem that would spawn the rise in fascism that we see in young people today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Irony gave us the excuse to tamp down our authenticity. And, as a corollary, our empathy. Into that wedge we created a climate in which 4chan could grow. Ironic isms grew into actual isms as people became desensitized to the horrors of humanity by repeat exposure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I look around at world who has given itself an excuse to give into its worst impulses. Anti-immigration, racism, xenophobia, sexism. All of it embodied in the AfD, the GOP, the Italian Brotherhood, the National Party, Reform. We are in the local result of our lack of empathy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps authenticity provides a way back. I’m not sure. Is authentic enjoyment enough to kickstart the desiccated organs of empathy? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I associate irony with Gen X. Growing up surrounded by a culture that they pioneered, it was ironic distance from anything that might smack of emotion. I assume that it was a reaction against the fake earnestness of Hannah-Barbara and the 80’s reactionary nostalgia of Stand By Me, Back to the Future, the Outsiders, &etc. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[37,22],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-culture","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-liquid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}