|
@s_r_constantin | |||||
|
2x2 idea: weird/normal, optimist/pessimist.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Normal Pessimist is like cops and soldiers: “life is harsh and dangerous so stay on the straight-and-narrow; individual whims are a luxury you can’t afford.”
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Normal Optimist is like superhero movies, upbeat pop songs, “Everything is fine, or would be if those damn malcontents didn’t make it DIFFICULT! Just like things and don’t dislike things, okay?!”
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Weird Pessimist is the malcontents. Edgy, nihilist, sarcastic, making art about how fucked up things are.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Weird Optimist is absurdist whimsy. It seems kind of a missing affect these days, but I remember it from, say, Flaming Lips-era indie pop, or early BoingBoing. “Whee! So random and bizarre! I love it! The squares are missing out!”
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Today a lot of Weird Optimist stuff feels cringey and clueless. Sex-positive 2000’s blogs? Yikes, you can’t just talk about how great sex is, it *isn’t* great for rape victims. And that’s true, but...now there’s a positive side of the human experience you don’t hear from.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Twee, poetic, absurdist aesthetics (think Decembrists or peak Wes Anderson)? They feel “pretentious” or “self-indulgent” today.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Weird Pessimist stuff can read as “what a perverse jerk”; Weird Optimist stuff reads as “what a clueless prat”. Foolish. Silly.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Safety Dance and Weird Al are Weird Optimist.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Stoner and raver culture are Weird Optimist.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Most online content I see is fights between different factions of Weird Pessimists, with Normal Optimists stepping in to tell others not to be so “negative” or to add jokes, cute animals, or promotional materials.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Once in a while Normal Pessimists pipe up to tell everyone how much they suck.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
HPMOR and the LessWrong Sequences were firmly Weird Optimist, which is why I think they’ve gotten so much flak in recent years. Robin Hanson, though, has always been Weird Pessimist, like most public intellectuals. And EA is a Normal Optimist movement.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Sarah Constantin
@s_r_constantin
|
26. kol |
|
Crooked Timber and Harper’s are Weird Pessimist publications. Most academics in the humanities are Weird Pessimists.
|
||
|
|
||