Wednesday, October 05, 2016

"An Ironic Brand of Intellectual Posturing That Demonstrates a Greater Concern for Preserving One's Reputation Than Building a Useful Political Program"

"The especially devilish problem here is that we kept using irony as a critical tool even after its co-optation stripped it of its critical bite—you can’t make fun of the thing that’s already making fun of itself. Whereas the early post-WWII ironists still believed we could smoke out the sources of our pain by pointing out their hypocrisy and grossness, we now use irony purely as a numbing agent to inoculate ourselves from succumbing to naive beliefs, clichéd sentiments, corporate branding, etc. Better to respond to everything with a defensive cynicism, to point out the turd at the foot of every statue. You may be awful company at dinner parties, but at least no one can accuse you of being a dupe."

Maximillian Alvarez at The Baffler criticizes "snarxism."

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