A Brooklyn Culture Mafia

[versh]

let's gang up on version and then kill him

I'm thankful for this community.

 

[Clinamenic]

We'll always hold space for you, versh.

 

[ghost]

Probably the thread I'll be remembered by. A one hit wonder.

not the pinafores?

 

[ghost]

there's a sense that this widespread thing where people here genuinely seem to feel that they're living in a state of oppression is laughable, given how good people have it here overall in this rich and sometimes glorious country. it seems ignorant and unworldly, and like people are projecting their own personal feelings and problems in their lives onto some vague sense of the political situation

went to a friendsgiving. walked in when they were going round doing the 'what are you thankful for' round. community was a recurring theme, almost everyone mentioned it. mostly a trans crowd with some LB and presumably Q thrown in, which probably is group of people who don't find that many people similar them in the world. the community thing is such a recurring thing. it's an answer or solution that gets plugged in everywhere

i think the feeling i get with this crowd is just this bizarre feeling that they're all in this perpetual state of learned helplessness. they've circumscribed themselves to a tiny oversubscribed corner of the world and then they're upset that it doesn't matter. nobody sitting around putting together a great work. everyone in the thrall of the dead.

I don't think they're wrong that they exist in a world that's imperfect, I just think that the whole thing is a larp and everyone should know that by now? I guess the thing that bothers me is that compared to the people who write marvel movies and put out hit albums these people are like a pile of wet blankets. No fun, always ready to get overly emotional at you, always blaming someone else when the polycule collapses.

 

[ghost]

There's a kind of New York View On Technology which says, oh, on the West Coast they have a better understanding of the underlying technologies, but we, we have Culture, and that means we can make something that speaks to people better. This has, to a first approximation, never worked, with the possible exception of Etsy. If anything, the attitude is an active impediment to ever doing anything of real value in the world.

A big reason is that Culture does not accumulate, does not accrete. You can have the biggest hit of the year, you can put out the most novel and brilliant evaluation of the times, and what does it do? It just means that you're set up for the backlash, you've got three years max before you need to flip and reverse it.

The only way you can shift culture in a semi-permanent manner is to shift the material conditions of the world, which isn't so clever, which is to say you look stupid doing it if you're on the east coast, and some people unwisely care about such things.

 

[line b]

I believe in Kim Gordon's observation that male friendships are always a menage a trois with some shared object of interest—sports, politics, music, literature. That a friendship should come about almost as a byproduct, even if it ultimately surpasses the original interest in importance. And that communities—at least the ones I want to be a part of—ought to be the same.

Yes it feels insane to do it any other way

 

[line b]

There's a kind of New York View On Technology which says, oh, on the West Coast they have a better understanding of the underlying technologies, but we, we have Culture, and that means we can make something that speaks to people better. This has, to a first approximation, never worked, with the possible exception of Etsy. If anything, the attitude is an active impediment to ever doing anything of real value in the world.

A big reason is that Culture does not accumulate, does not accrete. You can have the biggest hit of the year, you can put out the most novel and brilliant evaluation of the times, and what does it do? It just means that you're set up for the backlash, you've got three years max before you need to flip and reverse it.

The only way you can shift culture in a semi-permanent manner is to shift the material conditions of the world, which isn't so clever, which is to say you look stupid doing it if you're on the east coast, and some people unwisely care about such things.

It's not really about accumulating culture though is it. it's not even really about changing culture it's about looking the most graceful amongst the rapid shifts in culture which the west coast is really really bad at and that has to count for something

 

[line b]

In my experience ppl who are big on 'community' basically look at other ppl like insects

 

[Clinamenic]

In my experience ppl who are big on 'community' basically look at other ppl like insects

Yeah I feel this way about 'community building'

 

[Clinamenic]