With this wave of unrepentant mediocre garbage overwhelming the internet due to SEO and generative AI models it feels like enshitification might be here to stay.
I'm feeling some optimism today. We seem to be entering an age of authenticity. We are rejecting mass produced junk and much of the drive toward social media, TikTok, and their ilk seem to be a way of seeking real people and real things. Of course influencers are no more real than ChatGPT, but I think #authenticity is on the rise.
This is what I've been thinking about a lot: congruence. It's a lot easier to be yourself when you become who you want to be (or change who you want to be.) I think a lot of insecurity comes from our own awareness that we are not doing what we know we're supposed to be doing. People often ask how not to care about what other people think and I think the first step must be to live according to your values.
1/7
Nothing is more annoying than influencers giving themselves permission to dehumanize Palestinians. Here are two examples, but I've seen many more. These are definitely two of the most defensive, lol.
Maybe it says more about the pitfalls of influencer culture (than the individuals), the need to be seen by millions as "authentic," ...
2/7
the need to build a brand on empathy, scatter a little so that you can receive it back a million fold from adoring fans, the craving to be at the top of the parasocial relationship. We all present different faces or code switch irl, so discussing authenticity (that the influencers seem fake) gets complicated. Maybe the online version of it is still new enough and just lends itself to more (unwarranted?) microscopic evaluation. Idk why I'm annoyed. #palestine#influencer#authenticity
4/7
In contrast, it's comforting to see celebrities support justice for Palestinians without qualifying it with their statement against terrorism and solidarity with Jewish people. Neither of these things have anything to do with justice for Palestinians (unless you reflexively think all Palestinians are terrorists and you want us to celebrate your good work of trying to overcome that personal deep seated bias as some grand act of charity-see below).
6/7
This isn't about the Jewish people, Hamas or what a celebrity believes is terrorism. The people that love to discuss those things can't seem to talk about reparations, right of return, right not to live under occupation and apartheid (or the fact that the result of a ceasefire is always a status quo of daily Zionist violence against Palestinians).
If you like songs & you like bass guitar, you might like my stuff.
Hmm maybe I'll do a thread later if I'm not too busy, with a few words about each of the 11 songs I've got up on Bandcamp so far, so people are more likely to find one they like.
A song about the weight of social/commercial manipulation insinuating that yr not good enough. Yes it is an allusion to the classic fairytale :-)
Ugly Duckling
"In the mirror of the world around you
"Reflections every day show you you're wrong
"Feeling ugly like the Ugly Duckling
"You never realised you were a swan"
#TheMetalDogArticleList #BraveWords
EXTREME Guitarist NUNO BETTENCOURT - "Any Artist Who Has Told You 'I Do It For The Fans' Is Full Of Sh!t; You Do It For Yourself"
""Authentic" was selected as the 2023 word of the year by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, landing among the most-looked-up words in the dictionary's 500,000 entries, the company said in a press release Monday."
RT @gerry_sasha
It's #book publication announcement time! The 23 of January will be out 'The Hipster Economy', edited by @UCLpress. It will be #OpenAccess. In it, I discuss the new paradigm of #authenticity in consumption, the frenzy for #craft and #artisanal products, #capitalism, and much more.
We’re told that discretion equals compassion, but has this ever been true, in life or in literature? That we should bury character flaws in complex protagonists if those blemishes – however empathetically rendered – might fuel racist, xenophobic, or other hateful rhetoric. And yet, survivors understand viscerally how...
When fiction shrinks to memoir we all lose out - Dina Nayeri (www.fictionable.world)
We’re told that discretion equals compassion, but has this ever been true, in life or in literature? That we should bury character flaws in complex protagonists if those blemishes – however empathetically rendered – might fuel racist, xenophobic, or other hateful rhetoric. And yet, survivors understand viscerally how...