I have a huge soft spot for earnestness and my absolute favourite thing is when people are interested in and passionate about lots of different things even if I think the things they’re interested in are fucking stupid
everything is flawed I guess but you’re not therefore more radical because you hate everything, that’s just stupid purity politics, the politics of “I do not endorse this, I am not involved, I am not complicit”, the politics of passive guiltlessness, of safety, of ressentiment
look, my natural inclination is cynicism, I’m notorious for hating on weird and seemingly innocuous things, so I get it, I do, I’m guilty of it, absolutely, but it doesn’t impress me
loving things can make you vulnerable and some people can’t risk being any more vulnerable
but if you can risk it you should because it makes you strong too
Definitely this, “ceux qui aiment ont raison”. Also I totally see why you hate yarn-bombing, but in a way something like yarn-bombing is a form of hate rather than a passion. I mean once something’s done for “subversion” or as an “alternative” or for “radical” purposes it’s kind of a critique of everything else, so…
That’s why I feel so disheartened by all the “radical critique of pop culture” stuff, because it’s being distant and passionless and simultaneously possessive of stuff that it’s not involved in that thousands of people are actually involved in. Well that and it tends to be hugely revisionist and just, the shit you read about women in punk rock for instance, they might as well yell YARRHARRRRGH MATEY before they sit down to write it.
…
really good points!!
kill yr “radical critiques of pop culture”