> To be truly countercultural in a time of tech hegemony, one has to, above all, betray the platform which may come in the form of betraying or divesting from your public online self.<p>Interesting enough quote, maybe obvious but maybe a nice reminder too.<p>> Search Google Images for ‘counterculture’ and it overwhelmingly returns black-and-white photos of young people all now over 60.<p>I just love the idea of some social media addicted teenager trying to break free and google image searching "counterculture"... I'm sure that was me c.2005
The real counterculture right now is <i>non-participation</i>.<p>In a world where virtually everything is either designed to completely waste your time or fail and not be repairable, it's a highly radical act to <i>stop consuming</i> like the 95%, preferring to spend time with other humans in reality doing something that isn't technological. In spite of the popular world pushing the message that you will be fulfilled living in virtual reality and consuming soy/insect products, the radical sets their phone to "do not disturb" and plays frisbee-golf or pub trivia.
> Search Google Images for ‘counterculture’ and it overwhelmingly returns black-and-white photos of young people all now over 60. In the pictures, it is so clear what they were countering: The Man, of course, who, with his white collar, white skin, and short hair, singlehandedly symbolized dominant cultural norms.<p>Counterculture was a force that went up against the establishment as much as it did cultural norms. These days, it appears that the cultural norm is to bed in bed with the so-called establishment. When you have Cardi B and Ye rallying on behalf of politicians and celebrities/musicians regurgitating the talking points of the mainstream media you know the counterculture is dead.
20 Interviews is an interesting read, and the author is smart to link Snowden to this indirectly.<p>I agree with the author’s assessment that a/the counterculture to the early 2000’s global tech MAGA FAANG thunderdome will come out of that… space in the way described: some mix of Snowden, crypto, compass meme, e-deologies.<p>If you read Snowden’s bio, he was fully schooled in the internet being a new space of free thought and open information.<p>If you read 20 Interviews, Nick Land comes up… a lot… in interviews with edgy teenagers.<p>One of the worst Intel leaks recently, the discord/Ukraine leaks, came from a what looks like a perma-online discord resident. You can guesstimate that he was in the direction of the political compass culture.<p>Crypto (cryptography and cryptocurrency) itself comes out of the original internet-establishment/surveillance state haters.<p>Jack Dorsey is firmly an old school cypherpunk.<p>I don’t think there’s a cohesive label for all this outside “cypherpunks” although that feels dated. but it is a cohesive group and this article was interesting to read as it seems rarely Linked in public.<p>I see it, there’s a group that is extending the cypherpunk ideologies of the 90’s combined with the nihilism of watching climate change/COVID failures combined with internet edge-lord roots. I think it’s a potent force. It has so far:<p>- brought consumer encryption into the world<p>- caused two of the largest intelligence leaks in recent memory<p>- love it or hate it, invented cryptocurrency and permanently changed conversations about what money is and how it’s accessed to include a new $5bil global market<p>- brought tor and vpns onto the scene<p>- brought you the Arab spring
Internet-era counterculture was developing en force during Occupy Wall Street and with figures like Snowden, Manning, and Assange. It scared the shit out of the powers-that-be and they worked over years to destroy the ability to form grassroots organizations.<p>A lot of their weapons are focused on divide & conquer and making us fight one another over identity politics and our small differences. A few toxic ideologues (and ideologies) were essentially stuck on the equivalent of an enclosed train and shipped to the heart of the problem, and the establishment amplified their voices a thousandfold with the outlets they had available to them.
I think this is well-written and argued but juxtaposed with the rest of the magazine it is simple hypocrisy. All of the fashion photo collections on the site feature only huge brands like Fendi, Gucci, LV, Saint Laurent, Prada. They are using the web, and YouTube, as a conduit to advertise Big Fashion under the banner of art.
The author has a good use of language but so many things they say seem very off. They seem overly fixated on the idea that counter-culture also has to be progressive. They are weirdly fixated on some aspects of internet culture. The main take away I have is that this author doesn't really seem to understand culture, what is counter culture, or internet culture. They are right that instagram isn't counter cultural, But honestly the real counter culture things are just offline.
There is no obvious counter-cultural movement in the West because there is nothing deemed subversive enough by major institutions that hasn't been commercialized to some extent. If we are viewing things on a political spectrum, the right and the left each claim to be bucking the values and traditions of "the establishment" with the approval and encouragement of both sides of the "establishment" one way or the other.
Counterculture may not be on the internet because the counterculture is normal, or ... square. It's not boring, it's not exciting it's just normal, or common. (Perhaps more accurately we should say that there is no counterculture anymore when the mainstream culture continues to performs the roles that it used to hold)<p>Current culture rejects the normal, what people think is basic or commonplace in favour of the spectacular, the colourful, the exciting, the transgressive, the provoking, the radical. Many things that were shunned when we were growing up as being geeky are mainstream now as it is packaged up and made available to buy in as many formats and products as possible.<p>Washing your car on a Saturday, working 9 to 5, mowing the lawn, taking your kids to the park, not caring about politics much, visiting elderly relatives, going on holiday, having a hobby, doing a craft, not worrying about authenticity, getting a mortgage, going to church. Be there by being square.<p>The past radicals used to say "the revolution will not be televised". Perhaps now we have to say "the revolution cannot be televised" as it's anti spectacular.
The internet used to <i>be</i> counterculture. Now it’s the mall.<p>Those of us who feel nostalgia for the countercultural internet … I fear we’re too old to be admitted into current counterculture. We are the culture the youths are countering.
There's a beginning of an idea here, but this article quickly degrades into faffing about. The author is opining on various cultural touchpoints and weaving narrative. But it's all rather disconnected from what happened to the internet and why it is the way it is.
The article misses what really happened to “counterculture” - it’s been killed by increasing social and economic stratification.<p>Sure, in the early 90s it was still possible to shock conservatives but what really made counterculture viable back then was that you could afford an apartment without having a career. It wasn’t just housing costs, either - in general, the benefits of participating wholeheartedly in the system were much more modest than they are now.<p>The internet has certainly been a factor, particularly in making the concept of a local music scene kind of obsolete, but the demise of counterculture is definitely due to material concerns.
Wow, really like this piece. Not much to add, just think that it ties together a lot of concepts in really conceptually rich ways (dark forest communities, "breaking" platforms as a hallmark for success, aesthetics of identity, etc). Also really admire how theory is applied in ways that add to the piece, while still leaving it approachable and appropriate for a magazine piece. Would love to see this expanded into a more full text at some point, it definitely captures the current zeitgeist far better than most mainstream articles.
A lot of what used to be considered "counterculture" now is just mainstream. If you look back to the early 2000s (around when MySpace/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube grew) to now, a lot of "pop culture" is very similar to what it was then. I think social media killed the monolithic culture that TV and other media presented and now everything has been a hodgepodge ever since. The new "counterculture" seems to be more people that are off the map and are more traditional.
Counterculture requires gatekeeping, because most people can't take it, ESPECIALLY anyone who uses Instragram<p>The best times I've had were having parties where we would work on cool exhibits with barely contained pyrotechnics, Tesla coils that would kill you if you touched it, and an expectation that YOU DO NOT PUT IT ON THE INTERNET and if you get hurt, YOU DID NOT GET HURT HERE.<p>Everyone wants a nice and curated experience of "counterculture" until they get into a scenario where they are the only person not cool with losing a finger or two from doing something fucking awesome
In a lot of places there is either a formal ban on phones and cameras or at least of taking photos, or people simply are used to live simply or in the moment and don't use them (at least not for non-essential things).<p>This holds for writing and stories as well, so it's best to rely on personal experience and not assume that you can use the Internet to predict the details of the experiences you can have in the world.
In order for the syntax of the word "counterculture" to be semantic, it is necessary that there be semantics for the word "culture".<p>Therefore, the question arises - is there any semantics of the word "culture" in the syntax-semantics of the word "Instagram"?<p>And, it turns out that there is the possibility of searching for "the denial of what cannot be at all" :)
If you have the support of almost the entirety of academia, half of the political establishment, the highest levels of government, multinational corporations, etc. you're not the counterculture "resistance"... You're the evil empire.
Money corrupts all. A big part of counterculture in the past was the luxury to go against the grain and do things without having to worry about your next meal or paying off your debts and healthcare. Unfortunately today we live in a much more complex society where a lot more people are in debt and less secure. As a result it’s become way more difficult to be counterculture today. The ones who are probably considered crazy right wingers or so on.
Searching for photos of counterculture brings up black and white photos from the 60s because the term is obsolete in modern society except for sprawling wordy articles trying to redefine the word in a modern context
Counterculture has always been exploited by commercial interests to sell and be cool.<p>So this is a moving target. You can surely find counterculture of yester on instagram.
Reminds me of an interesting article about the dynamics of a subculture from birth to death:<p><a href="https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths</a>
In a time where tolerance and respect for minorities is slowly becoming mainstream, you could argue that the far-right has become counterculture. The far-right is VERY prevalent on both Instagram, Twitter and other social media.
Counterculture now is the far right. Trad West etc are huge, and the AOC/Wine Mom/Twitter dunk set doesn't really realize.<p>Google Doodle Capitalism is really, really unpopular among that set, and the memes are incredible