Hunter Huxley

Instead of saying “this band sucks,” people make a point of listening to the band’s most famous song at high volume where people can hear, or they make a point of going to see the band if they come to town. They think they’re being funny and fashionably ironic.

The ubiquitous indie/hipster culture is all about deliberately making oneself look like a geek with vintage clothing and accessories, and big goofy glasses and haircuts.

Any time anyone expresses and opinion, especially of the political variety, they have to half make it sound like a joke.

There are plenty of examples. I think I know the cause.

In a time when there is such a thing as “hate-speech” and people throw the label at any idea which offends them for any reason, this is bound to happen. Everyone is frightened of expressing an opinion lest they be reduced to some one-word emotionally charged yet incredibly vague label. (Racist, sexist, rapist, wing-nut, moon-bat, fundamentalist, socialist, communist, fascist – whatever.) So instead of people just straight out saying about anything, “hey, that’s terrible,” we have this culture of irony where indirectness is so important that it becomes part of people’s very identity.