I know, I know, reddit sucks ass. I’ve been using firefox with ublock to read the best ofs for the unquenchable need for bullshit drama in my life.
But now it’s not just a pop up saying to use the app, but a full ass unpassable thing. Old Reddit still works, but that’s just another step for something that’s already so not worthwhile.
Welp…
Always has been.
The Situationists even created new words to describe how radical ideas are co-opted by the mainstream in ways that reduce or outright removing radicalism from the ideas, making them more palatable for mainstream society. They called it recuperation. They also argued we needed to be doing the opposite, and taking the banal and making it radical, which they called détournement. This was often exemplified in the 80s/90s/early 2000s through subversion and revision of corporate advertising, often called “culture jamming.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_(politics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Détournement
I’m always happy when people bring that up, it happens too rarely. I was exposed to Discordianism as a kid, which is kind of the Idiot’s Guide version of culture jamming. I didn’t come across Guy Debord until later, when I’d already made up my mind that everything about mainstream society needed to be subverted. Sadly, it seems I’m not very good at it.
Don’t worry, Debord didn’t think he was either! He actually thought that his Situationist writing would be forgotten and that he would be remembered for his (ironically now forgotten) board game Kriegspiel. Instead Society of the Spectacle is now considered an important piece of French culture and history.
That is oddly uplifting, as a failed game designer as well.