An Irony Poisoned Social Commentary On Irony Poisoned Social Commentary
In Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, Fisher discusses the concept of ironic distancing: where at times social commentary performs our anticapitalism for us. This is crucial in understanding social commentary in our current condition. I would like to connect this to phenomena known as "Irony poisoning" where the it is not the inability to take things seriously but the inability to see the difference between sincerity and sarcasm, This creates a dizzying effect, making it challenging for individuals to engage in meaningful analysis or take decisive action. The repetition of ironic commentary on social issues without tangible efforts for change further reinforces a sense of despair and hopelessness. Reflective impotence takes hold.
One is so blisslessly aware of all issues but "does something about it" through further irony poisoning. Rather than directly confronting issues, individuals often engage in a form of alienated commentary, using irony as a barrier. This leads to a cycle where the seriousness of social issues is continuously smothered through masks of irony, making it difficult to discern genuine concern from mere mockery. A social commentary isn't a serious commentary it now comes in the form of parody, now it is critiqued for being overdone and becomes subject to irony poisoning caused by ironic distancing. One doesn't do anything and the issue stays and is commented on again and again in hopes of change, nothing happens it is then made mockery of and repeated and regurgitated ironically, strengthening ironic distancing. Accelerating insincerity, a self-exciting feedback loop of despair and soyjaks. Metametamemetic ironic brainrotting mycelium sometimes can become a negative condition; self-destructing into genuine clarity and desire for action.
This confusing cloud of irony dominates us, we cannot escape it on everyday emotions. Social interactions of intimacy have been reduced to the "Cliche", a product of the cultural industries inability to innovate. Tropes and cliches emerge, then due to referentiality, every thing connected to the material world flips and instead of cliches being common tropes in the material world, everything in the material world is just like a movie, a cliche. It becomes something to cringe at, disgusting soppy nonsense, people feel as though their feelings for one another are soppy unoriginal nonsense and to be retched at and if necessary expressed through a layer of self-awareness. No one can be intimate or sincere as that's so cliche. In desperation to be original, we have become false and still unoriginal. This cloud of irony and detachment can dominate everyday emotions and prevent connection and action. The challenge then becomes breaking out of this cycle of irony and fostering authentic engagement with social issues. The constant reference to cultural tropes and cliches in both social interactions and the material world contributes to a feeling of inauthenticity. The desire for originality paradoxically results in a false and unoriginal state, creating a dissonance between the desire for authenticity and the cultural landscape that perpetuates cliches.
Reclaiming Sincerity
In this lies the collapse of itself, a negative condition lies in the self-riduculing mycelium of self-destruction. In fact to call it dormant is a mistake. It is active: trying to fully bring about the fatal stage in which the irony mocks the very process of irony poisoning, collapsing and producing clarity not only able to tell that the person is in a weird way being sincere and through clarity to understand issues at hand. This negative condition can be used to collapse reflective impotence and pervasive feelings that barricade action & possibilities. The only major issue is that this cannot defeat ironic distancing, maybe the issue with social commentary is that thinking isn't powerful enough at causing change, maybe feeling is the key.
A social commentary not snarky and sarcastic, but shocking, Artaudian and cruel. A social commentary that rips into the crevices of your mind, a social commentary that jerks one awake from a slumber of stratified desire, a social commentary so virulent and visceral that it would dare not be aired on TV for even the most brave of souls, a social commentary that intrudes on the viewer and rips them out of being an audience, a social commentary that forcibly breaks barriers and rips away any comfort from watching, so terrifying one cannot look away. There can be no ironic distancing if there is no distance at all! Empowering the viewer and ripping apart their comfort in their world view.