Was I Right About The Next Vibe Shift?

Let's refer to the latest Angelicism post

Hey gang this here is just a quick post and frankly it is a quick tally on what I had in common with today’s Angelicism post on the next vibe shift.

If you clicked on that last link like a good little egg, you would see that it is widely acknowledged that Angelicism practically invented the term “vibe shift.” Since I think it’s safe that the whole vibe shift concept matters more to them than it does to me, I will only spend a few minutes pointing out the outrageous, cosmically coincidental similarities.

Woke Brutalism

If you pretend that you understand everything Angelicism says, then you never read Angelicism. Still this passage struck me:

The Millennial here is, regardless of age, the one who wants the same old culture and culture war back—you know, the one that benefits them, and gives them full control over what films get shown, who says what, and so on.

I find it hard not to appreciate the rhyme effect with my vibe shift piece yesterday, particularly part two (naked ambition over political proselytizing), part four (that the Internet is full of malicious bots and psy ops, so being vulnerable on a medium that was invented by the CIA solely to keep tabs on potential insurgents might not be the safest bet), and part five (online may be less a place for us to communicate and more a place for Gen Z to peacock, to perform, to play). Hashtag hippies will be bowled over by part two because, as we have seen, they miss the old Twitter so much, they can’t leave the new one behind. Think of it like the hippies in San Francisco that may have grumbled that rents were rising and the home of psychedelic rock was now the home of Journey. Nevermind that; when they got in the VW bus, they had no choice but to move back home. Similarly, Mastodon was not a good enough fit for the hashtag hippies that still want their hashtags to, in their terms, “be a thing.” Unfortunately, #eattherich is not as hot, plus it’s a shitty Aerosmith song. As for parts four and five, the very conception of the Internet as a neon protest sign is changing. Don’t forget; for much of the past decade, indie twerps made a huge point of denouncing silence as violence. So you should absolutely share your innermost thoughts and beliefs online. Nevermind that the CIA invented the Internet precisely to track who was in line. Also, in this world of post-truth online, does it make more sense to be playful and have fun online or are we still building communes in the comment sections?

OK I finished reading the piece. Turns out to be a bit of a head fake. Turns out there is no vibe shift (according to them) but there is a term in the comments section that I love: Millennial Establishmentarians. To expand on my piece yesterday, one major thing I noticed but did not mention enough: what started out as genuine, if politically guided, concern with how the Internet is ruining us has devolved into increasingly sour grapes over how the center-left has lost the cool points Obama used to serve them online. When Obama won, the narrative went, it was because of the online youth revolution. Even the Boomers were never so smug over an election. Trump’s election understandably got the center-left upset. Even January 6th raises appropriate concerns about the web. But Biden’s failure to connect has many hashtag hippies nervous. So much that they are writing warmed-over thinkpieces about how we live in a post-truth world. Of course it needed a topical spin, so they went with the barely relevant news angle of how we already live in metaverse. Yes, that concept that everyone laughed off in 2021. But, for argument’s sake (if there is no argument, is there an Internet?) let’s marvel at this hashtag hippie high thought. DUUUDE WE ARE ALL IN THE MATRIX MAAN! OK, and this is why Gen Z prefers irony to sincerity. This is why Gen Z prefers performance to confession. This is rather similar to how the increasingly hippie-infiltrated news media of the ‘70s and ‘80s groused about how Star Wars was too fun or how Top Gun was military propaganda (also it was gay propaganda, but it was a blast either way).

Today’s Garbage Day post touches on how AI might be used against the center left in the culture wars. The worry seems to be that sex workers and liberal journos may lose their jobs to the far right. Again, the Millennials are so stuck with the culture war paradigm that this particular one can’t see how this might mean the end of work and is only looking at the types of work being lost.

Or, to borrow a phrase from today’s excellent Ted Goia piece, “Like generals, they fail on the battlefield because their strategy is built on the last war.”