Conversation

A temptation of subcultural intellectualism is wanting to adopt to esoteric takes for roughly same reason you might want to wear uniquely “you” clothes. This poses a problem when best arguments are in fact boring, familiar ones that are commodities in intellectual fashion sense.
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You get zero intellectual cred/taste points for holding the view. Supporters criticize you for disappointing them with lack of originality, critics gleefully attack you for not footnoting with rebutals of a thousand familiar criticisms. Everybody assumes you’re stuck in the past.
Replying to
To casual observers it seems like you’re defending a lazy take out of reactionary denialism Basically you win nothing socially and even lose cred. Which means where you do hold normcore positions, you kinda have to bet your beliefs at fundamental levels beneath social rewards
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It’s basically about shorting intellectual fashions in order to bet on an unfashionably persistent condition that everybody has become bored by, but hasn’t actually changed or been affected by unhappy people trying to shake things up and disturb the boring equilibrium
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I’m not much of a radical but I recognize when things are being shaken up successfully, whether or not I like the before/after shake-up transition. But I also try to take note of when shake-up attempts aren’t actually doing anything. Sound and fury signifying nothing.
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The converse is acting basic just to troll the snooty subculturalites around obvious insecurities. Acting basic when I actually take the insecure-esoteric positions seriously is a stronger temptation for me than temptation to act esoteric when I actually believe the basic take.
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The temptation to esotericism sucks in excellence oriented types. The temptation to trollish basicness sucks in mediocrity oriented type like me.
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