I used to find the disdain for hippies amongst right leaning boomers and Eric Cartman to be a bit silly. Hippies aren’t so bad, a bit goofy maybe, bit bad of fashion sense but harmless, right? I don’t think so much any more. I think hippies are villainous. Hiding behind their aesthetic of love and peace, their tie-dye colors and peace signs they treat eachother with just as much disgrace as any other batch of people, the only difference is they deny it and talk a big game about kumbaya bullshit.
We’re all fallen, we’ve all got shit to deal with, we all make mistakes and hurt people and do things we know we shouldn’t, even as we’re doing them. But most of us don’t tot ourself up as being enlightened or more kind than other people. Past all the therapy talk and the façade of empathy’s just as much self-interest and self-indulgence and greed as any wallstreet wannabee. But at least the man in the suit dresses in a way that lets you in on the grift.
I think the real tragedy of it all is that the aesthetic is kind of beautiful, and the things they’re saying aren’t all bad. Wether it’s hippies of the 60s variety, or hippies of the hispter, woke, therapy-talking, empathy bullshit 2023 variety, they’re not all wrong. Nobody’s all wrong. But they’re wrong loudly and in a hypocritical, self-agrandizing, prideful sort of way that’s nails on the chalkboard of most people’s sense of right and wrong.
Humans aren’t great with nuance or picking one bad thing out of a mixed bag. So when you see hippies robbing eachother or cheating on their wives or threatening to sue someone you tend to assosciate that kind of base shittiness with their aesthetic as a whole, and that’s not particularly fair.
Peace & Love’s a damn fine thing to promote, I believe in it. I love peace, I love love, I think it’s a lovely thing to love. But when I hear some dingus with long hair and a leather vest repeat it a few times with two fingers up I think he’s a joke. The message is good, the packaging’s been taited by a bunch of idiots.
The same thing’s happening to wokeness and therapy talk. Talking about gaslighting and support, and feelings is a good thing to do, but when abusive bastards uses that language as vocabulary to further their abuse and keep treating people wrong? I tend to assosciate the whole aesthetic with abuse and treating people wrong.
Maybe that’s not fair, but maybe it means you shouldn’t lump your aesthetic and world view in with people you don’y fully understand. Maybe it means you shouldn’t act like you’re better or more enlightened than anyone else when you aren’t. Maybe it just means loads of people are shit and when they act like they aren’t it makes the fact that they are sadder and more aggrevating.
We’re all fallen, we’ve all got shit to deal with, we all make mistakes and hurt people and do things we know we shouldn’t, even as we’re doing them. But most of us don’t tot ourself up as being enlightened or more kind than other people. Past all the therapy talk and the façade of empathy’s just as much self-interest and self-indulgence and greed as any wallstreet wannabee. But at least the man in the suit dresses in a way that lets you in on the grift.
I think the real tragedy of it all is that the aesthetic is kind of beautiful, and the things they’re saying aren’t all bad. Wether it’s hippies of the 60s variety, or hippies of the hispter, woke, therapy-talking, empathy bullshit 2023 variety, they’re not all wrong. Nobody’s all wrong. But they’re wrong loudly and in a hypocritical, self-agrandizing, prideful sort of way that’s nails on the chalkboard of most people’s sense of right and wrong.
Humans aren’t great with nuance or picking one bad thing out of a mixed bag. So when you see hippies robbing eachother or cheating on their wives or threatening to sue someone you tend to assosciate that kind of base shittiness with their aesthetic as a whole, and that’s not particularly fair.
Peace & Love’s a damn fine thing to promote, I believe in it. I love peace, I love love, I think it’s a lovely thing to love. But when I hear some dingus with long hair and a leather vest repeat it a few times with two fingers up I think he’s a joke. The message is good, the packaging’s been taited by a bunch of idiots.
The same thing’s happening to wokeness and therapy talk. Talking about gaslighting and support, and feelings is a good thing to do, but when abusive bastards uses that language as vocabulary to further their abuse and keep treating people wrong? I tend to assosciate the whole aesthetic with abuse and treating people wrong.
Maybe that’s not fair, but maybe it means you shouldn’t lump your aesthetic and world view in with people you don’y fully understand. Maybe it means you shouldn’t act like you’re better or more enlightened than anyone else when you aren’t. Maybe it just means loads of people are shit and when they act like they aren’t it makes the fact that they are sadder and more aggrevating.