meta, The Discourse, pathologies of subcultures
This was originally inside a conversation but it seems like a topic worth bringing up as its own top-level post. The CW is vague because frankly this applies to a lot of subcultures and whatever variation of The Discourse you prefer.
The original context was about feeling safe in an uncommon identity (not so uncommon around these parts, but uncommon generally), and feeling much less so as a subculture eats itself in Discourse:
Being Weird has never been safe. It never will be. If it’s safe, it’s not weird anymore. Most of what humans do socially is to try to make behaviors in people they don’t understand unsafe: that is, if it isn’t a problem on its own, make it a problem until the Weird thing goes away.
Whenever anything Weird looks like it’s getting normalized, then normal people move in, and whatever inside the Weird space was getting covered by being observed almost entirely by Weird people now has to deal with Normal people and That Is Usually A Problem.
Subcultures fighting for acceptance are rarely prepared to reach it, because the obnoxious crap they were dealing with from Normal people was shielding them from the obnoxious crap they’d deal with in their own community if it got a sizable contingent of genuinely normal people. Subcultures are only innately resistant to intolerance as long as they are abhorrent to intolerant people; when the stigma is gone, everyday run-of-the-mill intolerance rapidly arrives in the community. I don’t mean “and then the racists and fascists and nazis show up!”, I mean “and then the people who object vehemently to things they don’t understand or aren’t into show up”.
re: meta, The Discourse, pathologies of subcultures
also *coughburningmancough* >_<
re: meta, The Discourse, pathologies of subcultures
@kistaro There's a beautiful image in Theodore Roszak's Making of a Counterculture, and it goes something like (I paraphrase DRASTICALLY, it's been decades)...
The state keeps all its loyal people in a big fort, where there's food and water and comfort inside -- and all the freaks and rabble are kept outside. But they don't have the forces to keep them out forever.
So they have a very clever strategy: once the outsiders are pointing so hard at the door that they're sure to get inside, they FLING the door wide open instead, and make sure the invaders run so far inside that they're trapped.
Then someone hands them a baton and a uniform and steers them to the door.
"Oh, we're so glad you're here! We had JUST decided we were all wrong about you people and were going to let you in! Now, do us a favor -- take this and guard the door against those freaks outside."
re: meta, The Discourse, pathologies of subcultures
@kistaro Specifically, I'm bringing it up as a reminder that in a way, the mainstream kinda holds subcultures like ours up as forbidden fruit. First we're a tantalizing other, and once we're both repulsive and curiosity-inducing... it's time to strip off all our problematic parts and put us out as bait. So arguably it's even worse, because it's not just that normal people are randomly wandering in, it's that they're effectively being *sent* in to colonize us as a reward for Being Good.
"OK, folks, meet your new friend Hugh Hefner. we're willing to relax your sexual repression a little bit IF you're rich enough and play the game right AND you dress right AND you look right AND you take a lead role in reinforcing the patriarchy for us. Have fun, sport! ^_____^ "
"OK, folks, we see that the Internet is getting very popular. Good news! We've dropped the taboo on socializing and roleplaying online. You just have to pay a big corporate gaming studio to mediate the whole thing for you. What's that? Community? Oh, we have something better -- RARE ITEM DROPS! ^_______^ "
"Good news, queer people! It's OK to be gay! Now sign up to your corporate mailing list and we'll hand out the ribbons. Now, rents ARE going to become unachievable for all your friends who *couldn't* get cushy IT jobs, so you're going to have to decatuple up on living quarters. But you people love that anyway, with your polyamory and free love and everything, right? ^______^ "
You get the picture...